The Top 6 Marketing Challenges Expected Globally in 2025, And How to Overcome Them [Data + Expert Tips]

2024 was a 12 months to recollect.

For one, there have been huge strides in AI that resulted in large shifts throughout the advertising and marketing trade. (Many entrepreneurs compare AI innovations to the industrial revolution. No huge deal or something.)

Apart from AI, Google’s EEAT search ranking factors shook up content material methods, redefining on-line visibility.

Even client shopping for behaviors advanced considerably, with consumers turning into extra attentive to model values and more and more favoring campaigns that align with their private beliefs.

As we stand on the point of 2025, it‘s essential for entrepreneurs to pause and mirror on the 12 months’s greatest challenges and put together for the longer term.

Under, let’s overview the present international advertising and marketing points impacting the trade, in response to knowledge from HubSpot’s 2025 Advertising Report and insights from advertising and marketing consultants.

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High Challenges Entrepreneurs’ Confronted in 2024 — Plus, Knowledgeable Insights on Find out how to Navigate These Challenges in 2025

Rawdon Glover, Jaguar’s managing director, shared his ideas on the brand new model transformation behind its TYPE 00, stating, “We’ve got cast a fearlessly artistic new character for Jaguar that’s true to the DNA of the model however future-facing, related, and one that actually stands out.”

Whereas it is too quickly to name, this model is one among numerous which might be taking over the problem of adapting to altering audiences and bravely focusing on those that are newly launched to the model or are extra right into a recent (and even daring) future.

What You Can Do

Clean up your staff‘s market analysis and knowledge analytics to know an increasing viewers’s preferences, behaviors, and desires.

Whereas there isn’t any one-size-fits-all resolution for each persona you could be making an attempt to achieve, familiarize yourselves with the most recent trade tendencies and content material preferences that clients are gravitating in direction of in 2025.

Customers need manufacturers to be socially accountable — in actual fact, 45% of people think that brands need to do more to advocate for social justice points.

The brands that take a stance on social issues that matter to their viewers could have a better time connecting with their prospects and clients. Folks wish to purchase from manufacturers that care about issues that matter to them.

Take into account Warby Parker. I have been buying sun shades from Warby Parker for years. I received’t go anyplace else. Why? Due to their Purchase a Pair, Give a Pair program, which donates one pair of glasses per pair purchased and, up to now, has distributed over 10 million glasses.

Why It is a Problem

Roughly one-third (28%) of entrepreneurs say their greatest problem is a lack of expertise on the social causes their target market cares about (e.g. environmentalism, racial justice).

Merely put, it may be troublesome to discern which social causes matter most to your target market. This data is a bit more nuanced than age, gender, or location.

Moreover, you need the trigger to align along with your model values. Your viewers may care deeply about local weather change, however that trigger may not have a pure connection along with your model character.

To authentically join along with your viewers round social points, it’s important that they make sense for your corporation, as properly.

What You Can Do

Like most advertising and marketing actions, the important thing to success right here lies in market analysis.

You will wish to conduct thorough analysis to higher perceive your clients on a deeper degree – together with what they worth most.

Surveys could be robust alternatives to discover these extra nuanced conversations along with your purchaser persona and perceive what issues to them. Nonetheless, individuals aren’t all the time going to really feel comfy sharing the social points they care most about, since they’re typically very private.

In these circumstances, leveraging social listening instruments to glean insights into the social points your viewers discusses essentially the most on social media could possibly be a robust first step.

HubSpot’s Supervisor of Neighborhood Technique & Operations Jenny Sowyrda instructed me, “My primary tip for understanding what your neighborhood values is to pay attention to your neighborhood. Your neighborhood is telling you what they care about by means of each interplay — from clicking hyperlinks in an electronic mail to re-sharing a social put up.”

Sowyrda provides, “Moreover, you must actively pay attention by connecting along with your neighborhood members immediately. Begin an inventory of members, each the loudest and the quietest of us within the room, and construct belief with them by means of particular person conversations targeted on studying what they care about.

By combining your understanding of your neighborhood members along with your distinctive experience, you may present worth and cater to their wants.”

When you‘ve decided what your neighborhood values, you’ll wish to work out which social points overlap along with your model. Authenticity right here is essential, and so is motion.

For example, maybe you contemplate partnering with a non-profit that additionally helps that social situation to point out you are keen to stroll the stroll. Once more, making certain the social situation is sensible on your model to help is crucial, as properly.

