The marketing trends of 2025 are breaking away from the “tried and true.” This year, it’s about blending retro vibes with tech-savvy twists, rethinking partnerships and reshaping how brands connect with customers. The 90s are back in full swing, and AI has gone from sci-fi fantasy to a must-have tool in every marketer’s arsenal.
Curious about what’s next? We’ve rounded up nine marketing trends that are set to shake things up in 2025, complete with practical tips to help you bring them to life in your own business.
The 9 biggest marketing trends for 2025
Take a look at last year’s marketing trends. Or view our collection of trend predictions over the years, picked by the global community of creatives that work with small businesses every year through VistaPrint.
1. New Era of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is evolving as modern audiences prioritize authenticity over polished promotions, prompting a move toward genuine connections. Now, people aren’t just pushing products—they’re telling you not to buy them.
This “de-influencing” trend, fueled by Gen Z’s skepticism, reflects a growing distrust of influencer recommendations. According to The Harris Poll, 69% of American social media users have been “de-influenced,” with 32% saying they just don’t trust influencers anymore.
Only a few years ago, influencer trips, where brands invited influencers to create content while enjoying lavish destinations, were a reliable way to generate positive buzz. Today? Not so much. With social, political and economic challenges on the rise, these trips now seem out of touch, even off-putting. Savvy consumers view them as overly extravagant and inauthentic. Take, for example, a recent Tarte Cosmetics trip to Bora Bora featuring popular TikTok influencers. Despite all the effort the cosmetics brand put into the event, it sparked more backlash than sales.
Source: Feature loyal customers to market your business. Image via Vistaprint
But that doesn’t mean ditching influencer marketing altogether. Just rethink your approach to tap into this marketing trend. Here’s how:
- Collaborate with real advocates: Look for brand fans who already love what you offer. For instance, a well-known fashion brand, Miu Miu, featured a long-time customer on the runway along with professional models to present its Fall and Winter 2024 collection—a move that felt real and refreshing. You can do the same with everyday customers who truly resonate with your brand.
- Share authentic stories: Leverage your brand’s unique voice to tell unfiltered stories. Show the real, relatable side of your business, both through your owned media channels and influencers’ platforms.
- Promote thoughtful shopping: Create quality over quantity messaging at the center of your influencer marketing campaigns, showcasing your products’ eco-friendly aspects and durability.
- Build community connections: Collaborate with loyal customers or local micro-influencers. A cosmetics brand REFY, for instance, organized a Mallorca trip for community members instead of influencers, showing that true fans make the best ambassadors.
In 2025, large and small business influencer marketing is all about trust. With their close-knit communities and authentic connections, small businesses are poised to lead the way.
Source: Use authentic fans and loyal customers to market your business. Image via Vistaprint
2. Community-Centric Marketing
A key theme in 2025 marketing trends is that brands aren’t just selling—they’re building communities. The Community-Centric Marketing trend takes this to a new level by creating an exclusive, members-only vibe where brands connect directly with their audience through special offers, sneak peeks and real conversations.
This approach naturally builds on the New Era of Influencer Marketing trend. Rather than relying on distant internet personalities, you’re engaging in open, direct discussions with the people who matter most—your customers.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to small business marketing. In fact, understanding who you serve is just as important as the product or service you offer. Once you’ve found your tribe, focus on building that community and creating authentic connections,” says Emily Whittaker, EVP, NA & Global Marketing at VistaPrint.
“Once you’ve found your tribe, focus on building that community and creating authentic connections.”—Emily Whittaker, EVP, NA & Global Marketing at VistaPrint.
Source: Offer specials and discounts to members of your business and promote it using a custom A-Frame sign via VistaPrint.
If you want to add Community-Centric Marketing to your 2025 marketing strategy, consider the following approaches:
- Create exclusive spaces: Use social media to build private channels to share updates, early access and special deals, keeping your community engaged.
- Be personal and authentic: Let your personality shine in your brand’s voice. Quirky humor or heartfelt messages make followers feel connected to a real person.
