Marketing Trends & Predictions For 2025

If 2024 left you screaming what the actual into the void. You are not alone, my friends. 2024 was a big year in marketing. One that left a lot of freelancers and business owners across multiple industries feeling uncertain about the future and absolutely exhausted. Does anyone else need a 4 day nap? So what is coming in 2025? Is all hope lost? Is this the new norm? What is actually going on? Well, in this video, I am breaking down my biggest marketing pred 2025 and you need to hear this. Especially number one. Hey posse, what's up? It's Alex coming to you with a video that every single copywriter, marketer and business owner needs to pay very close attention to right now. Listen, I know this year felt hard for many of you. Me too. I will not lie. So before I jump into my biggest marketing predictions, 2025, can we please just acknowledge the dumpster fire that was marketing in 2024? I have been in this industry for over 16 years and 2024 was definitely one of the hardest of them all. And I know I'm not the only one who shares that sentiment. I've been chatting with a lot of my friends and fellow entrepreneurs and business owners over the last several months and there's no denying that things are majorly shifting right now. So. So if 2024 was hard for you too, I hope this makes you feel just a little bit validated in knowing it's not just you. I know it really helped me too. But you'll be happy to know that these shifts come with some pretty awesome opportunities that I for one am really excited about. And once you know how to work smarter, not harder, I promise 2025 will feel a lot easier and way more fun as we adjust to the new normal. Moving into 2025, my theme is simplicity. I am going back to the basics and I am so ready for it. And you better believe I'm going to help you navigate these shifts too so that you can succeed this year and beyond. You know I got you posse. And there are some amazing new videos coming your way very, very soon on how I am shifting my copywriting, content and marketing in 2025. If you don't want to miss those, then go ahead and subscribe below. And don't forget to ring that bell to be notified when my next video goes live. Now let's count them down my big predictions for 2025 and make sure to stick around to number one to get my uncensored advice on how you can make 2025 your most successful year ever. So here we go. Starting with number seven. Authentic marketing will win. You guys. I've said it before, consumer trust is at an all time low. Which ding ding ding is exactly why 2024 was so hard on many of us. Audiences today are more skeptical than ever before. In fact, a recent study shows that 69% of consumers distrust and that number is quickly on the rise with the barf factory that is AI generated content, Deep fakes, scammers, impersonators, automated everything, the non stop barrage of ads screaming for our attention yet making us feel nothing. It is no freaking wonder we're skeptical and exhausted. So I'm just going to say it in 2025, AI needs to stay out of your messaging. Consumers are not stupid. They know the difference between something that is written by you versus something that is just, you know, spit out by AI. And I don't know about you, but I am already bored by the crapload of unhelpful generic content being published online. It was bad before, now it's even worse. And I know I'm not the only one. In fact, over 50% of people claim they can tell the difference and well over 50% of consumers report they are concerned, read skeptical about businesses using AI to write product descriptions, create fake reviews, answer questions, and more. And if they are concerned about it, it means they are looking for it. One little sniff of inauthenticity or sneakiness in your marketing and you are officially out. Now call me Woo Woo but I really believe there is an energy exchange in everything we do and create. Your audience can feel the difference when something is created by a human, even if it's, you know, kind of subconscious, conscious or they can't quite put their finger on it. I loved this email by ryan Levesque, a 7 Times Inc. 5000 CEO. In his recent email he made a really similar argument to mine that every piece of communication should come from you, AKA a person. He said it so beautifully. The world is craving the Sunday brunch freshly squeezed orange juice version of you, not the watered down AI version that comes in a can. They need to see your heart, humor and humanity. Oh my God yes. I got chills when I read that. Now before you come at me, before you come at me, I am not anti AI. In fact I love AI and I think we need to use it more in the right ways. But ever since Chat GPT blew up people have been like hyper focused on training AI to write for them and treating it like the magic bullet to success. Sure they are saving time, but in the process. They are removing all their heart, all their humor, all their humanity from the equation. And my friends, that is the in the coffin of your dying business this year. Instead, we should be using AI to streamline our processes, make our content more accessible and deliver personalized, valuable content to our customers exactly when they need it. We should be using AI to help with more time consuming tasks like research, ideation, task management, scheduling, editing, outlining, proofreading, transcribing and refining. We should be using AI to free up more of our time so that we can do more of that human to human trust building stuff that only we AKA humans can actually do like writing our messaging and communicating with our customers. You know the people who actually give US money