With 2025 just around the corner, it's fun to try to predict what the year ahead has in store for us marketers. We figured: who better to ask than the great folks we ran into at INBOUND?

That's right. We got firsthand insights straight from some of marketing's most brilliant minds. Together, we covered everything from the future of AI (the good, the bad, and the straight up ugly) to video marketing and some seriously hot takes. 🔥

Today, we're sharing some of those top predictions to help you prepare for next year and stay ahead of the curve!

Read on for:

• The future of video marketing trends
• Video marketing tips
• Everything people are thinking about AI
• What should marketers stop doing in 2025?
• Want more 2025 marketing trends and hot takes?

Want to rewind time and hit the INBOUND floor yourself? Check out the complete series on our YouTube channel!

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One thing that came up over and over was video marketing — for obvious reasons. Video is EVERYWHERE. More people than ever are logging onto TikTok. Bingeable shows and series have become a go-to brand play, even for B2B companies. Video is even dominating our LinkedIn feeds now.

So, what will video marketing look like next year? Here's what INBOUND attendees had to say:

• Look out for shorter videos. People are increasingly distracted, and it'll take short, punchy videos to grab attention as folks scroll on their devices. If you're on the hunt for great examples, take a look at TikTok to see how top creators there make a splash in mere seconds. (Joshua Zerkel, HeyGen)
• Personality-driven content will be everywhere. People have to like you to buy from you, and video is a great way to show off who you are and connect with your audience in a human, genuine way. (Mark Jung, Authority B2B)
• Trends that peaked on other platforms will make their way over to LinkedIn. If you've noticed a ton of "day in the life" style videos on LinkedIn lately, that's what we're talking about. LinkedIn may never be the trendsetter of all the platforms, but keep your eyes peeled for other familiar trends to make a comeback — or maybe bring one back on your own! (Tara Robertson, Chili Piper)
• The breadth and depth of video marketing will grow. We'll see videos that speak to customers along the entire funnel, and video production will become easier, with new tools and resources popping up to make that happen. (Lindsay Tjepkema, Human Brands Win)

As Megan Clancy from Typeform put it, we live in a virtual world now. People are used to operating online, but we all still crave authentic human connections — and video gives that to us. Through video, you can show up as yourself and connect with a global audience while building your brand.

Oh, and speaking to that last point — Goldcast has a ton of tools that streamline video production and creation. Whether you rely on Goldcast Core to securely host and capture a quality live session or use Content Lab to repurpose videos into valuable video clips and social posts, we're an end-to-end video campaign powerhouse!

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If you agree that video isn't going anywhere but are still not sure you can pull off a great video campaign yourself, this section is for you. Whether you're just getting started and want to put together your first video or you're a seasoned pro looking to level up, these tips will help you stop the scroll and get noticed.

Try these tips for your next video:

• Try something small-scale at first. Tara from Chili Piper will take snippets from Gong calls or existing recorded videos and promote those on LinkedIn. You might even use an excerpt from an internal call if there's an interesting convo that pops off! The idea here is that you can always build on your video strategy and add more once you gain momentum, but starting small allows you to avoid overwhelm. (Tara Robertson, Chili Piper)
• Take a cue from Nike and just do it! You don't need a producer or a huge creative team to start with the camera on your phone or computer and just record something. You don't even have to publish or share your video if you don't want to, but at least get going and refine from there. (Lindsay Tjepkema, Human Brands Win)
• Repurposing is your best friend. If you've hosted even one event or webinar, you're sitting on a bunch of video content already. Take those recordings, feed them into a tool like Content Lab, and watch as they get turned into a ton of blog drafts, video snippets, email campaigns, and more.

You'll likely find that videos become much less intimidating once you start making them. You'll start naturally coming up with new ideas for future videos you want to create, and you'll be able to see the way that people interact with your videos, which allows you to improve.

No talk about the future of marketing would be complete without mentioning AI trends. Like video, AI has essentially become table stakes for most marketers.

However, that's not to say that everyone's an expert now. On the contrary, many of us are still learning how to best use and prompt the AI tools we have.

Here's the rundown on what marketers were saying about AI trends:

• AI is still experimental. People are having fun playing around with different tools — and that's what we should all be doing right now. Especially given that most AI tools have a free version, there's no reason not to get in the sandbox and see what a tool can do for you. (Diana Kolesarova, Superside)
• Hopefully AI can start to help with list building and some of the most tedious marketing tasks. AI is awesome for brainstorming and ideation, but it would be nice to see it remove human error from some of the responsibilities marketers can't ignore operationally. (Christina Cusumano, Ceros)
• Look at your current tech stack and try out their AI capabilities. Most major platforms now have some sort of AI flair available. For example, we use Notion at Goldcast, and Notion now has AI capabilities like the ability to generate text in docs or scan trusted sources for research purposes.
• AI will never be perfect without a person working alongside it. We say this at Goldcast all the time, but AI is like your junior assistant or your work buddy. Letting your AI run wild without supervision is like letting a toddler loose in a glassware store! AI tools need that set of human eyes to create worthwhile content that doesn't make everyone cringe.

Speaking of cringe: What's your most-hated AI buzzword?

You know the feeling. You're reading a post and then all of a sudden you can't get past a certain phrase or the way something is worded. It all feels a bit too uncanny valley for you, and now you can't unsee it. We asked marketers which words or phrases scream AI to them. Here's what they said:

If you've been using these words pretty often, it might be worth dialing back on them so you don't inadvertently give readers the ick! Even though audiences know AI is likely being used on the backend, they still want to feel like they're talking to and interacting with another human on the other side.

Most of the time, predictions look forward for obvious reasons, but we're also curious about what people want to see less of in the new year. Our INBOUND interviewees weren't shy about calling out what they'd like to see left behind!

Take a look:

• STOP taking "content is king" to the extreme. As Neil Patel said at INBOUND, content isn't king anymore — content, strategy, and content marketing are all kings. If you've been ruthlessly prioritizing something like SEO, maybe it's time to take a step back, listen to your audience, and think about how you can serve them with strategic, quality content and events. (Diana Kolesarova, Superside)
• STOP making AI-only videos. Remember: People want to connect with you, not the AI robots! When creating videos, showcase personalities and real humans so that you don't come across as fake or disingenuous. (Megan Clancy, Typeform)
• STOP cold blasting emails. Have you ever responded to a cold email — or an un-personalized one, for that matter? The answer is probably no, so don't do this to your audience and expect it to work. Include people's names at the very least, and make the subject matter of the email relevant to them. (Joshua Zerkel, HeyGen)

Marketing has always been about evolution. Things that worked last week might not work this week, and we have to adapt to that and keep pushing forward. In 2025, marketing will be about striking the balance between AI and its capabilities and what's worked for us in the past, as well as figuring out how to continue to deliver on people's growing expectations for unique, personalized content.

So, what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with these opinions? What do you think is coming down the pipeline in 2025? What do you want marketers to stop doing? We'd love to hear from you!

No matter how you feel, it's undeniable that we've seen some pretty interesting opinions today — and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Goldcast team met with almost two dozen marketers at INBOUND; if you'd like to browse every interview, you can do so by visiting our Hot Takes series on YouTube!

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