- Host members-only events or offers: Offer exclusive virtual or in-person events for your community, building excitement and strengthening relationships.
Source: Offer a special event to a select few loyal customers and advocates using a custom retractable banner via VistaPrint
3. Employee-Generated Content
While building a community around your brand is crucial, so is bringing your internal team to the forefront. By letting employees share their expertise, you turn your brand into something real, relatable and expert-driven, cutting through AI-generated marketing.
Employee-Generated Content gives you a chance to connect authentically with your audience. Whether it’s social media takeovers, behind-the-scenes footage or spotlight stories, featuring your team puts real people in front of your customers.
Source: Showcase your employees and their talent. And do so with behind the scene photos in branded T-shirts via VistaPrint
To harness this marketing trend, try the following:
- Run social media takeovers: Hand over your social channels to employees for a day. Let them share their workday, projects or personal interests—anything that brings their personality to life and adds authenticity to your brand.
- Share behind-the-scenes content: Give customers a peek into everyday moments, from team meetings to casual interactions. These glimpses make your brand feel accessible and relatable.
- Highlight employee spotlights: Share team interviews or stories on your blog or social media, showcasing their roles, achievements and perspectives. This establishes your team and your brand as thought leaders.
- Encourage personal branding: Motivate your employees to build a presence on social platforms. When they share insights and represent your company, it enhances your brand’s authority and reach.
By putting your team front and centre, you’re not just creating content, you’re building connections. In 2025, that’s what makes all the difference.
4. The New Social Media Funnel
Social media is now a fast track to purchase. With platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook offering in-app shopping, product tagging and shoppable posts, the customer journey has shrunk to a few taps. No longer a multi-step funnel, social media ads now act like mini TV commercials—catching attention and closing the sale within minutes.
Source: Film quick tips and video content to fast-track purchases for your products. Via VistaPrint.
Here’s what you need to focus on to get the most out of The New Social Media Funnel marketing trend:
- Create quick and impactful videos: To make your brand’s short videos captivating and conversion-friendly, keep the visuals engaging and the message clear—aim to inspire purchases within just a few seconds of viewing.
- Enable in-app purchases: Set up your social accounts for instant shopping. Use features like product tagging and IG/TikTok Shops to let customers buy directly from your posts.
- Optimize your social media product catalog: Regularly update it to reflect current inventory, promotions and best-sellers. A well-curated catalog ensures customers see relevant products and can complete their purchases seamlessly.
- Emphasize ease and speed: Show customers how easy it is to go from ad to checkout. Position your brand as the convenient choice for instant shopping satisfaction.
Source: via VistaPrint
Within the realm of The New Social Media Funnel marketing trend, speed is key. To thrive, create engaging and seamless content that makes purchasing a no-brainer.
5. R.A.T. Marketing (Reactive, Agile and Trending)
The Reactive, Agile and Trending (R.A.T.) Marketing is all about jumping into the buzz of the moment—real-time situational marketing that lets you ride current trends to boost brand awareness and connect with your audience instantly. Whether a viral meme, a trending color like “brat green” (thanks, Charli XCX) or a major news event, you’re creating content that aligns with what’s happening right now in a way that showcases your brand’s personality.
Source: Visual identity that jumps on the Brat trend by goopanic via 99designs by Vista
“Smaller brands can typically react faster and tap into trends and cultural moments like Brat quickly, helping them create a visual bond with their customers in a way that feels current and relatable.”—Patrick Llewellyn, VP, Digital and Design Services at VistaPrint
This trend requires speed, so your marketing team needs the freedom to act fast. Approval chains just won’t cut it—R.A.T. Marketing is all about agility and timing. For small business owners, entrepreneurs and marketers, it’s a powerful way to stay relevant without massive budgets or drawn-out campaigns.
Here are a few tips to help you make the most of R.A.T. Marketing:
- Act fast: Timing is key. Monitor trending topics using tools like TweetDeck, Hootsuite or Brandwatch, and as soon as you see a trend that fits, create content around it. Quick memes, cheeky tweets or timely IG posts—responding fast makes you stand out.
