2024 Marketing Insights: Content, Partnerships, AI Implementation and More

Marketingis a multi-tool component that keeps a company afloat through many channels and approaches. It is a multiverse of metrics–you just have to find what works for you. But how do you decide whether to stick with proven approaches or follow the latest trends?

The truth is, the nature of the digital landscape is ever-changing and you can never really know when the latest marketing obsession will once again become obsolete. It’s just the nature of things and in 2024 we all have to deal with it. The good news is that the overall trends are not as fleeting as they might seem, and keeping up to date with forecasts for the upcoming months can give your business the much-needed push to catch your audience’s attention in the highly competitive field.

Now, few things seem to be especially prominent amongst marketing trends right now, but before we dive headfirst into modern marketing, let’s recap the basics.

Why should you care?

While sticking to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy certainly has its benefits, in the modern day and age staying up to date is imperative to building a successful business. Your audience has ever-changing and evolving preferences, and your competitors continually explore new strategies to see what works and what doesn’t. If you want to stay relevant, you have to put effort into understanding what "staying relevant"  in your field means. Is it creating an AI campaign for a new feature or partnering up with a user for an honest review?

Your competitors reside in the same limitless space as you do–the internet, the main thing that drives progress and competition. There is plenty of useful information getting out daily, the question is: who is going to get there first?

First, set your priorities

In response to the very dynamic nature of social media marketing, brands are now ready to focus their attention on platforms that closely align with their goals and audience preferences. Now, that doesn’t mean you should abandon all channels except one; the goal is to prioritize a few and keep the rest low-key because having a prominent social media presence is the hallmark of good, recognizable branding.

You can save time and target a specific platform instead of many, like spending your time and money on Facebook campaigns when your audience spends most of their time on YouTube. Instead, create engaging YouTube videos, showcase product demos, collaborate with influencers, build a strong presence through community engagement, and curate visually appealing content on Instagram.

This is just an example, and the way you do it will be unique to your product and your goals. By identifying your priorities you can direct your attention where it needs to go, effectively reaching and engaging your audience, driving brand awareness and sales in a competitive market.

Now that your priorities are set, we can get into the upcoming trends.

The creativity of AI

In recent years the creativity of AI has gotten truly mind-blowing. With the recent unveiling of Sora, we have seen a new horizon for the creative potential of AI. While this specific tool is not released just yet, there are plenty that can help you in the process of content generation. Major brands are already collaborating with AI to create new-age marketing campaigns. Heinz launched one with DALLE-2, which ended up winning at the Drum Awards Festival, an annual global competition for marketers. And Nike allowed their customers to design their own unique pair of shoes–powered by AI.

There are plenty of examples out there. Big companies are using artificial intelligence not only for content creation but for ideation and strategy too. There are research assistants, generative apps, tools that can enhance resolution and ones that can make up a whole marketing strategy. Can it replace a whole marketing team? Probably not, but AI will for sure become a much more present trend in the coming years.

Yet, here you’ll have to be more careful since Google is already implementing measures to downrank AI-generated summarized content.

User-generated content

In contrast to using machines to do the work, chances are we will be seeing much more user-generated content in the near future. There’s already plenty of it, and according to the Gitnux Marketdata reportbrand engagement rises by 28% when consumers see both brand and user-generated content, and user-generated videos gain 10x views than brand videos posted on YouTube. It’s expected–we trust people, and a human presence in a campaign makes it much more trustworthy. Statistics can back this up–85% of users find user-made content more influential than branded content (also according to the Gitnux report). These days creating a tikTok with a creator raving about your product is more likely to get you more reach than placing a billboard on Times Square.

As you can see, an unpolished video can have more benefits than a perfectly crafted campaign. It’s authentic, and that’s its main allure. It also has to be done right. A big part of this is generating an environment that will eventually build a strong brand community. Regular communication and giveaways will make your users more likely to want to take part in creating content for you. And when they do, reward it! It’s already a very cost-effective tool, so you can direct your resources towards supporting this type of engagement. But if you choose to use this approach for your business don’t make it feel plastic. The modern consumer is overwhelmed with content and will be able to easily distinguish real from fake.

Micro-Influencer Marketing

On the road to authenticity, brands are now scaling down their collaborations with influencers. In the past years, we’ve seen it all and a brand deal from a celebrity is now simply a given in the media space. But the market is oversaturated and brands are looking for new ways to engage the same audiences by slightly changing their approach.

The 2024 State of Influencer Marketing reportby the Influencer Marketing Hub highlights a notable preference among marketers and businesses towards collaborating with nano- and micro-influencers. The reason is simple–higher engagement rates. Why? Because smaller-scale influencers seem more trustworthy. And, this strategy is much more cost-effective for the brand.

Partnership Marketing

Competition is the driver of progress. But what if you make your rivals (or just brands that you probably share an audience with) your collaborators? You already have so much in common: your audience and your goals. That’s enough to entertain the idea of partnership marketing to help both of your brands grow and reach new customers. Imagine the value you bring–doubled. This approach also allows you to cut costs, share resources, and exchange ideas with other teams. Brands do this all the time; luxury brands partner with hotels, tech companies collaborate with cafe chains, and retail stores are more than happy to spice things up by introducing a non-profit company special offer.

High-quality content

No matter which direction you go, high-quality content will remain a priority. We’ve all seen how annoying those extremely low-quality mobile ads can get. While this can get users’ attention, forget about it positioning your company as a respectable brand. These days humanity is overwhelmed with the amount of content that is up for consumption and so much of it is not at all well-made. It’s an opportunity for you to earn customer loyalty by putting effort into every step of content creation: from ideation to execution.

To further perfect your process you can conduct interviews with your potential customers to see what matters to them. This way you will be more attuned to your audience, so setting up an appropriate Tone of Voice and tailoring the type of content to your clients is bound to bring much better results.

Your work is you

An easy way to up the quality and effectiveness of the marketing content you produce is to remember that what you do is a reflection of who you are, and the way your brand communicates with its audience is a reflection of the values that lie at the core of your company. Treating your potential customers with respect by creating relevant, engaging, high-quality content will build a bond that is not achievable by dry marketing techniques and metrics.