Fire and Ice symbolize temperature extremes, and in the case of heat, what’s “hot” has come to represent what is on trend, and what is not. So here is your 2025 list of TEN big trends in marketing. The HOT/NOT list!
Trend #1
HOT: Building relationships
NOT: Building audiences
For years social media has been all about building an audience. How many followers do you have? What is your reach? When algorithms quietly shifted to “discovery” mode last year, much of the importance around follower count disappeared, but many businesses are still obsessed by it. Suddenly anyone producing content that was entertaining or receiving engagement received reach far exceeding their follower count. The game changed.
What’s your list size? Same thing about newsletters. The thought has always been that bigger is better. How about actual open rates though? Reply back rate? I’d argue that these stats are far more important than list size.
In 2025, especially with the impact of AI on content, marketing will be about building relationships. Real content from real people. Real comments from real people. Actually stepping away from the keyboard to build real relationships. In a year set to be filled with a deluge of AI slop, real human relationships are key to your marketing.
Trend #2
HOT: Crafted content
NOT: AI slop
See above for reference to AI slop. You know the stuff I mean – lists with a cookie cutter crafted introduction and summary at the end. Social media comments lacking context, personal stories or anything that couldn’t have been hauled in from the internet – usually with a cute prompt at the end, “what do you think?” As if that is going to beg more responses! 2025 is the year we recognize AI slop for what it is. You can do better. PLEASE do better.
Crafted content takes original thought. It involves experience, personal observation, personal stories, thought leadership, data supported positions, and often humor with double meaning understood by the target audience.
Trend #3
HOT: First party data
NOT: Third party tracking
Information willingly given by customers is far more valuable than third-party tracking. Think email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers. WILLINGLY is the key word here though. Not coerced. Third-party data tracking is on its way out (already left the building in the EU) and unless you’re a huge digital company like Amazon, or a social media platform like Meta, you won’t have that digital data, and they won’t be able to share it with you. Browsers and companies are moving towards more privacy-focused practices. For example Google is phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome.
At the end of the day, it’s all about consumer privacy. As a consumer you should be happy about that. It’s a bummer though if it’s been a part of your marketing strategy. Having permission from customers who have willingly given you access to direct contact is the way of the future. If it sounds old school in 2025, trust your instincts. Use social media to build an audience, then get them over to something where you own their first party data.
Trend #4
HOT: Newsletter
NOT: Social media algorithm
Anyone who reads my “Five-Minute Marketing Tips newsletter” knows I’m a huge fan of valuable newsletters. Notice the emphasis on “valuable.” Containing something readers actually need and want. Not churned out with AI generated content. Not pushy sales focused copy. Not overwhelming to the point of jamming up someone’s email in box. We’re talking personable, original thought leader content. Bonus marks for engagement and interactivity.
I’m a huge fan of social media to reach people, but the fight for attention there is tough, and the algorithm is not your friend. It’s subject to change more than any flaky friend you’ll try to keep up with. As social platforms become more and more flooded with AI content, and content moderation becomes weak or non-existent, expect more disillusionment in the feed.
Trend #5
HOT: Thoughtful comments
NOT: Hot takes or AI generated responses
In a world of speed and volume, cranked up by AI content, what will be missing (and frankly will stand out), will be thoughtful human generated comments. A hot take might be fine, but why not make it more meaningful and take the time to add value to the discussion? In 2025 we will begin to spot AI generated comments a mile away – generic opinions easily hauled off the internet, lacking personal context and examples, and often with the slick “what do you think?” at the end, meant to generate more discussion.
Trend #6
HOT: Storytelling and original data
NOT: Vanilla content, Google and AI sourced
I’m a fan of AI used well. Got recorded audio from a ZOOM focus group in need of conversion to text and then distilled for themes and patterns? Put AI on it. Huge time saver. But increasingly I am pushing back on AI for the ways it is being used to write content. It’s making writers numb to creativity and robbing them of the opportunity to tell their own story and add original thought. Of course you can do that editing AI content, but there is just too much out there that never sees an edit.
Use AI for outlines, to transcribe audio, summarize themes from copy, ask what you’re missing, generate cool images, suggest headline alternatives etc. But please don’t allow it to steal your brain. In a sea of vanilla ice-cream content generated by AI in 2025, you want to be pistachio gelato with your storytelling and original content.
Trend #7
HOT: Consistency marketing
NOT: Chaos marketing
Chaos seems to have taken the stage early in 2025, and it’s not just in our marketing! But chaos marketing in its truest sense is being everywhere, but not actually having a plan. Chaos is feeling compelled to be on every platform, everyday (or at least week!) and always chasing the latest shiny object informing content. You’ve got to do video – everywhere! TikTok is where it’s at! OMG LinkedIn is back! (hate to break it to you, but it never left…) You need a newsletter! Mastodon, Threads, Blue Sky – for sure they will replace Twitter/X, get in early!
You get the picture.
Do more, faster – everywhere.
Consistency on the other hand is planned, in control, confident. Confident in the choices made for what to include, but most importantly what NOT to include. Consistency is comfortable saying NO to many things, so they can say YES to just a few.
And then do them regularly, consistently.
This might look like blog posts once a month, or bi-weekly. A newsletter bi-weekly or weekly. Choosing LinkedIn as a primary platform and posting 2-3 times a week, plus (super important) commenting thoughtfully and knowledgeably on other people’s posts in their industry where they want to build thought leadership.
Walk slow, observe, be purposeful and focused. What will you say NO to in 2025?
Trend #8
HOT: Thought leadership, taking a position
NOT: Bandwagon, agree with everyone else
You don’t need to be a contrarian all the time, but taking a different stance and being able to justify your position is a great way to get noticed. It sure beats jumping on the bandwagon with everyone else, simply agreeing and vying for attention in the feed or comments.
Real thought leadership is developed over time. See well selected (and limited) platforms above, and producing consistent original content. You will never gain thought leadership churning out AI content.
Trend #9
HOT: Handwritten notes
NOT: Digital messages, or template messages
Handwriting could make a comeback in 2025, simply because in a deluge of AI content it appears personable. Handwritten notes are hard to scale though, so you need to consider context and who you really want to forge a relationship with. Current and past clients? Yes! Prospective clients, pre-qualified with an initial interaction? Yes!
Now I’m going to pause for a moment and muse about cursive writing no longer being taught in schools. In my experience teaching at a University, many Gen Z students print on exams. But it’s often a weird blend of printing with some cursive tossed in from the one class they were taught. I also know from experience that many of these students can’t actually READ cursive writing as a result. So if you’re sending a handwritten note to someone younger, maybe make it handprinted!
Written notes and cards also tend to be saved if they’ve been personalized (think photo, comment about something you two shared in previous conversation or a meeting). When’s the last time you saved an email because it was so precious?
Trend #10
HOT: Vanity metrics
NOT: Real engagement
“What’s your follower count?” is SO 2024. With the advent of “for you” pages and an algorithm based on discovery the whole follower thing went out the window. But not everyone understands that just yet. Platforms now curate content based on interests, not on followers, and much less on contacts and friends than they used to. Follower counts don’t really matter anymore. On some level they’re a measure of legitimacy I suppose, but even then, followers can be purchased.
2025 is delivering a lot of changes to the way we do marketing. Time to get focused. Remarkably, it’s also a time to just get back to basics in establishing and maintaining human connection. How ironic that it would take AI to prompt that!
