Marketing & Sales Trends for 2025
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As we edge closer to the end of 2024, you might be reflecting on where you are with your goals—what’s worked, and what hasn’t gone quite as planned.
This week's podcast is a chance to hit "refresh" and explore where to go next. There’s still time to hit our goals for this year and lay the foundation for an incredible 2025.
Here’s what this episode covers:
What’s working right now and where the industry is headed.
How to streamline your messaging, simplify your offers, and create more ease for your clients.
Getting specific with your audience to cut through the noise.
The funnel strategies that 20X’ed my ROAS
How AI should support, not replace, your personal touch in sales and marketing.
Resources:
Follow me on Instagram @PandoraPaloma_
Sign up for the Six Figure Sales Strategy HERE
Join us in London for the Scale in a Day Retreat HERE
Learn more about Consultancy & 1:1 offers HERE
Join Be Reel HERE
Transcript
Hello, Hello and welcome to this episode of the podcast.
I love talking trends and predictions, especially when it comes to marketing and sales.
So, in this episode, I'm going to be breaking down some of the things that are already widely seen in the digital marketing space as being a trend, and also some things that I personally predicted, given that I work with women at varying stages of business, and get to see a really incredible landscape of really what's working, what's not, and what I think will be working more in the future.
I'm going to break it down in terms of what I predict for marketing trends and what I am seeing for sales trends, and then I'll wrap it up from there.
So let's begin, shall we?
The reason why I think it's really a lovely time for us to just take a moment, think about what is working, what's not working, what we really want to be driving and implementing for the following year is that this time of year, we can either have remnants of the back to school energy from September, or it can be a time where we as business owners are looking back on the year and thinking, I'm not really where I hoped I would be, based on the goals that you perhaps set for yourself in the beginning of the year.
If it is the latter, I really want you to know that there is still time to turn it around.
October does give us a really good opportunity for setting the foundations for the year ahead,
so 2025 still gets to be the year that everything changes.
In fact, 2024 still gets to be the year that everything changed for you because we have a little bit of time.
Think back to the goals that you set earlier this year.
Is it perhaps time to take a different direction in your action taking so that you can actually see a different result?
This is something that's come up a lot for me this year, and actually really choosing to direct my attention, my energy, my focus into new things, new elements of the business that need my eyes and ears on taking action in a different direction, versus just doing the same things that I always do.
So for me, this year has been really optimising our funnels, building in new sales systems that we're now seeing, having built mid to earlier in the year and now really working for us in Q4.
So just really thinking about, is it time for you to take a different direction?
Is it time to learn something new? to lean into more support to help you stay on track?
There's definitely still time for this to be a breakthrough year.
I am building out a new funnel based on the live launch that I'm currently in for the Six Figure Sales Strategy.
What I will say is that if you want to learn how to build your repeatable sales system, please head to the shownotes and I will link in a short, sharp 15 minutes video that I have created, which gives you all of the information that you need on the Six Figure Sales Strategy.
But what we have been doing this quarter, specifically September, was testing some new sales strategies as part of this launch.
I'm really pleased to share that, actually, our pre-launch sales converted at 21%, which is well above industry standards. And our live launch elements that we are currently in at the time that I'm recording this are converting 11% and industry and average is 8%.
So I'm really, really happy with those numbers. We had a really healthy pre-launch.
We're currently in launch, and we're seeing a really healthy launch. We have also 20X'ed our return on ad spend. I'm gonna say it again, we've 20X'ed our return on ad spend.
So for every £1 I've spent on ads, we have received £20 back.
That has been the best ROAS that we have ever seen in the business.
And it's a big deal, right?
It's a big deal.
I'm very happy.
But what I also know is that because we are in testing mode right now, we'll be using all of the data, all of what worked, and building that into more of an evergreen funnel coming into 2025.
So that's why I'm saying there's still time to turn things around.
You could build out or implement something this side of Christmas that will give you some results this this year, but will certainly set the foundation for next.
