6 Marketing Trends You Need to Know in 2025

Key Concepts

AI in marketing, short-form video, long-form video, engagement metrics, first-party data, content creators, brand-led content, AI-powered ads, social SEO, TikTok SEO, HubSpot State of Marketing report.

AI-Powered Marketing

• Main Point: AI is crucial for optimizing marketing strategies in real-time, making marketing faster and more efficient. Marketers who don't use AI risk falling behind.
• Specific Details:
  • AI tools like ChatGPT and HubSpot Breeze can generate social media posts, email subject lines, and ad headlines.
  • AI can track patterns and predict trends for data-driven decision-making.
  • 47% of marketers don't know how to measure AI's impact (reference page 34 of the HubSpot report).
• Actionable Insights:
  • Test AI-generated content against human-written content to measure engagement, clicks, and conversions.
  • Automate tasks to free up time and resources.

Engagement-First Strategy

• Main Point: Focus on keeping people engaged with content, as social platforms reward engagement time.
• Specific Details:
  • Short-form videos (TikToks, Reels, Shorts) are the best-performing content format.
  • Long-form video content (webinars, podcasts, YouTube videos) sees 10x more engagement than blog posts alone.
• Example: The Hustle, HubSpot's business media brand, launched a YouTube channel with long-form storytelling and business deep dives, resulting in 400,000+ monthly views and higher engagement rates.
• Actionable Insights:
  • Create TikToks, Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
  • Track engagement metrics like watch time, comments, and shares.
  • Repurpose content into multiple social media posts.
  • Use short-form video to hook viewers and long-form video to build trust.
  • Reference page 12 of the HubSpot report for examples of brands using this strategy.

First-Party Data and Trust

• Main Point: Consumers trust brands less, making first-party data (emails, subscribers, loyalty programs) more valuable.
• Specific Details:
  • Third-party cookies are disappearing, and paid ads are becoming more expensive.
  • Brands that own their audience outperform those relying on paid ads.
• Actionable Insights:
  • Collect emails by offering freebies, discounts, or exclusive content.
  • Be transparent about data collection.
  • Use first-party data for personalization.
  • Reference page 11 of the HubSpot report for examples of brands using this strategy.

Brand-Led Content and Creator Economy

• Main Point: Consumers trust creators more than brands, so brands should become content creators.
• Specific Details:
  • 92% of marketers are shifting budgets from ads to brand-led content.
  • Brands working with content creators see 3x better results.
• Actionable Insights:
  • Educate, entertain, and engage your audience instead of just selling.
  • Work with micro-influencers.
  • Build your brand's personality by sharing behind-the-scenes content, personal insights, and customer stories.
• Example: Jaguar is investing in social-first storytelling on TikTok and Instagram Reels, partnering with younger influencers, and creating lifestyle content.
• Reference: Page 24 of the HubSpot State of Marketing report.

AI-Powered Advertising

• Main Point: AI optimizes ad targeting, leading to lower costs, higher engagement, and more conversions.
• Specific Details:
  • Traditional manual ad testing is slow.
  • AI helps spend ad budgets more efficiently.
  • AI learns from user behavior to improve ads automatically.
• Actionable Insights:
  • Use AI-powered ad tools like Meta's Advantage+ and Google's Performance Max.
  • Test AI-driven audiences.
  • Compare manual versus AI testing.

Social SEO

• Main Point: More people are searching on TikTok and Instagram than on Google, especially Gen Z.
• Specific Details:
  • Google reported a 40% decline in product searches by Gen Z.
• Actionable Insights:
  • Use TikTok's search bar to find trending keywords.
  • Add searchable text to videos.
  • Optimize hashtags using platform-specific search trends.

Conclusion

The marketing landscape is rapidly evolving due to AI, changing consumer behavior, and the rise of social media. To stay ahead, marketers must embrace AI, prioritize engagement, leverage first-party data, become content creators, utilize AI-powered advertising, and optimize for social search. As Kipp Bodnar, CMO of HubSpot, stated, marketers must constantly learn, test, and evolve their strategies to avoid being left behind.