2025 will likely be the most interesting year yet for marketing leadership. In the past year alone, you’ve had to deal with the rise of AI, changing consumer trends, and difficult economic times.
56% of marketing leaders in our recent survey say marketing has changed more in the last three years than in the last 50. That means it’s time for marketers to prepare and adapt.
To help you develop a powerful and agile strategy for 2025, we surveyed more than 720 marketing leaders about the biggest challenges, opportunities and trends ahead. We also received insights from senior marketing leaders. Let’s dive in.
Top Marketing Leadership Trends in 2025
1. Marketing leaders predict that in 2025, various data obstacles, rapid change in the lives of their target audience, and AI integration will be the biggest challenges.
Collecting data is becoming increasingly difficult as consumers place greater importance on protecting their privacy. Here are specific barriers from our survey:
- Nearly 21% of marketing leaders say a key barrier is lower consumer trust in sharing personal data
- 18% say stricter data protection regulations
- 16% report poor data quality
Adopting a data-driven strategy in 2025 requires marketers to leverage tools and workflows that create trust and transparency around user data.
Parimal Deshpande, senior director of product marketing at Adobe Expresssays: “These challenges are the focus of marketers today. Adobe Express helps them navigate this landscape by providing tools powered by licensed content, ensuring companies comply with regulations and protect creators’ intellectual property.”
According to Deshpande, trust must also be a top priority in the content created by marketers. He says marketers need to create “authentic, standout materials that resonate with audiences.”
“In addition, by integrating with platforms like HubSpot, Adobe Express ensures marketers can work in trusted ecosystems to improve data quality and campaign effectiveness,” he says.
Thanks for the greeting, Deshpande!
Chad Sideris, Director of Marketing Tech & Lead Acquisition at Triage Staffingsays these data concerns are an absolute headwind for his field. He explains:
“Now more than ever, there is pressure to add value upfront through tools, processes and workflows with low barriers to entry to gain trust and convince the end user that the information shared with us will be used to improve their experience and theirs Accelerate the customer journey – not just to fill their inbox with vaguely relevant messages about a promotion on a category they aren’t even eligible for.”
2. Offering personalized customer experiences will continue to be critical in 2025, but 17% of marketers say the rapidly changing lives of audiences pose a challenge to personalization.
Our survey shows that 89.64% of marketing leaders have somewhat or very personalized experiences, and 85.77% agree that personalization moderately or significantly increases revenue.
However, we’ve found that the biggest challenge in creating personalized content and experiences is keeping up with consumers’ ever-changing preferences and behaviors.
So what can marketers do to address this problem? Of course, I’m never the type to present problems without offering solutions. In 2025, remember that personalization is not just a way to make your brand stand out. It is now a basic expectation.
Instead, marketers will leverage more sophisticated and dynamic strategies that are flexible and adaptable to changing consumer needs. Sarah Howard, Vice President of Marketing at Aunt Flowsays personalization will be critical to customer loyalty in 2025.
“We focus on hyper-personalization to directly speak to our diverse audiences, A/B testing subject lines to refine what resonates, and finding the right balance between educating about the menstrual movement and promoting our products and partnerships.” says Howard, referring to Aunt Flow’s email strategy.
Howard says Aunt Flow focuses intensely on building and maintaining meaningful relationships in all aspects of its business, and creating personalized experiences is an essential part of those relationships.
However, personalization at scale will be a challenge as the company grows in the new year.
“Balancing meaningful personalization with efficiency, segmenting campaigns to craft the right messages, and ensuring we stay true to our mission while meeting business needs always requires constant evolution,” she says.
“However, we are confident that our strong relationship with our growing community will continue to be an important factor in retaining customers and attracting lifelong advocates!”
3. Marketing leaders agree that increasing sales and revenue is a top goal for 2025.
Increasing sales and revenue is a top priority for most marketing leaders in 2025. 20% say this is their top goal.
To increase sales, marketing managers want to identify areas of the customer journey that can be further optimized. For example, you may have observed that your target audience is reaching a plateau or even shrinking.
To continue increasing sales, you need to continually reach larger pools of qualified leads. You can do this by testing platforms like TikTok or podcasting.
Alternatively, you may find that your marketing team is attracting a lot of leads, but they aren’t converting as quickly.
To address this challenge, consider creating stronger offers or a more effective lead generation strategy.
Marketing and sales teams also need to work closely together to ensure their missions are aligned.
“As we plan for 2025, we have coordinated closely with the sales team to ensure our marketing initiatives are targeted to the right audiences and directly support our monthly sales goals,” says Howard. “When marketing and revenue generation work hand in hand, they form a powerful engine for success.”
4. Using AI to convert texts into multimodal campaigns is the top trend marketers are exploring.
Nearly a quarter of marketing leaders in our survey (23%) say the top trend they are researching is using AI to convert text into campaign content such as video demos, product guides and podcasts.
“In 2025, marketers face the dual challenge of creating enough content for their diverse audiences and channels while also creating content that creates impact,” says Deshpande. “AI can be an incredible accelerator to address both if carefully designed and deployed.”
However, we found that only 52% of marketers say they have a clear understanding of the use of AI in marketing, and 53% can measure the impact of AI on marketing efforts. Because these statistics are so similar, I can confidently say that they suggest that these skills go hand in hand.
If you have the technical knowledge necessary to use AI in marketing, you can apply analytical skills to measure the impact of your efforts. Marketers who become familiar with AI and confidently master this technology will see a high return on their investment and remain competitive.
Further insights
- 20% of marketing leaders say creating value-driven content is a top trend in 2025.
- 16% say reusing content across channels is a key strategy.
- According to 21% of marketing leaders, branded content with industry experts is becoming more important.
- The three most valuable audience data comes from content consumption habits, basic demographics, and purchasing habits.
- Nearly 35% of marketing leaders say the biggest change in the marketing industry is that the focus on the customer and their experience with your brand has become more important.
- 72% of marketing managers in our survey are trying to reach millennials in particular with their marketing efforts.
- According to 40% of marketing leaders, Millennials are the hardest age group to reach with marketing content.