What’s Actually Working in Digital Marketing Right Now (Summer 2025)

“Does this strategy really work to spend our marketing budget on it?”

Whether you’re a marketer or business owner, you must have heard this concern a hundred times (or even expressed it yourself).

But what are your options, anyway?

Option #1 is to stick to old-school digital marketing strategies you’ve already tried before (and they seem to be working—kind of).

Option #2 is to test something newer like the AI MarTech stack (ahem, don’t forget to save it—you’ll need it), with artificial intelligence buzzing its algorithmic way into your ear from literally every article and podcast.

What should you pick?

Well, as it happens, there’s Option #3. It’s a combination of classic and innovative maneuvers. What are the chances they won’t fail you? Let’s see what works like a charm in digital marketing and what crashes with a loud bang (or even backfires) these days. Cover photo by Zulfugar Karimov.

6 Digital Marketing Strategies That Work Today

Email—The Evergreen Performer—But Only Interactive and Creative!

At the very beginning, let’s send an inbox salute to ever-faithful email marketing. While the average email ROI is $38 for every $1 spent, one in five businesses earns $70 or more.

And if your emails don’t yet work, maybe it’s time to change something. Here’s what: inject some interactivity + creativity into them.

Interactivity in Emails

In practice, interactive elements can boost your email conversion rate by up to 30%!

Think of these:

• Emoji-based or simple polls
• Calculators
• Spin-the-wheel games
• Scratch cards
• Before/after effect sliders
• Countdown timers

Example:

Brian Collins incorporated a poll to interact with newsletter subscribers more effectively.

Creativity in Emails

Let’s be real—you can’t keep getting high email conversions over and over again, even if you send dozens of quizzes or spinning wheels. (Better yet, don’t: overabundance is one of the don’ts in email marketing.)

Pro tip:

Brainstorm extraordinary, out-of-the-box, or sometimes even radically imaginative ideas.

Example:

Here’s one of the creative emails from BARK. It is an amusing story from Harry (the Revenge-Seeking Hydrant) with the subject line, “Your dog has peed on me over 400 times…”

Video (Particularly Shorter Forms)

Short-form videos were the ROI leaders in 2024. And guess what? They are still the Alphas of the video pack at the moment. It’s the most preferable video format among 29% of marketers. They also generate the highest ROI (21%, as reported), surpassing images (19%), live streams (16%), interviews (15%), and blog posts (15%). They are also easy to produce; you can take the ‘do it yourself’ approach or seek explainer video services that specialize in short-form videos to create them.

These are basically:

• Instagram Reels
• TikTok clips
• YouTube Shorts
• Facebook Reels
• Snapchat Spotlights

Pro tip:

The main kicker is that you can use short-form video for email, website/blog, or any other digital marketing strategies that work, not only across your socials.

Example:

Take a glimpse of this blog post with a brief video trailer (1.36 seconds) about yoga teacher training in Bali.

Holiday-Driven Campaigns

In fact, the holiday season (between November and December) accounts for an average of 16.7% of the year’s retail sales, with slight variations depending on the retailer type.

Source

So, isn’t holiday marketing a beneficial strategy for digital promotion?

Amazingly, it generates revenue everywhere, from email to social media (and not only during the November-December period but also on other holidays).

Via Emails

Yes, companies still send holiday newsletters. And yes, they do work.

Here are several examples of newsletter subject lines from brands on different holidays:

• Valentine’s Day → Charm your valentine! – Bose
• St. Patrick’s Day → Lucky you! No hangovers – Recess
• Earth Day → Bake Your Way to a Happier Planet – King Arthur Baking
• Easter → Egg-cellent savings on SaaStr Annual 2024 tickets – SaaStr
• Independence Day → JULY 4TH BLOWOUT – Diamond Candles

Example:

Check out this interactive content (Spin to Save) from SaaStr on Cyber Monday (don’t forget: it goes right after Black Friday).

Via Websites

Example:

IndeedSEO embedded the following Christmas animation to add a dash of festivity to the website.

Even Uncle Google did that with flying bats all over the search page on Halloween.

Via Socials

Of course, you can’t miss out on social media marketing to drive sales amid holidays. Particularly, you should know that giveaways are by far the greatest tool for Instagram holiday marketing.

Example:

GEEKOM is damn good at giving mini PCs away on Instagram. Look at this giveaway dedicated to Easter.

Source

SEO (Particularly Local)

Local SEO is blooming its most exquisite blossom, especially when monitored with a website traffic checker to track performance by location. 46% of all Google searchers are looking for geography-based information by state, region, city, town, etc. But what’s truly remarkable is that nearly every third (28%) makes a purchase after such a search.

It’s actually working in digital marketing right now, especially with local keyword-targeting web pages.

Example:

The YourDoctorsOnline brand has several pages optimized for search based on locations in Canada and the USA. Let’s examine the following web page for an online doctor in Ontario. It contains local keywords like “virtual doctor in Ontario,” “licensed Ontario doctors,” “online doctors in Ontario,” and so on.

Pro tip:

Although Google’s search popularity is 373 times higher than ChatGPT search, try local SEO for ChatGPT specifically. It is also a digital marketing strategy that works because more and more people ask ChatGPT for information these days.

Example:

When asking ChatGPT about a corporate photographer in New York, the first result is CEOportrait Headshots NYC. 

The page itself is well-optimized with local keywords, such as “a corporate photographer in NYC,” “the best corporate photographers in New York,” etc.

