In Digital Marketing Fundamentals, I mentioned that the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs conducted a survey that found:

“Content marketers are resilient. Most have met the challenges of the pandemic head-on.”

In response to the pandemic, B2B and B2C marketers:

• Increased time spent talking with customers.
• Revisited their customer/buyer personas.
• Reexamined the customer journey.
• Changed their targeting/messaging strategy.
• Changed their distribution strategy.
• Adjusted their editorial calendar.
• Put more resources toward social media/online communities.
• Changed their website.
• Changed their products/services.
• Adjusted their KPIs.
• Changed their content marketing metrics (e.g., set up new analytics/dashboards).

I concluded:

“Both B2B and B2C marketers totally overhauled the process for creating a content marketing plan from stem to stern. For some, 2020 was the year of quickly adapting their content marketing strategy. For others, it was the year to finally develop one.”

This is now relevant again, so replace “content” with “digital” and 2020 with 2025.

2. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

From a senior executive’s point of view, the increasing reliance on AI for data analysis, customer segmentation, and personalized marketing campaigns raises concerns about the balance between automation and human touch.

Some might argue that your organization should “focus” all its attention and resources on the trend of AI. To prove a point, I used a generative AI tool to crank out 10 sub-trends of this megatrend below:

1. Hyper-Personalization: Utilizing generative AI to craft highly tailored content and user experiences based on their behaviors, preferences, and demographics.
2. AI-Driven Content Creation: Automating the production of content such as blog posts, social media updates, and product descriptions using generative AI tools, enabling marketers to scale their efforts efficiently.
3. Voice and Conversational Marketing: Enhancing customer interactions and simplifying the purchasing process by adopting voice search optimization and conversational AI technologies like chatbots.
4. Predictive Analytics for Customer Insights: Leveraging data-driven insights to help marketers make informed decisions and refine their strategies in real time.
5. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Integration: Empowering customers to visualize products in their own space before making a purchase decision.
6. AI-Powered Customer Journey Mapping: Using AI to analyze customer interactions, identify key touchpoints, and optimize the journey to minimize friction and boost satisfaction.
7. Sustainability and Ethical AI: Prioritizing sustainable marketing approaches and the responsible use of AI, ensuring transparency and accountability in AI applications.
8. Enhanced Data Privacy Measures: Implementing AI solutions that respect user consent and safeguard data, maintaining regulatory compliance while extracting valuable insights.
9. Integration of Ecommerce and Social Media: Streamlining shopping experiences directly within social platforms to boost engagement and drive sales.
10. AI-Enhanced Marketing Automation: Elevating campaign management through advanced automation, including features like A/B testing, real-time optimization, and personalized email strategies.

Yes, these sub-trends are driven by advancements in AI technology. And, yes, anyone can argue that AI should be considered the only digital marketing trend to focus on for 2025.

However, everyone should prepare to find the right balance between automation and the human touch. That’s what senior executives are concerned about.

3. Digital Analytics

I’d start with measurement. (No topic is more likely to get the attention of C-level executives than measuring results.)

Following an industry report, business outcomes, such as site visits, leads, and sales, have become the primary success metrics.

Since August 2007, when YouTube started offering video advertising, brands and their agencies have always prioritized reach and frequency. So, the key criteria for digital video investments has fundamentally changed.

But two-thirds of buyers, particularly smaller advertisers targeting niche audiences, cited issues across nine key areas of measurement:

1. Co-viewing.
2. Placement transparency.
3. Brand safety/suitability.
4. Viewability.
5. Ads served on made-for advertising sites (MFAs).
6. Ads served on TVs turned off.
7. Getting sell-side data.
8. Using multiple currencies.
9. Standard sell-side targets.

So, what should digital analytics focus on for 2025?

In a recent post on LinkedIn, Avinash Kaushik recommended:

“Marketing’s Incrementality: Business results from marketing tactics that would not have occurred otherwise.”

He added:

“It is the absolute pinnacle of proving the value of Marketing. It is the only answer a smart CFO wants (and upon receiving it will give your CMO all the budget required to capture incremental revenue/profit!).”

