Marketing Mastery: CRM, AI, And The Differences Made By Unified Tech

How vital is a CRM to marketers in 2025?

If the results from HubSpot’s The State of Marketing report are any indication, incredibly vital.

While 52% of marketers without a CRM felt their strategies were effective last year, a much-larger and telling 82% of marketers overall felt their 2024 strategies were effective.

“Our recent research revealed that AI tools and unified tech stacks are a major differentiator in helping marketers connect with their audiences,” the report says, adding that teams using connected CRMs are “more confident in taking on their biggest challenges, like data privacy concerns, rising customer expectations, and the demand for authentic, personalized content.”

That data-driven focus has given marketers the advantage of reaching their target audiences more effectively — the top reported advantage for 35% of those surveyed — as well as increasing marketing ROI (for 34%) and “planning media mixes more effectively” (for 32%).

As for that other much-discussed Advantageous Innovation (with a capital A.I.), HubSpot found that AI has already impacted the role of 92% of marketers surveyed — including “more than a third [saying] ‘very significantly’” — as well as search traffic, with 19% planning on working on an SEO strategy for genAI in 2025.

(Source: HubSpot)

“As AI tools help take on some of the heavy lifting of data analysis, content optimization, and workflow automation, marketers are able to focus on creating authentic connections and valuable brand experiences,” the report says. “The road ahead isn’t about choosing between AI and authenticity, but about how we use them most effectively.”

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