What Will Matter In Marketing In 2025

It’s that time of year. Time for everyone to get out their crystal balls 🔮 and predict the future. So where is marketing going in 2025? Ultimately, none of know. But I can use my 20+ years of experience to give you my perspective on what I think will matter in marketing in 2025. 

🥳 Not to toot my own horn, but my 2024 predictions were pretty spot on. So, toot, toot. 

🚨 One more thing before we get to the predictions—a disclaimer:

None of us can predict the twists and turns social media, marketing or our businesses will take. Business is uncertain. Social media is always changing. The future unknown. This isn’t good or bad. It just is. So take what works for you, and don’t stress about the rest. And remember, that no matter what, good marketing will always be good marketing. So if you ever get overwhelmed with all the new stuff, just go back to basics and double down on what’s working. 

Now that we got that out of the way, I put together 4 trends I think are worth keeping an eye on in 2025.

1️⃣ AI Acceleration: 2024 was the year of AI Acceptance. Now that we’ve accepted AI isn’t going anywhere and isn’t replacing us, it’s time to accelerate how we’re using it. You should view AI as an extension of you—as your assistant. Just like an assistant, AI is only as good as the direction you give it. The better you train it, the better it will serve you. So make 2025 the year you accelerate how you leverage AI so it isn’t just a shortcut, it’s gasoline poured on the fire that is your business. Give it thoughtful, detailed prompts, not generic ones, and it will generate thoughtful results as well. Think outside the box about how you use it (pst, it’s not just for pumping out content ideas and captions). 

2️⃣ Prioritize Personalization: Talk to your audience like you’re on Facetime with them. I have even seen videos lately where the creator actually starts the video by saying, “I just had to Facetime to tell you…” When your audience sees your content, reads your email, visits your website, you want them to feel like you are talking directly to them. 

Personalization is also one of my favorite ways to incorporate trends into my content strategy. Don’t just jump on a trend and copy-paste it—make a trend your own. Take time to put your spin on it. Personalize it for your business, brand and audience. This will help you connect with your audience, stand out amongst all the other content, and also means your content will be relevant well beyond the lifespan of the trend. 

3️⃣ Bring Us Along: Don’t just TELL us—SHOW us. Don’t tell us how you can help. SHOW us how you have helped other people like us. Don’t tell us what to do. SHOW us how to do it. SHOW us your process. SHOW us the ups and downs. 

4️⃣ Transparency Takes Over: Transparency has always been important in business and marketing, but in 2025 it’s going to be more important than ever. Your audience is smart and they can smell BS from a mile away. So stop with the income and growth claims unless you are going to do it with radical transparency. A screenshot of your bank balance, engagement stats, or follower count doesn’t mean anything unless you show us how you did it (see trend 3 for more). 

Trends I hope to see disappear in 2025 

• Engagement-bait content: You know those reels that say, “The first person that pops up when you hit share wants to go on a girls trip with you”. I know this kind of content will always exist, the form it takes on will just continue to change, but I’m not a fan.
• Faceless accounts: I feel like 2024 was the year people thought they could hide behind stock photos and video, make ridiculous growth and income claims and build a business. Just know, that’s not sustainable and doesn’t work if you want to build a business that’s here for the long haul. See trend 4 for more on why.

What trends are you expecting in 2025? Any you hope to see go away?