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Marketing is entering a period of recalibration. Budgets are under scrutiny, AI is reshaping strategies, and the pressure to drive measurable results has never been higher. While some teams are refining their approach, others are struggling to keep pace with shifting consumer behavior and evolving technology.
The future won’t be about doing more—it will be about doing better. These are the five trends every marketing leader needs to know to keep their team focused, efficient, and positioned for success.
Trend 1: Budgets Are Shrinking, and Marketing’s Influence Is Slipping
Marketing budgets fell by 15% in 2024, forcing a major shift in how funds are allocated. With more budget moving outside of marketing, teams have less control over key investments. At the same time, financial pressure is shifting the focus toward short-term execution over long-term strategy, leaving only 68% of marketing leaders feeling confident in managing the present, let alone preparing for the future.
External factors like inflation and interest rates have added to the strain, but internal challenges are making it even harder to secure funding. Marketing is still fighting to prove its value, with leaders working to shift its perception from a cost center to a revenue driver. Yet despite its direct impact on growth, it’s often the first area to see cuts as executives reduce marketing budgets more frequently than other business units, 44.6% of the time.
With tighter budgets, every dollar needs to show a clear impact, making marketing attributed revenue a top priority. Brands are focusing on high-return channels like email and search while exploring new opportunities in video. Data-driven personalization is also helping stretch budgets further, and many are refining their pricing strategies with discounts and flexible payment options to keep customers engaged during economic uncertainty.
Trend 2: Where Marketing Dollars Are Going: Email, Video, and the AI Shift
As marketing budgets tighten, teams are prioritizing channels that deliver the strongest return on investment. Email remains a cost-effective way to engage customers, while video and streaming are proving to be high-performing investments. Social, display, and search still play a role, but rising costs are forcing teams to be more strategic with their spend.
Owned channels like websites remain a cornerstone of digital strategy, but their role is evolving. Marketers have long relied on organic traffic to drive engagement, yet that’s becoming more difficult. It’s predicted that by 2028, organic site traffic will drop by more than 50% as AI-driven recommendations replace traditional search engines. To stay competitive, brands will need to rethink their approach—shifting from SEO to optimizing content for AI discovery. It’s not just a strategic adjustment. It requires an entirely new skill set.
Mobile engagement is evolving, too. App usage is expected to decline, while new messaging protocols like RCS could reshape mobile marketing. With Apple now supporting RCS, brands will soon be able to send interactive, personalized messages far beyond the limits of traditional SMS. In the coming years, expect marketers to start cutting through the noise found in other channels by using interactive messaging via RCS.
Trend 3: CRM Budgets Are Up and Retention Deserves a Bigger Cut
Marketing technology budgets are growing, but proving their impact remains a challenge. Attribution often requires costly consulting projects, and while testing methods are improving, many businesses still struggle to tie martech investments to measurable results. As reliance on these tools increases, finding cost-effective ways to demonstrate their value becomes increasingly important.
Despite this increased investment, companies continue to allocate 19.6% more budget to acquisition than retention, even though retention delivers 50% better performance. Many brands fall into the costly cycle of reacquiring lost customers instead of keeping them engaged—a strategy made even less efficient when relying on batch email sends, which yield a conversion rate of less than 1%.
The companies seeing the strongest returns are those maximizing value from existing customers (whether highly engaged, dormant, or somewhere in between) and leveraging AI-driven personalization to do it. While acquisition remains important, relying too heavily on it drives up costs and delivers diminishing returns.
Trend 4: AI Is Everywhere, but Clear Results Are Hard to Find
AI adoption is accelerating, but many companies are still experimenting before committing to full-scale implementation. Two-thirds of marketers are not highly satisfied with AI’s performance, as most applications focus on efficiency rather than driving revenue. While AI has streamlined operations, its financial impact remains difficult to measure.
Plus, trust and privacy concerns are reshaping how brands use AI, and it’s not just about compliance—it’s about keeping customers. Consumers are paying attention, where 75% say they’d stop engaging with a brand if they felt their data wasn’t handled properly.
Regulatory and ethical challenges are adding another layer of complexity. From AI’s environmental impact to bias risks and legal scrutiny, businesses are treading carefully. Many are setting up AI councils to assess risks and ensure their investments align with long-term business goals. Even with these hurdles, AI-driven content creation, chatbots, journey decisioning, and content decisioning remain some of the most effective ways to drive results while keeping consumer trust intact.
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