The Top Digital Marketing Trends Marketers Should Look Out for in 2024

Are you working on your digital marketing strategy for 2024? Read on to discover the biggest trends and get inspiration for your strategy planning. 

2023 hasn't been an easy year. Tight marketing budgets, a challenging digital advertising landscape, and the crunching of third-party cookies — there were plenty of hurdles for digital marketers. But with challenge comes opportunity, and smart marketers can use them to do more with less. 

Our Digital Marketing Trends 2024 report covers the biggest trends that will shake and shape the digital marketing industry, backed by social data, statistics, and survey data from marketing experts. 

Let's dive into a select few of the trends covered in the report and how you can use them in your digital marketing strategy. You can read all of the digital marketing trends in our new report here. 

Trend: Marketers embracing AI

AI’s the secret sauce, but even robots need a human touch. 

Mentions of AI were everywhere in 2023. Game-changing companies, such as OpenAI and Midjourney, were disrupting industries and making headlines regularly with new features and developments. AI will change the way we work in the near future, and companies that don't embrace AI will be left behind. In 2024, marketers will need to figure out how to apply AI to their marketing efforts without losing the human factor. 

In September 2023, we asked 516 marketing professionals about their predictions for the biggest digital marketing trends in 2024, and a staggering 92% said that integrating AI into their marketing will be the number one trend. The industry is seeing a significant shift, with marketers redefining their strategies to improve their results with AI technologies. 

And discussions about the challenges and opportunities of AI are massive. According to BuzzSumo, from November 2022 to November 2023, over 1.64 million articles were published, generating over 55.8 million total engagements. Interestingly, articles over 3,000 words in length receive a higher engagement rate than shorter articles. This could indicate that readers are really interested in learning more about the topic. 

What do marketers care about when it comes to AI and marketing? With Social Panels, we created an audience of marketers on X (formerly Twitter) and people talking about marketing on Reddit. In their conversations about AI and marketing, mentions of SEO and content creation and marketing increased by over 90%.

The analysis shows that AI can help in a variety of marketing activities. In 2024, we'll see marketers implementing AI as an integral part of every step and task of their marketing and becoming more sophisticated about how to use AI for the best business outcomes.

Trend: Personalization as the customer magnet

The marketing persona is dead. R.I.P.

Many brands are in the same boat, trying to win customers in highly competitive markets. Standing out from the crowd and getting consumers' attention is getting harder. And turning one-time customers into loyal customers is even harder. 

This is where personalization comes in. Brands that deliver a superior, tailored customer experience are more likely to convert new customers into repeat customers. In one survey, 60% of consumers said a personalized shopping experience made them want to return and buy again.

But here’s the thing: Consumers not only appreciate personalized marketing, they expect it. When consumers share more personal information with a brand, they expect a more personalized experience in return. According to Statista, three-quarters of customers expect personalization after a company asks them for personal information. 

There are many ways to personalize a customer's experience. For example, offering special offers to celebrate a customer's birthday is an easy way to make people feel seen. 

Another is to offer personalized products. Let's take the British brand Skin + Me as an example. The cosmetics brand not only offers personalized packaging of its products, but customers can also consult a dermatologist to get the skin care products that best suit their needs.

Trend: Creativity wins consumer’s eyes

Creativity is the neon sign in a sea of greyscale. 

In today's world, getting consumers' attention takes a lot of work. The average American is exposed to between 4 and 10,000 ads every day. This information overload makes it difficult for content marketers to cut through the noise. 

Getting information across as quickly as possible is key, and short-form video will continue to be the tool of choice for marketers. Whether it's Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, or YouTube Shorts, marketers will become more sophisticated in how they incorporate video content into their content strategy to get their message across in a matter of seconds. 

Content marketers will also have to get more creative to grab consumers' attention. With the human attention span shrinking to just 8.25 seconds, shorter than that of a goldfish, content marketers need to shake things up. In 2024, more experiential and interactive content campaigns will keep consumers entertained. 

Mars Wrigley, for example, ran a campaign in November 2022 that capitalized on the controversy surrounding one of its products. According to Mars, 40% of consumers hate their Bounty chocolate, and the brand used this insight to run a "No Bounty" campaign, announcing that they would be removing Bounties from their Celebrations box.

Lovers and haters alike took to social media to post their opinions and memes, and the campaign quickly went viral. Online conversations about Bounty and Mars catapulted to nearly 29k in November 2022, and over 24k people were talking about the Bounty affair. In total, the campaign generated nearly 75 billion impressions.

Trend: Social listening powers strategy

Social listening is the secret weapon for marketing strategists. 

Did you know that only 1.5% of online discussions about brands and their products and services come from brands themselves? With social media users worldwide expected to reach 5.17 billion by 2024, social networks are becoming an even larger pool of consumer opinions and insights.

Brands that don't monitor these online conversations miss most of what consumers are saying about their products and services. They also miss insights into how consumers feel about competitors and their barriers to purchase. These unsolicited online consumer conversations contain valuable insights for departments such as customer service, product development, and marketing.

With social listening tools like Brandwatch Consumer Research, marketers can gather real-time consumer insights that can help them optimize their marketing strategies to become more customer-centric. In our survey of 516 marketing professionals, 76% agree that social listening tools will be used to inform marketing strategies in 2024. 

With insights from social data, marketers can see how their campaigns are being received and use the unsolicited feedback to optimize their current and future campaigns. They can see which content performs best, which products customers love, and what their pain points are. They can benchmark their brand awareness against competitors and identify threats and opportunities.

For example, a cosmetics brand that is interested in adding solid cosmetics to its product line might use social listening to find out how consumers are talking about the topic. The analysis would show that online conversations around solid cosmetics are increasing the most, indicating a higher level of consumer interest. With this insight, the brand can inform product development and ensure they are offering a product that consumers really want.

There are many benefits to implementing a social listening tool and using social insights across departments. As more companies strive for profitability, staying on top of consumer preferences is more important than ever.

The biggest digital marketing trends for 2024

Consumer behavior and preferences are constantly changing. It’s a universal trust that brands need to adapt and refine their marketing strategy constantly to stand out in a competitive industry. Whether implementing new AI technologies or experimenting with video content, it's crucial to prioritize the customer's perspective. Understanding the value these initiatives offer to your audience is key to staying ahead in an ever-changing landscape.

A customer-centric approach should be at the core of your marketing strategy, and tracking consumer opinions with social listening tools like Brandwatch will be key to staying ahead of the competition.

Interested in more digital marketing trends that will have an impact in 2024? Read our report to get the full list, including: 

• Trends backed with data and quotes from marketing experts
• Real-world examples of brand campaigns to inspire you
• Helpful tips on how to incorporate these trends into your digital marketing strategy 

Get ready for 2024 and read our Digital Marketing Trends report.