Ah yes, the annual ritual where exhausted marketers stare into the abyss and attempt to predict what’s coming next. It’s equal parts pattern-spotting and instinct, tempered with the lessons learned in 2025.
The brands that do well will know who they’re for, nurture their audience relationships, and resist the urge to chase whatever shiny trend is dominating their TikTok feed.
Let’s get into it.
Building in public stops being a tactic, and becomes part of the job
Founder-led visibility is increasing, and audiences are hungry for it. They want proximity to how decisions are made, how ideas evolve, and how challenges are handled. Sharing progress, experiments, thinking, and failures build trust and credibility faster than polished brand content ever could.
And founders increasingly act as faces of brand by default. This shift rewards honesty, human-ness, and a willingness to be seen mid-process (eeek!).
The great podcast pullback
The cost of production, promotion, and ongoing maintenance keeps climbing, and it’s hard to compete with full content teams as a solo operator. This isn’t to say podcasts don’t matter: they do, providing there’s a clear audience fit and its underpinned by a strong concept and strategy. But they’ll stop being treated as a universal growth lever.
First-party data will reign supreme
As third-party cookies disappear and platforms tighten access, owning your audience is a serious competitive advantage (and a non-negotiable, tbh). Email lists, private communities, and customer databases are brand assets rather than background infrastructure. Brands focus on permission-based communication and thoughtful segmentation, favouring trust and engagement over list size.
Content fatigue hits everyone
Creators feel it. Audiences feel it.
Endless output loses its impact, and creating from a place of “I need to post something!” is a surefire way to guarantee your community checks out.
Brands that thrive will ditch publishing volume and prioritise value-led, in-depth content that serves as a retention tool. The aim is to be remembered and returned to, rather than showing up in the feed every time someone hits refresh. This comes down to no longer producing content for content’s sake, but to sharing only when you have something helpful to add to the conversation.
Small spaces outperform big stages
We saw this clear as day with Ripple Festival. Our feeds are fragmented, and people are hungry for intimate communities where they feel like they belong. Closed communities, Substack, and intimate events are meaningful touchpoints. As marketers, we need to shift our focus to creating spaces people actually want to spend time in. Retention, participation, and a shared identity need to guide our decision-making.
AI slop creates backlash
Except, the backlash is already here. This is a trend set to continue, as people tune out messaging that’s rich in comparative phrasing, buzzwords, and fake thought leadership posts on LinkedIn. Businesses that heavily rely on unedited AI output will erode trust quicker than you can blink. AI can remain part of your toolkit, but not as a substitute marketing employee.
Customer acquisition stays eye-wateringly expensive
Growth on digital platforms is increasingly pay-to-play and this isn’t changing. Attracting new customers costs X more than retaining existing customers, so marketing strategies need to place more weight on retention and the entire customer lifecycle rather than constantly searching for new ones.
A return to the human touch
Digital saturation and being assaulted by screens every waking moment is fueling interest in tangible signals of our human-ness. Handwritten notes, snail mail, thoughtful packaging, postcards, and small surprises create meaningful brand moments, and increase the emotional affinity people feel with our brand. They reinforce the sense that a brand values the relationship, not just a transaction.
Community spending outperforms ad spend
Marketing budgets need to include community-building. In person gatherings, workshops, dinners, and shared experiences strengthen loyalty, word of mouth, and long-term revenue. The ROI doesn’t always give you neat metrics, but reveals itself through retention and advocacy. How can you create a third space within your brand?
Courses and memberships (keep) losing their shine
The appetite for more online courses continues to dwindle. How many unfinished (or unstarted) courses are inside your inbox? Consumers are gravitating toward personalised support, small cohorts, and trusted operators with a clear expertise. Service-based businesses benefit from this shift in appetite, particularly those offering direct access and depth. Your reputation and the quality of your relationships outperform polished funnels, every time.
A return to human touch with a handwritten thank you note.
Regulation tightens its grip
Privacy enforcement is sharpening, and there’s increasing scrutiny around email marketing, data usage, and AI claims. As brands, we have a responsibility to communicate honestly and manage data carefully. Compliance is part of brand trust, not just legal housekeeping.
For small business owners, the road ahead is less about doing more and more about doing the right things well. Brands that last have clear positioning, owned audiences, and relationships that hold attention beyond a single scroll.
If your head is spinning, Marketing Circle brings together a switched-on brains trust of marketers and small business owners just like you to sense-check ideas, learn from each other, and remove overwhelm from the equation.
Mia Fileman
Mia is a campaign strategist and founder of Campaign Del Mar. You'll love her hard hitting, no BS marketing expertise honed by 20 years in the industry. She is a widely published writer for publications including Social Media Examiner, Mumbrella, Marketing Mag, Smart Company and Better Marketing. She spent 10 years in brand management roles for global consumer brands Vegemite, Kraft, Maybelline and BIC in France. Now, she's a full-time trainer and mentor who guides you to create marketing that paysoff.
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