in 2025, the businesses that will win are the ones who use automation so they can prioritize authenticity. Think about that one for a second. Now that brings me to number six. Personal brands will thrive for all the reasons I just mentioned. Your customers are literally starving for connection and one of the best places to that connection is social media. Of course customers are looking for leaders they know like and trust who can show them the way through this uncertainty. Right? This means personal brands, creators, solopreneurs and service providers have a huge opportunity right now. Now you might be thinking, okay great Alex, I am already posting on social media regularly. I'm all good there. But listen, there is a catch to this. In 2025 we need to go back to the way we used to do social media. Remember when we used to post all of our UN family photos or share real stories about what we were up to when we're not running our businesses or reshare memes that made us laugh or cry or just feel anything. That is what consumers will want more of in 2025. They want to connect to you. Not a logo, a product, a company or an agency in a real, raw, authentic and relatable way. I will admit I lost sight of this last year because I just got too busy in other areas of my business and it really sucked the joy out of sharing on social media because it became like a process rather than a meaningful way to connect with my audience. So let it be known in 2025 you guys, I am going back to having more fun, being more real and posting more personal and playful stuff on social media. Remember, people want to know what you do and who you are. So if you are just getting started, forget about having like two separate Instagram accounts, one for yourself and one for your business. Just be you and show up as you. That is what your audience wants. But whatever you do, don't just post for the sake of posting. Now that content is cheap, thanks in part to AI and every Dick and Sally on the Internet thinking they can shortcut their way to success. It has me really reevaluating the type of content and conversations I want to have. The Internet is a garbage pile of boring content right now that is utterly exhausting to sort through. So write this down. Content is cheap. Connection is invaluable. So in 2025 I want to go deeper, have more fun and share my uncensored thoughts and opinions. And my invitation to you is this. With every social media post you create in 2025, I want you to keep these three goals in mind. How do I build trust, create connection and emotion and act in service? Stop locking your best advice and insights behind a paywall. Stop asking your followers to jump through hoops to get the value you have to share. Stop hyper focusing on only getting leads and conversions. Be real, Be helpful. Be you and talk to people. Fancy that. All right, moving on to number five, Micro conversions matter. So up until now, the metrics that most of us have been concerned with when it comes to online marketing is what we call the macro conversions. Basically sales. Because that's what it's all about, right? Well, ultimately yes, we are in business to make money, but because consumer trust is like a at an all time low, they are taking way longer to make a buying decision. And this is happening across the board. After a customer first discovers you, they are not buying right away. Well, not usually. Instead they are shopping around, evaluating options and taking their sweet, sweet time to get to know you before they actually pull the trigger. And Google defines this as the messy middle, which is the space of abundant information and unlimited choice. Yep, there is a lot of options out there. So basically it's this complicated web of touch points that a customer interacts with between the first trigger or touch point and the final decision or the sale. And business owners are honestly left scratching their heads about how to navigate this because it doesn't really fit into the traditional brand marketing or performance marketing buckets. Here's a quote from Google's report, Decoding Decisions, Making Sense of the Messy Middle. It says the messy middle is a good way to describe how marketing has evolved over the past decade or to with the polarization between branding and direct response, creating a gap into which all sorts of valuable consumer behavior goes unrecognized and underserved. So the problem with this messy middle is that it leaves so many of us thinking that we are failing when someone doesn't buy from us right away. So what do we do? We panic. We pivot. We shift gears. We change up our strategy. You know, we freak the frick out. Which confuses everyone in the messy middle and sends them this message like, hey, this brand is a little inconsistent and untrustworthy. Maybe it's time to move on. Then the messy middle cycle begins all over again with a whole new set of people. And on and on. The cycle continues. So in 2025, we need to start looking at tracking micro conversions now. Micro conversions are the smaller, low commitment steps that users take that indicate heightened engagement and movement through the sales funnel, even if they aren't converting just yet. And I'm talking about things like newsletter signups, social media interactions like comments, shares and follows, filling out a contact form or maybe a survey, attending a free webinar or masterclass, or yes, consuming your content. By prioritizing these micro commitments rather than only looking at sales, the big one, you are focusing on building trust during your customer's evaluation phase, which ultimately leads to higher engagement and more sales. So just keep doing what you're doing. All right? Moving on to number four. Customer experience is everything. Now listen, customer experience has always been number one when it comes to building a long term successful business. But in this age of AI, mistrust and endless, eerily similar options, customer experience has never been more important. I mean, let's just take a look at the stats. Stats. 