I hope this has given you a bit of insight. It's really good to know that most people who are succeeding are trialing things out per quarter.
We're not just doing things month to month. And I hope that gives you a little bit of insight into what you could be doing, what you could be thinking, and obviously, with these trends, maybe what you can start to implement, to start seeing different results, if that's what you want.
Marketing trends, as a general rule, these are factors that impact how you're speaking to your audience.
A few things that I'm really noticing in terms of messaging specific and where people are at.
So buyers behavior, consumers behavior, everyone is overwhelmed.
They want to save time. We want to create more ease. They want to simplify everything.
You really want to think about with your offers, with what you offer as a promise, with the transformation that you provide.
How can you weave this anti-overwhelm piece into it, knowing that people do want to save time?
What could you do through how you're speaking to your audience that's going to support that?
And then the reaction actually to the overwhelm.
It means that people are looking to streamline, they're looking to automate, they're looking to simplify, they're looking to regulate.
If you're in the business digital space, I would say templates and tools, any form of service industry, how can you make it easy for your potential clients?
That's what we want.
We want tools, we want templates, we want done for you.
Something I'm also seeing as a reaction to the overwhelm is that there is a rise in a desire for 1:1’s.
Not that I think that courses and group programs are done. I'm absolutely not.
What I'm saying, I do think, and I'm seeing it and my clients are seeing it, is that clients, the potential clients, new clients are coming to them and saying, I just want some really deep support.
I've done the courses, I've done a lot of the stuff. I'm still not where I want to be, or I'm still feeling this way, or I'm still experiencing this problem.
And actually, by having that deeper level of intimacy and support, it is going to be the thing that's going to help them dissolve whatever they want to dissolve, find a solution to the problems that they have in quicker time.
With that creating more ease, saving time, simplifying everything comes with actually, what's the easiest way that I can do that?
How will I see the fastest result?
Niching down to stand out
Now really is the time to dial into your niche.
Things are exploding and that's a really good thing.
We know that come 2025, the coaching specific industry is projected to reach 30 billion. And that was noted by the ICF, Intentional Coaching Federation.
This is a big deal, right?
It means that we all get to have a piece of that pie.
I'm all about the mindset that this is a good thing for the industry, but it also means we need to cut through the noise.
So that's my predictions there.
Niching down. So, for example, if you are, let's say, a breath work practitioner and you're noticing that there's more and more breathwork practitioners, you might want to dial in to a specific person that you serve, such as women approaching the menopause, or working mothers who only have ten minutes a day, and your thing becomes the ten minute a day breath work program.
Do you know what I mean?
Where can you dial in and niche, in order to, yes, potentially stop a portion of people coming into your space, but being the person for the specific niche that you serve.
A lot of people will be nervous about niching down, actually. It can be really good, especially if an industry is becoming saturated - this is where you can go, okay, I'm not for everyone, but I am for these people. And that way you’re able to really speak to their specific problems, not just the wider problems that we see with something like breathwork.
So niche down to stand out.
Market research
I know this feels really basic, but I am often surprised how many clients I work with who haven't done their market research before launching an offer. Really understanding the problem that we are solving is increasingly important because whereas, maybe even a couple of years ago, we were able to bring an offer to the market and sell it out, now people are very, very discerning as to how they're spending their money and really what they want to get out of the programs that we're providing - the spaces, the containers that we're providing.
Really going back and finding out the actual problem for your client, and really understanding the language that they're using to express and explain that problem is going to help you solve the actual problem for them, but also speak to the actual solution as well.
Continuation on AI
Again, feels pretty obvious, but what I'm seeing in 2024 is for the majority of my clients and myself included, AI is great for supporting us to drive our marketing, but I still believe that actually we get to choose when is the right time to use it and when is the right time to not use it.
I'm going to give you an example.
So, using a bot for messaging if you're in a launch, can actually be really damaging for the brand when it's used wrong.
I had this recently, and I think I spoke to it in the podcast where it really put me off buying the course because I just wanted to speak to the person. I wanted to speak to this person and say, ‘hey, I'm in the UK. I would love to know what time the calls are, because I've heard that a lot of them are on Australian time, and that's not going to work for me.’
