15 Key Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2024
Staying ahead of the curve in marketing is essential for companies seeking to thrive in 2024 and beyond. As technology changes the way marketers operate, it’s important to stay informed about the latest innovations so you can effectively connect with your audience in the year ahead.
Below are the key marketing trends that are set to shape the landscape in 2024. Understanding these trends is crucial for businesses looking to remain competitive and relevant.
1. Unpredictability
An election year during the age of AI means that the only trend I can confidently predict is heightened unpredictability. Brands face crucial choices on what to promote while deciding when to be silent. Trust and transparency will take center stage. Meanwhile, there will be a real human need for levity and humor amid the serious nature of the majority of content readily available in 2024.
2. Creator Marketing
We’re seeing large chunks of marketing budgets allocated toward creator marketing. That’ll continue in 2024 as measurement for the channel becomes more robust and marketers can more easily defend their investments. Creators will be the new retailers and department stores. They’ll continue to curate goods and services for consumers, and platforms will increasingly make bottom-funnel conversion a priority.
3. Marketing Science
In 2024, marketers recognize the inadequacy of classical marketing in formulating a go-to-market strategy. This paves the way for marketing science, a novel approach centered on combining GTM data and AI, utilizing machine learning algorithms to understand GTM mechanics, drive crucial improvements and optimize the marketing engine for growth.
4. Employees as Essential Influencers
Influencers will become more than just supplementary elements in campaigns; they will become essential to brand strategies. The real influence will stem from real people sharing real stories. As a result, we’ll see more B2C brands leveraging their employees’ influence, gaining consumer trust through their employees’ unique, insightful perspectives and genuine support for the brand and business.
5. Decreased Internal Content Teams and Evolving User(UGC)
In 2023, we witnessed robust slashes in B2B in-house content teams. User-generated content (UGC), once a photo-heavy B2C mainstay, has evolved into written content by expert users on community forums like LinkedIn to buttress the efforts of thinned-out content teams—a shift that AI has increasingly enabled. We haven’t identified it out loud, but this silent trend will continue in 2024.
6. Focus on Branding and Brand Awareness
Successful marketers will shift focus back to branding and brand awareness. While data-driven marketing, AI and other martech tools will continue to provide value, consumers still respond to good brand strategies. Getting your brand in front of your target audience has never been more critical. Find a healthy balance and don’t be so distracted by emerging tech that you abandon proven methods.
7. Consumer Marketing Fatigue
In 2024, marketers must pay attention to surging consumer marketing fatigue. They’re just tired. As a result, brands who bombard their customers with irrelevant messages risk alienating and losing them for life. The antidote? Personalization and relevancy must shape every marketer’s strategy throughout the new year, and marketing AI can help achieve that level of customer-centricity.
8. Quality Over Quantity
Quality over quantity will be key in 2024. We no longer market to businesses or mass generalized demographics—we market to humans. In any industry, it is becoming more important to generate memorable, creative and attention-grabbing content, ads, emails and websites. This not only links attention to demand but also provides lead generation driven by aligning brand messaging to buyer needs.
9. Offline, Tangible Experiences
A significant trend will be the move away from digital fatigue and toward fostering more human and tangible experiences. Brands will increasingly invest in creating offline touch points that resonate with customers on a personal level. Branded merchandise and events will play a pivotal role in this strategy, helping to establish deeper connections and memorable moments.
10. Commoditization of AI and Machine Learning
The increased use of artificial intelligence and machine learning will result in heightened commoditization across most industries. Customer experience or “our people” as differentiators will be strategies of old because we’ll rely on nearly identical underlying technologies to customize, personalize, innovate, make content and so on. If we aren’t prepared for commoditization, we may struggle in 2024.
11. An Unfortunate Influx of Impersonal Content
Many marketing organizations felt the purse strings tightened and needed to make cost-effective decisions while still meeting brand and customer needs. Events have gotten insanely expensive to participate in and sponsor, and with AI-generated content, there will be an influx of non-personalized content. Marketers must not lose sight of organic, personalized content and increase their use of video.
12. The Rise of Micro-Influencers
Leverage micro-influencers in your industry and community. The days of only working with high-profile celebrities to market your products are long over, and these micro-influencers are much more affordable for brands and can be just as (if not even more) effective because they are relatable and have loyal followings. Consider investing in a collaboration and see how it expands your reach!
13. Intentionality
In 2024, marketers need “intentionality.” This isn’t a tactic or buzzword but a philosophy that emphasizes a values-aligned, audience-first approach. Businesses are facing financial headwinds and a competitive landscape. More than ever, marketing needs to be strategic and efficient. Intentionality means every action has a purpose, aligns with audience needs and can be connected to impact.
14. CGI Integration
You’ll see the integration of CGI in what looks like out-of-home advertising. In 2023, we witnessed Big Ben wrapped in a yellow North Face puffer jacket, and buses receiving a glamorous makeover with perfect lashes, courtesy of Maybelline. As CGI technology becomes more accessible, we can anticipate a surge in these creative campaigns that blur the lines between reality and imagination.
15. A Focus On The Impact of Tech and Data
Expect marketers to pay special attention to content creation through generative AI, the personalization of the user journey via data and AI, campaign measurement and return on advertising spend, as well as the impact of smaller influencers and user-generated-content.
Source: Forbes Communications Council at Forbes.com