6 Trends and the latest practical innovations which will change marketing in the year(s) ahead
We all now know that Generative AI (Gen AI) has already made a huge impact on marketing and the wider world. Yet it will grow dramatically more in the future since, as we will see, many businesses have been surprisingly slow in adapting and adopting it. Plus there are some amazing innovations as we move towards AGI - Artificial General Intelligence where AI will possess the ability to understand, learn, and complete tasks at a level comparable to or exceeding that of a human being.
In this post, I'll cover trends covering both AI strategy and how the GenAI tools are developing.
Those of use who have enthusiastically adopted AI in our marketing have become used to the incredible ability of GenAI to create compelling copy, visuals and code when provided with sufficiently detailed prompts. However, we’re also…
Dr Dave Chaffey’s practical review of the marketing trends that will matter for B2C and B2B marketers in 2025
October 2025 update
My latest annual post recommending digital marketing trends to watch is now live, covering the new techniques and opportunities to look forward to in the year ahead. ✨ 🔮 📈 🚀
View my post on the top 2026 digital marketing trends.
Of course AI is the main game in town, but which aspects of AI should you be taking a look at from a strategic POV? I cover 5 top-level use-cases of using AI to support marketing.
But AI isn't the only game in town and I also look at the latest Gartner hype cycle, our updated Martech tools wheel and other opportunities to improve marketing across our RACE framework.
I’ve been writing reviews of the latest digital marketing innovations for well over 10 years now; spurred on since they seem to be…
Digital marketing is more important now than ever. My recommendations on the challenges and opportunities for growth
Digital marketing is deceptively easy if you take the deliberately simple definition from my book Digital Marketing:Strategy, Implementation and Practice where I define Digital Marketing as:
"Achieving marketing objectives through applying digital media, data and technology".
But in reality, digital marketing is a tough challenge since many businesses know how vital digital and mobile channels are today for acquiring and retaining customers. Yet the research shared below shows that many businesses don't have an integrated plan to support digital transformation and business growth based on engaging their audiences effectively online.
In this article, I will explain why a digital marketing strategy is essential for all businesses. If you're looking for an introduction to the scope of digital marketing and what should be included in a plan, see my post explaining What is Digital Marketing.
Regardless of the type…
Using re-brandable digital marketing tools and templates can help small marketing agencies and consultants compete with the bigger players - here's how
The concept behind white labeling/private labeling in marketing is simple. It's a business arrangement in which one company produces goods or services, and another company rebrands them as their own and offers them to their customer base.
The big benefit of white labeling in marketing is that it allows agencies and consultancies an easy way to quickly expand their service offerings to their clients, without having to develop marketing specialisms in-house.
With the ever-increasing demands for specialization and the emergence of new marketing technologies, it can be a daunting task to keep up. So, partnering with a trustworthy and reputable specialized service provider is a popular solution enabling marketing agencies and consultancies to offer their expertise under your agency's name and brand.
To consider: Within this B2B transaction, there is an underlying…
Discover how a customer experience strategy that enhances digital experiences across all touchpoints can help build brand loyalty and improve ROI
In today’s fast-paced digital world, providing a seamless customer experience strategy is no longer a luxury but a necessity. As consumers have more options than ever on where, when, and how to interact with brands, ensuring a consistent and positive digital experience can significantly impact your business's growth and competitiveness.
It’s easy to forget just how many touchpoints your business may have. The Smart Insights customer lifecycle visual highlights just some of the many paid, owned, and earned media omnichannel options available today to communicate with prospects and customers. There’s a lot!
The diverse array of channels highlights the amount of avenues we need to effectively manage to create effective customer experience,…
If you're using AIDA, DRIP, To/Mo/BoFu, STP, or any marketing mix models, but not integrating RACE, you may be missing out
At Smart Insights, we are proud to champion our internationally acclaimed, practical, strategic RACE Framework of Plan, Reach, Act, Convert, and Engage. But of course it's not the only framework that modern marketers are using.
Our Free Members' Essential marketing models guide covers 15 other models, which we encourage members to use at different stages of assessing and improving their marketing plans.
Of course, paid members can also access our best-practice library of 250+ processes, templates, and tools - many of which dip into marketing expertise outside of the traditional realms of RACE. Professional Members regularly book account reviews to talk through which solutions would best suit various elements of their RACE strategies.
If you're not sure where to start, you can read through some basic pointers in our Free…
An example of how to structure a digital marketing strategy plus examples from other sectors
We launched Smart Insights in 2010, to help marketers develop digital marketing strategies, since we saw that many businesses faced the challenge of where to start when creating a digital marketing strategy. The most popular downloads were templates for structuring a digital marketing strategy. We quickly found from member feedback that examples were important, and we now have examples of digital marketing strategies in many sectors, which we cover at the end of this post.
Although digital marketing platforms and technology has changed immensely in this time, particularly with the recent growth in use of Generative AI, the fundamentals of creating a digital strategy are the same. Some of the AI recommendations on digital marketing strategy and many of the human ones fail to get these essentials right, they go straight to recommending different digital marketing channels…
Prompt AI-generated campaign insights on marketing strategy, optimization, audience analysis, and performance metrics
We all know that feeling of staring at a blank screen. Maybe you have an idea but you don't know how to articulate it. Or maybe you're clear on the objectives, but you can't align them with any new creative ideas. It's in these moments where the best marketers can stand out by choosing to adapt and improve.
AI marketing opportunities
If you've found yourself reading this blog, you're likely already considering using AI to optimize your campaign planning process. It's an exciting time, with AI regularly producing clear, trackable improvements on human-written content (such as a study where AI-generated email headlines demonstrated a 68% increase in engagement). And, with increasing demands on budget and time for so many marketers, the opportunities are game-changing for the early adopters.
AI marketing risks
But, with so much to consider, it can be daunting…
It’s not enough to create buyer personas and leave them getting dusty on the shelf. Find out how to apply customer personas to inform each stage of your marketing strategy
What are marketing personas?
Customer or buyer personas are fictional people who represent target customer segments. Personas are used by marketing teams to segment and target key demographic, psychographic, and behavioural traits of their target audiences.
The term ‘user personas’ is also commonly applied when analyzing particular online users’ behaviours, such as website experience (CX, UX) or in response to marketing automation (e.g. email or mobile campaigns).
Why create customer personas?
By researching and creating customer personas, we as marketers, managers, and business owners can gain valuable insights into our buyers’ preferences, motivations, pain points, and online behaviours.
Persona-based marketing techniques enable businesses to tailor their digital marketing campaigns and always-on…
Why use a framework to create an integrated marketing strategy?
I believe that implementing a digital marketing strategy framework to follow is essential to ensure the success of your integrated marketing strategy. Importantly by agreeing on a marketing plan structure during the planning phase, you can ensure the buy-in from your team and business to support your integrated marketing strategy.
Applying a strategic framework creates a system to make your plans easier to understand and gives a way to assign specific metrics to monitor, manage and measure the performance of your integrated marketing strategy.
The RACE Framework
We've created the RACE Framework and subsequent RACE marketing training to empower marketing leaders to take a data-driven, customer-centric approach to planning, managing, and optimizing their marketing strategies. By using this structure for your planning, you can integrate all your marketing activities across your key omnichannel customer touchpoints, to strengthen your reach, interaction, conversion, and engagement.
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