Patagonia is an effective instance right here. Their model emphasizes the significance of environmental sustainability, and it really works as a result of a) the social situation is an effective match for Patagonia‘s target market (energetic, outdoors-y individuals), whereas additionally aligning properly with their model values; and b) they’ve invested in environmental and social responsibility programs to show a real, real want to create change.

Strong sales and marketing alignment is crucial for any profitable group. And but, it is undeniably difficult to facilitate robust communication to assist these two groups work higher collectively.

Which is why a whopping one-third (35%) of entrepreneurs say a scarcity of efficient communication between gross sales and advertising and marketing is their high problem.

Why It is a Problem

Many gross sales and advertising and marketing groups work in silos at bigger organizations. Bridging the hole between the 2 groups — notably when these groups have totally different priorities and are unclear of their shared targets — could be troublesome, particularly when neither staff feels motivated to take action.

Moreover, the 2 groups may implement separate knowledge and analytics processes, making it exhausting to share knowledge constantly and retrieve insights that assist each gross sales and advertising and marketing decide what’s working and what isn’t.

However alignment is crucial to your corporation’ success in 2025. Organizations with tightly aligned gross sales and advertising and marketing groups see 27% faster profit growth, and 36% higher customer retention.

What You Can Do

To discover how one can foster stronger gross sales and advertising and marketing alignment, I spoke with Monica Elgemark, Chief Advertising Officer at Oneflow.

She instructed me, “To handle this problem, it is crucial to outline clear targets and targets that each gross sales and advertising and marketing groups can rally behind.

Clear targets and targets that differentiate between consciousness and income must be thought-about to ensure that each gross sales and advertising and marketing to know the values totally different campaigns carry. It’s a mutual dependency between these areas that wants respect.”

Past figuring out shared targets, Elgemark emphasizes the significance of clear communication between groups. Common conferences and collaboration instruments are useful, however they’re simply that – instruments. To really facilitate alignment, your staff must implement and constantly nourish a collaborative tradition.

Knowledge performs a key function, as properly. As Elgemark places it, “Sharing knowledge and analytics represents an important side of this alignment course of. Implementing a strong buyer relationship administration (CRM) system, accessible to each groups, permits for the change of invaluable buyer knowledge.

This knowledge not solely informs advertising and marketing methods but in addition empowers gross sales groups to higher comprehend and have interaction with leads.”

Lastly, Elgemark encourages entrepreneurs to hunt out suggestions from the gross sales staff. Ask your gross sales staff in regards to the high quality and readiness of your leads, which is able to in the end allow you to hone in on the advertising and marketing actions that drive essentially the most income for the enterprise.

HubSpot’s Senior Recruiter Kaleigh Hoffman instructed me a robust partnership between the hiring managers and expertise acquisition staff is crucial for attracting high expertise iA 2024.

She says, “A recruiter’s finest electronic mail or InMail message isn’t as flattering as direct outreach from a hiring supervisor, so if you’re keen to write down a customized word — it actually goes a good distance. Throughout a time when AI is making it simpler and sooner to write down something, personalised outreach could make the distinction in somebody responding or not.

If you’re writing to a ‘rockstar’ candidate, remember that they wish to know why you’re reaching out to them, so you’ll want to embrace why you have an interest of their profile, particularly.”

Hoffman provides that particular job profiles with clearly outlined attributes will assist set your job descriptions aside from others available in the market, which could skew extra common.

It is vital to keep in mind that recruiting is just like promoting. So, as Hoffman places it, “If you’re talking with a robust candidate, particularly asking them what they’re enthusiastic about or on the lookout for of their subsequent function may help you shut them in later conversations.

Reminding candidates of their motivators in last conversations — whether or not it’s advantages, flexibility, or one thing else — can actually assist seal the deal.”

Hoffman provides that its vital to not get too discouraged if a candidate decides to not pursue a task. As a substitute, take a look at rejection as a chance to ask that candidate if they’ve anybody else of their community they suppose could possibly be a very good match for the function.

As Hoffman places it, “Recruiting is a long-term initiative. Nurturing the relationships you develop by checking in once in a while is an effective way to construct a pipeline of super-talented candidates for 2024 and past.”

Creating lead-generating content has all the time been a problem for entrepreneurs, however there are some explicit the reason why it is particularly troublesome now.

In 2023, Google launched its new EEAT search high quality evaluator pointers. Why is that this important? As a result of they added an “E” for expertise — which implies now, making certain your content material is written by somebody with credible, first-hand expertise on the subject is important for growing your web site’s worth.

AI additionally enormously remodeled how individuals eat content material. Now, individuals do not should Google “How can I’m going viral on TikTok?” — then can ask an AI chatbot. Which suggests many entrepreneurs probably noticed main decreases in visitors on a few of their extra generalized subjects in 2023.

