All In: Social Spending, Email Marketing, And The ‘Fundamental Rethinking’ With AI
Whether it’s looking at human habits or at bottom-line budgets, it sure appears that marketers aren’t giving up on social media anytime soon.
In fact, as Blaze’s recent small-business marketing survey found, 21.6% of SMBs are “doubling-down” on their Facebook budgets for 2025.
However, when looking at AI adoption and segmenting its respondents accordingly, those with “limited AI involvement are clinging” to traditional social media strategies and those more significantly involved are putting focus on other channels. Nearly one in five (18.9%) of those businesses are investing more in “AI-powered personalized email campaigns,” followed by YouTube (17.6%) and then Facebook (14.9%).
“This isn’t just a minor reshuffling of priorities — it represents a fundamental rethinking of marketing strategy,” the report says. “The more AI-savvy a business becomes, the more they recognize that the unique advantages of AI align perfectly with channels that historically required too much manual effort for small businesses to leverage effectively.”
AI-savvy SMBs are also more aware of “what they’re missing,” according to the report, with more than half saying they struggle to keep up with marketing trends (compared to only 33.6% of SMBs in general). Whether that’s a self-assessment struggle or actual struggle, AI-savvy SMBs are seeing successes that others are not: 47.3% of AI-savvy SMBs say they’ve successfully entered multiple new markets, compared to 15.3% of those with limited AI use.
“When you’re using AI effectively, you see the full complexity of the marketing landscape,” says Blaze CEO Adam Nathan. “You’re no longer limited by what you can personally execute, so your aperture widens to include more platforms and strategies. That awareness can feel overwhelming, but it’s actually a competitive advantage.”
For more information about how to improve your email deliverability, download A Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing by Mirabel’s Marketing Manager:
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