The HubSpot Blog's Marketing Leadership Report: How 720+ Brand Leaders Will Get Ahead in 2025 [+ How to Join Them]
By esantiago@hubspot.com (Erica Santiago)
2025 is likely going to be the most interesting year thus far for marketing leadership. In the past year alone, you’ve had to navigate the rise of AI, changing consumer trends, and tough economic times.
56% of the marketing leaders in our recent survey say marketing has seen more change in the past three years than in the last 50. That means it’s time for marketers to prepare and adapt.
To help you create a powerful and agile strategy for 2025, we‘ve surveyed 720+ marketing executives on the biggest challenges, opportunities, and trends ahead of us. We also got insight from top marketing leaders. Let’s dive in.
Top Marketing Leadership Trends in 2025
1. Marketing leaders expect to face various data obstacles, the rapid change in their audience’s lives, and AI integration as the biggest challenges in 2025.
Collecting data is becoming increasingly difficult as consumers become more concerned with protecting their privacy. Here are specific obstacles from our survey:
- Nearly 21% of marketing leaders say a main obstacle is decreased consumer trust in sharing personal data
- 18% say increased data privacy regulations
- 16% say poor data quality
Adopting a data-driven strategy in 2025 will require marketers to leverage tools and workflows that build trust and transparency surrounding user data.
Parimal Deshpande, senior director of Product Marketing at Adobe Express, says, “These challenges are front and center for marketers today. Adobe Express helps them navigate this landscape by providing tools built on the foundation of licensed content, ensuring businesses stay compliant and protect the IP of creators.”
According to Deshpande, trust also needs to be top of mind when it comes to the content marketers create. He says marketers must create “authentic, standout materials that resonate with audiences.”
“Additionally, by integrating with platforms like HubSpot, Adobe Express ensures marketers can work within trusted ecosystems to enhance data quality and campaign effectiveness,” he says.
Thanks for the shout-out, Deshpande!
Chad Sideris, Director of Marketing Tech & Lead Acquisition at Triage Staffing, says these data concerns are absolutely headwinds his field is facing. He explains:
“Now more than ever before, there is pressure to provide value upfront via tools, processes, and low-barrier-to-entry workflows to earn trust and convince the end-user that the information shared with us will be used to enhance their experience and speed up their customer journey — not just as a means to fill up their inbox with vaguely relevant messages about a promotion for a category they aren’t even eligible for.”
2. Offering personalized customer experiences will remain crucial in 2025, but 17% of marketers say the rapidly changing lives of audiences pose a challenge for personalization.
Our survey shows that 89.64% of marketing leaders have somewhat or very personalized experiences, and 85.77% agree that personalization increases sales moderately or significantly.
However, we found that the primary challenge when creating personalized content and experiences is keeping up …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
