Each day new marketing reports, frameworks, and case studies flood your feed and inbox. There’s always another podcast episode, a LinkedIn think piece, and a “must-read” report. But, you don’t have time to consume it all. And yet, working in marketing requires knowing what matters and why.

That’s why newsletters are having a moment and brands are rethinking their email marketing strategy.

People are craving well-curated smart summaries of what’s happening in the world, in their industry, or in their local community. Providing that curation has value. 

We see that with the ON from Convince & Convert newsletter. C&C produces a lot of content through their blog, podcast, training, and original research — curating it for the newsletter has been one of the best ways to receive that updated content for years. 

But great content marketing requires listening to and understanding your audience. 

We survey the marketing leaders in the C&C audience once a year, and one thing stood out to me in this most recent survey: newsletters are our audience’s preferred way to stay informed when learning about marketing trends and insights. More than short-form video, webinars, blogs, or podcasts.

The specific question we asked was “What content formats do you prefer when learning about marketing trends and insights?” Of the seven answers, respondents had to rank each 1 to 7. Newsletters were almost twice as likely to be ranked first than any other medium.

Why? 

Because the right newsletter can do a lot of thinking for you. Or initiate important thoughts. It’s not just about what happened — it’s about what it means. Why it matters. I’ve seen this quite a bit with reader reactions to my creativity newsletter, where people have actually told me they regularly get new marketing ideas from reading each edition.

That’s why we decided to evolve our C&C newsletter and rebrand it. Moving from ON to The Trendline, a more focused, more useful resource for marketing decision-makers. 

And we did it by listening to our audience and based on what works in today’s content landscape.

Why Traditional Newsletters No Longer Work

There are some basic formats that most brand newsletters have followed for years. Chief among them is a list of links or news. Versions of that format can still work today for many businesses. But there is a growing risk. As content mediums mature, the quality bar goes up. What worked to engage audiences 5 or 10 years ago can easily be ignored today.

For newsletters, if you’re not providing helpful content that is also easy to consume without clicking on links, you risk losing authority and the sense of value you bring to your audience.

We followed this playbook too, but over time, it became clear that this model wasn’t delivering the value that our audience actually needed.

Marketing leaders don’t need more content in their inboxes. None of us do, really. We want to be entertained, inspired, and feel smarter. Our theory is that marketers need less content, and the content they do consume needs to help them make smarter decisions in an industry built on rapid change. 

A good portion of the decisions we made in our newsletter refresh focused on providing more insights to help our audience think strategically. What will help them understand what’s worth their time before they invest it? And how do we provide that value upfront, without making them click through multiple links?

We saw three opportunities in reviewing our old approach:

1. Inbox Overload
   Marketers are drowning in content. Industry updates, reports, and hot takes pile up, unread. If an email doesn’t immediately stand out as essential, it gets ignored. We knew we had to move beyond just sending another list of reading assignments as our email marketing strategy, even if we knew that the content was valuable. We had to provide a layer of strategic thought.
2. Trust is Fragile
   Promotional-heavy newsletters are harder. If every issue requires them to click through to find the value, you risk readers tuning out. We needed to prove our value inside the email itself, not just on the other side of a new browser tab.
3. Curation Has Value, Not Just Creation
   The best newsletters today don’t just push content—they distill it. Marketing leaders don’t have time to sift through every new trend or study. They need a trusted filter. We weren’t providing that before, but we knew we could.

This realization led us to rethink our entire newsletter approach. We aren’t just changing a name. We are shifting how we deliver insights. The Trendline is built to help marketing leaders cut through the noise, focus on what matters, and think more strategically — all within the email itself. Yes, you can click through to read more (or listen more) but you don’t have to. 

What’s In “The Trendline” and Broader Lessons of What’s Working Today for Email Marketing Strategy

Marketing leaders don’t have time for constant deep dives. So, the Trendline is set up as a debrief. A resource that brings important topical resources to our readers through the team’s strategic lens. Why do these stories matter to marketers? What questions should they be asking?

We built The Trendline to reflect this need, focusing on four major improvements:

1. Broader Curation
   To optimize for the new debrief format, we knew the best insights wouldn’t come from a single source, so we cast a wider net, broadening our scope to curate from a variety of media and industry voices.
2. More Strategic Takes
   The top stories each issue are intentionally titled “The Big Picture” because we are not just sharing a big topic, but explaining what it means for marketers. Every issue includes strategic takeaways from C&C strategists who average 20+ years in marketing. Our goal here is to distill the biggest shifts and frame them with a lens of actionability.
3. More Topical Relevance
   The Trendline is not a list of news stories but we do want it to focus on what’s driving real change in marketing right now, whether that’s an industry shake-up, a shift in consumer behavior, or a strategic move from a major brand. It’s not about being timely for the sake of it, but about surfacing the stories that actually affect marketing leaders’ decisions.
4. Hierarchy and Variety
   Structure matters. We designed The Trendline with a clear content flow: first a brief introduction, then a breakdown of the biggest stories with takeaways, and then wrapping each issue with interesting links, events, and a reader poll. The hierarchy gives context, while the variety of formats helps us deliver value in multiple ways.

These adjustments are about being more useful in the way marketing leaders actually consume information today. 

One of the key lessons here is understanding your audience’s pain points and how they prefer to consume information. I learned early, for instance, that when presenting to CMOs or other very senior marketing decision makers, they need information that will help their team solve problems, and they don’t have time for 20 charts to get there. When we’re presenting research reports or a new strategy from my digital marketing agency, Social Fresh, the first thing I consider is who the main audience target is and what they most need out of this presentation to be happy.

Go through that same thought process for your newsletter.

Formatting The Trendline: How and Why

When we looked at our previous newsletter, we saw clear opportunities to improve. The old format, Convince & Convert’s ON, was useful but made the reader work more to get to strategic thinking. The format was based on content medium (blog posts first, then podcasts, etc)

With The Trendline, we reworked the entire format. Hierarchy would be more curated, and each section would have a clear purpose to match the importance of the curated content. We also have clear guidelines for every section so our full team can contribute and we can keep even the biggest stories compact to help save our readers time.

• Intro (25-50 words): What to look for in this issue
• The Number: One key number and a single sentence for context 
• Listen Up (5-10 words): Quick podcast promo 
• The Big Picture (75-150 words): Strategic takes on 3-4 important stories
• Bookmarks (5-15 words): A few interesting links 
• Calendar: Upcoming events with context
• Sound Off: LinkedIn audience poll

This is not a lateral move.

There is more work involved in producing the new format. But, we believe owned media channels like newsletters are more important than ever to engage modern audiences. The newsletter format specifically allows our strategists to spend consistent time with our audience of marketers, building their authority and trust in a truly helpful way.

A couple other details…

Shareable Title
We gave the newsletter a new title, The Trendline, for a few reasons. We thought “ON” wasn’t unique or brandable enough and we wanted a title that could more easily be shared through word of mouth. Trendline reflects both a more topical nature of the email and our strategic lens of sharing our thoughts on where shifts in the marketing industry are headed.