42% of customers are willing to pay more when offered a friendly, more welcoming customer experience. When given a positive customer experience, 72% of customers will share their experience with six or more people. In contrast, after a bad customer experience, up to 89% of consumers have switched to the competitor like that. And when making a purchase, 64% of consumers consider customer experience to be more important than price. So what does this really mean for marketers, business owners, and freelancers in 2025? How can you improve your customer experience this year? Well, there are a lot of things that go into overall good customer experience. Of course, you want to make sure that you're delivering on your promises, getting them the things they paid for in a timely and efficient manner, meeting their quality expectations. But great customer experience goes far, far beyond that. We are in the middle of a connection crisis. At least that's what I'm calling it. As content continues to cheapen, there is an ever rising premium on human connection. And brands that foster that connection will rise to the top. Gary Vee refers to this as the thank you Economy. He has a whole book about it called the thank you Economy and I recommend you read it. But here's how he sums it up.

The premise of the thank you Economy that I wrote in 2011 was that the Internet was changing so much that there was an opportunity to grow your business by stick with me here being kind.

So in other words, be a rad human, right? Send a heartfelt thank you note to your customers. Follow up after a few weeks or even a few months to see how they're getting along. Notice I didn't say offer them more services, just a genuine check in to say hi and thank you. Reply to their messages or promptly and with kindness. Take the time to show your customers that you care about them as a fellow human being. That is the definition of empathy and that you genuinely want to see them succeed. Customer service is one thing I will personally never fully automate in my business. Real heart forward humans are behind every customer service, email, DM and comment that you see from me and my brand. Well, with one exception. And that leads me to number three. Start more conversations. Okay, so we know that people are starving for connection right now. Which means we are also starving for conversations in 2025. The brands that start more conversations earlier will be the ones that succeed. Not just in building long term and lasting relationships with their customers and their audience. Not just in creating a sense of trust and connection to get people into that buying decision faster. Not just in fostering a positive reputation with their audience, but also in getting more sales and conversions. Micro and macro. In fact, 70% of conversations in Instagram DMs result in a conversion with a customer. To me, when I read that, I was like whoa, that is crazy high. All from taking a few extra minutes out of your day to directly message someone and have a real human conversation with them. Hmm. No funnel, no ads, no sales calls. A simple back and forth human to human conversation. And I have seen this firsthand in my own business. Almost every single time I have a one on one conversation conversation with someone, it leads to a conversion. Maybe that person was having doubts about their abilities or just struggling a little bit. Or maybe they were unsure if the timing was right to join one of my programs. Or maybe they just weren't sure if I would actually be able to help them or if I was the coach for them. But when I hop into their DMS and send them a quick voice note to answer their questions, it always helps. Now of course, it might not always result in an immediate conversion. That's not the Point of it. But because I'm taking the time to connect with that person, they are way more likely to convert at a later date. So now the question really is, how are you realistically, like realistically supposed to do this? I mean, you can't really go around dming every single person who likes a post or follows you. Right? That would take like forever. I mean, there just aren't enough hours in the day for anybody to do that. Right. And this is where AI can be super useful. Yep. I am talking about chatbots. Chatbots can help you instantly initiate conversations with hot leads, AKA people who show interest in your content because they either liked it or commented on it. Right. And once that conversation is initiated, you can easily swoop in as a real person to answer any follow up questions or concerns they might have. And interestingly, DMs is one of the places where people seem to be totally okay with AI. According to that same survey that I referenced earlier, 53% of consumers actually want to interact with AI through instant messaging and aka chatbots. And you know, that kind of makes sense when you think about it. Part of a great customer experience is getting what you want, like now, right? Exactly when you want it. Which is exactly why we use a chatbot to deliver free resources, guides and links to my followers as soon as humanly possible. Well, not even humanly possible, because it's not human. Just as soon as possible. They literally get them instantly, which is so much faster than any human could actually