No matter how you look at it, 2025 was not a normal business year. Heck, it was not a normal year in any way, shape, or form for our family.

I personally faced some health challenges and spent way too much time with doctors, specialists, and hospital visits. I am happy to report that, for the most part, that is all over, and I am on the mend.

Our dog, Layla, had her own challenges. She had two visits to the emergency vet hospital and was ultimately diagnosed with heartworm, and it took 6 months of keeping her still and quiet to get her back to health.

In the mix of all of that was an unstable business environment with costs of doing business rising faster than revenues could increase. Clients were cautious because tariffs from Canada, the EU, and China were changing as quickly as the weekly Powerball Jackpots. That spooked their clients into altering or slowing down orders because of rising business costs.

Throughout the year, I made some predictions about the business climate, and I thought it would be good to review how those prognostications actually turned out.

Predicted trends from my 2025 posts

It's hard to get actual data to prove or disprove any predictions. You know that platforms will always give you the rosiest outlook to promote their systems and sell more ads or accounts. What I can do is share real stats and perspectives from our actual clients and their accounts.

I want to preface by saying that, overall, across the internet marketing space, we saw more content. That content was short, primarily promotional AI-generated social posts and emails. What I have seen with clients is that organic posts that cross both email and social as a cohesive package have generated more action. I can say that focusing on current customers generates an 8:1 ratio of favorable outcomes over reaching cold prospects.

One thing that primarily affected the outcomes was that we spent a reasonable amount of time (and some money) to flush out current customers and real people over dead/irrelevant/and unresponsive email accounts when it comes to email lists.

What wins the audience?

I predicted that email marketing would be more valuable to your overall marketing plan than social media. Some sources are reporting engagement with social media on LinkedIn rose from 6% to 8%. Engagement does not account for turning clicks and likes into action, just views.

Email opens went from 22% to 14%. Click-throughs went from 49 to 43% (which are both very high rates considering). Contact Us form completions went from 253 to 216 (2025 is not done yet). We have found that the number of spam inquiries decreased while the quality of communication increased by over 20%.

When it comes to social media, engagement on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Google saw a huge drop in 2025, while LinkedIn increased hits to the company website by 41%.

Google search dropped by 15%, while email increased website visits by over 50%, and social and referral (ads) increased by 500%.

The bottom line is that email with a social media boost helped marketing buoyancy over a more social media-focused approach alone.

Is it Lonely on the Web?

Yes, evidence suggests that people reported slightly more loneliness in 2025 than in 2024, and heavy online time is widely recognized as a problem for many groups.

Research shows that around 69–75% of Gen Z and Millennials would choose messaging/SMS or chat over phone calls if they could only keep one app, underscoring a strong bias toward asynchronous text‑based communication. Text and email lack emotional context and adopt a less-is-more approach to sharing information, insights, and emotional intelligence.

The small talk that happens with phone calls and in-person visits leads to more context being shared. Personal preferences, experiences, and tone of voice add a priceless perspective and emotional intelligence to sales and relationship building.

I predicted that text-only, combined with the greater use of chatbots and AI Agents, would start to erode trust, while more interpersonal relationships would improve trust.

That means that you either need to train your sales team how to be more personal or add an intermediary who can foster that more through connecting and messaging. Optimally, a combination of both will help fill some of your relational marketing and sales gaps.

Is it AI or a Human?

​Surveys of marketers in 2024–2025 generally find that 60–90% of content and digital marketers are using AI tools in some part of their content process. One analysis of web publishing patterns reported that by late 2024, the number of AI‑generated articles being published on the open web had already surpassed the number of purely human‑written articles, implying that more than 50% of new articles were AI‑generated.

In B2B and content‑marketing specific surveys, around 80–90% of content marketers say they expect to use AI in their workflows by 2025.

When it comes to B2b Marketing, I predicted that AI would not replace human strategy, but instead increase the value of people who can interpret data, tell stories, and build relationships, reinforcing my long‑standing message that “tools don’t replace people.”

We have found this year in working with clients that human-to-human contact is so much more important than generating content. We have employed an L-CRM (Live Customer Relations Manager)​. This person would find current clients and connect with them on LinkedIn and verify their email addresses. If a client interacted, that would be handed off to the sales team to engage further.

AI does not know all the struggles or successes each human has, but a salesperson has insights that are probably not being entered into CRMs or other systems, which could help AI. But sellers want to sell, and data management is a chore.

Human-to-human contact requires two humans, and that trend was shown to build both stronger relationships and increase sales.

Closing Thought

As computers continue to replace people in businesses, it is becoming more essential to insert people where you can. These people need to be focused on building interpersonal relationships between your company and your customers and prospects.

Email is much more personal than social media. When it comes to social media, you can increase its power by making personal connections rather than relying on the algorithms to do it for you.

It's hard to ask a mix of people and personalities to do that for you, so consider hiring a human to prime the pump for them. It will pay huge dividends, increasing the longevity and value of your overall sales and profits.

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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.