Then, they realize that magic is probably not real, put the crystal ball back, and hope that no one heard them. And then proceed to make rational forecasting.
We know very well that this happens because we are guilty of it, too. And 2023 was no exception.
Behold, the top digital marketing trends of 2024 that we came up with… after putting our beloved crystal ball down.
(no crystal balls were harmed during the making of this intro)
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI was a major topic of discussion this year, and rightfully so. AI has been transforming many industries, with IT, Healthcare, Banking & Finance, and— of course—digital marketing & advertising being the industries with the biggest impact. In 2024, AI will continue to shape and reshape all of these markets, and then some.
When it comes to digital marketing specifically, AI has transformed it in multiple ways, mostly by enhancing its effectiveness, efficiency, and precision. Here are some of the key ways in which AI will keep making an impact on digital marketing in the coming year.
A small pause for concern
First, we need to address some concerns that the advent of AI has rightfully raised.
To begin with, no, AI is probably not going to steal all digital marketing jobs. While AI has transformed many digital marketing positions, it is unlikely that it will make irrelevant most marketing jobs.
At the same time, AI will also create new job roles and create more opportunities in the future for job positions such as:
👍 AI Marketing Strategist
👍 Data Privacy & Compliance Analyst
👍 Marketing Automation Manager
👍 AI Marketing Researcher
👍 CRO Specialist
That said, the most in-danger job roles with the highest risk of AI disruption, according to MarketingProfs are:
👎 Content writers
👎 Email marketers
👎 Social media managers
👎 Graphic designers
👎 SEO specialists
If you are one of these marketers, don’t stress too much yet. It’s important to note that AI will keep on complementing and enhancing your work, including the work of those above, allowing you to focus on higher-level strategy and creative tasks.
We certainly don’t know if “AI will take your marketing job to the stratosphere”. On a more realistic note, however, AI will indeed not make these kinds of digital marketing jobs obsolete. Rather, digital marketing roles that don’t make use of artificial intelligence will become obsolete.
Come to think of it, suppose there are two identical content writers, as in skill or otherwise. One of them is making use of AI and the other is not. Chances are that the one who does will be more productive. As a result, he can create more value, and therefore, be more employable.
In other words, digital marketers who use AI will tend to replace digital marketers who don’t.
💡 Read: The Top 7 AI Marketing Agencies in 2024
Productivity & efficiency
Coming from the previous point, AI will make digital marketers more productive. Indeed, with the right prompts, AI can reduce and simplify the amount of work marketers have to do for many different marketing roles.
In content marketing, AI-powered tools can not only identify trending topics and suggest titles according to given keywords, but also create content for those topics from A to Z. What’s more, it can generate content such as product descriptions, summaries, and snippets.
When it comes to PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, AI can save time with its keyword research, bid management, ad scheduling, and targeting capabilities. Additionally, it can make real-time adjustments to bidding strategies based on data analysis, allowing you to optimize your campaigns on the spot.
Regarding social media marketing, it’s the branch of marketing that’s the most popular with AI. More precisely, more than half of marketers who already use generative AI in their roles say it’s the best helping hand they’ve had.
From more linear tasks such as caption writing and image creation, to more complex needs such as content ideation management and strategy ideation, AI and social media will keep on going hand in hand in the coming year.
And in the case of email marketing, AI can automate many processes including segmentation, personalization, and optimization. Algorithms now understand user behavior and user motivations better than ever, delivering tailored-made emails. Although this was possible even before the AI invasion, where AI shines is the scalability factor; high personalization at a great scale would be almost impossible to achieve manually.
💡 Read: The Best 10 ChatGPT Chrome Extensions for Digital Marketing
2. Content Marketing
In 2024, content marketing is expected to continue to be a driving force in connecting the brand with the audience. At the same time, there will be a shift towards human content and storytelling.
Brands are getting more in touch with their human side. They’re creating content that’s more relatable and authentic, and thus more human than ever. By leveraging storytelling in their content marketing campaigns, they can create a memorable and engaging experience that can lead to better engagement and conversion rates.
Another pillar in content marketing that is expected to grow is UGC content.
Take 24hourftiness, the second-largest fitness chain in the United States, as an example. Following Gymshark’s footsteps, 24hourfitness taped into the authenticity of UGC.
In this Instagram post example, a happy customer shares her personal story and the way the brand helped her to build her new self.
Being relatable through UGC storytelling is a winning strategy, especially for B2C brands, where consumers are looking for more sentimental connections, compared to B2B.
More often than not, consumers appreciate brands that empathize with their challenges and offer practical solutions. After all, they don’t want to see a lineup of perfect-shaped models catwalking on social media back and forth, all day long. They also want to see real individuals with real challenges and a relatable story about how they managed to surpass them.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Let’s make it clear from the beginning that “SEO is not dead”, and most certainly won’t be in the near future, let alone 2024. It may be one of the digital marketing branches with the most changes but this calls for big adjustments— not any kind of funerals.
So, SEO is still important. How important? In the last report from Superpath, about three-quarters of survey respondents consider SEO to be of equal or more importance this year than it was last year.
