2025 is here and your marketing budget is less than you’d hoped. Amiright? As per usual, we’re tasked with crafting digital marketing strategies that exceed expectations without exceeding budgets. Still trying to determine how best to use said budget, and what platforms to focus on for Q1? We’ve pulled together some ideas for you that take the best of the latest marketing trends and show you how to get the most bang for your digital marketing efforts, based on your objectives.

Give your 2025 marketing strategy a boost with these 5 tactics

If you’re focused on top of funnel objectives such as broadening reach and increasing engagements among specific target audiences:

Fresh Tactic No. 1: Connected TV Advertising

Over the past six years, Connected TV (CTV) advertising has grown from a technology present in just 22% of US households to an incredible 94% of US households owning at least one streaming device. Today, CTV viewership outnumbers audiences on Instagram and Snapchat combined. It’s a platform worth looking into for the growth alone, but also because it combines the best of tv advertising with the granular targeting and measurement capabilities of digital advertising.

Rather than broad targeting, you can target audiences based on location, income, interests and other relevant factors. So, instead of needing a huge ad budget to reach audiences with traditional advertising, your brand can reach the same viewers at a fraction of the cost.

CTV ads are monetized by impressions, not airtime, so longer ads aren’t significantly more expensive than shorter ones. That means brands can base the length of their ad on their campaign goals, rather than on their budget alone. Digital marketers will want to keep in mind some new tracking and metrics: pixel-based attribution, media mixed modeling, and incremental reach measurement.

It’s worth noting that 95% of consumers have a mobile device in hand while watching tv, which unlocks “second screen behavior.” In fact, nearly 70% of viewers say they look up information about what they’re watching. At alpha | BRAVO, we’re working on a few CTV ads as part of our clients’ 2025 marketing strategies and will be sharing the data in future posts, so stay tuned!

Fresh Tactic No. 2: Outbound Engagements

Personal LinkedIn profiles tend to drive much higher engagements and follower growth than their company page counterparts. That’s because people prefer following, learning from, and networking with industry peers. This year, brands start acting more like professionals. On LinkedIn the power is in engagement – specifically, commenting on other brand’s posts in your feed. You can feed the feed by commenting, and so can your brand.

Brands that drop in on content creators’ posts to leave a comment are more likely to pick up new audiences, and when a creator replies to your brand’s content, engagements soar! According to Hootsuite, 41% of companies are testing out proactive engagements this year to optimize their social media efforts.

Fresh Tactic No. 3: Micro-moments

If you want your audience to think of your brand first when they’re ready to purchase, you’ll need to create a memorable brand online that your audience will remember offline. Tug on the heartstrings of those who hold the purse strings by creating small moments online that trigger big emotions in your audience.

For example, a remodeling business might consider that a new bathroom is more than just a pretty, organized space—it’s the backdrop of your customers’ most precious memories, from preparing for the first day of school to getting ready for senior prom. Messaging that reminds your audience of their family’s most emotional moments associates your brand with those warm feelings.

Capital One and Chewy are two brands that excel in creating micro moments via social media and email marketing that translate not only to massive brand recall, but also to revenue. Check out Chewy’s social profiles for some inspiration!

If you’re focused on mid-to-bottom funnel objectives like capturing leads and driving conversions:

Yes, brand awareness is important, and trust is built at the top of the funnel, but you know that at the end of the month or quarter, it’s leads that are going to keep you in the black. These digital marketing tactics guarantee big growth for your list of qualified leads.

Fresh Tactic No. 4: Giveaways & Contests

It’s definitely not a new tactic, but social media sweepstakes are still one of the best ways to capture leads and build a list for your email marketing efforts. You don’t have to give away thousands of dollars, or “A NEW CAR!” to get your audience’s attention. A small gift card to a local shop or favorite online retailer is likely enough for your audience to share their contact info. Keep the barrier to entry low and you’ll not only create greater brand awareness but a larger percentage of your target audience will enter for a chance to win.

If you’re more concerned with the quality of the entries, hold a contest. It requires more effort, so you’ll likely receive fewer entries, but they will be high quality which will make your sales team happy. Either way, be sure you follow the rules of promotion law and of specific social media platforms. If you’re not sure, bring in a trusted digital marketing partner to manage the campaign logistics for you (hint, hint: we’ve managed hundreds of social media promotions – we got this!).

Fresh Tactic No. 5: Personalized, Interactive Content

Content marketing isn’t going anywhere this year. But, 63% of marketers say driving traffic and generating leads is their biggest struggle. People love to do two things: 1) talk about themselves and 2) show how smart they are. Both make audiences more likely to engage. The majority of marketers (75%) agree that interactive content is most effective at the awareness stage and 93% say it’s effective in educating buyers, but quizzes, assessments and calculators also earn 2X the engagement and generate 2X the conversions of passive content.

Creating a personalized quiz doesn’t have to break your budget. Repurpose your existing content, use AI tools to help write questions and, as with all content creation, keep SEO in mind.

Optimize Your 2025 Marketing Strategy