- Empower your marketing team: Give your team the green light to make quick decisions. Set the brand tone and style guidelines, but let them react in real time without waiting for approval.
- Choose trends that align: Not every trend will fit your brand. Focus on trends that feel natural—use humor if your brand’s playful or highlight eco-trends if sustainability is key. Authenticity is everything here.
- Have fun and be creative: Get creative with humor, wit and pop culture references, but make sure the content feels like your brand.
To stay ahead, set up real-time alerts with Google Trends, Trend Hunter and Meltwater, subscribe to trend-focused newsletters like Morning Brew and use tools like IFTTT or Zapier so you’re always ready to jump on the next big thing.
6. Know Thy Reader
Search engines have become more sophisticated in verifying if content truly meets what readers are searching for, making it harder to “cheat” the system with empty keywords or fluff. Content needs to genuinely deliver value, focusing on what your audience actually wants and needs.
That’s why the Know Thy Reader marketing trend emphasizes the need to authentically align marketing content with reader intent.
Source: A great marketing trend is creating a valuable and insightful blog for your readers via VistaPrint.
For resilient organic reach, aim to understand your readers and customers deeply and tailor content to match their pains and goals right from the start. Here’s how to take this new approach to content marketing and make this trend work in your business’ favor:
- Build your business personas: Define your target audience or customer persona. You should know the target audience for your product or service, your audience’s main aspirations, values, and beliefs, and why they would want your offering.
- Speak the language of your audience: Use the keywords and phrases your readers search for, but keep the language natural.
- Match intent early on: Address people’s needs upfront. Provide clear answers and valuable information without unnecessary fluff or pizazz.
- Make conversion easy and relevant: If potential customers are looking for solutions that your business offers, make it easy to connect them to those solutions early in the content. When done thoughtfully, it isn’t spammy, it’s just helpful.
- Optimize links to other content for value: Use interlinks that genuinely add value by guiding readers to related, helpful content. This builds trust that supports brand building for small business, customer loyalty, and customer sales.
- Prioritize user-friendly formatting: Structure your content with headings, bullet points and FAQs so readers can easily navigate and find what they need.
To successfully incorporate helpful content into your marketing strategy, you need to know your audience and focus on what you solve best—stick to the topics your business can address directly and do so with confidence backed by search queries, customer research and customer personas.
7. Empowered DIY Design
Empowered DIY Design is a 2025 marketing trend that puts small business owners in the driver’s seat when it comes to their brand’s visuals. This marketing trend is about speeding up select design tasks so business owners can produce content on the go, adding a personal touch without the need for a full design team.
“Online platforms like VistaCreate and Adobe Express and others provide end-users with powerful design tools that they can use, on top of AI-generated content.”— Philip Vinoya, Manager, Design Operations at VistaPrint
Source: Use tools like VistaCreate to create social posts via VistaPrint
Indeed, with the growing number of graphic design tools that let you tackle essential branding tasks quickly and effectively, like drafting a logo with a Logomaker or creating social media graphics or promos, there’s no reason not to stay agile.
But Empowered DIY Design isn’t just about digital assets. Physical DIY elements, like custom rubber stamps and branded stickers, bring a hands-on feel to packaging and marketing materials, adding authenticity and personality.
As the EVP of NA & Global Marketing at VistaPrint, Whittaker, tells us, “small business owners wear so many hats, and creative director is usually one of them. By taking advantage of our Empowered DIY Design trend, entrepreneurs can speed up the time it takes to edit or refresh marketing materials like postcards and banners so they can spend more time running their business. For visual assets, like a logo, that can stand on their own, Empowered DIY Design also means you can design once and print it on just about anything to ensure your brand is present from checkout to delivery.”
“Entrepreneurs can speed up the time it takes to edit or refresh marketing materials like postcards and banners so they can spend more time running their business.”—Emily Whittaker, EVP, NA & Global Marketing at VistaPrint
Source: Custom stickers via VistaPrint
Source: Custom rubber stamps via VistaPrint
Advancements in design tools have empowered small business owners to create professional-quality visuals without extensive experience. Still, it’s important to balance DIY efforts with professional support when needed to ensure high-quality results. For projects that require a professional touch, use freelance professional designers.
