Digital Marketing Trends to Dominate 2024

You do not adapt – you perish - Darwin said it and the saying have never held as much water as it does now. The rate at which digital marketing platforms and strategies are evolving is astounding. Modern marketers must be extremely agile and flexible to thrive in the current volatile marketing landscape. While these platforms keep changing and thus spawning creativity, the goal of a marketer remains constant.

Our 2024 digital marketing trends predictions are outlined below:

Artificial Intelligence

From self-driving cars to brilliant digital assistants like Siri and Alexa, Artificial Intelligence defies the conventional way of doing things in one industry after the other. The digital marketing field, another rapidly evolving sector, is next on AI’s hit list for 2024.

The highly intertwined social media world has seen to it that heaps of data are left behind during internet surfing. AI can manipulate this data to provide a better customer experience by using predictive analytics to facilitate targeted marketing.

Strategy

Personalized User Experience

Based on the data it collects such as consumer searches, interests, location and buying behavior, AI will enable the conducting of customized content campaigns.

Easier Decision Making

Based on what you browse, you leave a data trail revealing your needs, behaviors, and future actions. Thus, through predictive analytics, marketing will be optimized to supply only the most relevant information hence reducing a customer’s research and decision-making process.

Chatbots

Chatbots will be gaining significant traction throughout the year. Chatbots are programs that can hold "conversations" using textual and auditory methods. You might not know but you are already using these AI technologies such as voice search functions on Siri, Alexa, and Google Voice Assistant.

What to Expect

The Rise of AI & Automation in 2024 is set to revolutionize the way marketers deliver their campaigns. Automated solutions will assist with customer acquisition, lead management, and reporting processes—making it easier than ever before for businesses to reach their target customers.

Influencer Marketing

All through 2023, influencer marketing grew steadily and significantly. Although a relatively new form of marketing, influencer marketing has enabled brands to increase awareness and target new audiences through influencers who communicate with their followers on social media. About 63% of marketers in 2023 increased their budgets to accommodate influencers.

Strategy

Video

Influencer videos have been found to be extremely useful for driving sales. Thus, 2024 will see video continuing with its domination of influencer marketing.

Build Genuine Lasting Relationships

Consumers are quick to notice when an influencer does not have an authentic relationship with the brand they’re promoting. Longer-term bonds based on mutual benefits are imperative for influencer campaigns to work.

What to Expect

In 2024, you will be hard-pressed to find a brand that does not use influencers in its marketing campaigns. By utilizing appropriate influencers, your products or services can get noticed by thousands or even millions of new consumers in an organic way.

Mobile and Voice Search

Only a few years ago, speaking into your mobile device was unheard of. In 2023, over half of all internet searches were conducted on mobile devices, where over 30% of these searches were voice queries. Estimates predict that over half of all queries in 2024 will be voice searches.

Strategy

Optimize Content for Voice Search

More and more individuals and consumers opt to use voice search rather than text. This is because the software that facilitates this, such as Siri and Alexa now has a very low error rate. This implies that marketers will have to optimize their content with the most popular keywords likely to be used by the consumer.

What to Expect

More marketers will ensure that their content is discoverable from any type of search to increase visibility, lead generation and user conversion.

Video Content Marketing

You are more likely to recall video content than any other media form. Surprisingly, YouTube has always been thought to play second fiddle to Google in terms of search volume. Recent statistics show that it is more popular than Google based on the number of users in a given month. YouTube has over one billion users who are almost a third of all web users with more than 500 million hours of video being watched daily. Facebook is also beefing up its platform for video marketing.

Strategy

Live Video Streaming

More companies will use this feature to conduct Q&As, interviews, live events, and behind-the-scenes content in a bid to show the human side of the brand. This trend is expected to intensify and be more interactive.

VR Video Marketing

Virtual reality will change the marketing landscape by capturing the users’ emotions. Showing an ad via a VR headset or 360° perspective is more profound than just regular watching because VR offers you an immersive experience.

What to Expect

Creative minds will push the boundaries using the latest video technology to capture consumers.

Ad-Blocking Circumvention

More web users are adopting ad-blocking software by the minute, much to the disappointment of marketers. Google is also designing the new Chrome web browser with a native ad-blocker. This means marketers must figure out creative ways to circumvent this issue.

Strategy

Ads Built Within Video Streaming Platforms

Brands will begin paying for product placement in streaming video sites such as YouTube, Hulu, or Netflix.

Business Listings on Reputable Related Directories

Business listings on appropriate local or industry-specific directories along with co-op opportunities will be utilized more often.

What to Expect

Marketers will utilize more content and influencer marketing and in some cases, intelligent ads that can bypass the ad-block technologies.

Quality Content

Content is still King! Software that mimics AI is already being used to generate content for websites. That said, nothing beats high-quality content produced by humans - be it an article, video, FAQs or photo.

Strategy

Create Quality, Meaningful Articles

Longer meaningful content will be on the rise to rank better on search engines and overall digital footprint.

Periodical New Content

The need to produce periodic media and content will be essential to stay on top of consumers' screens.

What to Expect

2024 will likely see more companies, like major publishers and news outlets, invest in AI software for content creation as they become more popular. Good writers will be in high demand and many SMB will outsource media and content production to professional creators vs in-house content creation.

SEO Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is far from maturity and is still evolving as search engines expand to account for video, photos, social media posts, and more.

Strategy

Long Tail Keyword Phrases Rise

Currently, there is an emphasis on single-keyword rankings. This is expected to be less effective in 2024. Long tail keyword phrases shall see a rise because they are more effectively incorporated into content which helps keep users on the site, thus offering greater precision in targeting desirable web traffic.

Mobile & Voice Search Optimization

As more voice-based search devices are integrated into our daily lives, properly optimizing your website content will be critical for a successful presence on mobile and voice search results and recommendations.

In Conclusion

As a marketer, you’re tasked with communicating the right message across various boards, raising brand awareness, increasing loyalty, directing more traffic, and getting customer engagement. Adopting some of the new trends and implementing appropriate techniques will put you in front of late adopters and competitors.

Not sure where to start or need to review your current marketing strategy, contact eLab Communications.