The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) has released its 2025 report on manufacturing content marketing trends. We’re diving into the key takeaways that directly impact our clients. One stat stands out: 67% of marketers say their content strategy is only “moderately effective.” Why?
(To see all of the fascinating findings, we recommend reading the full report: 2025 Manufacturing Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends Report.)
We’ll also include added perspective from Lisa Murton Beets, Research Director at CMI. She’ll not only help shed light on marketers’ struggles but also offer practical fixes for overcoming them.
Lisa Murton Beets
Here’s a quick video on who the Content Marketing Institute is and why we feel they’re such an authority on content marketing.
Manufacturing marketers take a hard look at what it means to be effective
Among the various findings from the 2025 CMI report, there’s one in particular that deserves close consideration:
The majority of manufacturing marketers (67%) rate their content strategy as only “moderately effective” at best.
So why aren’t more marketers giving their efforts stellar ratings? We’ll answer that question by diving into those takeaways and also fleshing out possible solutions with Lisa’s help.
1. 47% of marketers say content isn’t aligned with customer journey
A significant 47% of manufacturing marketers say their content isn’t sufficiently tied to the customer journey, making it difficult to nurture prospects through the buying process.
That’s no small factor because, as Lisa explains, “The result is generic content that doesn’t address specific customer needs at each stage.”
And that means prospects lose interest.
How to fix this
Map the customer journey. To simplify this, apply the sales maxim that people will only do business with you if they Know You, Like You, and Trust You. Create content specific to those three areas.
Create stage-specific content. Know You content should focus on their pain points; Like You content should share insights on how you can improve their business; and Trust You content should include case studies and testimonials.
Refine with data. Use analytics and customer insights to continually improve content alignment with real customer behavior.
2. 66% say their content isn’t driving action
The single biggest content challenge reported—by 66% of manufacturing marketers—is creating content that prompts a desired action.
“Many manufacturing marketers struggle because they don’t fully understand their audience; perhaps they see them only as buyers rather than as people with broader needs, challenges, and motivations.”
Unfortunately, that can lead to product-centric content that merely describes features and benefits without addressing pain points and guiding prospects toward solutions.
How to fix this
Develop deeper insights. Conduct audience research to uncover their pain points, interests, and aspirations—not just their purchasing behavior. At the very least, tap into your sales team, as they are closest to the customers.
Craft detailed personas. Create personas that include not just job titles but also daily challenges and long-term goals. The biggest thing we look for are their pain points. Those are truly what capture attention.
Broaden content focus. Offer content that addresses broader needs—such as thought leadership, educational resources, or insights into industry trends—to build trust and engagement.
3. 47% report sales and marketing misalignment
Year after year, misalignment between sales and marketing remains a top frustration for manufacturing companies.
With almost 50% of respondents saying their sales and marketing teams are misaligned, it’s hardly a stretch to see how this can mean underutilized content—and lost opportunities.
That’s what happens, says Lisa, when sales and marketing teams “work in silos, with different goals, processes, and priorities.”
How to fix this
Create a shared content calendar. Ensure sales and marketing collaborate on messaging from the start. You should also meet at least quarterly to discuss new ideas and what the sales team is seeing.
Create a shared objective. We like to focus on a unique offer that you can feature on your website and the sales team can take out to their pipelines. Make your shared goal to get people to view that offer.
Make content accessible. Organize a central hub where sales can quickly find and use sales-ready, marketing-approved content tailored to different stages of the buying process.
4. 64% struggle to measure content ROI
Guess what goes hand-in-hand with the challenges described in Nos. 1 thru 3 above? A corresponding struggle to quantify your content’s ROI.
According to Lisa, “When content tries to do too much all at once—like generate awareness, nurture leads, and drive conversions—it becomes difficult to measure its specific impact.”
How to fix this
Set clear objectives. Assign each piece of content a single, measurable goal, such as driving downloads, increasing engagement, or advancing leads. When you break it out into the Know You, Like You, and Trust You buckets, this becomes easier.
Ensure content has a place in the sales cycle. Map each asset to a specific buyer stage to make ROI tracking easier.
Use targeted metrics. To establish a clearer link to ROI, measure content success against its primary goal, rather than trying to track multiple outcomes and vanity metrics.
The bottom line on how to move from moderate to extreme success
CMI’s 2025 report makes one thing clear: Manufacturing marketers are working harder than ever, yet many feel their efforts aren’t moving the needle. So how do you move from “moderate” success to “extremely” successful?
We believe it’s quite simple. You must be able to answer yes to the following questions:
1. Are you hitting all your pre-determined goals for marketing?
2. Are the goals increasing revenue for the company?
Really, that’s the ballgame. Because at the end of the day, the one thing sales and marketing will be judged on is the amount of revenue they’re able to generate. With 57% of the customer journey completed before a meaningful interaction with the sales team (Source: Gartner), marketing is as much a part of the revenue equation as sales.
You will be considered an extreme success, with job security and accolades from above, if your marketing strategy is aligned with your sales team and driving revenue.
