2025 is likely going to be the most interesting year thus far for marketing leadership. In the past year alone, you’ve had to navigate the rise of AI, changing consumer trends, and tough economic times.
56% of the marketing leaders in our recent survey say marketing has seen more change in the past three years than in the last 50. That means it’s time for marketers to prepare and adapt.
To help you create a powerful and agile strategy for 2025, we‘ve surveyed 720+ marketing executives on the biggest challenges, opportunities, and trends ahead of us. We also got insight from top marketing leaders. Let’s dive in.
Top Marketing Leadership Trends in 2025
1. Marketing leaders expect to face various data obstacles, the rapid change in their audience’s lives, and AI integration as the biggest challenges in 2025.
Collecting data is becoming increasingly difficult as consumers become more concerned with protecting their privacy. Here are specific obstacles from our survey:
- Nearly 21% of marketing leaders say a main obstacle is decreased consumer trust in sharing personal data
- 18% say increased data privacy regulations
- 16% say poor data quality
Adopting a data-driven strategy in 2025 will require marketers to leverage tools and workflows that build trust and transparency surrounding user data.
Parimal Deshpande, senior director of Product Marketing at Adobe Express, says, “These challenges are front and center for marketers today. Adobe Express helps them navigate this landscape by providing tools built on the foundation of licensed content, ensuring businesses stay compliant and protect the IP of creators.”
According to Deshpande, trust also needs to be top of mind when it comes to the content marketers create. He says marketers must create “authentic, standout materials that resonate with audiences.”
“Additionally, by integrating with platforms like HubSpot, Adobe Express ensures marketers can work within trusted ecosystems to enhance data quality and campaign effectiveness,” he says.
Thanks for the shout-out, Deshpande!
Chad Sideris, Director of Marketing Tech & Lead Acquisition at Triage Staffing, says these data concerns are absolutely headwinds his field is facing. He explains:
“Now more than ever before, there is pressure to provide value upfront via tools, processes, and low-barrier-to-entry workflows to earn trust and convince the end-user that the information shared with us will be used to enhance their experience and speed up their customer journey — not just as a means to fill up their inbox with vaguely relevant messages about a promotion for a category they aren’t even eligible for.”
2. Offering personalized customer experiences will remain crucial in 2025, but 17% of marketers say the rapidly changing lives of audiences pose a challenge for personalization.
Our survey shows that 89.64% of marketing leaders have somewhat or very personalized experiences, and 85.77% agree that personalization increases sales moderately or significantly.
However, we found that the primary challenge when creating personalized content and experiences is keeping up with consumers’ ever-changing preferences and behaviors.
So, what can marketers do to address this issue? Of course, I‘m never one to present problems without offering solutions. Moving into 2025, remember that personalization isn’t just a means for your brand to stand out; it’s now a baseline expectation.
Instead, marketers will leverage more sophisticated and dynamic strategies that are flexible and adaptable to changing consumer needs. Sarah Howard, VP of Marketing at Aunt Flow, says personalization will be crucial to customer retention in 2025.
“We’re focusing on hyper-personalization to speak directly to our diverse audiences, A/B testing subject lines to refine what resonates, and finding the right balance between education about the menstrual movement and promotion of our products and partnerships,” Howard says in regards to Aunt Flow’s email strategy.
Howard says Aunt Flow intensely focuses on building and maintaining meaningful relationships in all aspects of its business, and creating personalized experiences is integral to these relationships.
That said, personalization at scale will be a challenge as the company grows in the new year.
“Balancing meaningful personalization with efficiency, segmenting campaigns to create the right messaging, and ensuring we stay true to our mission while meeting business needs will always require constant refinement,” she says.
“However, we’re confident that our strong relationship with our growing community will continue to be a key driver in retaining customers and creating lifelong advocates!”
3. Marketing leaders agree that increasing revenue and sales is a top goal for 2025.
Increasing revenue and sales is a top priority for most marketing leaders in 2025, with 20% saying it’s their number one goal.
To increase revenue, marketing leaders will want to identify areas of the customer journey that can be further optimized. For instance, perhaps you‘ve observed your audience reach plateau-ing or even shrinking.
To continue increasing revenue, you’ll need to consistently reach bigger pools of qualified leads. You might do this by testing out platforms like TikTok or podcasting.
Alternatively, maybe you notice your marketing team is attracting plenty of leads, but they‘re not converting at high rates.
To combat this challenge, you’ll want to create stronger offers or a more effective lead-generation strategy.
Marketing and sales teams must also work closely to ensure their missions are aligned.
“In our 2025 planning, we’ve aligned closely with the sales team to ensure our marketing initiatives are targeted at the right audiences and directly support our monthly revenue goals,” Howard says. “When marketing and revenue generation work hand in hand, they create a powerful engine for success.”
4. Leveraging AI to turn texts into multi-modal campaigns is the top trend marketers are exploring.
Nearly a quarter of the marketing leaders in our survey (23%) say the top trend they’re exploring is using AI to convert texts into campaign content, such as video demos, product walkthroughts, and podcasts.
“In 2025, marketers face the dual challenge of making enough content for their different audiences and channels, and creating content that makes an impact,” Deshpande says. “AI can be an incredible accelerator to address both when thoughtfully designed and deployed.”
However, we found that only 52% of marketers say they have a clear understanding of using in marketing, and 53% can measure AI’s impact on marketing efforts. We these stats being so similar, I can confidently say they suggest these skills go hand-in-hand.
By possessing the techincal knowledge needed to use AI in marketing, you’ll be able to apply analytical skills to measure its impact your efforts. Marketers who familiarize themselves with AI and become confident weilders of this technology will see great returns on their investment and remain competitive.
Other Findings
- 20% of marketing leaders say creating value-aligned content is a top trend in 2025.
- 16% say repurposing content across channels is a key strategy.
- Brand content featuring industry experts is gaining traction, according to 21% of marketing leaders.
- Top three most valuable audience data comes from content consumption habits, basic demographics, and shopping habits.
- Nearly 35% of marketing leaders say the biggest change to marketing industry is that focusing on the customer and their experience with your brand has become more important.
- 72% of marketing leader in our survey are primarily trying to reach millennials with their marketing activities.
- The most difficult age group to reach with marketing content is millennial, according to 40% of marketing leaders.
More Data and Insights
- The Top Goals of Marketing Managers & Leaders in 2025 [New Data + Expert Tips]
- How to Get Buy-In from Some of the Top Marketing Leaders: 3 Execs Discuss What KPIs Matter to Them
- How to Create a Complete Marketing Strategy in 2025 [Data + Expert Tips]
- The Evolution of Search: 5 SEO Trends in 2024 and 2025 [+ New Data]
