Every business would love to think that their product alone is good enough for people to purchase, but this is not the case in the ever-changing digital landscape. You already know that what you offer is worth the investment, but potential buyers won’t know unless you reach out and tell them.
The quality of your product is eventually what makes a customer spend their money, but it could’ve been a TikTok video, your dedication to sustainability, or fast customer service response times that initially piqued their interest in your business.
As marketing specialists, we’re confident in deciphering micro-trends from tried-and-tested methods, and we’re here to help you identify which trends you should be investing your time into. 2024 is all about creating a positive overall experience, and taking note of marketing trends is an essential way to ensure you’re utilising the most effective methods to find customers who will convert.
Highlights:
AI Marketing
Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality have seen rapid growth in 2023, shifting from a scary unknown force to a useful tool in daily life. We know that AI can seem intimidating, and even the name ‘Artificial Intelligence’ can feel a bit alien. Understanding how AI is already being used in the marketing world can help gain perspective on what it could do for your business.
Conversational Marketing
We live in an age where we can turn to systems for immediate support and instant results, leaving businesses with slow response times behind. Hubspot has reported that 19% of consumers have reached out to customer services via direct messaging in the past 3 months. With figures like this, it’s time to utilise this knowledge to your advantage. AI powered chatbots can enhance the buyer experience in this area, providing answers in real time and guiding them towards purchase.
Virtual Reality and Augmentation
Virtual Reality is a tool heavily led by the gaming industry, but we are beginning to see its use more and more in brand marketing strategies. Homeware companies have been using virtual augmentation to let customers visualise what a piece of furniture may look like in their homes, whilst makeup brands have created filters allowing people to ‘try on’ different shades before purchasing.
As tech prices continue to come down, 2024 is definitely the year to begin incorporating AI into your marketing.
Generational Shifts
The way that Gen Z shoppers navigate the world of eCommerce is creating an exciting new landscape for marketers. With shorter attention spans and higher expectations for usability than previous generations, it’s well worth making note of what trends are landing with this generation.
Short-Form Video
TikTok’s popularity has soared with Gen Z users, and many other platforms have replicated this success with the launch of features like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Short-form video is an effective marketing technique that can captivate limited attention spans whilst showing your brand’s character. Many businesses have leveraged video to lean into personality driven content like storytelling, how-to’s or behind the scenes action.
Preference for Mobile Shopping
A whopping 75% of consumers have reported a preference in mobile shopping over desktop or tablet, and a large percentage of Gen Z shoppers prefer to utilise social media to make their purchases. Fingerprints, facial recognition, and one-click payments all provide a convenient shopping experience for users. There has never been a better time to ensure that your website is mobile friendly and that you’re using the best social media strategy.
Merging Sales & Marketing
Having your marketing and sales teams aligned is critical to success in a competitive market, but 35% of marketers report that a lack of communication between these departments is their biggest challenge. Businesses with tightly aligned Sales and Marketing departments have witnessed a 27% faster profit growth and 36% higher customer retention.
Sales and Marketing may seem like two different worlds, but transparent communication and a collaborative culture can result in success. If you’re struggling to find the sweet spot that binds these teams together, start by clarifying what each department’s priorities are. This is vital for both teams to understand the value that the other brings. Once this has been identified, shared goals will begin to rise to the surface and valuable opportunity for collaboration will present itself.
Recruiting the Best Marketing Talent
Creating a great marketing strategy heavily relies on talented marketers, but finding the right candidate can be a challenge. 35% of companies have reported difficulty in finding candidates with the right skillset for their needs. The reality is, it’s extremely rare to find one candidate who has expertise in all areas of marketing. Building a balanced team with a range of specialist skills is essential to achieve the best results.
The hiring market is competitive, so you need to ensure that your job vacancy has as much to offer them as they can offer you. Enticing benefits packages, flexible working and the opportunity for development are attractive benefits that can make your job advertisement stand out to the top marketing talent.
Your marketing team needs to be adaptable and forward thinking with proficient organisation to succeed, but this can be hard to navigate when you’re operating with a constrained team and a limited budget. Businesses can opt to outsource their marketing to agencies to have access to every skill under one roof. This option helps save on recruitment and training costs whilst receiving quality content and consistent deliverables from the get-go.
An Alignment of Company and Customer Values
In a world where negative news is in constant circulation, buyers are withdrawing support from businesses whose values do not align with their own. Chances are, as a business, you already have causes that are close to your heart. Whether you support a charity or are striving to be eco-conscious, your values will resonate with others. Good values can make the difference between a potential customer converting or searching elsewhere.
People like to know that their money is making a difference, and brands are utilising this to help attract likeminded customers. By leveraging social listening tools, you can discover which values your audience hold that align with yours. Once you’ve collected this information, start featuring these principles in your product descriptions, website, and social media. Like attracts like, and being transparent about your values is a great step to unite businesses and buyers together to make positive change.
Lead Generating Content
It may seem a bit obvious that your content should generate leads, but this goal can often get lost in the pressure to keep up with trends. Businesses are beginning to utilise the power of AI to speed up tasks, but incorrect use can result in low quality content. Artificial Intelligence can only do so much, so it’s worth curating content around the one thing AI can’t replicate – personality. Leaning into content with character shows a dedication to quality that’ll help you stand out from the crowd.
Personable content is rooted in a commitment to nurture leads and create an effective customer journey. If somebody has shown interest in your product, retarget them with insights from subject matter experts, webinars, Q&A’s, or quizzes. These are all fun and interactive ways for buyers to truly see themselves in what you’re offering, and adopting this kind of relatable content into your marketing strategy can help you retain traffic throughout 2024.
Hyper Personalisation Using Big Data and Analytics – Explained by Ouma Founder & Director, Ross Jones
"Utilising big data and analytics to enhance hyper-personalisation in your marketing strategy is an extremely valuable trend to adopt. Businesses should be leveraging the tools and data sources available from big tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft to personalise customer marketing and user experiences.
Retargeting campaigns are showing better return on investment (ROI) than standard ad campaigns, and when you combine methods like this together with personalised content and recommendations, that ROI only continues to inflate. A great example of this usage is Meta's Catalogue Ads. The process is designed so that the customer lands on a website, views a product (but doesn’t purchase), then is shown the same product on their Instagram feed later that day reminding them to checkout. This is a brilliant example of how the culmination of big data and hyper personalisation works together to maximise ROI."
Onwards and Upwards!
2024 is an extremely exciting year for marketing. From the rise of artificial intelligence to a new generation coming of age, there is so much opportunity to experiment with new marketing techniques that can benefit your business in the long run.