1. Continued Martech Consolidation

We predict you’ll see the martech landscape continuing to consolidate. Larger platforms will acquire niche solutions to expand their ecosystems, which means more powerful capabilities in one place. But that doesn’t mean there will be fewer vendors: Over 3000 new marketing tools were added in the last year alone, which means you will need to continue juggling multiple marketing automation tools, CRM systems, and analytics platforms. It will require your vigilance to ensure these changes don’t disrupt your streamlined operations or derail your team’s autonomy. 

2. Upskilling Your Team Will Be a Priority

To boost the ROI of your martech, you will allocate resources to tackle the challenge of upskilling your team. Prioritizing team readiness to effectively use AI and advanced tools and platforms will focus on ongoing training, access to online resources and learning paths, and team communications skills. Upskilling your team will be crucial so they can work independently and confidently adapt to the rapid technological shifts we are experiencing. 

3. Increased Investment in Data

Inconsistent data across different platforms, missing information, and difficulty maintaining a single customer view lead to inaccurate reporting and decision-making. You’ll see investment in addressing your top needs around data quality, integration, and analysis, but beware! “Perfect data” doesn’t exist. While these are areas where you’ve felt the pinch, pursuing perfect data can be paralyzing for your organization and your team. New investments will be helpful, but don’t consider them a lifeline. Instead, look for tools that put you on a better path, such as DESelect Segment, which our customers use to “stage” data in Salesforce Marketing Cloud that came in “messy” from other sources.

4. Cross-Platform Analytics Will Be Vital

We believe cross-platform analytics will be crucial so marketers can glean user behavior insights across all digital channels to understand the effectiveness of campaigns, optimize customer journeys, and make more strategic decisions to improve targeting and personalization. It will also become more important as you work to stay ahead of trends and drive higher ROI on your marketing investments.

5. More “Maker Tools” for Startups…and Enterprise

The rise of low-code/no-code tools will empower marketers to execute sophisticated marketing strategies without requiring technical expertise, allowing them to respond to rapid changes in consumer taste and to hyper-personalize customer interactions. These tools can also free you from once technically-heavy tasks, giving your team the independence to manage those tasks without technical or IT resource bottlenecks. DESelect Segment, which falls into this category, was built to empower segmentation in Salesforce Marketing Cloud without code or reliance on technical and SQL expertise.

6. AI as an Enhancer for Marketing Optimization Platforms (MOPs)

AI has likely already become your efficiency ally, but we predict that in 2025 AI will help you become more effective by helping you streamline workflows, analyze data faster, and optimize campaigns in real time. It will help you address some of your biggest frustrations – from understanding buyer behavior across different journeys to tailoring customer experiences in real-time to orchestrating campaigns.

7. AI Will Displace Significant Parts of Graphic Design and Content Writing

You’ll see AI taking over significant portions of graphic design, content writing, and video creation (check out the recent sora.com release if you’re skeptical). Learning how to use the tools directly and integrate them into your workflow will be essential.

8. A Privacy-First Approach Will Be a Competitive Advantage 

Data privacy laws are getting enacted in more countries, and there is still uncertainty around how browsers and email clients will strengthen their privacy approaches. Marketing operations leaders are quickly adapting to the landscape and navigating all the different requirements. We predict that marketing operations teams will take a privacy-first approach in 2025, relying on first-party data as the gold standard for targeting and balancing compliance, user trust, and business goals to ensure marketing and privacy succeed together. Treating customers like human beings and creating a privacy-first culture will be a competitive advantage.

9. Having a Strong Brand Will Be Crucial in a Noisy World

With channels becoming more saturated, your expertise will be key in reinforcing your brand’s identity. Ensuring campaigns are launched on time, are personalized, and avoid common pitfalls like marketing fatigue and campaign collision will keep your brand strong and your audience engaged. With AI, more and more capabilities in marketing operations are becoming commoditized, which will make your brand a crucial point of differentiation and trust in what can sometimes feel like an impersonal and overwhelming experience.

10. Tapping into the Surplus of Talent in the Salesforce Ecosystem

The Salesforce ecosystem has a surplus of technical marketers, developers, and consultants due to budget cuts and reduced Salesforce sales. For you, this surplus represents an opportunity to access top-tier talent that can help solve some of your most pressing challenges. Leveraging this talent will help you tackle Salesforce technology roadblocks faster, freeing you up to focus on strategic initiatives.