Ownable Engagement Metrics
Sound Off, the poll at the end of each newsletter, is not only an interactive opportunity for us and the readers, it also gives us another engagement metric to follow that has more clarity than muddier open or click rates.

This format will likely evolve. Listening to our audience, and noticing what they click, share, or comment on is important as we work to understand their needs and help them make better decisions. But across the board, this structure lets us share more from the smart folks behind C&C and connect more directly with our audience. It’s an email marketing strategy informed by real people in our audience and their needs.

Newsletter Marketing Takeaways for Marketing Leaders

This evolution wasn’t just about our newsletter. It was about rethinking how any brand can deliver better content in an era where trust and attention are harder to earn. Our key lessons so far?

• Audience research is key
  Every portion of this refresh relied on customer surveys, polls, and direct feedback from our ICPs.
• Zero-click content is essential
  We know social media content that engages without sending users offsite is important, but that same mindset holds value for newsletters too.
• Curation is more valuable than ever
  Audiences don’t need more content. They need someone they trust to tell them what’s worth paying attention to.
• “Trust” content sets the new standard
  To cut through the noise, look for opportunities to spend more time and more meaningful moments with your audience. Just sharing a list of links isn’t that.

When rethinking your email marketing strategy or any content strategy, start with audience research and ask what it would look like to deliver more value upfront. Newsletters are no longer just about keeping your audience informed, they’re about helping them learn, think, and smile.

For regular insights and strategic marketing takes, subscribe to the Trendline and let us know what you think of the new format.

The post Inbox Anarchy: An Audience-First Email Marketing Strategy appeared first on Convince & Convert.

Tessa Barron, formerly Senior Vice President of Marketing at ON24, joined the Data-Driven Decisions podcast to share her framework for aligning goals with specific actions and focusing on the metrics that really matter.

In this blog post, we’ll explore why Tessa believes marketers need a shift in perspective when it comes to pipeline growth and how we can become more goal-oriented instead of tactic-oriented.

The Mindset Shift That Needs to Happen

Particularly since the pandemic, the expectations for marketers have changed. The consumers and audiences you want to reach have changed. So Tessa asks a simple question: are you still doing the same things as before?

“We as marketers have to check in with ourselves and say, ‘have we changed? Are we still doing what we were doing three years ago, four years ago?’ And if the answer is yes, that is the first sign that we need to stop expecting that if we execute the same way and do more and more that this means we’re going to get more in return.”

Tessa explains: it’s so easy, especially for those who have been in marketing for years, to rely on the old tried-and-tested tactics for reaching audiences. Content in the form of webinars, whitepapers, blog posts, podcasts and videos are go-to methods for marketing, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with them. Tessa’s point is that it’s a mistake to start with the tactic first. Instead, we need to get back to our goals and collect data that supports and leads us to achieve that goal.

She shared an example: Instead of planning to run four webinars in Q1, you might say, “in Q1, we need to reach X number of new accounts or a 10% uplift in the pipeline target.”

Framing it this way lets you now ask yourself the important questions. To drive pipeline, you might also need to improve the conversion rate of first meetings by 10%. So how do you reach that 10% conversion rate?

Look at the type of marketing tactics that engage customers most. What type of content do they tend to convert with?

To do this, we need to understand our audience’s goals. Perhaps they are looking for greater education and detailed insights into a topic – in that case, a webinar could be perfect and is likely to lead to a higher conversion rate.

“It’s that goal, that objective of improving conversions that should then inform why you are even running a tactic in the first place.”

Uncovering Key Signals

Marketers have so much data at their fingertips these days. But that data can easily become noise unless you have a way of cutting straight to what matters. For that reason, Tessa prefers to use the term “signal,” which represents what makes a buyer more likely to convert.

Once you uncover those signals, you can start to set “traps” and different interactions to uncover more signals.

ON24 has over 20 different ways to interact with a webinar that allow marketers to learn more about their prospects. Polls, surveys, call-to-actions and Q&As all help to keep the webinar entertaining and engaging but also tell marketers more about prospects’ behavior and what they prefer to engage with.

Tessa also shared some key examples from ON24’s clients.

A technology company that was trying to regain market share knew that customers using a specific cloud provider were 10 times more likely to convert to an opportunity. The marketers’ jobs were clear – find as many prospects using that cloud provider as possible. In a webinar, they asked a simple question, “what cloud provider are you currently using?” to identify those prospects most likely to convert.

Another example Tessa shared was from the pharmaceutical industry. Their goal was to reach doctors who had patients in need of help. To do this, they hosted a webinar for doctors who needed to stay on top of the latest breakthroughs and drug therapies and asked, “how would you rate the risk of your patient base? High, medium or low?” Doctors who responded “high” gave the company a clear signal that they could benefit from more interactions with them.

Those are two very different examples, but great ways that illustrate the importance of strategic data capture that’s tied to end-goals.

Align with Your Sales Team on the Pipeline

The trick here is asking the right questions rather than making assumptions about prospects. This is where Tessa recommends aligning with your sales team.

Marketers may have a tendency to ask questions that will assess the quality of the content they’re delivering, and while that can be useful, it may not provide the most impact to your overall strategy in terms of conversion rates.

Instead, Tessa suggests stepping outside of marketing and having a chat with your sales team. What kind of questions do they ask to determine if a lead is qualified so they can move them on to the next stage? Salespeople sit at the front lines of the prospect’s communication with a company and will be able to tell you much more about their needs and wants, reasons for hesitation or doubt, and their expectations – insights you can use to inform your marketing.

On a similar note, Tessa also thinks that sales and marketing teams should work in tandem on pipeline growth. While marketers may be partially responsible for pipeline, they’re usually not the ones creating it. Marketers are creating signals and “developing a net to catch people who might turn into pipeline. But it’s the salespeople, those on the front lines who create pipeline.”

The role of marketers is to deliver the clearest picture of who the salespeople will be talking to before they even pick up the phone. So what can you do with the data you have and what strategies can you take to collect the data you need to push your pipeline forward?

A Framework for Creating Messaging That Sticks

To move prospects further along the pipeline, marketers can harness data to create highly relevant messaging for different prospect touchpoints along the buying journey. Tessa explained the general framework for the marketing team at ON24:

1. Define the lead you’re going after – with data to back up your understanding of whether that lead is quality or not
2. Identify what stage of the lead lifecycle that each prospect is in, grouping them together
3. Decide on appropriate messaging for each stage of the lead lifecycle. Define what sales, SDRs, marketers say to prospects (if anything).

While Tessa says that pipeline is something created by the salespeople, not marketing, it’s a marketer’s job to look at the little steps in between a lead becoming a pipeline opportunity. These areas are often overlooked, such as tailored messaging from different departments or outdated lead forms on a website. Sometimes, there are little tweaks that can make a huge difference to conversion rates such as shortening the forms, targeted messaging, and opportunities for further interaction with your content.

“It’s figuring out what those key steps in between a lead becoming a pipeline opportunity. It’s focusing there that you can really start to be able to control and understand how to turn dials, add more success.”

