4 Major 2025 Marketing Trends – And How to Prepare

January 29, 2025

By Laura Dunn
CEO and Chief Brand Strategist

As businesses and organizations jump into 2025 with strategic plans in place and new goals to achieve, the pressure is on. Whether or not those goals are achieved often depends in large part on how successful their marketing and communications plans are.

While tactical expertise is obviously crucial, the strategic marketing considerations of which tactics to use, and how, will ultimately make or break your chances at success. And that strategy, in turn, depends almost exclusively on what’s going on not in your own organization, but out in the world – which means the “best” strategy is always evolving.

As we look ahead to 2025, here are the big shifts that we at Dunn Marketing and experts from across the marketing industry are anticipating. We hope this rundown will help you to refine and enhance your marketing strategy in the months ahead. If you need help, you know where to find us.

 

Artificial Intelligence and Automation in Marketing

AI is having a tremendous impact on life and business in countless ways, and marketing is no exception. On the positive side, AI already offers the ability to research and produce content, drive personalization of that content, run ad campaigns, and analyze campaign results more efficiently than ever before.

In fact, 54% of marketers now use AI in their roles¹ and 70% of marketing leaders are setting aside budget for AI. For business owners and leaders handling their marketing in-house, this efficiency offers an attractive way to potentially improve and scale marketing efforts without having to invest more in marketing staff. But…

The efficiency that marketing AI provides comes with a lot of very sticky strings attached.

First and foremost is accuracy and ethical considerations. AI platforms are not always correct or up to date in the information they provide, and in fact many only have access to information that was available online several months to a full year previous to any given search date. In a rapidly changing world, this means the information you receive from these platforms can easily be out of date.

Second, there are the ethical concerns. AI utilizes existing information available online, which itself was obviously produced by humans and therefore open to the influence of individual attitudes, assumptions, and prejudice.

Relying blindly on AI-generated content without fact-checking or critical thinking and editing is unethical, and a big mistake that could open your organization up to potential negative consequences.

To use AI responsibly, it’s best to use it as a tool for getting started rather than a crutch for getting it done.

It’s a great resource for efficiently creating the foundation of your content – initial research, synthesizing information, and providing an outline, for example. Then, let the humans take it from there to make sure the information is up to date and correct, and that the views and tone of the content reflects your organization and brand.

You should also consider which AI platform you use carefully, as some adhere to higher ethical standards than others. Here at Dunn Marketing, we use Claude.ai, which is owned by Anthropic, an “AI safety and research company that’s working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.”

Lastly, it’s important to disclose when AI has been used to create content. With the rapid change and pitfalls that AI has introduced, transparency is key to maintaining trust with your audience.

This blog post, for example, was researched and outlined using AI. I then fact-checked and wrote the content myself, using my human and professional experience to supplement the basic facts in a way that resonates with my professional integrity and my agency’s values and brand.

Marketing Personalization and Customer Experience 

Truly knowing and understanding your customer or client – and actively seeking to serve their needs rather than just make a sale – has always been essential to ongoing marketing and business success. But the introduction of AI and the onslaught of constant media in today’s world makes that more important than ever.

A staggering 73% of consumers prefer brands that offer personalized experiences.³

Personalizing your marketing and customer experience is so important, in fact, that it has become a key differentiator. Those who do it well win. Those who don’t either won’t make it off the ground or are losing ground quickly.

So, how do you do it?

First, invest the time to really know your customer or client deeply.

Do market research that goes beyond demographics (age, gender, geography) and delves into psychographics (how they think, what they value and fear, what they want and what they don’t out of your product or service, and what interests they have that are completely unrelated to your business).

If you can commission your own market research study, great. If it’s out of your budget, don’t worry – there are many ways to leverage existing research and data that aligns closely enough to your target audience.

Once you have that information, evaluate how your offerings fit into your customers’ lives and how it may do so even better than your competitors’. What problems does it solve? How might it complement other aspects of their life that they enjoy? How does it align with the values commonly held by your audience?

These findings will reveal the key messages you should be communicating in your marketing – the points that will make them see how you can serve their needs and life better than anyone else.

Repeat the process with how and where you market. What sorts of media does your audience use the most? Within those types of media, which particular platforms, publications, or channels are most popular?

Once you know the answer to those questions, a strategy on how to deliver the right message to the right audience suddenly becomes clear.

Next, choose the tactics you use to deliver personalized content wisely because they are evolving quickly as well.

Cookies – the tracking code used to deliver personalized ads and content to users online – are quickly going by the wayside as privacy regulations and user opt-outs continue to rise.² As a result, businesses should prioritize investing in marketing channels that use first-party data to deliver a personalized experience.

First-party data is information that a business collects directly from its customers. Some examples of advertising platforms that use first-part data are Google Ads, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn, Amazon DSP (demand-side platform), and streaming services.

As you select your ad channels, remember that a seamless omnichannel experience across all digital and physical touchpoints is essential to maintain the effectiveness of your campaign and the strength of your brand.²

Search Is Becoming More Social

Organic and paid search marketing has long been one of the most powerful staples of any successful marketing strategy. But how that looks, like so much else in 2025, is changing. Here’s a quick overview:

• Traditional search traffic expected to drop 25% by 2026 as social search grows¹
• Voice search will continue to expand – 51% already use it to research products¹
• Content combining AI and human creation performs best for engagement¹
• Social search on platforms like TikTok are becoming a major source of discovery⁴

This doesn’t mean you should throw in the towel on your SEO efforts or paid search campaigns – they’re still among the best tools in the marketing toolbox. But it does mean you should begin expanding the ways you position your business to be found.

Google and Bing aren’t the only players anymore. As people continue to turn back to the digital-age version of human word-of-mouth, investing resources in monitoring and growing your brand presence on social sites where users often go for advice and recommendations – like TikTok, Reddit and Substack – will become more and more important.

Social Media & The Creator Economy

Following from the above, it’s more important than ever to stay visible on social media. But knowing exactly where to invest your efforts is getting tricky. While the social giants of Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn continue to loom large, the playing field is widening quickly, and the types of content that audiences want is evolving.

• Threads and BlueSky are emerging as Twitter alternatives¹
• Short-form video remains dominant content format⁴
• Employee-generated content is growing in importance¹ (Digital Marketing Institute)
• Focus is shifting from influencers to authentic customer content⁴

Basically, social users are much more discerning content consumers than they once were. If you’re going to be on social media, you’ve got to make it not just engaging, but valuable, and real. It’s like we’ve come full-circle, with the technical and impersonal feel of digital relationships evolving to demand what real-world relationships do – authenticity, trust, and give-and-take. You can’t be superficial anymore. Your organization needs to speak, act, and interact as a real person would in a real-life, real-world relationship. So, you’d better know who you are and make sure you walk the walk and talk the talk wherever your brand appears.

The Name of the Game for Marketing in 2025: Efficient Tech, Human Touch

That wraps up our overview of the major marketing trends for 2025. Together, they paint a picture of a marketing landscape increasingly shaped by AI and automation, but still very much reliant on human creativity, connection, and strategic thinking. The key to success will be integrating both in a way that achieves efficiency while maintaining – and ideally strengthening – personal connection and ethical, person-centered operations.