Marketers have “new superpowers” of content creation and generative AI assistance going into 2025, according to Nicholas Holland, VP Product and GM Marketing Portfolio at HubSpot.

However, they are also facing major hurdles in the form of highly convoluted customer journeys, the need to be present across a wealth of channels, and the need to re-evaluate their skills in the face of generative AI.

At HubSpot’s Inbound 2024 conference, I sat down with Holland to learn about what he thinks are the “three big lightning strikes” affecting marketers as we approach 2025, why more data is the last thing that marketers need, and how small marketing teams are now able to do more with less.

Marketers have to “break through the noise”

“Marketers are now having to be in more places at the same time [than ever],” Holland observed. “They have to be on social, across multiple networks; they have to be really good at email; some customers want to be connected via mobile messaging – it’s all over the place.”

On top of this, marketers need to be familiar with the changing behaviours of different generational groups and understand how to cater to each one. “Gen X, Gen Z, Millennials, Boomers, Gen Alpha – all of those behave very differently online. So, that means that marketers now have to be aware of how different age groups are behaving.

“All of that is really challenging – how do you effectively break through the noise?” To add to this, the content medium that is most successfully resonating with consumers – video – happens to be the most challenging for marketers to produce.

On this front, however, Holland offers a note of encouragement, which is that “marketers … have got new superpowers” for creating new content formats like video or podcasts. “Those are not powers that many marketers used to have.” Out of the box tools can aid the creation of more polished content than ever – for example thanks to programmes like Canva or the rapidly-growing CapCut – while generative AI is also able to expedite creating not just text, but video and audio content as well.

Marketers need to re-evaluate their role in the age of generative AI

“What does AI mean for the role of the marketer? There are many marketers that had a set of skills that are not as valuable now because all of these [generative] AI elements can do it,” said Holland.

“A lot of marketers are having to contend with: how does their value extend in a world of AI? Even crazier, what they’re having to deal with is now, they’re competing with other marketers who are learning to master it.

“And when you learn to master [AI], a tiny marketing team that’s stretched thin becomes a tiny, mighty, marketing team.”

This has both benefits and drawbacks for marketers: on the one hand, they can do much more with less; on the other, marketers need to re-evaluate their role and the skills they offer in the context of generative AI – and potentially learn new skills.

“If you don’t adapt – other people are adapting,” said Holland. “[Marketers] have to contend with: how do they bring AI onto their team with [intelligent] agents? How do they bring AI into their repertoire of skills with new capabilities? How do they deal with other marketing teams that have become mighty that they’re competing with?

“And how do they not lose their job?”

“Marketers don’t need more data … what [they] need is more actions”

Companies seek out more data on their customers in order to better understand and cater to them; but Holland posited that a greater quantity of data is the last thing that marketers actually need. “Marketers don’t need more data,” he stated. “Most marketers will say – ‘No more data; what I need is more actions from my data.’

“The journeys of customers are so convoluted; so long and complex that it’s very hard to track the data across all of those. … The customer journey being so hard to track and measure comes down to [the fact that] marketers aren’t looking for the data itself – they’re looking for actions and insights.

“To measure what’s working across the whole customer journey takes a mass of brainpower.”