Paying attention to the wider goals of conversion and support for the pipeline is a great framework to allow marketers to become more focused and intentional with how they use data to achieve those bigger picture goals.

Focus On What Matters, Present What Matters

With lots of “noisy” data out there, it can be challenging for marketers to focus on the right things. The same goes for the wider company stakeholders and managers who sit separate from sales and marketing and need to understand the impact of their work.

Tessa recommends presenting data to stakeholders in the simplest most visually engaging ways possible. Stakeholders need to know if something is on the up or going down and how each specific strategy (and the budget) impacts those metrics.

By getting clear on goals and only focusing on data that supports the work on those goals, you’re one step closer to achieving them and understanding your prospects’ behavior. Communicating this with the wider company means that everyone can get on board with the same data strategy.

For more on ON24’s strategies and Tessa’s advice for marketers working with data, tune in to the full episode of Data-Drive Decisions.

Catch all eight episodes here.

The post How to Take a More Goal-Oriented Approach to Marketing Data appeared first on Convince & Convert.

On the Data-Driven Decisions podcast, we spoke to Rand Fishkin about his company, SparkToro, a tool that helps marketers find exactly where their audience spends time so they can be more strategic with their marketing efforts. Rand shares that by finding niche communities and channels that have high relevance to your specific audiences, you can break through the noise and build trust.

Invest your time and energy more efficiently

Gathering and analyzing data helps marketing teams direct their time, money and energy to where it will have the most value. This has been the key theme throughout our conversations on the Data-Driven Decisions podcast and our host and Managing Director Zontee Hou’s book, Data-Driven Personalization.
There’s nothing more important when it comes to planning marketing campaigns and strategies than audience insight – we need to know everything that we possibly can about our audience, their content consumption behaviors and their favorite platforms.

Rand shares that what SparkToro does is help you focus your marketing strategy on the right places. It gives users a picture of your target audience’s online habits – the websites they like to use, the types of podcasts they listen to, or the influencers they follow. Armed with that information, marketers can be more targeted in their efforts.

“There are hundreds of billions of dollars of spend focused on the channels that claim to prove that their ads worked, as opposed to where do our customers actually spend time? Where do they engage? Where do they learn about products and services? Where do they try and solve their problems? Those are places that are almost always underinvested in and that’s what SparkToro is trying to show you.”

Rand shared some great examples of SparkToro users who have seen success with this redirected approach.

For example, a podcaster wanted to drive more sponsorship revenue and sought out guests that reach the audience their sponsors wanted to be in front of. They used SparkToro to look for people who are influential in the space with popular X accounts or YouTube channels and reach out to invite them on as guests. Those influencers then brought their audience to the podcast, which attracted sponsors, and therefore revenue for the podcast.

Another example that Rand shared is an event organizer in the technology space who uses SparkToro to find event speakers with audiences that will attract sponsors that the organizer can reach out to.

Both are great examples of how you can use audience data more effectively than investing in the more common approach of broad paid advertisements. Why? Because they focus on where the audience is already. In both these examples, the data lets you target potential leads right at the beginning of their customer journeys rather than later on when they’re more likely to come across your competitors.

Relying too much on paid ads vs. understanding the broader customer journey

Rand shares that a common mistake that marketers make when thinking about data is to opt for channels that have a clear way to measure attribution and ROI rather than channels that are more relevant to your audience. For example, marketers may focus too much on Google Ad results when customers are hearing about the brand elsewhere first. Rand explained:

“A ton of what happens in Google is actually a response to something else. So, people who performed a search query in Google, very rarely was that a spontaneous first-touch thing. It was like, oh, I heard about this software, so I went to Google and searched for it and clicked on it. And of course, the attribution looks like Google drove all the value. No, Google was just the middleman.”

The tendency to rely on paid advertising, specifically on Google, Meta or LinkedIn, may be seen as a safer bet. It’s clear and measurable. You invest and then the platform tells you how that investment paid off. These metrics are both familiar and can be conveniently packaged into reports to present to stakeholders.
The danger here is relying too much on that method and ignoring other parts of the customer journey. When marketers focus exclusively on these ‘safe bets,’ it’s easy to fall into a pattern of optimizing for what’s easy to measure rather than exploring other areas that could prove more effective.

The reality is that your customers may hear about your solution or brand elsewhere and simply come to Google to find you. Regardless, if they click on a Google Ad, you may see that as a win for Google Ads when really, they were already an engaged lead using Google as a middleman. While the result might be the same, you can miss out by not exploring what happened before they came to Google and using that as a new avenue for your marketing.

For example, a new lead may have heard about a solution or service like yours mentioned on their favorite industry podcast or through a conversation at a conference. If you knew about those places your potential audience was before coming to Google, you could utilize those space for more strategic marketing. That one person who came to Google after a conference could have been five people instead if marketing had been focused on the conference instead of just Google Ads.

Investing in zero-click marketing to drive results

Rand shared a great example in the podcast about Chartr, a data storytelling company that decided to focus on a specific Reddit community for its marketing. “r/dataisbeautiful” is a subreddit where users post and discuss data visualizations. Chartr simply started posting data graphics with no real branding efforts or call-to-action. The goal was to engage the community – people who might be interested in the same kind of things Chartr was posting about.

The best part for its marketing team? It was both more effective and cheaper than investing in paid advertising.

This is a prime example of zero-click marketing, a term coined by Amanda Natividad, SparkToro’s VP of Marketing. This marketing method shifts the focus on to delivering value directly on the platforms your audience visits – without forcing them to click through to your website. By creating content that stands on its own, you can engage users where they already are.

Imagine sharing an insightful post on LinkedIn, creating a discussion-worthy infographic for Reddit, or publishing a video series on YouTube. The goal isn’t to drive users back to your site but to build credibility and recognition within the spaces where your audience already spends time. Over time, this strategy helps establish trust and loyalty, ensuring that when your audience needs a product or service, your brand is top of mind.

Aligning data strategy with your goal

Rand makes it clear that he’s not against paid advertising on social platforms and Google, he says that if it’s working for you, then great. But alternative avenues are worth exploring beyond the more traditional, broader approach.

“If you find spending money there is really valuable, don’t let me stop you. But if you think to yourself, the top 10% of spend that I do at those places is probably bringing me no incremental customers, which is almost always the case, maybe redirect that to some more creative, thoughtful and audience data-driven forms of marketing.”

His advice for managing your data strategy is to think about your primary goals and the problems you’re trying to solve.

For example, if you’re trying to gain a deep understanding of how people think about your product, surveys and customer interviews are your best bet. If you want to learn which specific websites your audience visits, those same surveys and interviews are probably going to lead to biased results, and that’s where a tool like SparkToro can help.

His parting message in his conversation with Zontee on the podcast is to be aware that the data doesn’t tell you everything. It can uncover a lot about your audience and help you direct your attention more effectively, but there’s also a great deal that the data misses.

“ I’m not saying don’t be data-informed, but I think it pays to be responsible in your recognition of what problems data can solve and what it can’t solve.”

