How to Prepare Your Marketing for What's Next

It’s never been more exciting to be operating in the marketing space. It’s never been more challenging, either. Marketing as we know it has changed and will continue evolving in 2025 and beyond.

Today, if businesses want to actually grab attention, they need marketing that’s smart, visual, brand-led, and tailored to the audience.

Staying Ahead of Competition in The Attention Economy

Marketing leaders are grappling with the question: What’s the next marketing phase? The short answer is the attention economy.?

The proliferation of channels and content has brought a seismic shift in the world of marketing. Traffic is no longer the problem. Attention is. Marketers should switch their focus from scaling traffic to scaling attention. To achieve that, they’ll need to embrace the power of AI and automation.?

And despite the dystopian predictions and common misconception that AI will ruin marketing by creating robotic output, combining AI and automation will leave marketers more time for the craft.?

Gearing Up for the Next Big Thing in Marketing

In its 2025 State of Marketing Report, HubSpot explores the trends, tools, and strategies that will define 2025 marketing strategy and help marketers stay ahead in an AI-first world. Let’s zoom in on the findings from the report.

1. Focus on Millennial and Gen Z audiences

Data from the report shows that over 70% of marketers plan to target Millennials in 2025, making them the largest audience of decision-makers. Interest in targeting Gen Zers is up year over year.?

Tip: Put your Millennial and Gen Z audience at the heart of your marketing strategy. They’re the future (and present) decision-makers. Get personal, make it interactive, and stay real if you want their attention.

2. Investments in brand-led marketing

According to HubSpot, 92% of marketers plan to maintain or increase investments in brand awareness in 2025. Moreover, 1 in 4 marketers are currently exploring creating content that reflects their brand’s values.

Tip: If you’re not aligning your content with your brand values, you’re missing a huge opportunity. Make sure your messaging reflects what you stand for. Your audience will notice and appreciate the authenticity. Just don’t forget to fit the context and/or location. Avoid blunt, generic brand messages.?

3. Data-driven marketing strategy vs. data privacy

HubSpot’s report shows that the top reported advantages of using data to inform marketing

strategy are reaching target audiences more effectively (35%), increasing the ROI of marketing efforts (34%), and planning media mixes more effectively (32%).

Tip: Find the right balance between a data-driven marketing strategy and data privacy. Focus on gathering zero- and first-party data to provide more personalized customer experiences.?

4. Building a content-rich, social-driven future

The future of marketing is all about value and connection. That’s why it’s no surprise that marketing leaders prioritize hiring for social media, creative, and content roles in 2025 and marketing data analysts who can support internal and customer-facing analysis projects.?

Tip: Be wherever your audience is. The era of passive, one-size-fits-all marketing is over. To succeed, you must actively listen, adapt, and engage with your audiences in real-time.

5. Personalized marketing is the key to more sales

Personalization is not a marketing buzzword. Personalization works. Data from HubSpot shows that 96% of marketers reported that personalized experiences have helped them increase sales.

Tip: Personalize content by region and language by transforming content from your headquarters into localized content for different audiences. Understand local preferences and tailor your strategy accordingly.?

The Role of Local Marketing in 2025 and Beyond

If we had to sum up everything in two words, it would be authenticity and personalization. And here’s where local marketing can help. Ready to capitalize on local authenticity with advanced targeting and automation??

To help you build a future-proof marketing strategy, we delved deeper into the trends and tech stack you need to level up your local marketing in 2025 and beyond. Get the full report to find out more.?