He concluded:

“Very few in our ecosystem are focused on measuring incrementality. One reason is it requires sophisticated thinking, and that’s often missing. Another reason is that incrementality is actually measured, but it gets killed by the org because the results are so bad.”

4. Digital Advertising

If you’re the head of digital advertising for your organization, then you need to find the right balance between AI and human touch in 2025.

For example, I said decision-makers at your organization already know that the new AI-generated holiday ads from Coca-Cola attracted a lot of criticism.

Some described the three new AI versions as “the biggest branding blunder of the year,” and others said the AI campaign “earns Coca-Cola a lump of coal.

After measuring the emotional impact of holiday ads, and comparing the current AI-generated holiday ad with the original human-created 2020 version, Ian Forrester said:

“The difference between the AI and the original was most stark in their evocation of warmth, a mainstay of Christmas advertising. The original evoked intense warmth among 33.0% of viewers, whereas the AI versions were significantly below this. So, while the AI is producing images which on the face of it seem cute and heart-warming, the human viewer to some degree discerns their synthetic nature, which detracts from their impact.”

And Barney Worfolk-Smith, added:

“Some in the advertising community who feel a sense of ominous threat will instantly adopt a negative stance. I don’t blame them, but the reality is, the toothpaste is out of the tube, so we should all have a hand on the wheel of a human AI hybrid Christmas Coke truck to have a stake in the future.”

So, if you’re not in the driver’s seat for similar human-AI experiments in 2025, then someone else probably will be.

5. SEO

If you’re the head of SEO for your organization, then you might want to read, A New Era Of SEO: Leveraging YouTube, LinkedIn, And Cross-Channel Strategies For Success.

So, I don’t need to tell you that it’s time to re-envision your career path.

Going forward, you will need to invest more time in learning four additional disciplines: digital analytics, digital advertising, content marketing, and social media marketing.

And you will also need to demonstrate critical thinking about digital marketing strategy if you ever hope to climb the ladder in your organization.

Since that article was published, Rand Fishkin, asked How big is ChatGPT’s market share of search? And, using data from SimilarWeb and Datos, Fishkin estimates that Google’s cross-platform share of search in October 2024 was over 83.5%.

YouTube’s share was almost 7.0%. ChatGPT’s share was over 4.3%. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, and Perplexity’s combined share was almost 3.4%. And Bing’s share was almost 2.0%.

So, yes, I realize SearchGPT is the latest Bright Shiny Object (BSO). But it’s still 1.6 times more important to leverage YouTube – at least for the near future.

6. Content Marketing

If you’re the head of content marketing for your organization, then you should read Why AI in Demand Generation Is No Knight In Shining Armor [New Research].

If you do, you’ll know that most demand-gen marketers feel pressured to “get good” at generative AI so they can “do more with less.”

CMI surveyed marketers to see if they felt pressured to deliver results despite having limited budgets and resources. The response? A significant 56% said they feel this pressure “to a great extent,” while 39% admitted they feel it “to some extent.”

Just 5% reported feeling no pressure at all and a recent Deloitte study found that 79% of C-suite respondents expect gen AI to drive substantial organizational transformation in less than three years.”

However, the study also found that most organizations prioritize tactical advantages, such as boosting efficiency and cutting costs, over broader goals like driving growth and fostering innovation.

In the article above, Robert Rose recognizes an inconvenient truth: generative AI magnifies what already exists.

So, if you use a content calendar to crank out dull social media posts, boring in-person events, and bland emails, then AI will simply amplify those weaknesses.

Conversely, if your content strategy makes videos worth watching, creates content worth sharing, and provides experiences worth the price of admission, then AI will enhance those strengths.

So, AI isn’t a magic wand. It’s more like a booster that accelerates your existing efforts.

As this year’s findings demonstrate, successful demand generation remains a human-centered and complex task. Efficiency alone won’t transform ordinary efforts into extraordinary success.

True success lies in creativity, uniqueness, and the thoughtful execution of ideas.