8. Millennial Nostalgia
Among the top marketing trends for 2025, Millennial Nostalgia shines as brands embrace the 90s and 00s all over social media. From grunge fashion revivals to early 2000s band reunions, this trend taps into the culture and aesthetics that defined millennial youth—CDs, cassettes, digital cameras and inflatable furniture that spark fond memories.
Source: Market your product using a 90s-inspired design by AlSoDigital via 99deaigns by Vista
E.L.F. Beauty’s Judge Beauty campaign is a perfect example of how brands use nostalgia and over-the-top storytelling to connect with millennials. To promote products, E.L.F. created a courtroom scene inspired by the popular 90s TV show Judge Judy, where beauty disputes are settled with wit and sass. Blending this nostalgic backdrop with a fresh, playful twist, E.L.F. managed to do more than promote products—they’ve built emotional connections that strike a familiar chord.
With millennials currently holding the largest spending power (though Gen Z isn’t far behind), appealing to their love for all things retro is memorable and highly profitable.
Here’s how your business can hop on the Millennial Nostalgia 2025 marketing trend:
- Reintroduce iconic products: Bring back the essentials of the 90s and 00s. Retro collabs or inspired lines instantly grab millennial attention and speak to their sense of nostalgia.
- Use pop culture references: Add nods to classic TV shows, catchphrases or early 2000s aesthetics to your marketing. Think sitcom vibes or early reality TV scenes—anything that takes millennials on a trip down memory lane.
- Create throwback social content: Use neon colors, grainy filters and old-school fonts in your social media. Quick, flash-sale promos with a retro spin make your brand feel like a time capsule.
- Tell nostalgic stories: Shape your content around storytelling formats millennials grew up on—game shows, music videos or even old-school infomercial styles. The key is to make it fun and instantly recognizable.
Millennials are ready to spend, and the Millennial Nostalgia marketing trend gives brands a chance to connect with this demographic in ways that are as fun as they are profitable.
Source: Embrace the styles of the 90s and 00s for the Millennial Nostalgia trend. A 90s box design by Discovertic via 99designs by Vista
9. Cross-Industry Collaborations
In 2025, more brands are expected to join forces across industries to boost impact and reach new audiences. Big-name partnerships like Minted x BHLDN and Scrub Daddy x Dunkin’ showcase how brands can align to create unique, buzzworthy experiences.
“More and more in the competitive landscape, we’re seeing respected brands seek out one another and team up to maximize impact.”—Olivia Rogine, Director, Brand Marketing at VistaPrint
But the Cross-Industry Collaborations marketing trend isn’t limited to big brands—small businesses can tap into it by thinking creatively about potential partners. For example, consider a cafe teaming up with a local record label to host vinyl nights or exclusive merch drops.
Here are a few ways to get the most out of the Cross-Industry Collaborations marketing trend:
- Look for partnerships with brands that complement yours, even if they’re outside your industry.
- Partner with businesses that bring something unique to the table.
- Make the most of your partnership by promoting it across both brands’ social media and email channels.
The bonus of such partnerships? Collaborative merchandise. Co-branded merch like custom mugs, tote bags or T-shirts can be a fun, profitable way to cement the partnership and keep the buzz going long after the event. In the competitive landscape of 2025 marketing, it’s all about thinking big and thinking together.
Ready to tap into marketing trends in 2025?
As we dive into 2025, one thing is clear: marketing trends this year are all about building genuine connections. Whether sparking millennial nostalgia, forming cross-industry partnerships or showcasing your team through employee-generated content, these trends encourage brands to engage authentically with their audiences. This year, businesses are stepping away from the usual playbook, mixing old-school charm with new innovations and putting people at the center of their strategies.
The common thread across 2025’s marketing trends is the balance of innovation and sincerity. By embracing these trends, you’re setting your business up to be memorable, adaptable and engaging.