This kind of data suggests that SEO, as part of a content strategy or otherwise, will stay relevant— or become even more so.
That said, you will need to keep things in mind if you want higher chances to succeed in your 2024 SEO endeavors.
Voice search
Voice search has become increasingly popular in recent years, with no sign of this trend slowing down— understandably so. It’s convenient, accurate, and allows users to find information quickly and without typing.
Voice search can help with the SEO of most businesses. Many of them can afford to not make it a priority but the types of businesses that shouldn’t sleep on it are local businesses and eCommerce ones.
Local businesses. Voice search is particularly useful for them, as it allows users to find information quickly and easily. Restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, food delivery, clothing stores, hotels, bed & breakfasts, doctors, pubs-clubs-bars, hair and beauty services are some of the local businesses that can greatly benefit from voice search.
ECommerce businesses. Voice search is also beneficial for eCommerce businesses, as it can drive traffic to their websites and increase sales. Users commonly turn to voice search when making common queries, like getting a business’s address, directions, and contact details. Voice search is also used to look up operating hours and how far the location of a business is.
So, if you want some piece of the voice search pie in 2024, you need to ensure to optimize your websites and content for natural language search inquiries and long-tail keywords. But more on that a little later.
Helpful content
Google’s Helpful Content Update, which rolled out in September 2023, is setting the stage for 2024. It aims to weed out content that ranks high with little value and better match users with high-quality content that delivers a satisfying experience. Once more, through this update, Google highlights the importance of creating helpful content and rewards those who do.
If you want to keep in line with Google’s Helpful Content Update and boost your SEO ranking in 2024, here are some points to remember:
Create high-quality content. Websites should focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to their audience. The content should be written for people, not just for search engines. It should be helpful, informative, and engaging.
Focus on user intent. You should focus on understanding user intent and creating content that answers users’ questions and provides value.
Optimize for long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords not only offer great opportunities in competitive industries but also complement voice search queries. As voice search queries tend to be longer and more conversational than text queries, long-tail keywords can be better aligned with them. For example, in text search, users will typically type in “best running shoes flat feet”. However, for voice search, users will say something along the lines of “What are the best running shoes for flat feet in 2024?”.
Improve UX. Websites should focus on improving the user experience by optimizing page speed, mobile-friendliness, and ease of navigation.
Demonstrate E-EA-T.
E-E-A-T
The acronym that took the SEO world by storm this year, E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. E-A-T was already introduced in 2014 but now the term was re-introduced with the addition of the Experience part.
E-E-A-T is important because it helps Google evaluate the overall quality of a web page. Websites that demonstrate E-E-A-T are more likely to rank higher in search results. Therefore, to improve your rankings in 2024, you must focus on creating high-quality content that checks all the E-E-A-T boxes.
4. Honorable mentions
1. eCommerce
With online shoppers increasing year after year, it should come as no surprise that eCommerce will continue to thrive in 2024.
Besides the increasing potential of voice search examined earlier, a big part of the eCommerce digital marketing trend is also what is called omnichannel marketing. Omnichannel marketing involves providing a seamless and consistent experience across all marketing channels, including online and offline. As an eCommerce brand, in 2024, you should steer your focus on creating this kind of omnichannel customer experience.
2. Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR)
AR & VR marketing help provide immersive and interactive experience; the kind of experience customers are looking for. With AR & VR technologies becoming more accessible and affordable, it will be easier in 2024 to leverage them to create better product and service experiences for your audience through virtual showrooms, and interactive advertising campaigns.
In the recent past, we witnessed
- Gucci’s interactive advertising campaign introducing its shoe try-on experience
- Toyota’s AR-powered interactive product experience through its car configurator
- Etsy’s virtual house, a digital house that shoppers can virtually tour
In the future, we are definitely going to see more of these.
3. Privacy & Data Security
Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of their digital footprint, and governments worldwide are tightening regulations. In parallel, consumers have started to engage less with companies they don’t trust or don’t perceive as transparent.
So brands have started following suit, adapting their marketing strategies to align with these changes. The growing importance of data privacy, transparency, and user consent will make 2024 data privacy more relevant than ever.
In practice, this means that, if you haven’t already, you can start:
- Being transparent about your privacy policy
- Asking for permission to use cookies and making sure your visitors know how to opt out of them
- Considering using firs-party or even zero-party data
- Adding an antivirus with VPN features to your security setup is one of the best ways to strengthen the safety of your data and privacy.
Digital Marketing Trends 2024 – Conclusion
To sum up, 2024 will most likely be a more extreme 2023 regarding the:
- Expected productivity & efficiency due to AI
- Sentimentality and human connection through storytelling
- Quality of UX, provided through your content or otherwise
So, how does 2024 sound to you?
If you are looking for any help regarding your growth marketing or any of your digital marketing endeavors, there are many ways we can work together.
Just contact us and you will hear from us sooner than you think.
I write for GrowthRocks, one of the top growth hacking agencies. For some mysterious reason, I write on the internet yet I’m not a vegan, I don’t do yoga and I don’t drink smoothies.
