The Top 5 Marketing Trends for 2025 Based on Research with Todd Lebo
Mar 21, 2025
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Todd Lebo, CEO of Ascend2, shares his deep expertise in transforming B2B marketing through original research. He reveals the top five trends shaping 2025, emphasizing the importance of cohesion over isolated tactics. Todd highlights how AI is revolutionizing content creation and enhancing customer experiences. He also tackles challenges in data integration, encouraging marketers to leverage predictive analytics. With anecdotes that illustrate practical insights, he reinforces the power of conversational engagement and frontline marketers in crafting compelling narratives.
B2B brands can leverage original research to craft compelling narratives that enhance authority and drive thought leadership in marketing.
The integration of AI in marketing not only improves efficiency but also has the potential to generate significant revenue and ROI.
Deep dives
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Trends in Content Marketing
Marketers are expressing concerns about the effectiveness of their content marketing strategies in 2025, with only 32% considering their efforts very successful. The failure often lies in the lack of a cohesive overall strategy, as many focus too heavily on individual tactics without aligning them with their core audiences. A significant challenge identified is generating traffic and leads, with 55% of marketers struggling to connect content directly to sales. Leveraging AI as an additional layer of audience targeting can help marketers create more impactful content that resonates with their desired demographics.
Influencer Marketing Growth
The integration of influencer marketing into broader marketing strategies has emerged as a top trend, with 49% of marketers recognizing its potential. This shift highlights a growing willingness among brands to blend influencer content with other marketing tactics, although quantifying its effectiveness remains a challenge. Marketers are now looking for stronger partnerships with influencers rather than treating them as simple promotional tools. Engaging influencers in the content creation process from the outset leads to better outcomes and a sense of ownership that enhances the collaboration's success.
The Role of AI in Marketing
AI is increasingly being utilized across various aspects of marketing, especially in content creation, social media management, and chatbot automation, driving efficiency and scalability. Research indicates that AI tools can significantly improve engagement by allowing marketers to accelerate their processes and better serve customers. However, the future potential of AI lies not only in efficiencies but in generating revenue and a demonstrable return on investment. Marketers are encouraged to explore ways AI can influence their data strategies, specifically targeting improvements in areas such as renewal rates through predictive analytics.
How can B2B brands use original research to drive thought leadership and marketing success? Todd Lebo, CEO and Partner of Ascend2, specializes in helping businesses create data-driven content that builds authority and engagement. In this episode, we dive into the top five marketing trends shaping 2025 and how research can be leveraged to craft compelling narratives. From starting with the executive summary to ensuring insights tell a clear story, Todd shares expert advice on how to make research more impactful and actionable.
Full Episode Details
As we close out the first quarter of the year, Todd joins hosts Zontee Hou and Jason Keath to not only explore the top 2025 trends shaping B2B marketing, but to also share insights on the ongoing challenges of unifying data across multiple sources and why marketers need to rethink their martech stacks to stay ahead.
Todd also dives into the role of AI in making data more accessible, how companies can maximize the value of research studies, and why marketers should revisit past ideas as technology evolves. Plus, he highlights the power of frontline marketers in uncovering real, actionable insights—and shares a great story about how a simple conversation reshaped the way a financial tool was marketed.
In This Episode:
AI-Powered Content Marketing: Balancing Quality and Quantity (2:28) Data Point: Only 32% of marketers consider their content marketing strategy very successful, while 55% cite generating traffic and leads as their biggest challenge. Source: Content Marketing and AI Report. Why It Matters: Marketers need to use AI, not just for content creation but also for improving audience targeting and engagement. AI-driven insights can help refine content strategies for better results.
Influencer Marketing Goes Mainstream in B2B (8:16) Data Point: 49% of marketers cite integrating influencer content into a broader mix of marketing tactics as a top trend for 2025. Source: TopRank - 2025 B2B Influencer Marketing Report.Why It Matters: B2B influencer marketing is maturing, and brands that integrate influencers into their full marketing strategy will see greater engagement and credibility.
Scaling Marketing Efforts Through AI-Powered Automation (14:06) Data Point: AI is being used extensively for content creation (37%), social media management (35%), and chatbot automation (25%). Source: The Evolution of AI in Marketing. Why It Matters: AI-driven automation enables marketers to scale their efforts while maintaining high-quality engagement across multiple channels.
The Data Confidence Divide: AI, Authenticity, and Revenue Growth (20:08) Data Point: 46% of marketers confident in their data strategy reported significant revenue growth, while only 15% of less confident marketers saw the same success. Source: Anteriad - 2024 B2B Marketing Outlook: The Data Confidence DivideWhy It Matters: A strong data strategy is a key driver of business growth. Marketers must prioritize data accuracy and AI-driven insights to maintain authenticity and improve engagement.
Data-Driven Marketing: Overcoming Integration Challenges Data Point: 63% of marketers rate their data-driven strategy as somewhat successful, while integrating data from multiple sources remains a challenge. Source: Data-Driven Marketing Trends 2024. Why It Matters: Data is critical for marketing success, but fragmentation hinders performance. Marketers must invest in AI-powered analytics and automation to streamline their data integration.
How to turn data into action (25:46)
Todd's advice for aspiring social pros (32:57)
Who Todd would most want a video call with (33:59)