Budgets, trust and of course, generative AI, top the list of most-read blog posts this year
The end of 2025 marks the 16th year this blog has been publishing consistently. It started as a tool for my personal efforts to develop my skills professionally in 2009. It was a place to experiment with new technologies, improve my writing skills, and experiment with ideas.
In 2016, I made it the home page of a consulting business. It still allows me to do all of the things just mentioned – but it also serves a point of proof. The cobbler’s kids do have shoes – and the actions I recommend to clients, I have tested on these pages.
Here are some of the most popular B2B marketing blog posts from 2025.
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1. Marketing budgets as a percentage of revenue in 2025
Spending on CX drops and so too does customer retention; marketing leaders aim to hire but hesitate on other marketing spend amid economic uncertainty.
Read more: Marketing budgets, as a percentage of revenue, are recovering, CMO survey says
2. Trust building has never been more important in marketing
When experience matches expectations, we build trust; all the other benefits of marketing are contingent on that trust.
Read more: 10 statistics that drive home why business needs to refocus on trust
3. The impact of genAI on organic search marketing
The way buyers find and evaluate information is changing with generative AI, yet many B2B marketing teams are still optimizing for traditional organic search engines.
Read more: 5 ways generative AI is changing organic search traffic in B2B marketing
4. It’s not a shiny object if it changes behavior
Even if there’s a bubble that pops, generative AI is changing behavior, and that’s what strategic marketing and communications people need to observe.
Read more: What marketing and comms *really* need to watch how generative AI is changing *behavior*
5. B2B marketing stats that describe 2025
What’s going well: CMOs, marketing budgets, alignment with sales; what could be improved: Trust, conversions, and customer retention.
Read more: 41 B2B marketing and PR statistics that provide us all with a status update halfway through 2025
6. Data-driven guidelines for using gated content
Downloading content is just early engagement for a long sales process; 66% of prospects who download content aren’t ready to buy for another year.
Read more: 5 useful benchmarks for guiding how gated content is best used B2B marketing
7. Time to influence a deal shrinks
Forrester survey finds 92% of B2B prospects start evaluation solutions with one vendor in mind; 41% have a single preference; Gartner says 61% B2B buyers want to avoid talking to sales.
Read more: Analysts say B2B prospects form preferences earlier and avoid sales conversations later
8. How many licks to the center of a B2B tootsie roll?
Surveys say from start to finish, B2B prospects require a dozen touches or more, but behavioral data finds it may require hundreds of interactions.
Read more: How many touches or interactions does it take to attract and close B2B prospects?
9. Here’s why CMOs get fired, survey
Rather than measurement, the biggest reasons marketing leaders get fired tend to center around communication and collaboration.
Read more: The surprising reason marketing leaders get fired
10. Talking ‘pain points’ turns B2B prospects off
Data analysis of 97.9 million sales messages sent by email shows talking about ‘pain points’ has an adverse effect on leads – and might set your deals back rather than advance them to the next stage.
Read more: This report on sales messaging might turn B2B marketing upside down
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If you enjoyed this post, you might also like:
An easy-to-read review of 17 B2B marketing studies summarizing 2025
Image credit: Gemini