Part of SparkToro’s strategy is to conduct regular customer interviews. These help to uncover new insights and ideas that data can’t really capture. For example, data might show you where people click within an app, but it doesn’t provide insights into what people who don’t use the app want or what they’re frustrated with. In that example, just looking at the in-app data and optimizing your strategy accordingly leaves you with a blind spot. Instead, by learning more about your wider customer base and their experiences, you can refocus your marketing efforts and business strategies.

Redefining Your Marketing Approach

Rand’s conversation is a key reminder that achieving better results in marketing isn’t just about chasing numbers; it’s about being strategic with your attention and investing it where it makes the most sense. Data alone won’t drive results unless you use it to inform your strategies and get closer to your audience by building meaningful connections with content.

Want to learn more from Rand Fishkin? Listen to his episode on our podcast Data-Driven Decisions.

And, for a deeper dive into the impact of data in marketing and business, check out the rest of our limited series featuring Zontee Hou in conversation with top leaders from organizations like Salesforce and IBM, exploring how data influences not just marketing strategies but also company culture and cross-functional collaboration. Learn more about Zontee’s book Data-Driven Personalization and get an exclusive discount here.

Catch all eight episodes here.

The post How to Use Data More Strategically to Reach Audiences appeared first on Convince & Convert.

The Best YouTube Video Editors for Healthcare Marketing in 2025

Video marketing is transforming the healthcare industry, making complex medical information more accessible, engaging, and trustworthy. Whether you’re a healthcare provider, hospital, or medical technology company, video content can help educate patients, highlight expertise, and humanize your brand.

Healthcare marketers face unique challenges, such as ensuring HIPAA compliance, presenting sensitive medical information clearly, and maintaining credibility. High-quality video production is crucial, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. The right video editing tools can streamline the process, whether you’re creating patient testimonials, educational explainers, or promotional content.

Below are five of the best YouTube video editors that can help healthcare marketers create compelling content in 2025.

1. Adobe Premiere Pro – Best for Professional Healthcare Content

Image via Adobe

Adobe Premiere Pro is a top-tier editing tool used by professionals in various industries. It offers robust features, making it ideal for producing high-quality healthcare videos, including patient testimonials, medical procedure breakdowns, and physician interviews.

Key Features:

• Advanced motion graphics templates
• VR and 3D video editing
• AI-powered audio and speech-to-text features
• Seamless integration with Adobe Creative Suite

Pros:

• Supports 4K and HDR formats for high-quality visuals
• Multi-track editing for detailed post-production
• Extensive tutorials and resources for beginners

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve for new users
• Subscription-based pricing may be costly for small practices

Best for:

• Patient testimonials
• Physician and expert interviews
• High-quality medical education videos

Pricing: $20.99/month

2. Animaker – Best for Medical Animation & Explainers

Image via Animaker

Healthcare marketers often need to break down complex medical concepts into easy-to-understand visuals. Animaker is an AI-powered animation tool that simplifies the creation of engaging explainer videos, perfect for patient education, procedural guides, and public health campaigns.

Key Features:

• AI character and voice generator
• Customizable brand kits for healthcare organizations
• Over 1,000 templates for quick video creation
• Cloud-based collaboration tools

Pros:

• No video editing experience required
• Wide range of healthcare-related templates
• Supports live-action and animated content

Cons:

• Requires a strong internet connection
• Limited offline editing capabilities

Best for:

• Patient education videos
• Animated explainer videos for medical procedures
• Public health awareness campaigns

Pricing: Free plan available; Paid plans start at $15/month

3. Filmora – Best for Engaging Healthcare Storytelling

Image via Filmora

Filmora is an easy-to-use yet powerful video editing software, making it perfect for healthcare organizations that want to create visually appealing content without a steep learning curve. Its drag-and-drop features allow marketers to quickly edit patient success stories, healthcare tips, and facility tours.

Key Features:

• AI-powered text-to-speech and speech-to-text
• Motion tracking and green screen editing
• Built-in effects, transitions, and animations
• Audio enhancement and voice-over capabilities

Pros:

• Simple interface, ideal for beginners
• Extensive library of effects and transitions
• Affordable compared to professional-grade editors

Cons:

• Not as feature-rich as Adobe Premiere Pro
• Exporting high-resolution videos can be slow

Best for:

• Patient journey and success stories
• Healthcare facility tours
• Social media video content

Pricing: Starts at $49.99/year

4. iMovie – Best for Mac Users & Quick Edits

Image via iMovie

If you’re looking for a free and user-friendly editing tool, iMovie is a great option for Mac users. It’s an excellent choice for creating promotional healthcare videos, quick edits, and simple educational content without needing advanced editing skills.

Key Features:

• Drag-and-drop editing interface
• Built-in transitions and effects
• Green screen capability
• Integration with Apple devices for easy sharing

Pros:

• Free to use for Mac and iOS users
• Simple and intuitive interface
• Great for quick video production

Cons:

• Lacks advanced features for professional editing
• Not available for Windows users

Best for:

• Social media healthcare marketing
• Quick educational videos
• Internal training videos

Pricing: Free

5. DaVinci Resolve – Best for Advanced Color Correction & Effects

Image via DaVinci Resolve

For healthcare marketers who want cinematic-quality videos, DaVinci Resolve is a fantastic option. It offers advanced editing tools, particularly in color grading, making it ideal for high-quality promotional videos, virtual hospital tours, and medical documentaries.

Key Features:

• Advanced color grading and correction tools
• Multi-user collaboration for team projects
• AI-based facial recognition and enhancement
• Visual effects and motion graphics

Pros:

• Free version available with robust features
• High-end professional editing capabilities
• Supports 8K resolution for ultra-HD videos

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve
• Requires a powerful computer for smooth performance

Best for:

• High-quality medical documentaries
• Virtual hospital and clinic tours
• Promotional campaigns for healthcare brands

Pricing: Free version available; Studio version costs $295 (one-time purchase)

Conclusion: Which YouTube Video Editor is Right for You?

The best video editor for healthcare marketing depends on your specific needs:

• For professional, high-quality video production: Adobe Premiere Pro
• For animated explainers and patient education: Animaker
• For quick, engaging storytelling: Filmora
• For simple, free video editing on Mac: iMovie
• For advanced color correction and effects: DaVinci Resolve

Investing in the right video editing tool can help healthcare marketers create compelling, informative, and engaging videos that resonate with their audience. Which one will you try?

The post 5 YouTube Video Editors for Healthcare Marketing in 2025 appeared first on Convince & Convert.

Insights from Orbit Media’s 11th Annual Blogger Survey

Having a blog on your website is now considered common practice for brands in all industries. The benefits are widely known: it helps with SEO, provides thought leadership, and gives useful information to your audiences.

But anyone who works in marketing knows that change is a constant. If you’re not consistently updating your content strategy – especially the one fueling your blog – you will start to see diminishing returns on your efforts.

