The pressure on marketing teams to increase not only content volume but content personalization across an ever-expanding array of channels is constant—and of course it must be done while maintaining quality and brand consistency. But while 77% of content and creative professionals expect to produce more digital content this year, only a quarter believe they have the tools to actually meet this demand.
What separates the content teams that are thriving from those that are struggling? Canto and Ascend2 spoke to 423 content and creative professionals in a new joint research survey for The State of Digital Content: 2025 Edition, and their insights reveal a clear divide: Only 19% of teams have managed to significantly increase their content ROI in the past year. These top performers aren’t just getting lucky. They’re following a playbook that sets them apart from their peers, and their approaches offer a clear roadmap for teams looking to bridge the content capability gap.
The strategies that set top performers up for success reveal a somewhat counterintuitive truth: succeeding in today’s high-volume content world isn’t just about producing more—it’s about fundamentally changing how teams work. Below are five of the most important tactics that top performing marketing teams revealed they abide by.
Focus on the right metrics
Measure what matters, not just what’s easy to track. Many companies fixate on basic content engagement metrics, but top-performing content teams take a more sophisticated approach: 58% say they closely track content quality and relevance, 56% monitor conversion rates and 42% analyze content costs (compare this with average-performing teams who tracked these numbers up to 18% less for each metric). This more comprehensive view of content performance enables brands to make smarter decisions about where to invest their resources and how to optimize their content strategy.
Build systems, not silos
The contrast is stark between average-performing content teams who are chasing brand awareness and the top performers who are solving a more fundamental challenge—operational efficiency. Too many content teams are drowning in complexity, with nearly half using four or more different tools and around one-fifth juggling six or more. This inefficiency leads to 68% of content professionals wasting more than three hours weekly searching for digital assets.
Top performers take a different approach, with 46% prioritizing streamlined operations and 47% implementing cross-platform performance tracking. The focus shouldn’t just be on creating content—building scalable systems that eliminate the friction of creating at scale will push a team farther than production alone.
Implement PIM alongside DAM
Top performers are making a critical shift to replace fragmented tools with integrated solutions. Digital asset management (DAM) remains foundational for content operations, and the most successful teams are twice as likely to have DAM in place. Of those surveyed, these teams are more than three times as likely to report that repurposing content is “extremely easy.”
But they’re not stopping there. While 43% of teams still struggle with spreadsheet-anchored product data management, top content ROI performers are twice as likely to have adopted product information management (PIM) technology. The combination is powerful: Teams using both DAM and PIM report they are twice as likely to maintain brand consistency, distribute content efficiently and measure performance effectively. This isn’t just about better organization, it’s about creating a unified content ecosystem that scales.
Optimize performance analysis
The difference between measuring content performance and actually improving it comes down to speed and actionability. Top-performing teams have built processes that deliver real-time insights into the effectiveness of their content, allowing them to adjust strategy and resources quickly. The results speak for themselves: these teams report significantly higher revenue growth, faster time-to-market for new content, and consistent ROI improvement. On top of that, they’re also more likely to have secured increased content budgets for 2025, thus creating a virtuous cycle of investment and results.
Get creative with AI
Top performers are moving past the hype of artificial intelligence in order to find its practical advantages. For example, they are nearly twice as likely to use AI for content organization and automated tagging, and 1.5 times more likely to tap into AI-powered search and discovery. As always, the real story is in the results: 40% report improved content quality through AI-enhanced grammar and tone tools, while 36% have successfully automated their content creation processes. This isn’t about replacing human creativity—it’s about using AI to handle repetitive tasks so teams can focus on higher-value work.
Too many teams struggle with fragmented tools and manual processes, but the top performers in this survey seem to have cracked the code by combining smart metrics, unified technology platforms and strategic AI adoption in order to turn basic content operations into a competitive advantage. The playbook for success is clear, and the teams that will stay ahead are the ones who can make the shift the quickest.