AI and EEAT have greatly shifted how we, at HubSpot, create lead-generating content. We have been working to make sure the subjects we cowl are written by authors with first-hand expertise.

We have leaned into personality-driven content material, since character is one factor AI doesn’t have.

And we have begun re-focusing our overarching technique on extra area of interest subjects that pertain on to our services, quite than protecting too many broad subjects — since a model that’s an professional on “every part” is probably going really an professional on, properly … nothing.

What You Can Do

To study how one can create robust lead-generating content material in 2024, I spoke to Zack Khan, the Co-Founding father of Feathery and former advertising and marketing chief at Hightouch.

He instructed me, “The problem and alternative in 2024 is writing high quality content material with insights from subject material consultants. There may be a lot low high quality content material on the market, elevated by AI writing instruments. The novel concepts and voice (‘sizzling takes’) that generate leads require a deep connection to the reader’s drawback that the content material is hoping to resolve.”

Throughout Khan’s eary days at Hightouch, he solved for this problem by hiring “knowledge evangelists”. These have been individuals in Slack communities who have been already sharing their opinions on the most recent knowledge tendencies. Khan acknowledged the significance in arming himself with writers’ who might share private insights, quite than merely summarizing the info.

He says, “The toughest half was hiring the fitting staff of subject material consultants, and getting them excited to write down content material full-time. I count on this to be simply as exhausting to seek out later. However audiences are ravenous for distinctive, opinionated content material sooner or later and the work to recruit a staff of subject material consultants does repay”.

Monica Elgemark believes one other key technique to producing leads in 2025 entails leveraging AI. As she places it, “A artistic and holistic strategy is crucial for producing visitors and leads.

AI-powered personalization delves deeper than surface-level advertising and marketing. Utilizing AI algorithms, entrepreneurs can predict and cater to particular person prospect pursuits, and create personalised content material that resonates profoundly with the target market.”

Elgemark additionally encourages entrepreneurs to think about how they may incorporate extra interactive content material — like quizzes, assessments, or webinars — into their current methods to retain visitors and supply further worth.

Elgemark guarantees: “By delving into these methods, entrepreneurs can confidently navigate the dynamic panorama, stay on the forefront of tendencies, interact successfully, and in the end thrive within the ever-evolving realm of B2B advertising and marketing.”

Amrita Mathur, VP of Advertising at ClickUp, symphasizes with this problem and acknowledges the significance of audience-building in 2025 and past.

Her resolution to social media is easy, and but oftentimes underutilized: Leverage the ability of your workers as influencers.

She instructed me, “Whereas up to now, I’ve largely seen manufacturers working with influencers and creators to additional their message and trigger, I can see firm workers turning into these influencers.”

She continues, “Manufacturers want to acknowledge that there isn’t any tried-and-tested playbook that works each single time. In my view there’s one single reality: the reply lies in having a viewpoint, and understanding the right way to illustrate that POV in a putting and memorable method.

If you mix this and couple it with ways for each first time and repeat engagement, you get magic. That repeat engagement is what is going to flip into shopping for conduct down the highway (assuming product-market match).”

As she factors out, the phrase ‘influencer’ could make some entrepreneurs imagine their inner workers don’t make the reduce. However influencers could be huge or small, area of interest or broad, they usually may also be channel-specific (like Instagram alone) or not.

Mathur provides, “If you have not already, begin interested by which workers to leverage, curate their distinctive voice, and get on with the constructing of your modern-day media technique.”

Logan Lyles, Evangelism & Content material Advertising Supervisor at Teamwork.com, agrees with Mathur that incorporating ‘evangelists’ — together with executives, workers, clients, influencers, and companions — into your advertising and marketing actions means that you can encompass current audiences with content material from individuals they already belief.

He instructed me, “Our technique has concerned co-creating content material with influential names locally of our ICP (businesses & skilled service corporations), as we faucet them to visitor on our podcast and communicate on our Agency Life webinar collection.

We have even partnered with totally different evangelists to each create and distribute our pillar content material items through social media.”

This is a fast instance of that strategy in action on LinkedIn, the place Pete Caputa supplied a response to knowledge factors from Teamwork.com’s State of Agency Operations Report after which posted the video Teamwork.com and Pete created collectively on his private LinkedIn profile.

Lyles instructed me Pete’s private put up generated practically 200 mixed engagements & feedback — properly past the engagement metrics Teamwork.com sometimes sees on a median Firm Web page put up.

After exploring all these challenges, I do not need you to get discouraged as we enter the brand new 12 months.