Introducing a new series covering market sentiment.
This is something I like to track, as understanding your audience’s state of mind is critical to marketing.
Not to mention, current data can be compared against historical data and academic marketing research to find methods that are proven effective under similar conditions.
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index is great for general insight. It’s released monthly and comprised of two indices. The Present Situation Index gauges consumers’ assessment of current business and labour market conditions. The Expectations Index gauges consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labour market conditions.
Reports drop on the last Tuesday of each month. Here’s the latest from June 2025 (reporting up to June 18, 2025).
June 2025 saw Consumer Confidence dip for the third straight month.
Consumer confidence weakened across all age and political demographics (especially Republicans). June erased all of May’s burgeoning optimism and introduced new geopolitical concerns.
The main concerns? Tariffs, high prices, inflation, and the economy – with lower but rising worries around geopolitics and social unrest.
- The Consumer Confidence Index deteriorated by 5.4 points in June, falling to 93.0 (1985=100) from 98.4 in May.
- The Present Situation Index fell 6.4 points to 129.1.
- The Expectations Index fell 4.6 points to 69.0, substantially below the threshold of 80 that typically signals a recession ahead.
- The outlook on current business conditions was slightly down. 19.0% of consumers said business conditions were “good,” down from 21.4% in May. 15.3% said business conditions were “bad,” up from 13.7%.
- The future business conditions assessment was more pessimistic. 16.7% of consumers expected business conditions to improve, down from 19.9% in May. 24.0% expected business conditions to worsen, down from 25.4%.
- Consumers’ income prospects outlook was moderately less positive. 16.3% of consumers expected their incomes to increase, down from 18.6% in May. But only 12.4% expected their income to decrease, down from 13.5%.
- Consumers’ labour market views cooled. 29.2% of consumers said jobs were “plentiful,” down from 31.1% in May. 18.1% of consumers said jobs were “hard to get,” down slightly from 18.4%.
- Consumers’ views of their Family’s Current Financial Situation trended down but remained solid.
- Consumers’ expectations regarding their Family’s Future Financial Situation improved to a four-month high.
- The Perceived Likelihood of a US Recession over the Next 12 Months rose slightly and remains higher than 2024’s levels.
How low consumer confidence can impact your business.
Consumer confidence can predict shifting behaviour across both consumer and business markets.
Lower confidence can mean:
- Less discretionary spending
- Lengthier sales cycles
- Additional B2B stakeholders
- Lower risk tolerance
- More value-orientation
- Stressed decision-makers
Whether you’re in financial services, management consulting, or CPG, the decision-makers on the other end are still human beings who make decisions based on their subconscious perceptions, needs, and biases.
5 Tips for approaching a low-confidence market.
Low-confidence buyers can be more hesitant and risk-averse (on both financial and social levels). You can assuage their concerns and spark the impetus needed to move forward with credible, value-anchored messaging.
- Be human, show empathy, and lead with tact. People want to connect with people – real, vulnerable, imperfect people who are out there, risking it, and putting themselves on the line just like they are.
- Anchor your true value. Go beyond surface benefits and drive in the deeper outcomes your buyer can anticipate – the ones that outweigh the risks of potential productivity slowdowns, internal resistance, customer friction, etc.
- Nurture the middle. Underconfident buyers often waver in the middle of the funnel. Nudge them out of that “maybe” zone with enriched content tailored for each stakeholder. 15-20 minute webinars are authoritative and engaging, without requiring too much of their time.
- Facts, proof, evidence. Provide buyers with all the logical, fact-based information they need to buy. Sprinkle this throughout the buyer’s journey with videos, benchmarks, one-pagers, client results, case studies, reports, etc. Make it objective and turn it into stories.
- Stop gating. Lower the barriers between you and your audience with more ungated content. Yes, lead generation is critical. But if what you have to say is convincing enough, they’ll still reach out to you.
When buyer sentiment shifts, your message should too.
Think of your marketing like a conversation with a friend. You wouldn’t speak to a friend who just got laid off the same way as you would to one who just got promoted. Each situation calls for a different tone, different words, and a different approach.
The same applies to your messaging. Your content needs to be contextually, socially, and emotionally appropriate – speaking to where your audience is today, not where they were eight months ago.
Understanding buyer sentiment is vital for effective B2B copywriting and content marketing. Of course, sentiment data alone isn’t enough to build an entire content strategy or copy platform, but these psychological insights are invaluable for message refinement – especially in email copywriting and LinkedIn marketing.
By integrating recent sentiment insights, you can sharpen your messaging to better resonate with cautious buyers, adjust your tone to reflect current market realities, and layer content that nurtures prospects through uncertain times.