Digital marketing keeps advancing, but the maturity levels inside most organizations are not keeping pace.

According to research from Smart Insights, nearly half of businesses are still operating at Levels 1 or 2 out of 5. That gap shows up in slow progress, scattered efforts, and results that never feel predictable.

Digital maturity is not about doing more, chasing the latest tool, the newest trend, or the next viral tactic. It is about building and executing a comprehensive strategy that produces consistent results and strengthens over time. 

Click to learn about 3 actionable takeaways

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What you need to know:

Creator Ad Spend Explodes to $37 Billion in 2025
Spending on creators and influencers is expected to hit $37 billion this year, growing four times faster than the broader media industry. Mid-tier creators (50k–500k followers) are getting the bulk of the investment, and brands are using AI to scale briefs, edits, and testing while still relying on creators for authenticity and reach. This is a clear signal that “creator-first” is becoming a default media strategy, not a side experiment. Read More

New Google Algorithm Updates Shift SEO Toward Trust and Experience
Google’s November 2025 updates are tightening expectations around content quality, user experience, mobile performance, and real E-E-A-T signals. The changes are hitting rankings in local search, featured snippets, and AI-driven discovery, punishing thin or generic content and rewarding sites that demonstrate expertise, clear value, and strong UX. This is another step away from “SEO tricks” and toward search as a trust and experience channel. Read More

Digital Marketing Roundup: Ads in ChatGPT, TikTok Ownership, and Missing Google Trend Data
Here’s a roundup of news that includes movement toward ads in ChatGPT, renewed pressure for a U.S.-based TikTok owner, and disruptions to Google’s organic trend data. For marketers, it means two things: conversational AI is becoming an ad channel, and planning that leans heavily on any single platform’s data is getting riskier. Diversification and first-party data become even more important. Read More

Systems Thinking Becomes the New Marketing Strategy
Across the industry, leaders are moving from campaign-by-campaign thinking to connected marketing systems. Instead of siloed SEO, social, and email efforts, the focus is on journeys that connect awareness, nurture, sales enablement, and retention across channels. The brands winning right now treat marketing like an ecosystem that compounds over time, not a series of one-off stunts. Read More

Small Businesses Are Worried About Inflation but Still Planning to Grow
Bank of America’s latest survey shows 70 percent of small and mid-sized business owners still rank inflation as their top concern. Most are raising prices to keep up with costs, yet 74 percent expect revenue growth by 2026, and nearly 60 percent plan to expand. The message for marketers: pricing, value communication, and ROI proof are not optional. Read More

Owners Expect Stronger 2026 and Are Leaning Into AI
In the same BofA data, 77 percent of business owners report adopting some form of AI over the last five years, and 43 percent plan to hire rather than cut staff. Leaders are betting that technology plus talent will drive the next wave of growth, even with economic uncertainty. Agencies and marketers who can plug AI into real business outcomes will have a clear advantage. Read More

Economy: Strong Fundamentals, Weak Sentiment for Small Businesses
The U.S. economy is currently growing at about 3.8 percent with consumer spending up 5.6 percent, but small-business hiring turned negative in October and sentiment is at its lowest point this year. It is a classic “vibes vs. data” gap: fundamentals are solid, but owners feel uneasy. This is exactly when clear forecasting, scenario planning, and performance reporting from marketing partners becomes more valuable. Read More

New Federal Business Trends Survey Gives Near Real-Time Signals
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey now provides high-frequency data on revenue changes, employment, and expectations across nonfarm sectors. For anyone selling to businesses, this is a reliable, regularly updated source to track shifts in demand and confidence instead of relying on headlines alone. Read More

Social Media Experimentation, Social Listening, and Generative AI
Hootsuite’s 2025 social trends report highlights three big themes: brands are loosening their visual “rules” to push more creative content, using social listening as a performance and trend-detection tool, and layering generative AI into everything from copy to content variations. The opportunity is to test more, listen better, and treat social as a learning engine, not just a posting channel. Read More

Short-Form Video Still Rules, but Authenticity Is Outperforming Polish
TikTok, Reels, and Shorts continue to dominate attention, but the winning content has shifted toward behind-the-scenes clips, voiceover commentary, and opinionated, less polished videos. Highly produced, trend-chasing content is losing ground to personality and point of view. Brands that let real people lead the story are seeing better engagement. Read More

On that note… consider subscribing to the thoughts and opinions of our founder, Chris Auman, with his weekly Marketing Brief.

AI and Automation Are Becoming the Backbone of Marketing, Not a Side Tool
Deloitte’s 2025 trends report frames generative AI and automation as the infrastructure that powers personalization, content creation, and localization at scale. The focus is shifting from “experimenting with AI” to embedding it in workflows so teams can move faster, create more relevant experiences, and connect data across channels. Read More

Email Marketing: Hyper-Personalization and Lifecycle Automation
Current research points to three converging trends in email: AI-driven personalization, lifecycle automation across the customer journey, and more interactive content. Brands using behavior, purchase history, and real-time data are seeing better engagement than those relying on generic blasts. For many businesses, email remains the most controllable, highest-ROI channel if it is treated as a system rather than occasional campaigns. Read More

Data Privacy: From Compliance Burden to Growth Strategy
Data privacy laws keep tightening globally, and marketers are being pushed to rethink how they collect and use customer data. Recent analyses argue that treating privacy as a core part of the marketing value proposition leads to higher opt-in rates, better data quality, lower acquisition costs, and stronger trust. The businesses that get ahead of compliance now can turn privacy into a competitive advantage. Read More

Businesses Lean on Talent and Tech to Power Growth
New survey data shows that even with a softer macro outlook, about six in ten businesses still expect to grow over the next year and are leaning into both skilled people and new technology to make it happen. AI, automation, and smarter hiring are being used together, not in competition, which has big implications for how agencies position their services. Read More

What “Return Results” Actually Means
Every organizations talks about results. It’s one of those words that sounds powerful in a meeting or looks good on a website, but it can mean almost anything these days. For Sanctuary and other marketers and business leaders, “Return Results” can’t be just a slogan. It’s a promise. Read More

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WEBSITE

2025 Planning: Cost Considerations for a New Web Design & Development Project

If you’re planning a new website, one of the first questions that comes up is, “How much will it cost?” It’s a fair question, but the answer depends on a range of factors that go well beyond design alone. 

Read More

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media Is the New Search Engine

Gone are the days when social media was just filled with pictures of your grandparents and controversial opinions that you don’t care to read. It has evolved to be much more and is arguably more powerful than ever before. People are now using social media channels as a search engine.

Read More

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STRATEGY

Grow Your Organization’s Revenue with a Comprehensive Digital Marketing Plan

Do you need a digital marketing strategy but you’re not sure where to start? Or maybe you’re unhappy with the results from your current plan? At Sanctuary, we focus on strategies that get results and help you grow your business. We’re leaders in marketing, and partners in growth. Learn more today!

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LEARNING “ON THE GO”

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KEEPING UP

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