send them. But, and I believe this is really, really important, and this is where I stand on it, I am totally transparent. And I tell you, you are communicating with a bot. And you can see that we do that right here in the first sentence of this automated message. So we actually named our bot Benny. My community named him and everyone loves Benny. Chatbots can be incredibly useful for starting conversations with hot leads, which, yes, of course can increase your overall conversions. But then the important thing to remember is that they should not be overused or abused. So use it to answer questions quickly and deliver resources fast. But in my opinion, you should always give people the the option of speaking directly to a human. Even if that might involve a bit of a wait. Right. Just let someone know that you will be in touch. So here's an example of how we give our audience that option. If they click the button, I have a question. We send one more automated message that asks them to drop their question and then we let them know that we will get back to them as soon as possible. Then yes, Daisy, A Real person on my team will respond as soon as she can. So while AI and technology can definitely assist in streamlining more conversational marketing efforts, do not ignore the power of empathy and humanity. All right, now we're moving on to number two Stories are here to stay. So remember that messy middle we talked about and how during that time, your customers are waiting and watching and trying to get to know you better to decide if you are the person, the brand, the business who can actually help them. Well, the best way to let your audience get to know the real you is through stories. This is how you nurture those hard won relationships and continue to win them over day after day. But I'm not just talking about sharing stories over email or in your social feed. I am actually talking about posting to your Instagram stories. Now, it might seem like just a teeny tiny little thing, but it can have huge results. In fact, a couple of months ago, I challenged myself to post on my Instagram stories and every single day. And it felt hard at first, but then it got easier. And after just 14 days, I massively increased my reach and engagement on my personal social media profile. And it literally required no prep time, no planning, no fancy graphics or captions. I would just hop on and share a random thought or a quick picture of me like out walking my dog tater. It's so easy. And one of the simplest ways that you can boost your social media marketing efforts. And if showing up on social media terrifies you, like just a little, then I challenge you to check out this video next where I give you detailed prompts and ideas to help you show up on your Instagram stories every single day for 10 days in a row. One of the trickiest things about marketing in the age of endless information and options is staying front and center in the minds of your audience. And this is such a great way to do that. All right, are you ready for the grand finale? My number one prediction for 2025, I call it the Big Shift. As I said, there are some big shifts happening in the marketing world and these affect everyone. Copywriters, business owners, social media creators, and freelancers across the board. A lot of previously proven models and systems are just no longer working. And we're trying to figure out what that means. Right? People are simultaneously bored and exhausted. There's no doubt that the old model is broken. And it is time to make some some new rules. Listen, I have so much to say on this that I'm actually hosting a free masterclass called the Big Shift in early January. I'll Share these shocking ways copywriting is shifting in 2025. I'll reveal my uncensored predictions for the year ahead, good and bad. In addition to everything I just shared here, I'll tell you how to create more authority, trust in sales and an overly skeptical audience. I'll talk about how you can create more trust and authority and sales in an oversaturated and highly skeptical online landscape. What do these shifts mean for copywriters? What do they mean for business owners? Well, if you're a copywriter or aspiring copywriter, you'll learn how to take advantage of these massive shifts to level up your skills and ignite your business. Even with zero experience, find dream clients who are looking for you and make 2025 the year you bet on yourself and win big. And if you're a business owner, you'll learn exactly what I'm doing in my own business to simplify my marketing and create a bigger with my content in 2025, including where I use AI and where I will never use AI. The big shift in 2025 is all about going deeper, having more fun and sharing the real you. And I am so excited about it. You guys, are you ready? Hit the description box below to save your spot on my upcoming free masterclass. I really hope to see you there. Until then, happy Holidays. I will see you soon. I'm Alex. Ciao for now. All right guys, if you enjoyed that video, make sure to check out the next one from me right here. And you can click right here to get a free gift. I recently spoke with Dane Walker, the founder of Rival, the fastest growing branding agency in Australia, and he said something that seriously made me question everything I do on my own social media. He said people trust people more than they trust businesses. And no matter what kind of business you're in or how new or how small you are, whether you're a freelancer, a coach, a course creator, an agency owner, or you sell any other type of product or service online. If you are not building a personal brand, you are likely missing.