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As marketers, we know the digital landscape is constantly evolving, and keeping up can be a challenge.

With so many digital channels available, there are endless opportunities to engage with customers. But juggling multiple marketing roles and responsibilities can feel overwhelming.

AI continues to have a massive impact on digital marketing, with new tools and platforms emerging to streamline workflows. However, it’s not the only shift marketers need to navigate.

Marketing budgets declined in 2024, and this trend is expected to continue into 2025. This means teams must achieve more with fewer resources while still delivering strong results.

That’s why staying ahead of upcoming trends is crucial. Not only does it help you keep pace with industry changes, but it also reveals opportunities to leverage new strategies, outshine competitors, and simplify your work.

In our analysis of digital marketing trends in 2025, we’ll explore the following five key areas:

In social media, we explore the competition between X, Bluesky, and Threads, the growing impact of employee-generated content, and why customer content is becoming more valuable than influencer marketing.

AI will keep evolving, but the key is using it effectively to prevent AI fatigue. We’ll also dive into the rise of AI agents and explore how AI is transforming eCommerce and advertising campaigns.

Social media users are highly engaged, spending an average of 2 hours and 19 minutes per day across 6.8 platforms—equivalent to 14% of their waking hours, according to Datareportal.

For marketers, this presents a valuable opportunity to reach and connect with diverse audiences at scale.

Let’s dive into the key social media trends to watch in 2025.

The decline of X has been widely reported, with many users and businesses moving away due to concerns over poor content, low engagement, and moderation issues. In its place, two emerging platforms—Bluesky and Threads—are gaining traction.

Bluesky, founded by former X CEO Jack Dorsey, appeals to users seeking ad-free spaces, greater content control, and niche communities. Its user-friendly design aims to create “a great home for journalists, publishers, and creators.”

“Despite the buzz around Bluesky, it currently has only 24 million users worldwide. That’s not a huge number, but we’ll have to watch how it grows over the next year—which I’m pretty sure it will,” said Alison Battisby, Founder of Avocado Social, in the DMI trends webinar.

Meanwhile, Meta’s Threads is rapidly expanding, now boasting 275 million users—nearly ten times more than Bluesky.

Threads attracts users with its simple interface, encouraging discussions, lighthearted conversations, and engagement, much like X once did. Brands also have opportunities to connect organically, with potential for paid advertising in the future.

“Once Threads reaches a billion users, they plan to introduce monetization through ads. The platform has seen huge developments this year, with almost daily new features, including customizable feeds, list-style content, and algorithm-driven trending topics. They’re working hard to make it a serious competitor to X,” Battisby explained.

Expert Tip: Brands that perform best on Threads focus on text-only content that is humorous or educational, offering users a refreshing break from the overwhelming volume of video content on other platforms.

Employee advocacy is more than just a buzzword—it’s a powerful strategy that amplifies your brand’s voice, strengthens connections with audiences, highlights social issues, and even drives business growth.

This is especially true on LinkedIn, the ideal platform for employees and employers to share employee-generated content (EGC). The B2B network continues to grow steadily and is expected to surpass 800 million users in 2025.

“LinkedIn is an underutilized and underappreciated platform. Organic reach is incredible right now. Every single one of my prospect calls has come from someone who found me on LinkedIn, and their newsletters are performing really well,” said Peter Murphy Lewis on the upcoming DMI trends podcast.

With 94% of consumers more likely to stay loyal to a fully transparent brand (according to Forbes), EGC offers an authentic glimpse into company culture, showcasing the real stories of employees.

“This type of content resonates because it features relatable people and genuine perspectives. It allows more faces and stories to be shared from behind the scenes of a brand,” explains Alison Battisby.

EGC also builds trust, and many brands are embracing it through behind-the-scenes content. Here’s a great example from IKEA.

Expert tip: Avoid overly scripted EGC—keep it natural, engaging, and authentic.

While influencer marketing remains strong, many brands are exploring new ways to engage their customers.

Moving beyond traditional user-generated content (UGC), some companies are adopting a community-first approach, collaborating directly with their customers to create content. This customer-generated content can then be featured in ads or shared on the brand’s organic channels.

“In 2025, we’ll see brands move away from big-name influencers and focus on nurturing their communities. More companies will invest in building relationships with loyal customers and engaged followers—the ones consistently interacting with their content. Expect to see more collaborative content emerge,” said Alison Battisby.