This is why Convince & Convert is a huge fan of the annual blogger survey produced by our friends at Orbit Media. Having produced it for over a decade now, it is an authoritative resource to check how your blogging efforts are stacking up, and how you can improve your approach for better ROI.

One of the biggest questions I had this year was “how long does it take to write a blog post?”, especially since there are so many generative AI tools in the market proclaiming to make writing faster and easier. I’ll admit, I was expecting a big shift this year. That was not the case.

They found that the average blog post takes three hours and forty eight minutes to write.

This is only three minutes less than what was reported in the prior year! How can this be?

There are a few reasons to consider:

Spending more time (4+ hours), and writing longer articles, yields significantly greater results. 

The research found that the bloggers who average 2000+ words per article are far more likely to report “strong results.”

However, this does not mean that higher quality = less frequency. 

The data suggests bi-weekly is the minimum posting cadence for strong performance rates. 

It’s safe to say that users have high expectations when it comes to content consumption. They won’t settle for subpar content, nor do they want to wait an entire week (or month!) for more of what they like.

Treat your blog feed like a social feed. This takes more strategy and time to produce.

This is one of the biggest takeaways from the research. It makes so much sense, yet many blogs are not yet incorporating it. As Orbit Media points out: “Top performing blogs and social media streams have many elements in common:

• Multiple points of view: top blogs have contributor quotes, social streams have comments
• Many visuals: both have images at every scroll depth
• Videos: both have embedded videos
• Timely: top blogs are kept up-to-date, social streams are current posts
• Length: top blogs are long, social streams are infinitely long”

Social media platforms invest millions of dollars into user testing and finding out what works for maximum engagement. Use that to your advantage!

Is AI impacting blog creation or performance?

While AI adoption by bloggers is way up (from almost 0% usage in 2022 to 80% in 2024), there is not yet a strong correlation between AI usage and better performance. 

Bloggers are utilizing AI tools in a variety of ways – everything from brainstorming ideas to generating first drafts to creating visuals. However, it still takes human resources to provide strategic direction, review for accuracy, and to add a level of creativity that will help content to stand out from other AI-generated content.

Side note: Check out this episode of the Social Pros Podcast to hear more about blending the use of AI with brand storytelling.

What does this research mean for content marketing leaders?

Knowing the data and enacting it in your own blogging plans are two different things. Here are recommendations for putting this data into action for your team:

• Make sure you are allotting the appropriate amount of time for your content team to create long-form articles with corresponding visuals. Adopting AI tools doesn’t mean that production time will drop by half. It also doesn’t mean quality will improve automatically. Give your team the right amount of time to create engaging articles that resonate with your audience.
• Continue to push for high quality + high quantity. Both are important to stay ahead of the competition. As marketers have started to lean into a monthly cadence, you can stand out with a multiple-times-per-week approach (but only if your content is seen as relevant and important to your audience).
• Keep exploring ways to use AI tools for content, but don’t expect it to work miracles. Continue to train your team on the use-cases for AI and empower them to experiment with new tools across all steps of the process. Ensure a human is involved to inspect for quality control throughout each step.
• Connect teams across functions to create the most engaging articles. Blogs no longer live with just a writing team. To stay modern, writers need to be working hand-in-hand with designers, video producers, social teams, and IT. This requires planning content out together and working on technical solutions to incorporate multi-media assets across channels. It is only when you start doing this that you can create the beautiful “social feed” approach mentioned above.

Q&A with Andy Crestodina, CMO and Co-Founder of Orbit Media

When I read about new research, I immediately want to know how it is making a difference for organizations in real-life (not just theory). What does it mean to the team behind the research? How are they using these findings on their own channels?

To learn more about that, I spoke with Andy Crestodina for a direct point of view on the report.

Q: What research findings were the most surprising to you personally?

A: The data is telling us, year after year, that big efforts drive big outcomes. 

This isn’t surprising by itself, but when you see the differences side-by-side, between low-effort and high-effort performance, across virtually every aspect of content marketing, it’s just so stark.

Literally any extra effort can make an impact.

• Make your content more visual (images and video)
• Make your content more collaborative (influencers and editors)
• Make your content more in-depth (spend more time writing longer posts)
• Make your content more often (publishing frequency)
• Make your content in more places (guest posting)

It’s all right here. You could create a content strategy built around the insights in this one chart.

Maybe this isn’t a surprise. Maybe it’s obvious. Seeing the data all in one place, seeing it year after year, it’s just so clear. So what is surprising is to see so many content programs just sticking with the same low-effort content programs. The same short-form posts on the same monthly cadence. 

No research pieces. 

No collaboration. 

No guest posts. 

No video. 

What do these marketers expect? They should set expectations low. That’s what the data tells us.

Q: The data suggests that bloggers who produce audio content (podcasters) are the most likely to report strong results. Why do you think this is?

A: That one stands out for me, too. Just look at the chart. Content marketers who produce podcasts are 2x more likely to report strong results. 

A closer look at the data puts this in context. Just 88 of the 1,087 respondents said they use audio. And only 35 of them reported “strong results.” This is not a lot of data. A larger study or a survey of podcasters would help confirm this.

Still, the performance of podcasts aligns with other findings in the data. It tracks perfectly.

• Going “beyond text” works in content marketing
  This is in the data. The more visuals that bloggers use, the most likely they are to report strong results. Also, video correlates with performance. So any blogger that steps up into more engaging formats is likely to see the impact.
• Influencer collaboration works in content marketing
  This is also in the data. Most podcasts are interview shows, and interviews correlate with performance. And these interviews are usually with influencers, and influencer collaboration correlates with performance. 

So really, the podcaster is often doing the other things that work well in content marketing. They aren’t just typing on keyboards and they aren’t going it alone. Hitting the record button and working with others are two things that make a big difference. 

Author’s note: You can learn more about the benefits and challenges of branded podcasts in one of my previous articles.

Q: In the report, it states: “the most visible marketing metrics are the least important.” How do you think bloggers should be measuring success today?

A: Perfect question. The survey clearly shows a drop in blogging results over the last five years. Fewer content marketers are reporting strong results than ever before. This chart tracks blogging results over the last nine years:

But how are we measuring results?
What metrics are we using?

There are many ways to define “results” in content marketing. But 95% of respondents have access to Analytics. And what’s the most visible metric in Analytics? Traffic. So for a lot of marketers, results mean traffic. 

In this context, it’s obvious why performance is down. For many bloggers, search has been a steady source of traffic. But search traffic is down all over the web.

Just look at the responses to what’s gotten harder over the last five years…

But really, there are better ways to measure performance than traffic. 

Traffic, like a lot of metrics, is very easy to track but doesn’t necessarily align with results. Ironically, the most visible content marketing metrics are the least important. Just think of these examples:

• Followers? Likes? These are everywhere but they don’t correlate with business outcomes.
• Key events per traffic source? Harder to see and requires setup but it definitely matters.
• Net promoter score? Gross margins? Takes skill and effort to gather, but critical to success.

There’s an inverse relationship between the visibility of a metric and its importance.