And all I kept getting was the bot going, ‘hi, do you have a problem? Please let us know if you have any questions’.
I'm like, yeah, that's the question! The question is, what time are the calls?
And then a human being would come in and be like, ‘oh, hi, Pandora. Yep, I'm gonna give you a link to the calls’.
And then I would respond, ‘okay, great. Also, I've just got one more question’.
And then the bot would keep coming in.
And at this point, I'm like, you know what? Like, I'm done here. It was just too much.
That could be quite damaging. I was very willing to invest five grand into this course. So, you know, we get to choose things.
Like Manychat, I'm a big fan of, but I'm also super, super conscious about how I even use Manychat.
I might use it as an automation for the first message, but as soon as that person responds, then human me is gonna gonna come in and respond to that.
So a lot of us got really worried about AI.
I just think that there's nothing like human connection.
I also think that ultimately, nothing will ever be our voice and a personalised approach.
We have been reaching out to every single person who shared their Instagram handle with us for the 6 Figure Sales Strategy training - every single person.
Our show up rate for the first training (the next one I'm going to be doing tomorrow) was 25%. Industry standard at the moment is 15%.
And the last live that we did back in June, our show up rate was 6.5%. So, we've gone from 6.5% to 25% by actually just being a human being and reaching out to people. There will be a continuation on AI, and I think that we really do get to choose as and when we use it, and use it as a way to support us, but not using it as the only solution, because I always know when my clients send me copy that's been created by AI. I'm like, this doesn't sound like you. This sounds like AI.
No one will ever really beat your own voice and that personalised approach.
Video optimisation
Video will still continue to perform really well. As I mentioned, we had a 21% conversion rate in our VSL pre launch strategy for the 6 Figure Sales Strategy. That's eight sales, five figures of revenue before we'd even launched. And that was using a VSL (video sales letter) strategy to former clients, new potential clients who we knew had the problem that we are solving within this course.
It worked really, really well, and I think video overall will work well.
Interestingly, when I was looking at stats for this episode of the podcast YouTube, YouTube is growing really well at the moment, and YouTube's engagement is also performing really well.
So interesting that we know that video is performing well.
And of course, YouTube is the channel for that.
And then finally,
Content as a new search engine
So HubSpot data cited that 87% of social media marketeers say that consumers will search for brands on social media more than on search engines, and that was during this year.
So 21% of consumers prefer to use social media to find answers that they're looking for. I think that this will continue as we go into 2025.
So what this means is it is very important that you are creating fresh content that drives value, educational, inspires.
You want to use that 80/20 rule, okay?
80% is value for the client
20% is you, your life, who you are, what you're up to, you know, how you're living and being.
And that's because people really are going to be searching for brands to solve their problems.
They're going to be looking on Instagram for business coaches, marketing coaches.
Think of how your hooks can support this as well.
So instead of going to Google and looking at searching for ‘how to create reels that convert’, you'll be creating hooks with how to create reels that convert, and then even maybe using that as a hashtag so that people can search for it and find you.
It's going to be interesting to see how this performs and what this means for brands such as Google.
I know for myself, actually, I use AI on chat GPT way more now than I use Google. So interesting to see how this continues in 2025.
Let's move on to 2025 sales trends.
The first thing I'm going to say is price point.
Anything under £500 is going to sell.
High ticket will still sell, but nurturing is going to be really key.
And people, as I've shared earlier, are looking for more 1:1 elements to support them more than ever before.
What's super interesting about two of my clients at the moment, whose funnels we've been optimising, driving into a group program, they are seeing results and conversions into that space. But because of the noise that they're creating, the trainings, even though the trainings are directing people to the group program, they're actually converting people at that 1:1 level as well, which we always see.
Any live launch that you do, you're creating noise, you're being seen, you're being visible. It's going to confer a larger number of people.
Not everyone's going to go into the container that you wanted them or that you've created that launch for them to go into.