A great example is beauty brand REFY, which recently hosted an exclusive retreat in a branded villa in Mallorca for its most engaged community members. This not only strengthened connections but also positioned REFY as a stylish and aspirational brand.

Expert tip: Consider investing in private communication channels for VIP fans, such as broadcast channels and live content. These can be used to share exclusive announcements, interviews, and special promotions, fostering deeper customer engagement.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now deeply embedded in marketing, whether you actively use AI tools or not. It’s integrated into many platforms marketers rely on, including social media, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and search engines.

According to Marketing Week, 54% of marketers now use AI in their roles—a significant jump from 37% just a year ago.

The question is no longer whether to use AI, but which tools and platforms can best streamline your workflow and enhance your impact.

So, what AI trends should you watch for in 2025?

The rapid advancement and widespread adoption of AI have forced marketers to adapt quickly.

Many have been pushed to integrate AI into their workflows to boost efficiency and productivity—a promise frequently reinforced by media hype.

However, mastering AI takes time. Instead of simplifying tasks, it can sometimes create more work as marketers navigate multiple tools and platforms to achieve the best results. This has led to AI fatigue—a growing sense of exhaustion toward the technology.

To avoid this, marketing leaders must identify where AI can truly add value rather than complicating processes.

“Rather than fearing AI as a dystopian takeover, as Elon Musk suggests, we should see it as a tool for completing tasks. AI isn’t particularly creative or strategic, and it struggles with limited information. While some models are improving, they still can’t think like we do,” said Jim Lecinski, Clinical Professor of Marketing at Kellogg School of Management, on the DMI trends podcast.

Expert Tip: Take a big-picture approach to your company’s operations. Identify tasks or processes where AI can provide real benefits—this will free up time for marketers to focus on more creative and strategic work.

AI is a complex technology with the power to control other systems, evolving into what are known as AI agents.

An AI agent is a software program that interacts with its environment, gathers data, and uses that information to make decisions and take actions to achieve specific goals.

“2025 is the year AI shifts from just generating content to actually executing tasks through AI agents,” said Brian Corish, Experience Architect at Accenture Interactive. “For example, while ChatGPT could previously create content, you had to manually copy, paste, or translate it. Now, AI agents can run entire campaigns, control multiple platforms, and even A/B test content.”

Expert Tip:

Leverage AI agents to automate data analysis—have them pull insights from Google Analytics or Meta, generate reports, and send them to your team each morning. This allows marketers to quickly assess campaign performance, double down on successful strategies, and refine or eliminate those that aren’t working.

AI is revolutionizing eCommerce by enhancing customer experiences, optimizing business operations, and enabling seamless omnichannel interactions.

Key ways AI is transforming eCommerce include:

• Personalized recommendations: AI analyzes purchase history, browsing behavior, and preferences to suggest highly relevant products.

• Chatbots and virtual assistants: AI-driven chatbots provide instant customer support, answer queries, and assist with purchases.

• Dynamic pricing: AI algorithms adjust prices in real-time based on demand, competitor pricing, and customer behavior to maximize revenue.

• Visual search: Customers can upload images to find similar products, making shopping more intuitive.

• Voice commerce: Integration with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant enables hands-free shopping.

• Customer segmentation: AI identifies patterns in customer data to create targeted marketing campaigns.

• Automated content creation: AI generates product descriptions quickly and consistently, saving time and resources.

• Sentiment analysis: AI evaluates customer feedback and reviews to gauge market sentiment and improve offerings.

• Marketing automation: AI optimizes email campaigns by analyzing user behavior to determine the best content, timing, and frequency.

• Hyper-personalized advertising: AI-powered ad campaigns adjust dynamically based on user interactions and preferences.

“E-commerce interfaces in 2025 will see rapid advancements with AI,” said Jim Lecinski. “Imagine uploading a wedding invitation to a fashion retailer’s website and specifying that you need semi-formal attire. The AI knows your budget, location, and wedding date—then curates the perfect outfit in your size, streamlining the entire shopping process.”

AI is transforming advertising by optimizing campaigns, enhancing efficiency, and ensuring ads are more precisely tailored to target audiences.

“I expect to see more machine learning-driven campaigns that handle much of the heavy lifting,” said Nikki Lindgren, Founder and Managing Partner of Pennock, on the DMI podcast. “For instance, Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping campaigns and Google’s Performance Max campaigns simplify ad management compared to traditional methods.”

