Key findings from the Global Marketing Leaders Content study

Driving sales is the overwhelming objective of content marketing, according to our survey.

For some, that means enabling commercial teams with better tools and narratives. For others, it means content that could generate leads directly. Either way, the story needs to show up in service of revenue and prove its value.

Business leaders want to see the link between content and commercial performance. Under pressure to demonstrate results, teams are tightening strategies, especially when it comes to video:

Shorter formats:
Organic reach on LinkedIn isn’t what it used to be. Marketers are shaving time off content to meet shifting attention spans.

More outputs from every shoot:
16:9, 9:16, 1:1; one video now becomes ten. There’s a version for every platform and every screen size.

Smarter tracking:
Investment is flowing into websites - not just for aesthetics, but to better map content to conversion.

Events are having a resurgence, understandably. In an increasingly politicised landscape, private roundtables and invite-only gatherings offer a controlled space for candid conversations.

Just as importantly, they offer conversion clarity: “X people came. X agreed to sales meetings.” That kind of cause-and-effect narrative is hard to beat, especially when marketing is under the microscope.

And marketing leaders don’t expect that to change any time soon.

Two years ago, podcasts were the darling of B2B marketing. Not so today. That’s not to say audio is irrelevant. Podcast listening is still expanding.

But in terms of effectiveness, video is the clear leader.

The shift we’re seeing is simple: If you’re going to invest time in a high-quality content discussion, film it. You can still release an audio version but the video will do more work across more platforms.

This isn’t about reach for the sake of it. It’s about traction. Video gets shared, clipped, subtitled, repurposed. It has range. And always provide a text transcript to ensure the machines ‘hear’ your podcast too, and will also be able to share highlights.