Short-form video is the top content in B2B marketing, but there’s more to consider for your strategy.

I didn’t have to read HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing report or the LinkedIn 2024 Benchmarks Report to know that short-form video content was the top content type used in marketing in 2024 and is being hailed as the type to create this year. All I had to do was open my social channels and start scrolling.

The question is, will we get tired of it? Are there other ways to create and share content that can create equal attention and drive engagement? The answer is yes.

Visual storytelling takes top priority

According to the LinkedIn report, 75% of respondents said social media was their most used channel in 2024. The top content respondents created was video and visual content (data visualizations and infographics), and 65% plan to increase their use of video.

But not all video ranks the same. In the LinkedIn study, short-form social videos delivered the highest ROI (55%), followed by testimonials and case studies (44%), product demos (40%), and thought leader interviews (39%).

As more and more brands start creating short-form videos across channels like YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram, it will be harder to get a video to stand out and get people to stop scrolling enough to pay attention.

The 2024 Marketing Trends Trust Insights report states this clearly:

Marketers need to prioritize short-form video strategies, refine storytelling to be concise and captivating within limited time, and understand that the mobile-first view is the dominant mode of consumption.

But long-form content still has its place

While there may be a focus on short-form video to capture attention, the need for long-form content still holds. Maybe it’s the type of long-form content that needs to be adjusted.

Typically, long-form content comes in the form of whitepapers and ebooks, many of which tend to be either very product-specific pitches or high-level information that results in little value to the person who traded their information to get it.

The Trust Insights report noted a non-obvious trend that pointed to developing thought leadership content that is more in-depth on a topic. It talked about deeper topic analysis, with proper research and the addition of unique opinions and perspectives.

This type of content aligns well with the LinkedIn Benchmarks finding that thought leadership content will increase by 56% and influencer content will increase by 60%. Put influencers with subject matter expertise on a topic (and with strong opinions) and long-form content together, and you can create highly valuable content that can drive deeper engagement with key audiences.

Long-form content doesn’t need to be a whitepaper behind a gate; it can be a long-form blog, a webinar series, or even a podcast interview. Marketers and salespeople can use ever-green content like this through the buyer journey and as a way to increase brand awareness around a specific topic. This content can then be broken down into different formats to share across social, email, and micro-communities (another growing trend).

A not-so-new channel marketing should pay attention to

I’ve been hearing more and more about marketers using Reddit as a marketing channel. The Trust Insights report talks about it as a trend that’s not highly discussed but is growing. It says it’s a valuable source for building community and connecting with niche audiences.

Ross Simmonds, founder and CEO of Foundation, a content marketing agency, has been talking about the value of Reddit for quite some time, pointing to Google’s partnership with Reddit as a key driver. He shared research on the impact of this relationship on search engine results:

With Google’s expanded partnership with Reddit and the emergence of AI Overviews, we’re witnessing a significant shift in how search engines prioritize and surface content. As an SEO agency that works mostly with SaaS & cloud companies, we’ve been using STAT to keep track of how our clients are doing in the SERP for years, along with tracking how third-party review sites are doing when compared to UGC sites like Reddit.

Simmonds found that third-party review sites were seeing drops in traffic, while Reddit appears to be growing. Therefore, it makes sense that brands should examine this issue more closely.

However, it’s not your typical marketing channel, and marketers will need to invest time learning how to use it effectively. Participation in Reddit is more about sharing helpful information than trying to push people to a website.

My take

Marketers don’t need to be told that the channels and content formats they use will depend on the audiences they are trying to reach. But it doesn’t hurt to remind them. A content marketing strategy first looks at business goals and a clear understanding of their desired audiences and ideal customer profiles. Then, the channels and content needed for those channels come next.

Every content marketing strategy should also leave time and budget for trying new channels and content formats, though, because you never know what is going to resonate unexpectedly. Plus, if every marketer does the same thing, they risk getting becoming another voice among many. The right mix of channel, content format, voice (influencer or in-house expert), and, most importantly, topic covered can stand out.