woman wearing pink trousers types on a laptop whilst holding a cup of coffee

Three ‘outs’ for stress-free marketing in 2025

The phrase ‘less is more’ is undoubtedly familiar to us all, but how can we really ‘work smarter, not harder’ amidst the growing pressures of the marketing landscape? Well, if you’ve already completed your personal ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ for 2025, why not try creating the same list for your professional life?

Say goodbye to toxic marketing traits

To get you started, here are three things you can (and should) ditch from your marketing plan this year.

 

1) Having a corporate profile on multiple social platforms

It’s fair to say that most brands will have some presence on more than one, more likely two or three, social platforms, without really thinking about why. There are likely very few brands, especially in the B2B space, that have a social media strategy, never mind individual platform strategies, which means that there’s very little strategic thinking behind the use of each channel and the content that’s shared there. If you don’t have a platform strategy, with clear objectives and KPIs, how will you know if that’s a successful platform for your business? And if you can’t measure success, why would you spend valuable time creating content or starting conversations?

2025 is the year to ditch those platforms that aren’t performing. And that doesn’t mean leaving X to join TikTok! Choose one platform – the one where your clients and prospects spend their time – and create a strong strategy for it. If, and only if, you have extra capacity in your team, or you know that your audience is using another platform in equal measure, then think about using a second platform, with its own strategy. It’s better to do one thing really well (which your KPIs should prove or disprove) than scatter-gun your content across multiple social platforms in the hope that something sticks!

 

2) Creating content that serves you instead of your clients

Even with the best of intentions, with a marketing strategy in place, with a comprehensive content plan laid out, it’s easy to fall into the trap of creating content that is more about you than your audience. As businesses grow, their propositions, solutions and services change, so it’s natural that new content ideas are thrown into the mix when internal excitement for the ‘shiny and new’ hits its peak. Nevertheless, its our job as marketers to put the brakes on before diving into content creation like this.

2025 is the year to ditch content that appeases your internal audience at the expense of your external audience. New initiatives are great and most marketers welcome fresh inspiration, however, we must pause and reframe the idea to best support clients and prospects. What information do they need right now and how can we help via content? If we’re not able to answer those questions with confidence, we shouldn’t be creating content. And if it’s hard to say ‘no’ to your stakeholders, try sharing your content strategy and objectives to support your argument.

 

3) Neglecting your brand

There are many reasons why businesses, especially those selling to other businesses, neglect their brand. Some feel that they aren’t ‘big enough’ to need extensive branding, whilst others feel that their clients and colleagues already ‘get them’. These and other reasons can be thrown away right now, because branding matters to every business. To start with, size doesn’t matter. Every business should have (at least) brand guidelines which include what brand elements have been created and how to use them. Instruction like ‘don’t recolour the logo’ might seem obvious, but it happens, so it’s better to have the basics laid out for everyone to use. Secondly, assuming that your internal and/or external stakeholders already know your brand and therefore you don’t need to put in the work, can also go in the bin, so to speak. Your clients will have a ‘lived experience’ version of your brand in their head based on previous interactions and the work you’ve delivered. But if they’ve worked with 10 different colleagues in your business, there’s a good chance that ‘brand experience’ is different to every other client.

2025 is the year to stop neglecting your brand and it give it the attention it deserves. The sooner you start investing in your brand, the sooner it will pay off. Yes, it’s a long-term thing, which is another reason brand campaigns are side-lined for the sake of sales and activation campaigns, but you’ll thank yourself later. There’s no need to make things complicated here, consistency is key. Show up in the same place and say the same thing until you’re sick of it. Then change 10% of the creative and do it all again. Even if your business has expertise across 6 disciplines, you want your brand to be famous for one thing. This should be your always-on campaign, whilst everything else can be communicated through seasonal campaigns and cross-selling.

 

Saying no to new ideas, making tough decisions with finite resources, and cutting out underperforming tactics are all difficult things to do, especially when you’re surrounded by stakeholders who think they know better. To stay stress-free in 2025, stick to your strategy and ditch the toxic traits that just don’t work anymore.

LET'S GO!

Ready to do more with less?

How to map your marketing strategy

Free Download from House of Comms