I spent the last week asking HubSpot marketers to be really honest about what actually worked for them in 2025 – and what they gave up.
Six HubSpotters share some of their “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” Moments from the last 12 months, from rethinking the use of AI to supporting immeasurable betting.
If you could go back to January 2025, what would you tell yourself to stop overthinking?
Adam Biddlecombe, Senior Marketer, AI Media Strategist
“Stop thinking too much about AI. It’s exciting, easily the biggest technological shift of my lifetime, but so many use cases are still experimental and not always accurate.
“The real wins are in keeping it simple. Small tasks, small workflow tweaks. Creating a handful of custom GPTs for specific tasks, condensing meeting notes for a quick Slack update, turning messy ideas into a clear campaign brief.”
“These little building blocks have made me much more productive, organized and efficient at work.”
Rory Hope, Senior Manager, EN Growth
“I would have told myself not to think too hard about how AI is disrupting top-of-funnel search marketing, and that’s because This year we’ve seen the search community evolve to focus on optimizing AI visibility. We now have AI visibility monitoring tools, proven AEO tactics, and clear AEO reporting KPIs.
“In January 2025, the path forward was uncertain, but fortunately we were able to overcome that uncertainty and establish a new AEO process that scales AI visibility for HubSpot.”
What was the smallest change you made in 2025 that had the biggest impact on your results?
Nuriel Canlas, Senior Marketer, HubSpot Media
“My greatest success came from a simple change in my mindset. I stopped thinking that I needed a playbook for everything and started treating every challenge like something I could figure out. Once I got involved, my work got faster and the results got better.”
Amanda Kopen, Manager, Marketing
“One small change I made in the first half of 2025 that had an outsized impact on the second half results was refocusing one 15-minute meeting per month to update my team on AI developments. AI overviews, model updates, and the decline in organic traffic were very nerve-wracking – especially for those with an SEO background. But By taking the time to distill information from across the industry into short lessons, my team was able to use AI in their work every day.
“Now in December, they bring me news and insights and share them with each other. Our efficiency and creativity have improved significantly, which has led to a growing demand for AI recommendations.”
What piece of marketing advice did you finally ignore this year – and why was it the right decision?
Amy Marino, senior director, brand and social
“The narrative that AI will replace the need for creative strategists is so wrong.
“We integrated AI into our social content production this year, and the opposite has proven true: AI has made creative strategies and taste more valuable, not less. Anyone can now generate content. But knowing what is viral or memorable, culturally fluid or off-putting, and what gets our voice or sounds like generic AI, because what makes the content actually work?
“AI is pretty bad at being cool, interesting, and nuancedand I’m not sure that’s something that can be arranged.”
What marketing metric did you finally stop obsessing over—and what happened when you let it go?
Jonathon McKenzie, Head of Brand Paid Media
“This year I moved away from the idea that if you can’t measure it, don’t do it. We supported out-of-home in a region where awareness had stalled, even if it didn’t result in a clear LTV story. It worked. Not everything that builds the brand appears in the weekly dashboard.“
