2025 Recap: The Year’s Top Marketing Lessons & Advice

In marketing, there’s always something new to learn or improve. At SpotOn, we’re always working to iterate and evolve so we can deliver the highest-quality outcomes, and we love sharing the process with you.

Every month on the SpotOn blog, we share the topics and tactics observed through our client work that offer room for growth, iteration, and improvement. Our lessons incorporate everything from foundational strategies to growth tactics to keeping up with the next evolution of scaling companies at many different growth stages.

This year, we focused on identifying stronger ways for sales and marketing to align strategy and messaging and on using tactics that lead to overall company growth and success.

Now, we’re sharing all of our biggest insights and ideas in one place. Here’s the list of our top marketing lessons and advice from 2025 collected in sections as Trends, Strategic Planning, Optimization, and Foundations.   

Trends

Marketing is always evolving and changing. You must keep your eye on new tools, tactics, and best practices to keep up. We shared our thoughts on the marketing shifts making the biggest impacts in 2025. 

The Evolution of Search: From SEO to GEO

It’s no longer enough for brands to show up in search if they want to get found online. Brands now need to work to show up in generative engines and chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. We introduced ideas to help brands improve their search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to incorporate practices for generative engine optimization (GEO). Read it now. 

How to Prevent Low-Quality, AI-Generated Content From Killing Your Brand Reputation 

In 2025, many brands rushed to incorporate AI-generated content into their marketing practices. We reminded them to tap on the brakes. While AI-generated content can help produce better content at a faster rate, it can also quickly break trust and ruin your reputation. We explained how to create AI-generated content that is accurate, ethical, and uniquely yours. Read it now. 

Strategic Planning 

Strategic marketing always looks ahead at what’s to come. We shared guides that help brands prepare for the future and set themselves up for even more success. 

B2B Marketing Budget Benchmarks for 2026 Planning

To keep up with your competition, you need to know what your competitors are doing. We shared B2B marketing budget benchmarks to help you compare your marketing plans to industry norms and determine how much you need to spend to remain competitive. Read it now. 

Kickstart Your Year With a Strategic Marketing Plan That Guides You Toward Your Goals

Effective marketing isn’t an accident. It’s strategic. Our strategic marketing guide offered six steps to take to make a marketing plan that identifies your goals and how to reach them. Use this guide to review your end-of-the-year results and make plans for a stronger 2026. Read it now. 

How to Use Gratitude as a Growth Strategy

Marketing tactics aren’t the only thing that can help a brand grow. At SpotOn, we’ve seen firsthand how the culture and mindset of your team can correlate with success. We shared an inside look at how we use gratitude as a growth strategy and how you can use it to benefit your brand, team, and customers. Read it now. 

Optimization  

Launching a marketing campaign is only one piece of the puzzle. The next step is exploring new marketing channels and tactics that expand your reach and effectiveness. We shared guides on how to optimize your efforts to find even more success. 

B2B Brands Need to Tap Into the Power of Short-Form Social Media Videos 

Many B2B brands use social media to stay in touch with their audience. This year, we encouraged brands to take social a step further by opening up their content creation to include short-form videos. We explained why short-form video presents a big opportunity for B2B brands to reach more people in places where they already spend time. Read it now.

Need Social Media Influencers to Promote Your Brand? Look No Further Than Your Employees.

We shared even more ways for B2B brands to increase their exposure on social media. In yet another guide, we explained how brands can tap into a powerful network of brand advocates, their employees. See how brands can boost their visibility on social media through the use of employee-generated content. Read it now.  

How To Use Conversion Rate Optimization to Increase Demand, Leads, and Sales 

Once marketing campaigns are running, it’s not the time to slow down or check out. It’s time to use conversation rate optimization (CRO) to fine-tune your methods to drive even more demand, leads, and sales. In our CRO guide, we offered ways to use conversion rate optimization to iterate and boost the results of existing marketing campaigns. Read it now. 

Foundations 

Effective marketing starts with a strong foundation. This year, we shared guides to help brands build a solid base that could support and elevate further marketing initiatives.  

Why You Must Tell Your Brand Story Before You Start Selling

The first step in marketing is building a compelling brand. Before you start actively marketing, building awareness, and driving conversions, you need clear messaging that says who you are and what you do. We outlined the steps for building a strong brand that helps customers know, recognize, and like you before buying from you. Read it now. 

Building a New Website? Which CMS Should You Use and Why? 

A website is the central, core channel for your marketing. It’s the place where all your other marketing efforts point. Make sure you give your website the attention it deserves. Use our guide on website development to determine which CMS system will set your website up for the most success. Read it now.

Use Email Audience Segmentation To Increase Conversions & Revenue

Email marketing is still one of the most reliable ways to stay connected to your audience of prospects and buyers. We shared ways to make your email marketing more effective through audience segmentation. Our guide shared tips to increase conversions and revenue by creating more personalized and compelling email campaigns. Read it now.  

Get Expert Marketing Advice All Year Long 

We had a lot to learn and share in 2025, and 2026 will be no different. 

Keep up with us and the changing marketing landscape. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, and sign up for our newsletter to get all of our latest marketing insights and inspiration. (You don’t want to miss our new #SpotOnRatesIt series which features our team of experts and their opinions on the hottest marketing tactics!)

If you need any help putting these lessons to work in 2026, let’s talk. SpotOn is here to help you boost your marketing effectiveness, reach more customers, and grow your business in the new year. Contact us today.