Source

Humor—Take Out Your Ha-Ha Hammer (If You Haven’t Yet)

What if I told you that nine in ten customers want brands to be funny? At the same time, 72% would rather buy from a brand that uses humor over the competitor.

However, there’s a huge gap between their expectations and reality. A jaw-dropping 95% of businesses still fear sounding funny in customer interactions.

If you, by chance, fall into that cohort, let’s learn from the remaining 5%.

The types of humor they frequently use are as follows:

• Irony or sarcasm
• Pranks
• Parodies (say, skits as one of the best TikTok content ideas)
• Self-deprecating humor
• Pop culture memes
• Wordplay and puns
• Absurd/surreal humor

Example:

Bonobos is a pun-tastic wordplayer. Once, the company played on the words “fit” and “sh*t” for the “Fit Happens” tagline on their eCommerce site to create a positive user experience with humor.

Pro tip:

Make people laugh their socks off if you aim to go viral on social media. Humor is one of the most powerful emotional drivers when it comes to virality across social platforms.

But—

Know your audience! Not all comical content works equally well for every customer segment. It’s also better to stay away from black comedy (aka “dark humor”) and avoid joking about sensitive topics like religion or mental health.

AI Marketing

And finally, where would brands be without artificial intelligence these days?

Most probably, they’d be lagging somewhere behind their competitors.

Why?

Let the actual numbers speak: companies using AI achieve 1.4 times higher ROI and 1.5 times higher revenue growth.

Here’s how you can likewise apply AI in your digital marketing strategies to drive results:

• Generative AI (for generating any content you need, from texts to videos)
• AI retargeting (for recovering website or cart abandoners)
• AI influencers (for next-level influencer marketing)
• Voice or conversational AI (for cloning people’s voices or communicating with customers)
• Predictive AI (for predicting consumer behavior and sales forecasting)

Example:

In 2023, Oreo India tapped into voice AI cloning technology. They replicated the voice of Farhan Akhtar, the famous Indian actor, for the “Say It With OREO” campaign and created an engaging phy-digital experience. Here’s how. Customers could scan a QR code on their cookie pack to get to the microsite, ask a question or tell a story, and receive a personalized audio response in Akhtar’s cloned voice.

Source

What Isn’t Working in Digital Marketing (Or Has a Poorer Effect)

Hashtags Are Dead?

Before all social media marketers start flipping tables (or throwing angry emojis at me in the comments)—just hear me out.

As it turns out, Instagram hashtags don’t work anymore. At least, hashtagging doesn’t function as you might expect on the platform. Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s CEO, revealed that a hashtag no longer increases reach or engagement. Yet, as a tool, it still has a purpose: to categorize content and help users browse specific categories. That’s all.

And that was all for Instagram.

Note: If picked correctly, hashtags still perform better for visibility and reach on TikTok, YouTube, and other social platforms.

So, What Works Instead → Relevant Hashtags for Local + Niche Targeting

Example:

Let’s see how EnableU, an NDIS provider in Australia, uses those to target Australian audiences through relevant sub-toks on TikTok: #australiatiktok and #aussietok.

Source

Regarding sub-toks in different niches, these can be #SkinTok, #PetTok, #BookTok, etc.

Social Washing

What’s that?

In simple terms, it’s as if putting on a “kind-and-socially-responsible” mask and faking the deepest concern about societal values like ecology, body positivity, or others.

Here are several possible cases of social washing:

• Greenwashing: Pretending to care about sustainability and eco-friendliness

• DEI-washing: Pretending to care about diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Rainbow-washing: Pretending to care about LGBTQIA+ minorities
• AI-washing: Pretending to care about AI ethics

Example:

Suppose you’ve built a SaaS product powered by AI and now are boasting its “bias-free algorithms” to the right and left. But the truth is you’ve never checked those or bothered about responsible AI usage in general.

And someday, people can easily “unmask” your dishonesty, just like in this “Sustainable vs. Greenwashing” reel about a beauty brand.

Source

So, What Works Instead → Authenticity

Build your unique and awesome brand identity with honesty and integrity. Tell authentic stories without sugarcoating or exaggerating information.

Aggressive, Pushy Marketing Tactics

You may repel (rather than compel) customers if you go too bossy and forceful like this:

• Manipulations (e.g., “Don’t let your family down—get insurance today!”
• Ultimatums (e.g., “If you don’t order now, you’ll regret it forever”) 
• Product comparisons with too much negativity poured on competitors
• Misleading ads
• Excessive usage of all caps and exclamation marks (e.g., “ONLY A FOOL WOULD MISS THIS DEAL!!!!”)

So, What Works Instead → Softer Marketing with Freebies

In contrast, soft marketing is much friendlier and subtler, without screaming “BUY NOW!!!!!!” into people’s faces from the screen. And when you give something for free first (freebies), the principle of reciprocity winds up your digital marketing engine immediately.

Example:

As part of a softer marketing approach, the debt-relief company shares video testimonials (superb UGC, by the way) and offers free debt consultations to potential clients.

Source

Take the Right Digital Marketing Steps for the Highest ROI

From now on, you won’t have any ineffective marketing campaigns that deplete your budget and leave you with the “404: Results not found” error.

But wait, before you go →

Explore a vast realm of interactive content, such as animated infographics or After Effects on FilterGrade. Also, consider social media templates for strategic moves in digital marketing across your socials.

And don’t throw spaghetti at your virtual walls ever again—promise?

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