Ed. note: A version of this article appeared in Ann Handley's popular newsletter, Total Annarchy. Not on the list? Subscribe here.
What are the 2025 trends shaping marketing, communication, writing, our lives?
This is my annual list of What's In, What's Out for a new year. (The 2023 version is here; the 2024 version, here.)
There's a lot I left out for this year: More pages, fewer screens. More civil debate, less rage-baiting. Generative AI as a tool... not talisman or magic wand. Fewer "hook frameworks" which teach you how to hack your way to attention when all we need to do is simply connect. (Revolutionary!)
But life is about choices. So here we go.
BTW: The In/Out 2025 Honorable Mentions are listed at the end.
2025 IN / OUT
IN: Craft
OUT: AI slop
Spam has morphed into slop: Garbage. Excreted waste. A generated image of a hand with 7 fingers. The cut/paste soulless text.
The only antidote to AI slop is more and more powerful language models that write for us so we don't have to... HAHA! No, no I'm kidding you! The antidote is craft.
Craft is from the Old English cræft, which meant physical power or might. The æ in the middle of the word was later ejected from the alphabet. Cræft became craft; the definition of the newly svelte word expanded to include the mental power of a special skill or dexterity or the thing itself: something built or made.
Slop is generated. Craft is built and made.
Craft has hand prints, footprints, bite marks. Use AI, if you want, to enhance your writing—I do. But do not use AI to generate it. Choose your player. Choose your cræft.
IN: Lasting impact
OUT: Fleeting attention
Earning the attention of specific people in your audience was zee name of zee game last year. This year is about what happens after you've stopped their scroll; after you've earned a glance your way. We need to create a lasting impression on those who care whether we show up. (Or not.).
You wonder: Does that make our content more niche and focused? Does that make our cræft more critical? Yes! What you said.
IN: First-party data
OUT: Third-party tracking
Email, physical addresses, or other info offered willingly is way more valuable than third-party tracking. Note the word willingly in that sentence—as in not coerced. No sleight-of-hand maneuvers like forced opt-ins on brand sites. No trickery like relentless popovers.
I know, the irony of my writing this on MarketingProfs, where we use forced opt-ins. But it comes down to your business model: MarketingProfs and other publishers make their money from advertising. Most brands do not—their content is part of their marketing, not product. If your content is marketing, too, consider whether coercion is the best way to start a relationship. Is there a better way to nurture trust long-term?
IN: Creative consistency
OUT: Creative chaos
Nutter Butter is a cookie that makes (wait for it) nutty videos and social memes. Yeah, on social media.
Yet that first sentence is from the brand's website homepage—a masterclass in how consistency builds a recognizable brand. Chaos comes when we don't create recognition and affinity through voice, messaging, and visuals—across any channel you own or don't. Or said another way: When your TikTok looks gloriously relatable but the homepage looks like Legal wrote it.
IN: Emotional B2B
OUT: Rational B2B
I know, you want both. Fair enuf. To clarify: What's OUT is B2B marketing without any emotional resonance. Your buyers have brains AND they well up watching that final scene in Wicked. Remember that this year.
IN: Content for brand building
OUT: Content for MQLs or traffic
90% of B2B buyers buy the brand they already knew before they began searching for solution or tool or doohickey. In an age of AI, the brand that is remembered is the brand that is bought. P.S. to leaders in the room: Adjust your performance metrics accordingly.
IN: Comments written by people
OUT: AI-slop comments
"I completely agree that collaboration with Sales is key in Marketing! What ways do you find most valuable in collaborating?"
We see you, AI commenters, but we will no longer acknowledge you. Try harder. Make cræft.
IN: Thoughtful beats
OUT: Hot takes
When the news broke that President Joe Biden unexpectedly pardoned his son Hunter, political analyst Molly Jong-Fast was asked on live television for a "fast and furious" reaction. Jong-Fast paused for a moment. Then she said: "I just heard it. I have to process it. I don't have a take. I'm sorry."
Some news outlets ran with that story—not about Hunter. But about how Molly was "speechless," and her hesitation to comment on the fly was a failing.
She failed because she had to process? WTH. Maybe the pressure to spew out a hot take undermines us—not just in politics. But in social media, in business, in relationships, in life.
IN: As Slow As Needed
OUT: As Soon As Possible
Maybe we do ourselves dirty when we don't pause to consider: Which serves us better...? The reflexive hot-take delivered ASAP? Or the considered, thoughtful one? The one that takes time?
Reflective consideration is sacrificed when we are reflexively rushed to a decision. But often that rush is artificial. We aren't on live TV. We just feel like we are.
IN: Morning journal
OUT: Morning doomscroll
Four or five years ago I shifted my morning routine to include 15 minutes of writing down things in a notebook: Things that delighted or dismayed me from the previous day. Stories, interactions, conversations.
My daily writing habit tunes me into my life differently. It's made me more creatively productive than I have been in my entire life.
It's a bold claim. But will you try it for 90 days? See what I mean. If you need a template, here's a simple and fun one.
IN: Handwritten notes
OUT: Templated messages
"Why do you get so many handwritten cards and notes?" my son asked me the other day. He was looking at a few of them on the kitchen windowsill, propped up like flowers in a vase.