So as click through rates from search decline, as more searches are “zero-click” searches, as traffic to blogs declines, content marketers need to redefine success. Look deeper into the data.

• Did the content grow your email list? If yes, you’re less beholden to big tech for traffic
• Did the content attract links? If yes, it’s helping your service pages rank for high-intent phrases
• Did the content drive impressions on LinkedIn? YouTube? If yes, it’s creating brand awareness
• Did the content creation process build your network? If yes, keep in touch with those influencers
• Is the content useful during the sale process? If yes, it may help you close deals!

The list goes on. Every piece is an opportunity to repurpose. Every article can support others through internal links. Every article may impress the right reader …who could be your next client.

The most important outcomes from marketing are the hardest to measure: word-of-mouth, top-of-mind and bottom-of-funnel. – Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media

Now that traffic is harder, it’s time to lean into those powerful, but indirect benefits of content marketing. 

Q: You have a very successful blog with Orbit Media that already encompasses a lot of the best practices from this research. What changes do you plan to implement on your own blog based on these findings?

A: Years ago, when click through rates started to fall, I noticed that LinkedIn newsletters were getting some traction. So I broke the old rule, “don’t build on rented land” and launched a LI newsletter.

Today, we have less traffic than we did four years ago. But we have a lot more visibility. 

It’s because we decided to give in. We aligned ourselves with big tech’s goal of keeping their visitors. We started publishing directly onto LinkedIn and LinkedIn rewarded us by promoting the newsletter for us and sending us millions of readers. 

Launching a LinkedIn newsletter is my #1 tip for B2B brands at the moment. Highly recommended. Here are my top tips for setting one up for yourself. 

The low-traffic future of content isn’t necessarily a problem. Publish wherever your audience spends time!

Other plans for our content strategy in 2025?

• Launch a bi-weekly LinkedIn live. Probably a “website throwdown” format.
• Re-launch our website to further optimize for lead generation
• Combine our top posts in various topics into guides.
• Pitch to present at industry conferences in a few key verticals. 
• Produce more video, long and short. 

Stay Connected with Convince & Convert and Orbit Media for More Tips on Content Strategy

• Sign up for the Convince & Convert newsletter to have tips sent directly to your inbox
• Speak with us about updating your content strategy based on this research
• Follow our friends at Orbit Media on LinkedIn

The post New Strategies for Improving Blog Performance (Plus Q&A with Andy Crestodina) appeared first on Convince & Convert.

In February 2024, Google and Reddit announced a partnership that involved Google’s access to Reddit’s content through official APIs.

Ever since Reddit has been enjoying unprecedented visibility on Google’s search result pages, both through organic rankings and separate “discussions”  sections which would often be featured in SERPs.

The partnership raised a lot of questions in the digital marketing community as it obviously made Reddit an unavoidable part of buying journeys. But there’s even more to it than immediately meets the eye.

Why Did This Partnership Even Happen?

Understanding the why’s is important for seeing the broader picture and knowing what the future may hold for organic visibility. Like for any important business partnership, there are several reasons for this one to have happened:

1. Happier Google’s Users

Google was very transparent about this reason for the partnership: Lots of searchers add “reddit” to search queries making it obvious that they wanted to see what others were saying about problems they were trying to solve.

2. More Traffic for Reddit

In its official announcement, Reddit didn’t make it a secret that its objective behind the partnership was to increase organic visibility for Reddit content. More traffic translates into more revenue. Reddit became a public company a few months after the partnership, so the deal was very timely indeed.

3. Google’s Access to Real Human Conversations

For years Google has been lacking one key element: Access to real human conversations. We’ve seen it correct this disadvantage many times: Google Wave, Google Plus, and recently Google Notes – all of these projects had one distinct purpose: Giving Google access to actual live conversations real people exchange in real life.

All those projects failed, and meanwhile, the Internet has been moving towards letting people talk to each other for decades now.

The quick development of generative AI technologies made this gap even wider. Suddenly Google faced one huge risk: Having access to millions of AI-generated documents and little to no exposure to what real people say or need.

And that’s when the Reddit partnership happened: Google got access to actual people’s conversations giving its AI models to learn from real people, in real time.

For marketers, it is crucial to understand this higher-level goal behind the partnership.

It is an early sign of what is going to happen to digital marketing: In the sea of smart AI platforms that can take just about any role (sales, customer support, content, promotion, etc.), customers will be seeking alternative channels to find solutions to their problems, from real people.

And that’s why human-first marketing is going to win.

So now that we know why this partnership happens, what can we, marketers do to benefit from this knowledge?

1. Reddit Reputation Management is Crucial but Challenging

Over the past several months Reddit has become an integral part of just about any buying journey. Whether you are investing in TV or social media ads, be prepared people checking your reputation on Reddit because Reddit threads rank for most branded searches:

Even people who did not intend to search for your brand name on Reddit will likely read Reddit discussions after discovering them through a simple Google search.

We get lots of businesses asking us how to go about these results.

There is no simple answer.

The nature of Reddit is that no happy customer will go there to create a thread boasting their positive positive experience with your business. As a result, mostly negative threads rank for various branded searches. And there’s no easy way to protect your reputation because you risk being attacked by trolls and make things worse? Reddit marketing is not an easy thing to implement.

I have written multiple books that include sections around the power of interacting with customers and prospects in any kind of discussion board forum, conversational venue, Reddit, and even just simple forums. I think that’s a no-brainer and has to be done.” – Jay Baer (via the Social Pros Podcast 600th episode)

Things you need to be doing to manage your brand reputation on Reddit:

The first thing to do is not to get despaired. Keep in mind that any brand out there is facing the same issue. You are not alone.

Next, use these threads to collect negative feedback and learn from it:

• Make sure you close all the real gaps redditors are reporting. Whether it’s poor customer service or product deficiencies, make sure you’ll get that fixed;
• Use Reddit complaints for on-site content inspiration. Create a detailed FAQ page to address all those problems and questions.
• Implement Reddit feedback in the buying process: Make sure your buyers are well aware of shipping terms, return procedures, etc. before they complete the payment.

Once you have everything done, comment on negative feedback with links to your official FAQs. Don’t get defensive or sarcastic. Apologize and calmly explain what may have gone wrong and why. The worst you can do is to mock redditors even if you think what they are saying is false.

Reddit has another interesting phenomenon to blame for: People are trained to research brands and products more and more. Even if they just type a brand name to navigate to its site, they are encouraged to read about it through Autocomplete results:

Make sure to monitor your brand mentions and be everywhere where you are discussed. Be part of every conversation, and learn from each one. This will also build the brand’s trust and recognizability.

Branding statistics claim that it takes at least 7 touch points for your brand to be remembered. Being part of every conversation is the best way to achieve it.

2. Reddit as Content Ideation and Research Tool

The future of winning content is human-driven. As more and more content gets AI-generated, people will more and more long for real first-hand experience and human content. The popularity of Reddit is the best proof of that.

That’s why Reddit is such a great tool for content ideation. You can always see which topics resonate with people and which angles get their attention.