With AI, advertisers gain greater control, allowing strategic marketers to extract the most value. Currently, it can be difficult to track exactly where ad budgets are spent—for example, whether funds are allocated to Gmail ads or other placements.

AI will improve transparency, enabling advertisers to fine-tune spending. If conversions on Gmail ads are low, marketers can instruct AI to adjust allocations or explore alternative platforms like Google Maps for better results.

Marketing skills are constantly evolving to adapt to changing internal and external landscapes.

Unsurprisingly, mastering AI is a top priority for 2025. However, success isn’t about adopting every new AI tool—it’s about leveraging the ones that align with your role and drive business impact.

According to our 2024 Global Digital Skills & Training Report: Insights from Corporate Leaders, 54% of CMOs and marketing leaders identified “AI strategy development and AI in digital marketing” as the most critical skill gaps within their teams.

But beyond AI, what other skills and job trends should marketers focus on in the year ahead?

Technical skills are essential for digital marketers. Even generalists need to understand SEO, analyze data with GA4, and manage social media content effectively.

However, many employers are now prioritizing durable soft skills—those that contribute to long-term business growth—as AI takes over repetitive tasks.

LinkedIn’s Global Marketing Jobs Outlook Fall Report highlights the rising importance of human skills, with “collaborative problem-solving” named the top marketing skill of the year, showing a 138% increase since 2021.

“To stand out in a business faster, marketers should focus on developing their soft skills,” said Mischa McInerney. “Being intentional about strengthening these skills can give you a competitive edge.”

Expert Tip: Actively build soft skills by volunteering, practicing active listening, finding a mentor, attending workshops or conferences, or enrolling in leadership, management, or strategy courses.

Marketing plays a crucial role in generating leads, building brand awareness, and driving sales—all of which directly impact a company’s bottom line and growth.

To stay competitive, modern marketers must expand their expertise beyond traditional marketing tactics.

Jim Lecinski emphasizes the importance of mastering marketing fundamentals while also understanding how to drive business growth. “If you’re solely focused on tactics or implementation, those are the roles most likely to be automated,” he warns.

Marketers must also develop financial acumen. “Many marketers say, ‘I’m not a finance expert—I’m a marketer.’ But if you’re in marketing, you need to understand finance and the strategies that drive incremental, profitable growth,” says Lecinski.

By blending marketing knowledge with business and financial insights, marketers can position themselves as strategic drivers of long-term success.

Search marketing has evolved rapidly in recent years, and 2025 will be no exception.

With online search behavior shifting, Gartner predicts that traditional search traffic will decline by 25% by 2026—a significant challenge for businesses that depend on SEO to drive visibility.

To stay competitive, marketers must stay ahead of emerging search trends and adapt their strategies to maintain a strong online presence.

Search behavior is evolving beyond traditional search engines, with consumers—especially Gen Z—turning to social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for information.

“People are changing how they search, not just on search engines but across multiple platforms,” says Luke O’Leary. “Social search has become a major trend, with users increasingly relying on platforms like TikTok and Instagram for answers.”

Additionally, generative AI is reshaping search with more conversational queries. Instead of breaking down a complex question into separate results, AI-driven search provides concise, relevant summaries with key insights and links for deeper exploration.

For example, rather than sifting through multiple search results for “Where can I take two kids and a dog for a walk in London on Sunday?”, an AI Overview would present tailored recommendations, streamlining the search experience.

Expert tip: Develop social SEO strategies to boost your content and presence on platforms by seamlessly integrating keywords into your profile and posts while creating high-quality content that attracts links and drives traffic.

With the rise of voice-assisted devices like Alexa and Google Home, the way people interact with them has evolved.

It’s no longer just about checking the time or playing music—consumers, especially younger ones, are using voice search to discover products, services, and even make purchases.

Imagine a future where users can ask a voice assistant to create a five-day family meal plan, ensuring each recipe takes no more than 20 minutes to prepare. The assistant could generate recipe cards with visuals, order the necessary ingredients, and schedule delivery by noon on Thursday.

“That’s incredibly efficient. As a busy mom, you’d have all the recipe cards sent straight to your inbox—offering ultimate convenience and enabling a zero-click shopping experience,” says Mischa McInerney, CMO of the Digital Marketing Institute.

Expert Tip: Brands should explore how to integrate seamlessly into voice search. This could involve optimizing for local SEO, incorporating strategic keywords, or developing conversational content that naturally fits into voice-driven interactions.

A major shift in search marketing is the rise of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)—the process of optimizing website content for visibility in AI-driven search results from platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini.