What I always find is that people come through and want various other kind of levels of support, whether that's consultancy 1:1, or they end up coming into a lower ticket offer. But yeah, we're seeing that they are 1:! and then the group course.
So, interesting to think about whether or not you decided to play the evergreen offer route, or the ‘I'm not going to do 1:1’s, I'm just going to do group programs’ kind of route.
And if you were to add on some form of 1:1, how that would shift and change and evolve your conversion rates.
Funnels, funnels, funnels.
If you haven't got a sales funnel in place, now is the time to start.
I have invested a lot of time, energy, money in building out funnels. And I'm really learning everything I need to learn.
I already know funnels. I'm a marketeer.
But I really wanted to understand the very deep intimate details of a funnel and what I foresee.
I predict that lower ticket feeder offers will support directly leading people into higher ticket offers.
People want that taste - think nurturing sequence or sequences, think personal VSL’s, to bring in that intimacy and connection piece to your sales systems and smarter sales systems, so that your business doesn't stop when you do.
What I teach in the 6 Figure Sales Strategy is the live launch aspects that you test first, and then how you build that into your automated sales system so that you have your cash win injection, and then your reoccurring revenue all year round.
There's many different ways that you can do this, and there's many different types of funnels that I recommend for different price points.
As I shared earlier, if you want to have a peek at what is included in the 6 Figure Sales Strategy, there will be a link in the shownotes to a video that I've created.
The doors are open now and we'll shut on the 4th November.
The reason why I teach it in this way is that I think a lot of people went fully evergreen, whereby now consumers are being more discerning as to how they're spending their money without having that live element.
They weren't seeing the results that they used to. So when you bring in that live element, you're actually really supporting your business because it means that you can switch certain things on at certain times.
I might spend one of my quarters being in a live launch, and then I have all of those assets that have been tested and I know that they work. And then having the next quarter, run them on an evergreen, and then the following quarter I might go live again. The following quarter I run on an evergreen.
And so I'm getting those two cash win injections, and building the noise that I need to build to grow my business.
I also then have that system that is bringing me predictable, reliable revenue all year round.
That's what I personally see as a really smart method to business. I've never been someone who is, it's just this one way. I get business. I'm a marketeer, and here's all of the things that we can use.
What's going to work best for me, based on my values, my lifestyle, you know, and all of the things?
That's my thoughts and predictions on funnels.
I would say that micro funnels with those lower ticket feeders into higher ticket offers is the way forward.
But equally, we have sales systems in the business that direct people specifically just to my higher ticket. But obviously, we don't put those on ads because ads is a cold audience.
You've really got to understand your audience, where that's growing from, and then how you're nurturing them based on that.
Repetition
People might need to see your same webinar three to four times.
Yes, I know.
Listen, the landscape has changed. Things are different. You either play the game or you don't play the game. That's basically my mantra.
So as part of your launch strategies, I would consider building in 3 - 4 different times.
You can use things like Easy Webinar or Webinar Jam, a really good systems or software systems to use here.
But don't be disheartened. If you run your training or your masterclass or your conversion event and you don't see the results that first time, I would then consider having a second, third, potentially even a fourth, maybe doing that over the course of a week or two weeks.
We're testing that at the moment, so I can't give you the exact results. But what I know is we did a live training - we didn't see any sales directly on the training - at the time of the training. A couple trickled in very shortly after the training, and then actually on the deadline of when the price went up, that's when we had the majority of people sign up.
So we had our pre-launch and our launch, and I'm yet to know the results of our repeated training. So I will bring that here at some point, I'm sure.
But I would definitely recommend bringing in some repetition. People might need to see the same thing a few times.
New strategies to offset ad costs, because audience growth is harder organically.
Right now, what you will see, even a lot of Instagram experts I know are saying, ‘I feel like a bit of an imposter because I'm an Instagram expert and my instagram has not grown all year.’