Ways to utilize Reddit to build your content strategy:

Rand Fishkin, CEO of the audience research tool SparkToro, shares a great example of the way the brand Chartr found a creative way to reach more audiences by utilizing the subbreddit r/dataisbeautiful. Listen to the conversation via the Data-Driven Decisions podcast below.

The best way to find great content ideas on Reddit is to be part of relevant communities. Subscribe to relevant subreddits and be there often to read and comment. We use Reddit for all our linkable asset brainstorming processes. A great advantage of doing that is that we are able to then utilize Reddit for our infographic promotion. Reddit is the best platform to position your content in front of link amplifiers and generate traffic and links.

Making Reddit as part of your content strategy can take all kinds of forms, for example:

• Covering trending news and rumors
• Providing expert advice based on personal questions in threads
• Creating competitor-driven content (based on questions and complaints about your competitors’ products). This is also a great way to find a more effective product positioning for your own brand.

All of this can also be repurposed as newsletter content. If those topics excite Redditors, it will surely boost your newsletter engagement.

Reddit monitoring is another great way to know which topics tend to be popular on Reddit. 

3. Being Part of the Community

Finally, and I have already briefly mentioned it, being part of Reddit community is the best Reddit marketing strategy you can think of. It is fundamental. Sometimes you don’t even need to post your own threads or try to promote anything. 

Reading and keeping an eye on what resonates with your audience is a great tactic in itself. It will train you (or your team) to come up with more interesting human-first content ideas.

Learn more about cultivating consumer loyalty from a Reddit expert himself: Rob Gaige, Global Head of Insights at Reddit, shares some great advise in this related article.

Being part of Reddit will teach you to do what Google has been trying to convince us to do for decades now, i.e. create content for people.

Need Help With Your Reddit Content Strategy?

The strategists at Convince & Convert are experts at creating content marketing plans that can take your brand to new heights. They also have a team of trained speakers who can present at events or deliver effective team trainings. Request an introductory call to learn more.

The post The Google + Reddit Partnership: What Does This Mean for Your Content Strategy appeared first on Convince & Convert.

In today’s crowded marketing landscape, breaking through the noise requires more than just broad, mass-market strategies. Brands that truly stand out are those that harness the power of niche targeting—focusing on smaller, highly engaged audiences to drive more impactful, personalized connections.

For marketing professionals, this approach is not just a tactic, but an audience research strategy that can unlock deeper brand affinity and significantly improve conversion rates.

Why Niche Audiences are the Key to Success

Modern marketers know that one-size-fits-all marketing is not effective. Consumers today expect brands to cater directly to their needs, interests, and values.

88% of U.S. adults said it was somewhat to extremely important for a brand to remember their past interactions and engage with them based on that shared history. – Media Volery/Researchscape, August 2023

If your marketing doesn’t resonate personally, you’re missing out on loyal, highly engaged customers.

But why focus on smaller audiences when the allure of scale is so tempting? It’s simple:

Niche audiences are more invested.

These are people who are passionate about a specific interest or community, whether it’s proud Pug parents or zenful yoga practitioners. Brands that can speak directly to these audiences not only achieve higher engagement but also build lasting, trust-driven relationships.

Take Epsilon’s research, which found that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that offers personalized experiences. If you’re not micro-targeting, you’re leaving money on the table.

For example, the eco-friendly footwear company Allbirds didn’t start by appealing to the general footwear market. Instead, they honed in on environmentally-conscious consumers that helped them develop a product that addressed this group’s values around sustainability and low-impact manufacturing. Today, Allbirds is a global brand, beloved by those who prioritize eco-conscious living, precisely because of their commitment to a niche.

Micro-Targeting: Precision Over Scale

As a marketing professional, you already know that data is king. Advances in data analytics allow us to dissect our audience into more specific, actionable segments than ever before.

With micro-targeting, the goal is precision, not scale.

For instance, instead of running a generic campaign for a fitness product, why not zero in on segments like veteran marathoners or minimalist runners who prefer barefoot running shoes? By delivering messaging tailored to these specific lifestyles, you dramatically increase the likelihood of engagement and conversion.

Tangible Steps for Implementing Micro-Targeting:

• Detailed Segmentation: Don’t just rely on basic demographics. Use purchasing behavior, interest data, and psychographic insights to carve out specific audience segments.
• Craft Hyper-Personalized Messaging: Speak directly to each group’s unique needs. If you’re marketing to vegan athletes, showcase how your product aligns with their dietary and environmental values.
• A/B Test and Refine: Continuously monitor the performance of your campaigns. Use engagement metrics to tweak your messaging and better align with what resonates most with each niche group.

Convince & Convert cover this in more depth in their webinar, Winning with Data: Building a Personalization Strategy that Works for Your Brand.

Nike’s Micro-Targeting Strategy

Nike excels at micro-targeting, especially when it comes to their line of running shoes. Instead of launching generic campaigns, they target smaller groups of runners—such as outdoor trail enthusiasts versus casual gym goers. Each group gets personalized ads, emails, and social media engagement that speaks directly to their running style and goals. The result? Higher engagement, more brand loyalty, and a spike in sales.

Tailored Messaging: The Path to Genuine Engagement

Tailored messaging is no longer optional—it’s the expectation. According to McKinsey’s Next in Personalization Report, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized customer experiences, and 76% feel frustrated when this doesn’t happen.

If you’re still relying on generic messages, you risk losing the trust of your target audience.

Key Tactics for Tailored Messaging:

• Understand the Language: Each niche audience speaks its own language. Whether it’s the technical jargon of photographers or the eco-conscious dialogue of sustainability advocates, use the voice of the customer, with words and tones that resonate.
• Solve Specific Problems: Don’t just offer generic solutions. Address the specific pain points of your niche audience. If you’re targeting photographers, highlight how your product enhances image resolution, color grading, or post-production efficiency.
• Offer Exclusive Value: Niche audiences appreciate exclusivity. Provide them with specialized content, offers, or product features that they can’t find elsewhere.

Apple’s Approach to Creatives

Apple doesn’t market its products the same way to everyone. For their MacBook Pro line, Apple zeroes in on creative professionals such as designers, developers, and small business owners. By focusing on these niche groups and showcasing features like the Retina Display, enhanced GPU, and intuitive design software, Apple speaks directly to their pain points and needs. This level of specificity has earned Apple loyalty among creative professionals worldwide, cementing its place as the go-to brand in that space.

In this “Pros on Pros” video, you can see how they utilize real customers to showcase how the product addresses specific pain points.

Building Trust Through Niche Communities

Trust is the cornerstone of marketing success, and niche communities are fertile ground for building it. According to Edelman’s 2023 Trust Barometer, 88% of consumers say trust is a key factor when deciding which brands to support.

If your brand can embed itself authentically in these tight-knit spaces, you will earn not just customers, but advocates.