Gartner predicts that 79% of consumers will use AI-enhanced search within the next year, with 70% already placing trust in generative AI search results.

“2025 is the year marketers must prioritize GEO over traditional SEO. Google has moved to an AI-powered interface, and with competitors like Search GPT and Perplexity emerging, the landscape is rapidly evolving,” says Luke O’Leary.

Expert Tip: Generative AI now influences over 20% of Google’s search results, appearing in AI Overviews. Understanding its impact is key to staying ahead in search marketing.

As marketers, we understand that content is at the heart of our strategy. It allows us to connect with our audience, tell compelling stories that engage and influence, and ultimately convert prospects into loyal customers.

While producing content is easy, crafting impactful content that truly resonates is far more challenging. With an abundance of channels available, success lies in delivering the right content, at the right time, to the right audience.

So, what content marketing trends should you leverage in 2025?

Many marketers and companies struggle to understand why their content isn’t performing as well as before. Top-performing assets may lose traction, receive fewer clicks from search results, or fail to engage audiences as they once did.

The solution isn’t to abandon old content and start fresh—it’s about revitalizing existing content to make it more relevant and up to date. Research from Neil Patel found that updating content can increase traffic by as much as 106%.

“You need to continuously refresh content—whether by incorporating new insights, maintaining its relevance, or adapting to how user behavior evolves,” says Luke O’Leary.

“With the ‘TikTokification’ of the web, people now expect more visually engaging content. Adding rich imagery, infographics, and videos alongside text has become essential.”

Expert Tip: Conduct a content audit to identify underperforming pieces and update them. Incorporating original data, such as surveys or research, not only strengthens your authority but also improves search rankings on platforms like Google.

To create high-quality, engaging content, the key is to combine AI-generated and human-crafted elements. This approach ensures fresh insights, includes proprietary data like original research, and enhances credibility—making the content more valuable to readers.

AI can streamline time-consuming tasks like research, outlining, and identifying content gaps, allowing writers to focus on refining and optimizing the final piece. This balance not only improves reader engagement but also aligns with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, helping content rank higher on SERPs and appear in AI Overviews.

Expert Tip: Explore our walkthrough on Google’s NotebookLM to see its capabilities. It can even generate an authentic-sounding podcast when fed with content!

Born between 2010 and 2025, Generation Alpha follows Gen Z and is already proving to be a unique and influential group. Many experts refer to them as “upagers”—a generation that is socially aware from a young age and becomes consumers earlier than previous cohorts.

For brands and marketers, it’s crucial to understand who Gen Alpha is, how they differ, and what strategies will resonate with them.

According to the report Generation Alpha: The Real Picture, their top priorities include:

• Helping others
• Equality and inclusion
• Diversity in media
• Sustainability

“So, how should brands educate, engage, and connect with Gen Alpha?” asks Lecinski. “An Instagram post alone won’t be enough. We need to explore new ways to engage them—aligning with social values and fostering digital communities where they can interact.”

Expert Tip:

Gamification is highly effective in engaging Gen Alpha. Consider integrating interactive and game-like elements into your marketing strategy.

A great example is Crunch Labs, founded by Mark Rober, which designs STEM-focused “build boxes” to encourage kids to “Think Like an Engineer”—leveraging gamification to drive learning and engagement.

The digital marketing landscape is evolving rapidly, with new technologies and platforms reshaping how brands connect with audiences. The pace of change is only accelerating, making adaptability more crucial than ever.

One key takeaway from industry experts? Staying curious and adaptable is essential. AI is now a cornerstone of marketing, streamlining tasks and enabling more personalized, high-impact campaigns. Even if AI isn’t part of your role yet, it soon will be—so now is the time to explore these tools and sharpen your skills.

Looking Ahead

Identify the trends that align with your goals and integrate them into your strategy. Whether it’s engaging on emerging platforms, crafting authentic content, or leveraging data-driven insights, 2025 offers immense opportunities for growth.

The key to success? Take action now to stay ahead of the curve.

The fastest and most effective way to break into the digital industry is with a digital marketing certification. The DMI Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing is certified and industry-aligned, equipping you with essential digital marketing fundamentals and practical strategies to leverage AI in your marketing efforts.

You’ll also develop key soft skills and gain hands-on experience with core marketing channels, including email marketing, social media, SEO, content marketing, and display & video advertising—empowering you to execute successful campaigns in any industry.