The marketing world is changing fast, and what worked in 2023 might not cut it in 2025. With new tech, shifting trends, and fresh platforms popping up every day, it’s hard to know where to focus your energy. So, how do you make sure your brand stays ahead of the curve and keeps connecting with your audience?
In this blog, we’ve rounded up 25 marketing tips for 2025 that will help you stay relevant, make the most of emerging trends and keep your strategies fresh.
- Capitalizing the non FIRST word of an email boosts open rates, according to HubSpot.
- Ninety-nine percent of the time you can remove the word "that" from a sentence and have it still retain its meaning.
- On social media you're not competing with brands in your segment. You're competing with a cute cat falling asleep and the latest reaction videos. Don't try to "out social" your competitors, instead focus on creating content that stops the scroll regardless of what's above or below it.
- Always double check your personalization tokens in email! Nothing looks worse than sending an email with a personal tone to everyone’s last name. (We saw this happen during the recent campaign season.)
- Lexical search is over. Learn “semantic search.” AI is changing the game. Structure your copy with bullets and boldface phrases to make it easy to scan and consider the intent of the search, not just the keywords.
- Video is king. A report by Wyzowl found that 73% of people prefer to watch a short video to learn about a product or service. Additionally, 88% of people said they've been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand's video.
- “Negative tone” subject lines increase open rates by 34%. Subject lines that capitalize the non-first word also increase open rates. Confused? Here’s an example: “no cap, most companies make this MISTAKE in their email subject lines.”
- There are lots of places to put vertical video right now. That doesn't mean shoot vertically. It's much easier to crop a horizontal video than it is to do it the other way around.
- Set SMART goals for 2025. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. This will help your team stay focused, track progress, and ensure goals are realistic and achievable.
- If you're going to start working with AI, make sure you have a plan to onboard your AI and show it what success looks like. If you're struggling to get started with AI, head to our blog for AI 101 and an onboarding checklist!
- Smart marketers believe in shopping local. AKC Merch is ready to help with all your custom branding needs!
- Your audience is NEVER everyone. Define your target audience first.
- Learn this new buzzword: zero-click marketing. Zero-Click Content is native-to-platform content that provides instant, standalone value without additional required context. With the introduction of AI, fewer than ±60% of searches end in a click, according to Smart Insights.
- If you have an iPhone, start shooting video in cinema mode.
- This might seem obvious, but make sure someone on your team has all the passwords. Create an off-boarding plan for people who are signed into your company's social media and email campaign platforms.
- Over 60% of internet traffic came from mobile devices in 2024. If you're going to put your eggs in a social media basket, focus on Instagram or another mobile-first platform.
- If your company is going to make playlists, make and share them from YouTube, not Spotify or Apple music. YouTube gives you analytics and is the second most used search engine on the web.
- Use boldface to help readers skim content.
- Brands will need to adapt their messaging to conversational language patterns in 2025. More than half of people worldwide used voice search daily in 2024 according to Statista.
- AI, voice search, AR and video will dominate digital marketing in 2025, while data privacy and sustainability will become essential for shaping customer relationships. Marketers who succeed in 2025 will protect consumer privacy. Online privacy isn't just about government regulations, it's about building trust with an audience increasingly aware of it's digital footprint.
- Be prepared for the rise of the AI-powered influencer. 2025 is going to be the year virtual influencers get really smart. Imagine having an influencer who responds 24/7 and can engaged with thousands of followers at once in a personal way.
- Consider ditching X and get on Bluesky. The platform has more than 20 million users and is growing every day. Other social media moguls are watching it rise.
- Canva is a great low-budget design solution. The thing about using templates is that other brands could be using them too. It's worth it to pay for graphic design.
- Consider working with a "micro-influencer." They have smaller follower bases compared to mainstream figures, but they offer unparalleled reach and engagement within their targeted audience.
- Last and certainly not least, get in touch with AKC Marketing with any of your marketing, merch, graphic or web needs. Reach out at content@ackmarketing.com. Real people are here on the other side, and we want to support your brand in working through your pain points.