Understanding marketing trends can have real and significant bottom-line impacts for businesses. Here’s what to look out for this year.
For some of us, trends are something that we pay attention to because we want to look and feel relevant.
We wear the latest fashion trends; we go to restaurants that serve up the latest in fusion cuisine; we check out what’s trending on social media so we can join in the conversation or have something to chat about around the water cooler.
For businesses though, understanding marketing trends can have real and significant bottom-line impacts.
Customers, like all of us, are changeable creatures. What works for them today may not be the same as yesterday, and the evolution of technology means the way they travel down the sales funnel also changes. Marketing trends show us what customers are responding to and how we can best market to them.
At Assemblo, we’ve studied the data, crunched the numbers, and examined marketing trends around the world, and we can tell you definitively that these are the marketing trends to pay attention to in 2024.
Marketers will use AI more
Marketing’s love affair with AI (artificial intelligence) is running hot and getting hotter – according to marketing software developer HubSpot, 64 per cent of marketers already using it, and 38 per cent of those who don’t, plan to start this year.
About 63 per cent of those surveyed said that in 2024, most content will be created with some input from generative AI.
How marketers use AI is also changing. The traditional ways of using AI has included using machine learning to improve how and when advertising is purchased, as well as analysing and predicting customer behaviour.
In 2024, we see that expanding to include identifying patterns in user research and buying, assisting in creative development of advertising and marketing material, and building campaign strategies that are powered by AI.
Social commerce will drive ROI
The popularity of social commerce has been on the rise this past year (it’s currently used by 43 per cent of marketers), and with all indicators showing measurable returns on investment, its popularity is set to continue.
Social commerce is the combination of e-commerce and social media, where instead of social media marketing driving traffic to your online stores, your online store is hosted on the social media platform.
Recently, consumer trend surveys found that about 17 per cent of social media users purchased a product in-app in the three months prior to being surveyed.
If you’re not selling on socials, they’re customers you’re missing out on.
Video will grow
Marketers are mad for video and with good reason – video, posted on social media, is providing an excellent return on investment.
We’d go so far as to say short-form video is now the highest-performing content marketing format, with many marketers saying it offers them their highest ROI.
The platforms with the highest ROI are Instagram and Facebook, closely followed by YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter).
It’s important to note that in order to capture maximum customer attention, your marketing mix needs to be spread across all platforms, not just the highest performing ones.
Voice search will become important
An increasing number of marketers rely on voice commands to search for information, products, and services, and savvy marketers are creating strategies to best leverage voice-based queries.
They’re creating content that uses natural language patterns right across their marketing mix, and using local search – all this optimises voice search results.
The use of chatbots will also continue to rise, using personalised and real-time customer experiences to deepen customer engagement and drive sales. This year, chatbots will become more sophisticated, providing natural language processing, analysis, and seamless integration across multiple platforms.
Influencer marketing will evolve
Talk of the influence of influencers dimming are greatly overstated – in fact, predictions for 2024 are that influencers are going to play an even bigger role in buying decisions.
Consumer trends surveys show that last year about one in four social media users bought a product based on an influencer’s recommendation in the year – that’s up 33 per cent from the previous year.
While influencer marketing is set to grow, smart marketers will be focusing on micro-influencers, who have smaller numbers of followers but who wield tremendous influence in a specific group.
Contact the marketing experts with their fingers on the pulse
The marketing professionals at Assemblo may not particularly strike you as trendsetters, but we are experts in marketing trends. We know them, and we know how to best use them to deliver brand and business growth.
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne. To find out how we can help your business, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or send us a note via the contact form below.