Digital Marketing is an ever-changing industry, with new methods of getting your business out there becoming popular all the time, shifting with developments and trends in technology, consumer behaviour, and the way we see and interact with the world. 2024 looks to be a game-changing year in the field of online marketing, with significant new developments in fields such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, as well as the rising popularity of augmented reality marketing and continued dominance of short form video platforms such as TikTok having a major effect on how businesses are showcasing their brands to the world. As ever, it remains incredibly important to stay on top of each new trend and development in the industry to ensure you remain ahead of the game within your field. Here are a few of the digital marketing trends set to dominate the conversation in 2024:
Conversational AI
At this point, it has become increasingly clear that AI is not just a passing fad but is in fact here to stay. Generative artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT have become game changers in this field, helping consumers find answers to their queries and problems quickly and easily whilst saving significant amounts of time and money for businesses. It is now increasingly common for companies to use AI throughout every stage of the customer journey. AI can be used to develop targeted audience personas to make sure your ads are seen by an audience most likely to convert, helping a company to better understand customer needs and behaviours, along with assisting with remarketing and upselling products and services, and streamlining the customer service process to provide a more thorough and comprehensive service than any pre-existing automated system whilst saving on valuable resources for your business. In today’s world, the use of AI is becoming an essential facet of running a business, both keeping up with current directions and trends in the industry along with addressing fundamental customer needs
Personalisation
One thing that has become noticeable over previous years is that marketing has become a much more hyper-personalised field. Modern consumers are much more likely to react positively to content that has been specifically tailored around their interests and motivations. Brands can harness the power of data and analytics to learn more about their desired customer base, and create tailored advertisements and content based around the results, which has been shown to make customers more eager to convert. This can be done through product recommendations, highly customised content creation and remarketing to create a personalised feed of information directed at your target customers, and constantly analysing and reevaluating the results to refine your approach.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality marketing is one of the fastest growing digital marketing trends of recent years, and has been described as “reshaping the marketing landscape”. Augmented reality marketing involves utilising technology that superimposes digital components onto the real world, helping customers view practical applications for products before purchasing, helping them to make informed consumer choices on their route to converting. Augmented reality marketing can take the form of scannable QR codes that when opened can help users see the world in a new light, or virtual product trials that can show consumers how a product would look in their own personal context, or even more experimental and interactive forms of marketing designed to keep customers engaged and focused on your brand. As innovation can be an important way of making your brand stand out from the crowd, AR marketing is a fantastic method of showcasing new and innovative ideas to your customer base.
Featured Snippets & Zero Click Searches
Increasingly, when looking for information on search engines, consumers are getting their information from “featured snippets”, where Google displays a small amount of relevant text from a website at the top of search engine results pages designed to answer the question searched for in a concise, relevant manner without the need to scroll through multiple different websites and pages. Thus, gaining “position zero” on Google has become a competitive market, with websites who achieve such positions driving significant traffic, and making significant inroads with domain authority and their overall SEO strategy. Not only this, but gaining a featured snippet on Google can increase trust in your brand as a credible and verified source of information.
Ethics and Sustainability
Recent reports have shown that one of the most important factors customers take into account when choosing a brand, product, or service is whether that brand’s values align with their own. While we live in a polarised world, ensuring that your brand’s values and ethics are relevant to your desired customer base is of paramount importance. Such ethical practices such as transparency with data usage, ecological sustainability and authentic brand storytelling have become fundamentals within digital marketing in 2024. We have reached an age where implementing sustainable and environmentally conscious marketing practices can not only help preserve the planet, but is also great for your brand, tapping into a market who are likely to care deeply about this issue.
Short Form Video Content
Video content marketing has always been one of the most important tools for any digital marketing strategy, with video content far more likely to keep customers engaged and interested in your brand than other forms of content. The average person watches over 100 minutes of video per day, from more long form content such as television to short form content such as TikTok videos and Facebook & Instagram reels. Creating video content remains an important way to get your message on there, not just by advertising products or services but to create a personality for your brand and engender customer trust and engagement.
With all of these new and continuing developments, staying ahead of trends in Digital Marketing has never been more important than in 2024. Oftentimes, the changing nature of the industry can be daunting and confusing to businesses looking to be seen by more people online. Book a consultation with Every Trick today to see how we can help you navigate the digital marketing industry in 2024 and beyond!