Key B2B tech content marketing trends for 2025

It’s that time of year again. Yes, the season for delightfully cheesy Hallmark movies that can teach us important lessons about B2B holiday marketing. But also, the part of the year where content marketing and business teams worldwide look back and take stock of the year that was and look ahead to forecast and plan for the coming 12 months.

And what a year 2024 has been. Fast-paced, full of change, sometimes uncertainty, and often exciting developments.

Here’s a round-up of the 5 trends and highlights that really stood out for us at Isoline:

Search habits are a-changin’

No longer is Google the king of the SEO playground. The way we search and look for answers is fundamentally changing. Now, it’s becoming all about omnichannel search, thanks to Gen AI and the constant evolution of social media habits.

So what are the need-to-know facts for B2B tech content marketers?

• The list of alternatives to Google is getting longer by the day. Some of the popular ones are Perplexity, TikTok, and Reddit. AI-powered Perplexity provides concise, citation-backed answers, while TikTok’s visual, short video-based answers appeal to Gen Z. Reddit threads meanwhile dominate Google’s search rankings. Not only does the popularity of the community-driven platform prove the adage that people trust other people, it also presents a real opportunity for B2B companies to build brand awareness and grow their social media community.
• You can adapt to the rise of AI-driven search in a number of ways: explore the alternatives that are relevant to your business and the goals you’re trying to achieve; build a strong presence on trusted sources so that your brand becomes a name that search engines recommend; and, above all, stick to SEO best practice as the higher your Google ranking, the better your chance of appearing in an AI answer.

Long-form is back, baby

Not that it ever really went anywhere. But there’s long been a misconception that shortening attention spans mean that audiences won’t read, listen to, or watch anything that requires a significant investment of their time.

That’s simply not true in the B2B tech world. Our benchmark analysis of the long-form content published by the 50 leading companies in the broadcast and OTT, telecoms, IoT, cloud solutions, and retail technology sectors found that it plays a critical strategic role as a differentiator for brands. Long-form content remains one of the most effective ways to build awareness, drive engagement and convert leads into deals.

Key takeaways from the research showed:

• Multimedia and interactive content is the holy grail of long-form because of its ability to create interest, engagement, and nurture relationships. That’s why webinars and podcasts were the top content type.
• Quality trumps quantity, making it essential to plan carefully and create high-quality content that will best help you meet your business objectives.
• The decision to gate assets varies widely across sectors and asset types. Telecoms brands gate the least – one in every five assets – and Broadcast and OTT gate the most, at 56%. Whitepapers were the most gated asset.

Interconnected assets are where it’s at

This means content that targets different buyer personas and delivers value to this wider audience for a fraction of the effort of catering specifically to each segment. Sound complicated? It can be, but that’s where the power of interconnected assets comes in.

Lead magnet assets like whitepapers or reports can target different personas by taking a 60/40 approach: 60% common content, 40% tailored, persona-specific content. Of course, common content doesn’t mean it’s exactly the same across both assets. It’ll still need tweaking for the given persona.

Landing pages can also take this approach, either through multiple landing pages targeted to different buyer personas or dynamic content where different buyers can self-navigate to the content that’s relevant to them using interactive options at the top of the page.

In an age where people are pressed for time and expect personalized content that solves their challenges, it’s more important than ever to give them what they need. The benefits of using interconnected assets include: faster speed-to-market of campaigns, opportunities to extend the reach and shelf-life of your content, and the chance to establish your brand and representatives as industry thought leaders.

You can’t go wrong with a strong value proposition

In times of uncertainty, you need to be able to show prospective clients exactly why they should choose your products, services, or solutions. And that’s where your value proposition comes in. The businesses who succeed at conveying their value proposition in a clear, informative, and persuasive manner are the ones seeing an uptick in lead generation and sales, conversion rates, and overall growth.

So what can you do to make sure yours stands out from the crowd?

• Identify your target audience and build an ideal customer profile (ICP). Create buyer persona profiles by identifying target clients, describing what their role is in the buying process, and determining how much they know about your solution or service.
• Understand your customers’ needs and pain points. Look at the problem they are trying to solve and show how your solution addresses it.
• Craft your headline. Distil what your business, product, or solution does into one clever, and effective headline.
• Develop sub-headline and supporting statements. Look at pain points in relation to your target or goals and where you are now, and then identify where your product or service could help turn pain into gain.
• Define features and benefits. List how selecting your product will benefit and add value to your customers.

Brat summer’s over, but its social media marketing lessons aren’t

The album released by Charli XCX earlier this year quickly became the stuff of pop culture legend, spawning more than dance trends and the rise of lime green as the most recognised colour of the year. No, what brat did was so much bigger. It gave us a masterclass in B2B social media marketing:

1. Less is more. That colour became instantly synonymous with the album, and will forever remain the symbol of brat summer. It shows that you don’t need overly complicated visual elements to get your message across. Adopting a clean, minimalist design across your social media posts makes it easy for your audience to understand what you’re trying to say.
2. Interactivity. We already know it makes content easier to engage with. Doing things like creating polls or posing thought-provoking questions will encourage your audience to interact with you and help build your community.
3. Memes. We love a good meme. And brat showed us just how effective they can be. Adopting a fun, conversational tone paired with memes can help attract a new audience – but be sure to keep it authentic with who you are as a brand.

Looking ahead: the 2025 content marketing outlook

As we prepare to enter 2025, we know there’s a lot to look forward to. Here’s the top trends we expect to see more of in the B2B tech content marketing world.

Human-centric design

Several thousand creative leaders and content creators identified human-centric design as the trend to watch in 2025. More brands will embrace the power of the human touch and creativity, even as AI becomes even more deeply entrenched in how we do business.

Our own team identified some emerging design trends to keep an eye on. From hand-drawn doodles that add a human touch, to motion graphics and animated logos that use movement to bring stories to life, we’re going to see the role of design in content marketing skyrocket in 2025.

Storytelling-driven content

Content marketing leaders predicted that AI would continue its meteoric rise in their round-up of 2025 content marketing trends. But even in the face of that, the role of storytelling and human-centered content designed to make an emotional connection will become more of a focus.

Our team has long been proponents of B2B marketing storytelling to create compelling content that converts – and this will only become more important in 2025. Keeping theme, character, setting, conflict and plot top of mind can help you tell your brand’s story in an authentic way that connects with your audience.

No doubt many of the trends we saw in 2024 will continue to evolve and gain momentum. And it will be the B2B brands who are agile enough to adapt to these trends that will get ahead in 2025. If you would like to find out more about how Isoline can help you navigate these trends, get in touch on hello@isolinecomms.com.