In the end, the story is yours to tell — make it exceptional.

7. Social Media Marketing

If you’re the head of social media marketing for your organization, then you might want to pay attention to the growth of BlueSky.

Similarweb reported:

“On Nov. 6, the day after the US presidential election, both website traffic and app usage spiked for Bluesky in the US as it became the destination of choice for journalists and opinion leaders (as well as followers of those people) who decided to either stop using X or begin using it less.

Usage of the Bluesky app is up 519% compared to the first 10 months of the year. The UK echoed the trend, with Bluesky usage up 352% compared with the first 10 months of the year.”

Before you rush to add yet another platform to your social media portfolio, dig a little deeper into the latest data from Similarweb.

Below is the chart that Carr sent me of the top social networks worldwide based on desktop and mobile web visits in October 2024.

Image from author, December 2024

If you’re data-driven, then here’s the data:

• YouTube got 29.1 billion visits that month.
• Facebook got 12.5 billion.
• Instagram got 6.0 billion.
• X (formerly Twitter) got 4.6 billion.
• Reddit got 3.5 billion.
• TikTok got 2.2 billion.
• LinkedIn got 1.8 billion.
• Pinterest got 1.2 billion.
• Threads got 154.1 million.
• Snapchat got 130.3 million.

Although it doesn’t appear in the chart, Bsky.app got 75.9 million visits in October 2024.

So, if you’ve got 1,000 people on your social media marketing team, then shift one of them to BlueSky. But based on Similarweb’s latest data, 99.9% of us should shift more people to YouTube.

8. Digital PR

It may seem odd to include Digital PR in your list of the top 10 digital marketing trends for 2025.

But Spencer Stuart noticed that 34% of Fortune 500 CMOs lead functions in addition to marketing, such as communications.

So, if your organization is one of those companies, then you’ll want to invite your head of corporate communications to your off-site meeting.

You may also want to respectfully recommend that they read 7 Steps To Building A Kickass Digital PR Campaign before attending.

And your organization would really benefit by building a kickass digital PR campaign.

9. Influencer Marketing

Invite whoever heads up influencer marketing to your off-site – even if they report to the head of digital advertising, content marketing, social media marketing, or corporate communications.

The head of influencer marketing should argue that “schmooze optimization” is the cost-effective way to achieve your marketing goals.

And, suggest to your head of SEO that they read “SEO Industry Trends Report 2024: The Search Revolution Has Already Begun.”

Kasumovic says:

“Kevin Indig reveals that only 6% of AI Overviews (AIOs) include the search query – indicating that the future of SEO lies in understanding user intent rather than keyword targeting.”

Kasumovic argues:

“The brands that rise to the top will be those that leverage the intersection of human expertise and AI automation – a balance that requires both creativity and data-driven discipline.”

He recommends:

“Collaborate with industry experts, influencers, and knowledgeable creators to build content that demonstrates deep expertise and credibility.”

10. Omnichannel Marketing

Your customers expect a seamless experience across all platforms. But if your marketing strategy is still siloed, then you might as well be using carrier pigeons to get your message across.

That’s why your organization needs to hammer out an agreement on a customer-centric strategy that integrates all your channels to create a consistent brand experience for customers.

But who is the voice of the customer in your organization? If there isn’t an obvious choice, there are three potential candidates:

1. A digital analytics expert who recognizes a seamless customer experience across multiple channels will be essential.
2. A digital advertising expert who knows that integrating PPC campaigns across multiple channels (search, social, display) will be vital for a cohesive customer journey.
3. An SEO expert who understands search engines are increasingly considering user experience (UX) metrics as ranking factors.

In Summary: Get Key Decision-Makers Involved

This is my take on the top 10 digital marketing trends for 2025 which will hopefully give you a starting point to tailor a version for your organization.

What is important to remember is to get all the key decision-makers in your organization involved.

I suggest you take time to outline your priorities and where you need to go in 2025.

Get ready for the storm to face it head on.

More Resources:

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Featured Image: Hurca/Shutterstock