Firstly, is it worth following trends in marketing – do trends really matter? So glad you asked! Following trends can be both highly distracting and hugely time sapping and often, at the expense of getting the basics right.

As a small business owner with limited time, money and other resources available to you, it’s far (FAR!) more important to focus on the foundations. By this we mean knowing who your audience is (intimately), having a clear message that resonates with them and then, consistently showing up where they tend to hang out (whether that’s on or offline).

So make yourself a promise that before you start joining in with the #SuspectChallenge (a current TikTok content trend), you’ll first of all make sure you’ve spent time and effort on the foundations of your marketing.

That aside, what do we think all the noise going to be about in the 2025 small business marketing scene? Here are a few thoughts and observations from the team at B is for Brand – we’d love to hear yours too!

2025 TRENDS

1. The best thing that could possibly have happened to help time-starved small business owners is of course the advent of AI and if you’ve not jumped on board with it yet, we’d urge you to make understanding how to use AI for your small business, the one trend you jump on in 2025.

AI tools (like ChatGPT) are becoming more user-friendly and integrated into marketing workflows. This year, start to embrace AI for brainstorming, planning, creating frameworks, writing content, generating ideas, and even automating your workflows. Use AI to create bulk drafts for blogs or social media, then refine them with your unique tone and voice. This will save time, effort and money. Who doesn’t like the sound of that?

2. Now let’s talk about hyper-personalisation. With inboxes becoming overwhelmed, we probably all delete at least half of the email newsletters we receive without even reading them, am I right? So WHY BOTHER with this method of communication? EVERY small business needs an email list, trust us. There is NOTHING better than pressing send and then seeing the money drop into your bank account. Once you’ve built a reasonable sized list, you won’t look back.

However, these days, customers expect more personalised communication in order to give you their time and attention. Luckily we small businesses can achieve this without heavy tech. If you haven’t got an email list yet, start there. The next step is to segment your list to ensure the right message reaches the right audience. If you send people information that’s not relevant or tailored specifically to them, you’re soon going to find yourself in the ‘delete without opening’ club. The subject line of your email is VERY important therefore and the more personal you can make the email feel, the more likely you are to engage your reader.

3. Sustainability as a Brand Driver. A few years ago I did some research for a brewery working on it’s journey towards Net Zero and discovered that by and large, customers did not give two hoots about sustainability. THANKFULLY that has started to change and in 2025, there are increasing numbers of discerning consumers and buying behaviours have noticeably started to shift. As a result of increased demand for sustainable choices, more and more businesses will be genuinely working hard to improve their sustainable practises.

Small steps add up and the more small businesses making small steps towards planet friendly behaviours, the more groundswell effect there will be. Add your voice to the conversation in 2025 by sharing your small wins (like reducing plastic packaging) or looking to partner with other sustainable brands who can help you go on this journey (such as Britton Scotland). Do NOT greenwash but do try your best.

4. At B is for Brand, we’re all about community-led growth and our ‘Do One Thing’ membership forms the heart of our business. We believe that online communities are becoming more valuable than ever. Building small, engaged audiences boosts customer loyalty and at B is for Brand, we’re constantly working on this. We’re using a platform called Gold Star Pro to build a community for our customers, where they can access all of the resources we have to offer, whenever they need to dip into them . Why not jump on this trend and think about creating a space for your audience to interact directly with your brand, such as Q&A sessions or behind-the-scenes looks?

5. Video Content. Have you been brave yet? Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have long been known for prioritising short-form video, but now that trend is coming to LinkedIn too. What works well? Not silly dancing, that’s for sure and probably not the #SuspectChallenge either (although admittedly, that does sound fun). Focus on value adding, educational, helpful clips rather than just pure entertainment, for example answering FAQs or showcasing how your products can help your customer. If you don’t feel brave, it doesn’t have to be your actual face. There are many creative ways to get the message across.

6. SEO for Local Visibility. Google is putting more emphasis on local search. What this means for you as a small businesses is that you can gain visibility by prioritising spending time updating your Google Business Profile and using tools like Yoast for simple SEO improvements. Regularly update your Google Business Profile with offers, photos, and posts and don’t forget to use those locally relevant keywords.

7. The Rise of Lazy Marketing. THIS one, we absolutely love. It’s said that in 2025, more and more small business marketers will be embracing ‘lazy’ tactics. We say ‘hurray for lazy marketing!’ What is lazy marketing then? It’s all about focusing on what’s easy and effective rather than trying to be everywhere at once. Sounds pretty good, right? Focus and clarity are two of our favourite words here at B is for Brand. Anything that saves the busy small business owner time and boosts clarity gets a big tick in our book. So this year, we encourage you to jump on the ‘lazy marketing’ trend, by doubling down on channels and strategies that actually work for you and forgetting about the rest. Don’t ‘should’ yourself. You’re not doing it for a reason. Identify your top-performing platform (or offline activity) and focus maximum efforts there.

8. Being Curious. Remember Educate, Inspire, Entertain? Those are sooo 2020 dahling. No Matter which platform forms the foundation of your social media, things have moved on. At B is for Brand, our social media buzzwords for 2025 are: Connect, add value, engage. Using emotion in your conversations to let your audience know that you see them and acknowledge their struggles will help you connect. Providing ideas, suggestions and opinions that may help them, no matter whether you’re a product or a service based business will help you add value. And for goodness sake, don’t leave them hanging. Get back to anyone who is kind enough to give up a few moments of their time to converse with you and not only is this just polite, it will help boost your engagement. Leave no comment unanswered. Get comments by asking questions and being curious. Curiosity about your customer and about the things in life you’re brave enough to admit you don’t know yet are at the very heart of great marketing.

Talking of which…what else would you add to our list?

Reach out and let us know your thoughts, ideas and struggles – we’d love to hear from you.

B is for Brand – Achieve Brand Clarity