• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 7 hours ago

New Year’s Eve is here, and it’s time for a wrap-up of some of the key events and issues of 2025. 

It was a year dominated by political turmoil -- which distracted some marketers, even it did not directly affect the email science.  

For starters, it was the year that artificial intelligence (AI) gained more of a foothold. Marketers are using it for predicting consumer behavior (39%), content generation or ideation (38%), and generating insights and recommendations (38%), according to a study by GrowthLoop and Ascend2.  

But that same technology may be hurting them in another way. Google’s AI Summaries are reducing traffic for marketers and publishers both. 

"Traditional SEO metrics are becoming meaningless," says Georg Richard Aare, founder of RankUp, adding: "Rankings don't matter if nobody clicks. “

Aare adds: "We're watching the death of the blue link in real time, Even if you rank #1, you're now competing with an AI answer that sits three full screens above you on mobile. Most users never scroll past it."

Another hurdle for marketers was accessing the right data. In a Trans Union survey, 49.5% of marketers cited siloed or incomplete data as their biggest issue. This concern was especially troubling in the B2B sector, where 57%  

For example, 71.2%% of B2B companies now employ account based marketing (ABM) according to a study by Outcomes Rocket. Of those, 78.6% use AI for predictive analytics and targeting. 

Another issue was the ever-more discerning consumer. Over half of consumers prefer email for receiving brand communications, and nothing else even comes close. 

But shoppers may be suffering from marketing fatigue. In one survey by Optimove, 88% said they use email every day and 95% said they check their inboxes daily.   

Moreover, 80% said they will mark an email as spam merely if it looks like that. In addition, 55% said they will send a message to the spam folder if the sender has not asked permission to email them, snd 47% will report an email as spam if there is no way to unsubscribe.

There was a plethora of consumer lawsuits this year, with many challenging subject lines that communicated urgency.

Yet, this year’s holiday season seems to have been a good one for retailers. We won’t see final stats until next week.  

It’s time to celebrate. Happy New Year.