What I want you to know is that it's actually less about the growth when it comes to things like social media now, especially places like Instagram. And I can't voice on TikTok because I'm not in that space. But what I'm personally seeing is that actually when we're optimising our content (and obviously, I support that through the Be Reel membership now), is that whilst people are saying that their audience isn't necessarily growing unless they're using ads, what is increasing is engagement and conversions.
And that's really the metric that you want to be tracking when it comes to your content. It's not really about the growth.
The engagement is important, but it's actually less important than the number of sales you're getting.
And sometimes it's the content that actually converts, that is the piece of content that gets the less or least engagement.
So, really think about content will always be king, queen - how can you optimise it and focus on the metrics that actually make a difference now, because we're seeing that audience growth organically is harder.
I do think that more and more businesses will resort to using ads. I've always been pro-ads when required. We will use ads in between launches. We use ads to support our launches. And what I consider a really smart decision to make at this point, if you do decide to use ads, is to build optimisations to offset your ad costs.
In this particular launch that we're in, we offset our ad cost by 44%. So this was by having an offer, a one time offer, on our thank you page.
So basically, I reduced my ad costs by 44%, which is pretty good. I think that we can get that to 100%. I know, and that's pretty punchy. But I've got some thoughts and views about that.
So I'll let you know how I got on.
I'm going to do a quick recap.
So, marketing trends,
Everyone is overwhelmed.
The reaction to the overwhelm means that everybody wants things that are streamlined, automated, simplified.
They want to be more regulated like, they want more ease. Okay?
You want to niche down, to stand out.
You want to make sure you're doing your market research.
There will be a continuation on AI.
Video optimization is key.
And content will be like the new search engine.
And then in terms of your sales trends,
Price point
Funnels. Funnels, funnels.
Repetition
New strategies to offset your ad costs.
And finally, it goes without saying, but your frequency is your currency.
Your frequency is everything.
You can build all of the systems and all of the strategies in the world.
But if you are not believing it's possible, if you are not fully embodied in your work and catching your internal blind spots to outgrow your old stories, you may be limiting the potential that you get to meet in your life. Okay?
In your business, I say this with so much love and someone who, with integrity, gets to share this because I literally throw myself into the depths of my inner world to get to my next level again and again and again.
It's very humbling, but it's very hard at times.
And so, you know, if you're not where you want to be, absolutely start optimising some of the things that I have shared today.
But also, please make sure that you are supported.
Make sure that you have someone in your corner who is catching those blind spots and catching you in the messy middles, holding you accountable, supporting you to take the next best step.
I really believe that.
You know, now, as the industry is growing, it's a really incredible time for us.
But it is also going to be pretty hard to really stand out as the industry is growing.
And I want to make sure that you are one of those people that stands out and sees results. And I know that you will do that if you are fully supported.
Fully, fully supported.
I hope this has been helpful for you today. If you have any questions, please do come and find me @PandoraPaloma_. That's my favourite place to play.
There's a couple of ways that you can work with me in Q4 and into 2025.
So Scale in a Day retreat in London. We have three spaces left. It's on the 22nd November. Tickets are £97.
So if you want in on that, I will put that in the shownotes.
The 6 Figure Sales Strategy. I've mentioned that a few times. If you want to learn how to build a repeatable sales system so that you can have those cash injection wins, build your reoccurring revenue all year round. It's a five month program. Doors close on the 4th November.
Again, I will link the details in the shownotes.
And then, if you are looking for very intimate, deep support, then I have my private coaching and consultancy. I have one VIP strategy day for this side of Christmas and my other consultancy packages remain.
However, prices will be going up from December ahead of the new year. What I am sharing with my community is that you can secure the packages at this year's rate to be used in Q1 of next year.
So if you're like, I definitely know that I need support and it's going to be in Q1 of next year, you can get that support and book that support at this year's rate, but use it in Q1 of 2025. If you want really close proximity to me, that's the space.
I will link my consultancy page into the shownotes as well.
Have a beautiful rest of your day.
Remember that you are magnetic and I'm sending big love from my corner of the world to yours. Take care.
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