A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it.
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Remember I asked you a few weeks ago for help with Orbit Media’s latest blogging research? And you said yes because you are wonderful?
Here I am back with the data. Which is (I’m sorry to say) not very comforting.
In fact, it’s an actual wake-up call. And not the whispered hey-sweet-pea time-to-get-up gentle nudge. But more a bugle to your eardrum type.
Image source: Andy Crestodina
Only 14% of marketers now report “strong results” in their content efforts, the lowest number that Orbit’s Andy Crestodina has seen in the 13 years of tracking.
Why is that, though?
I have THOUGHTS.
And BTW: There’s a lot in the report. I encourage you to romp through all the insights Andy has generously compiled. See the full report here. For now, here are 3 things that stood out to me that I think are most useful to you.
1. AI is making us faster. It is not making us better.
AI use is now like secondhand smoke, seeping into everything marketing does. But none of the AI use cases Andy tracks correlate meaningfully with stronger results.
So does that mean AI is killing performance and giving us all emphysema? No.
But it does mean that speed and efficiency, on their own, aren’t making the work better.
In keynotes this fall—including two weeks ago in Vermont, where I met Diesel, a small dog employed as a sales assistant for Dreamdata—I’ve been saying:
We’ve spent decades asking: How can we make more, faster?
Now the better question is: What actually makes this worth paying attention to?
What here deserves more of us…? That’s a pretty radical question for marketing (and for the world), because our default way of operating has been the opposite.
P.S. Diesel is below. I would buy any SaaS product from that little man.
2. We’re efficiency-maxxing away the very things that actually work.
The steps and practices most associated with strong performance—original research, human editing, collaboration, analytics, keyword research, paid promotion—are all out of fashion, like calling jeans “dungarees.”
Meanwhile, the practices associated with weaker performance are becoming as on-trend as small dogs at conferences. (The dogs can stay. The practices that invite weaker performance should be booted out.)
AI makes it stupid-easy to remove effort and friction.
But friction is like cholesterol or Wizard of Oz witches: There are good kinds and bad kinds.
Some steps are bad friction. Other steps are Glinda-Good Friendly Friction: where the thinking, distinctiveness, credibility, and value enter the work.
Orbit’s data is a wake-up call that we need to be much more discerning about which friction we remove and which stays.
3. The gaping maw of opportunity in marketing today is knowing when to take the long road in a shortcut world.
The chart is practically a map of that opportunity. As all of us barrel toward faster, easier, more efficient marketing, more considered practices become more distinctive… and more valuable. (And although this data might be about marketing, the phenomenon is literally everywhere.)
The lesson isn’t “go slow.” It’s “know where slowing down delivers outsized results.”
When speed becomes cheap, judgment carries a premium.
That’s an idea central to my new book, coming out in February. The one I haven’t technically announced yet but is already available online—albeit naked & afraid, without a cover. (If you google “Ann Handley ASAP Book,” you can find it at the retailer of your choice. Or check out the publisher’s site.)
Anyway, here’s me about to dognap Diesel. He was so tired from all that networking and conferencing that he felt boneless and liquid in my arms. I love him.
Diesel, sales guy for Dreamdata
Photo cred: His mom, Yiana McGee
P.S. One more thing. Andy’s report focused on blogging. In 2026, does “blogging” even matter?
If by blogging we mean cranking out three keyword-stuffed posts a week because somebody put it on the content calendar? Even Diesel would know the answer to this: WOOF. NO.
But if we mean consistently publishing useful ideas, original research, expertise, and genuinely smart thinking on a platform you own…? Well, I’d argue that matters more now, not less.
Wouldn’t you?