Steps to Engaging Niche Communities:

• Join the Conversation: Get involved in the forums, social media groups, and communities where your audience is active. Offer genuine insights, participate in discussions, and resist the urge to be overtly promotional.
• Collaborate with Leaders: Partner with influencers or thought leaders within the niche to boost your credibility. Influencer partnerships that are authentic and aligned with the values of the niche community can significantly amplify your reach.
• Offer Value Beyond Your Product: Provide resources, educational content, or tools that help your niche community achieve their goals. For example, if you’re in the fitness industry, offering workout guides or nutrition advice that aligns with your niche will help build trust and loyalty.

Lenox Taps Into the Power of TikTok

Lenox is a top-tier example of how listening to a niche audience can lead to real revenue. By listening to a passionate group of collectors on TikTok, the brand was able to successfully relaunch one of its vintage products, Spice Village. Not only did they engage with their social fans, but they also partnered with influencers who were active in the collector community in order to harness excitement for the relaunch. You can hear the full story via this episode of the Social Pros Podcast.

Thinking Small for Big Wins

The data is clear: consumers crave personalized experiences, and brands that can micro-target, tailor messaging, and build authentic relationships within niche communities will see the highest returns.

In a marketplace where consumer attention is fragmented and fleeting, casting a wide net no longer guarantees success. Instead, honing in on smaller, more defined communities allows marketers to speak directly to the values and motivations that drive purchase decisions. When you truly understand your audience at this granular level, your brand will not only be heard but trusted and followed.

So, as you plan your next campaign, ask yourself: Are you thinking small enough? Because in today’s marketing landscape, thinking small can unlock big results.

The post The Power of Niche Targeting: How Marketers Can Win by Thinking Small appeared first on Convince & Convert.

The landscape of B2B marketing is continually evolving, and social media plays an increasingly important role in shaping how businesses connect with their audiences. As we move into 2025, staying ahead of emerging trends is essential for B2B brands.

New strategies and content formats are redefining interactions with potential customers, and adapting to these changes can provide a competitive edge. According to the findings of the Netline B2B Content Consumption Report, the demand for engaging, personalized content is growing, driving the shift toward more authentic, relatable digital experiences.

As co-host of the Social Pros podcast, I was thrilled to sit down with strategists from Convince & Convert to discuss what brands need to have in their social media marketing playbook for the year ahead. The article below is a summary of the topics that surfaced that B2B marketing teams need to pay attention to in order to stay competitive.

You can watch the full video replay of the episode below, or add it to your podcast line-up on your favorite platform.

Authentic and Engaging Content

In 2025, authenticity is key.

B2B brands are moving away from overly corporate messaging and adopting a more human, approachable tone. This shift mirrors strategies typically seen in B2C marketing, where relatability and storytelling are crucial. B2B companies now focus on building emotional connections by showcasing their brand’s values, challenges, and successes.
Examples of successful B2B storytelling include:

• Adobe’s storytelling campaign highlights how its tools empower businesses and creators.
• IBM focuses on sharing client success stories to build trust and demonstrate impact.
• Microsoft’s social initiatives showcase leadership perspectives on industry trends.

By emphasizing storytelling, brands connect deeply with their audiences and differentiate themselves in a crowded market.

Short-Form vs Long-Form Video

Video content continues to dominate in 2025, but the types of videos that work for B2B marketers vary depending on the platform and goals. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are ideal for short-form videos, which grab attention quickly and support real-time engagement. In fact, 72% of B2B marketers report success with lead generation through short-form video content.

Short-form video works well for:

• Highlighting quick tips and insights
• Sharing company culture glimpses
• Showcasing customer testimonials

For more in-depth engagement, long-form content such as webinars or YouTube videos helps build authority and educate potential clients. Brands like Salesforce and HubSpot use long-form YouTube content for product demos, case studies, and thought leadership discussions.

Consider using long-form video to cover:

• Detailed product overviews
• Industry-specific insights and case studies
• Tutorials or live Q&As with subject matter experts

Explore the B2B Social Media Consulting Services at Convince & Convert to learn more about implementing a video strategy tailored to your brand.

Thought Leadership

In B2B marketing, thought leadership is critical for establishing trust and authority. Platforms like LinkedIn are prime spaces for thought leaders to share insights, case studies, and industry predictions, which enhances the brand’s credibility and drives SEO.

Content that positions your brand as a thought leader can:

• Build industry authority and influence
• Improve visibility in search engines
• Attract new followers and partners

Microsoft and IBM effectively use LinkedIn for thought leadership, with executives sharing perspectives on future trends. This positions their brands as trusted sources and keeps audiences engaged. Discover how B2B Thought Leadership can boost your brand’s influence.

Influencer Marketing

We’ve been saying it for years: Influencer marketing is not just confined to the B2C space. B2B influencer marketing is rapidly growing as companies seek to partner with industry experts to gain credibility and reach niche audiences. Influencers in the B2B world help brands connect with audiences faster than traditional marketing, boosting reach and engagement.

Key benefits of B2B influencer marketing include:

• Faster trust-building through credible voices
• Increased brand visibility in specific industry niches
• Enhanced engagement with targeted, relevant audiences

As a real-life example, explore this case study of Oracle’s “On the Fly” B2B video series. They tapped into the expertise of 30 B2B influencers in order to boost traffic to their website and showcase unique thought leadership across channels that included LinkedIn.

AI Integration

AI and automation are transforming the B2B social media landscape by streamlining content creation and improving engagement.

Here’s how AI can impact your B2B social media strategy:

• Content Personalization: AI tools offer data-driven insights that help tailor content to audience preferences.
• Automated Customer Service: Chatbots provide timely responses, enhancing customer experience.
• Enhanced Analytics: AI-powered analytics offer predictive insights, allowing brands to refine strategies in real-time.

AI-driven tools help marketers identify content trends, optimize campaign timing, and predict customer needs. This strategic use of AI allows B2B brands to maintain a strong presence without overwhelming resources.

For a more detailed dive into this topic, I encourage you to watch the “5 Steps to AI Readiness for Marketing Leaders” webinar presented by Zontee Hou (see preview below).

Focus on Customer Pain Points

Addressing customer pain points through targeted content is a highly effective B2B approach. By identifying challenges faced by potential clients, brands can position themselves as solutions providers, creating a steady lead flow and building trust.

Effective content focused on pain points includes:

• HubSpot’s blog posts on common marketing challenges, paired with actionable tips
• Salesforce’s webinars on customer data management solutions
• IBM’s white papers addressing security concerns in cloud computing

This approach enhances credibility and attracts and retains engaged audiences. Explore Convince & Convert’s B2B Consulting Services to learn more about building a pain point-focused content strategy.

Looking Ahead

As we head into 2025, B2B social media marketing continues to evolve. From the rise of short-form video and influencer partnerships to the integration of AI, this year’s B2B trends prioritize authenticity, engagement, and targeted solutions. By staying on top of these trends, brands can improve their lead flow, strengthen relationships, and engage with their audience more meaningfully.

Ready to elevate your B2B social media strategy? Contact Convince & Convert’s team for expert guidance on navigating these trends to drive tangible results for your business.

The post B2B Social Media Marketing Trends for 2025 appeared first on Convince & Convert.