INKWELL’S PREDICTIONS FOR MARKETING TRENDS IN 2025
As 2024 draws to a close, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what’s happened over the past year, and how that might influence what 2025 has in store for the world of B2B content marketing.
We asked our team to provide their predictions on what 2025’s marketing trends might be – and how they’re likely to influence brand behaviours. We discuss everything from AI content to inclusivity, with a few handy resources thrown in for good measure.
Interested in learning more about the exciting clients and projects we’ve been involved with this year? Read Our Year In Review to hear more about our work in 2024.
Chris Goodfellow – Brands will invest in creative and community
We’re all being bombarded with marketing. You can only expect the volume to increase as Gen AI pulls us into endless LinkedIn nurturing campaigns, cold emails and eventually, personalised video content.
So, how do you stand out in all that noise?
When we launched Inkwell six years ago, our goal was to “create extraordinary content that shares human stories”. That’s more important than ever. Standing out means creating best-in-class marketing. The brands that win in 2025 will invest in creative to separate themselves from the noise.
Community is going to be more important than ever too. Whether you’re tapping into existing groups or building your own, the trust in those relationships means members are much more likely to take action.
Kat Haylock – Hyperpersonalisation will enter the mainstream
The singular brand voice isn’t dead, but it’s not the stalwart it once was. As content produced by Generative AI floods the internet (see “slop” in Oxford’s Word of the Year shortlist), we’re now seeing the same format and tone of voice everywhere. It’s… bland. It’s generic. It’s usually throwing em dashes around like confetti.
Next year, I’m predicting that we’ll see more distinctive brand voices develop, as businesses get inventive to cut through the noise.
Most companies already tend to use relaxed brand sub-voices on social accounts that allow employees to be creative, so it could be that we’ll see these offbeat voices used on a bigger scale (if that’s the case, get ready for a weird year from the RSPB).
Is it casual now? Say goodbye to the bland brand voice in 2025.
As part of this trend, I think we’ll also see hyperpersonalisation go mainstream. It’s a common practice in ecommerce marketing (who hasn’t felt borderline creeped out by a real-time targeted ad?) but has yet to really gain a foothold in the B2B space.
2025 could be the year that changes, as businesses detach themselves from the singular brand voice and start experimenting with more distinctive and tailored language.
In a full circle moment, Gen AI can be a useful tool for this. Once you break away from its default, congenial style, businesses can use it to create custom voices and individualised messaging to engage different audience segments. Just keep an eye on those em dashes.
Amalie Smith – Humour and creativity will infiltrate B2B
In a surprise to almost no one, 2024 has brought its fair share of bad news. And whilst I’m not about to start waxing lyrical about the power of content marketing to distract us all from the evils of the world, I have been thinking a lot about humour in B2B marketing.
Similar to Kat’s thoughts on finding a unique voice, many of those who’ve managed to stand out have done so with a healthy dose of humour, satire or downright weirdness. Of course, this is markedly easier in a B2C context, and consumer brands have long been making their mark by not taking things too seriously. Like any marketing that elicits emotion, humour creates connection and allows people to forget that they’re being sold something.
B2B has historically been a pretty serious space – and for good reason, since lots of the topics are quite… well, serious. But as The Drum pointed out in their recent article, humour and professionalism are no longer mutually exclusive. In fact, a bit more creativity and emotional resonance might be exactly what B2B needs right now.
When we’re thinking about entrepreneurs, startups or small business owners, this rings even more true. This audience is looking to learn, often makes mistakes and probably doesn’t need reminding that building a business is in fact, very serious business. But if someone were to point out these common mistakes and pain points, make light of them and show them they’re not alone? Well, that just might stick.
Humour is inherently human, which is great for two reasons. One: people buy from people (even if they’re hiding behind a business). Two: AI can’t do tongue in cheek. As long as it’s balanced with clarity of messaging, a bit of humour could go a long way in 2025.
Siân Cahill – Inclusion and accessibility will be a priority
While not a new concept, inclusion is set to continue to be a hot topic in 2025. For me, there are no excuses for brands to not make it a priority.
It doesn’t have to be huge campaigns and brand overhauls. In fact, it’s better when it’s not. Genuine, non-performative efforts to make sure everybody can appreciate your content isn’t just the right thing to do (and in many cases, the law) – it also makes business sense, too.
There are three key areas to focus on:
Representation
Quite simply, make sure your content represents the diversity within your audience. In 2025, this has to go beyond the basics of imagery and language (although don’t overlook that). Make an effort this year to read up on how brands can fall into traps of being non-inclusive without realising – and fix it.
Accessibility
A friend who is neurodivergent recently introduced me to the social model of disability (better late than never?!) and it’s no exaggeration to say that it totally changed my world view. We all have a part to play in deconstructing the barriers that people face and, in 2025, the brands who make accessible content standard practice will be the ones who win.
Some great resources to get started:
Action
As inclusion continues to be a hot topic into 2025, expect more people to be actively supporting organisations who walk the walk with inclusive policies to back up their visible efforts. There’s a wealth of voluntary schemes to sign up for, enhanced policies to implement and worthy causes to support out there – do so to do a good thing, and have genuine inclusion efforts to shout about, too.
Check out these organisations fighting the good fight:
Charlie Coombs – Video will remain a vital pillar of consumer trust
Video content once again thrived in 2024, dominating every engagement metric in nearly every sector imaginable. It is now so effective that it has become an essential aspect of any effective marketing strategy.
With these numbers in mind, I’m predicting that we’ll see video pushed further in 2025, as more businesses continue to experiment with short-form content to advertise products and services, tell their stories, and ultimately connect with consumers in an immediate way.
It’s admittedly not a piping hot take, but still.
Consumers still trust branded video content with real people
As Kat and Chris have mentioned, overuse of AI-generated content has created a surge of distrust in online authenticity over the last few years.
While it is technically possible to create video using AI with programmes such as Sora, it isn’t as freely available or as easy to use as ChatGPT, DALL-E or Midjourney. This means that, at least for now, real interviews and video campaigns are still effective ways to build brand trust and demonstrate care for your product.
Video is still valuable and trusted, as the technology required to consistently generate automated moving images has much work to do before it is indistinguishable from the real thing.
Moving into 2025, video remains as popular as ever, which will likely further influence marketing campaigns and strategies across the board, regardless of sector. Whether it’s unhinged Duolingo skits on TikTok or long, informative podcasts that establish industry leadership, it’s clear that video is a mainstay for consistent engagement.
Our experiences with video in 2024
In 2024, Inkwell saw a surge in demand for video content from our clients, including case studies, podcasts and social media marketing. This kind of content can be easily repurposed and shared across multiple platforms, making it valuable for multi-format, multi-channel campaigns. It also supports accessibility and provides opportunities to create nuanced assets for different stages of the customer journey.
We’re expecting to see continued enthusiasm for this type of content in 2025, as brands further familiarise themselves with the value of video.
At Inkwell, we create compelling content that connects organisations with startups and small businesses. Get in touch with our team for more details on how we can help you reach more entrepreneurs and small business owners.
