What’s Top of Mind for Marketing Leaders in 2025?

By Leilani Yau

April 2, 2025

EM Marketing recently gathered 17 experienced marketing professionals – including marketing strategists, product and growth marketers, and content creators – from our community. In these focus groups, we wanted to know: What’s keeping them up at night? How is AI affecting their roles, team structure, and marketing strategy? Here are four key marketing challenges that were uncovered. Be sure to watch the video summary at the end!

Key Challenge #1: AI Is Rapidly Transforming Marketing

Marketing technology – specifically AI, as you may expect – emerged as the most frequently discussed topic across all focus groups. Leaders are navigating a complex landscape of tools while struggling to determine which investments will deliver genuine value versus those that simply create more noise. Most are excited and willing to embrace AI into their workflows, however there are practical concerns about AI-driven job losses and how AI is being implemented.

As Bryan Bamford, Product Manager at Adobe, shared: “Some companies lay off teams and pivot towards current trends, whether it’s AI or other areas.” This highlights the high-stakes nature of technology adoption decisions.

Sandeepa Nayak, who runs a web design and development firm, noted that there’s a lack of understanding about what AI can offer: “Clients often think that since content is AI-generated and AI has made the process easier, it should be less expensive than it was before. If we are using all these tools, why is it still so costly?”

Strategic Implications:

Technology adoption decisions have team-wide implications beyond just marketing results
Organizations must balance innovation with practical implementation concerns
Clear ROI frameworks for technology investments are essential

Key Challenge #2: More Work to Do with Lean Marketing Teams

The second most discussed challenge centered around team organization and the pressure to do more with less. Leaders are grappling with how to structure teams that remain agile while covering an expanding set of responsibilities.

Sherry Willis-Prescott, Head of Growth Marketing at Netlify, noted that, “Companies are laying off employees and making deep cuts, yet the pipeline numbers remain unchanged. The expectations from the board do not shift either. Workflows are affected, and companies are left wondering, what do we do now?”

Marketing and Events Strategist Monica Ortiz described the daunting reality: “When you’re dealing with a reduced marketing team, tasks tend to slip, and all of a sudden, you’ve lost months of potential.” She also highlighted the domino effect of understaffing: “Day-to-day operations are hindered due to the lack of a team and leadership. The most senior person is attempting to fill all the roles in between and make all the decisions.”

“When you’re dealing with a reduced marketing team, tasks tend to slip, and all of a sudden, you’ve lost months of potential.”

Strategic Implications:

Clear prioritization frameworks become essential in resource-constrained environments
Organizations risk both burnout and strategic blind spots when teams are understaffed
Senior leaders need protected time for strategic thinking

Key Challenge #3: Content Marketing Needs Strategic Analysis

Organizations continue to prioritize content creation while often lacking the strategy and analytics to maximize its impact. Marketing leaders should not just focus on content production, but on the metrics and optimization strategies that transform content from a cost center to a growth driver. Nicole Zuccaro, a Senior Customer Advocacy and Field Marketing Leader, explained: “Clients are asking for content creation without using data to [analyze and] build upon it.”

Strategic Implications:

Content strategies need clearer connections to business outcomes
Post-publication analytics should inform content optimization
Content performance measurement frameworks are a competitive advantage

Key Challenge #4: Content Creation Needs Human Touch

While the focus group participants are enjoying efficiencies of using AI for content creation, they stressed the importance of ensuring high quality, distinctiveness, and authenticity. Diana Donovan, Content Marketer and Senior Copywriter, was bemused that some of her clients want her to write in a style similar to AI. “It feels like the direction we’re heading in is towards a vanilla flavor of content.”

Creative Director Scott T. Cook laments that demand for storyboard artists and concept designers are on the decline, but challenges creative professionals to continue to think out of the box: “Because people are so accustomed to simply typing in a prompt to get what they’re looking for, they aren’t exploring what would make something truly special – what would make it stand out contextually in a way that a generated AI solution might not offer.”

Jeff Meeter, a B2B Product Marketing Strategist, observed that, “If we’re in the commoditization stage where everything sounds the same and everyone is over-indexing on using AI, the next phase will be one of disillusionment, where people find it uninteresting or lacking quality. How do we stand out and be more human in our connections with others?”

“If everything sounds the same and everyone is over-indexing on using AI… How do we stand out and be more human in our connections with others?”

Strategic Implications:

Differentiation will increasingly come from uniquely human perspectives and creativity that AI can’t replicate
Organizations should develop clear guidelines for when to use AI as a tool versus when to prioritize human-led creative processes
Marketing leaders need to preserve and cultivate creative talent that can produce distinctive content in an increasingly AI-saturated landscape

A Path for the New Reality of Marketing

Marketing leaders will thrive in 2025 by strategically balancing AI efficiency with human creativity. As content becomes increasingly commoditized, brands must preserve distinctly human elements in their voice and offerings. Success depends on cultivating marketing talent that leverages technology while maintaining the authentic human perspectives that drive meaningful engagement and business results.

About Leilani Yau

Leilani Yau is a digital marketing consultant, specializing in B2B content marketing and social media, and helps clients L.O.V.E. (Listen, Offer, Value, Engage) their target audiences online.

View all posts by Leilani Yau