Welcome to our guide to digital marketing 2024. It’s hard to believe, but 2023 is already coming to an end, and 2024 is just around the corner. With each new year, we all find ourselves encountering new and exciting technologies and methods for building our brands and businesses online. With this in mind, just as we did at the end of 2022, there is no better time than now to discuss best practices to utilize to take advantage of the growing digital marketing tools, trends, and practices that are constantly improving, evolving, and being introduced and used by more and more users and companies.
Some of the new technologies and methods, along with some that might be somewhat familiar to watch out for include social media’s evolving landscape, the importance of influencer marketing, the evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated content, and authenticity in posts and advertisements.
Social Media
By staying ahead of the curve and utilizing the latest digital marketing trends in 2024, we can ensure that our brands and businesses are successful and profitable for years to come; And today more than ever before, social media is being used not only for entertainment purposes but also for informational purposes, communication, news and current events, and even finding new products and services to use in our everyday lives. To remain successful, companies must focus on creating engaging content for their organic and paid social media strategy and providing excellent customer service.
Additionally, companies must stay up-to-date with trends and technologies that are both already in the wild, and those that are up-and-coming, to stay ahead of the competition. Utilizing all available and relevant social media platforms can be crucial to finding success in an increasingly competitive online space. Some of the platforms that you should consider having a presence on if you still need to join them include TikTok, Instagram, X (Formerly Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, and even YouTube. Each of these platforms cater to a slightly different demographic of your potential audience, and thus each could have potential benefit for your unique business, and the goals you may have to help grow your business, whatever that growth may look like. Be sure to take advantage of all the relevant resources you can, and improve your presence on each of these platforms as you see fit.
Influencer Marketing
If you haven’t noticed, some of the most popular career choices for a lot of the rising generation these days aren’t the same ones they were in years past. For example, many kids today are not growing up watching Saturday cartoons or even TV at all as much anymore. Instead of sitting in front of the tube, they are enveloped in the online world of YouTube, even as young as a few years old. This has led to a lot of today’s celebrities finding their voice and successful careers starting on social media such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Not only does this rising generation consume content on the go more than ever before, but even high-schoolers and college students are utilizing social media as search engines, to find recommendations for where to eat, what clothes to wear, what music to listen to, and even what new idea Elon Musk is just crazy enough to achieve success with. Thus, running social media ads and posting on your social media pages may not be enough in the future to find success in our digital world. You may need to reach outside of your organization to tap into this new emerging market. You could reach this whole new market by using influencers, seeing that according to one report, 61% of consumers trust products that are recommended by influencers on social media.
The first question that may come to mind when thinking of using influencer marketing in a digital marketing strategy in 2024 might be “I don’t even know where to start, let alone where to find and contact an influencer to help promote my brand”. You are not alone, as every business can benefit from utilizing influencers in marketing efforts, but not everyone knows where or how to start. Finding influencers doesn’t even need to be as daunting of a task as it might seem. There are plenty of ways to find influencers, which can be as simple as going to a website like Upfluence, which helps small to medium businesses or even larger companies, to connect with an influencer that is within their niche, get user-generated content, and build relationships that can help your brand to grow even more effectively. If you implement influencer marketing in your business planning, you can expect to gain additional brand authority, as well as improve your overall reach in a way that before might not have been achievable.
A.I.
Artificial intelligence, also known colloquially as AI, is gaining popularity more and more as advancements in technology continually improve. AI can be used for fun, such as with language learning models like Chat GPT, but AI is so much more powerful than we may realize. AI can be used in many different ways, such as utilizing AI to analyze the behavior of users on your website, so that personalized content can be delivered in the right way, at the right time, to provide an exceptional customer experience. Another example of the implementation of AI for business is through utilizing a software system and language learning model like ChatGPT to build and implement a chatbot on your company website. Using this tactic would allow potential and current customers to receive quick and informative answers to any questions that they may have, concerning the products and or services that you offer, no matter if someone at your business is available at that moment to chat or not.
One thing to watch out for relating to AI in 2024 is the authenticity of posts on social media and other online advertisements. Users today are bombarded with constant streams of information, from the millions of posts that go out to Instagram each day, to the billions of tweets on X, and thus it can be hard to differentiate your brand from every other company or user with a product or service when you only get seconds to catch a user’s attention. One of the best ways that you can avoid blending in with the competition, is to just be authentic. So much of today’s world, and the coming technological advancements, is moving in the direction of AI along with automated and algorithmic processes that are improving with their natural language models, but still don’t have that human touch to them. By being authentic, you can connect on a more personal level with your customers and potential customers, and help your brand to stand out from the crowd. Showing your authenticity can help to provide a sense of familiarity for your brand with users, which can then make it easier for them to decide whether or not they trust you enough to become a customer.
In Conclusion
As with any new year, 2024 will bring changes to the digital marketing landscape that will require a new approach to how businesses grow. While artificial intelligence has been in the news lately, influencer marketing and the effective use of social media will still be key components of a successful digital marketing campaign. By understanding how you and your business can take advantage of these new and innovative trends and processes, adapting and evolving your own business accordingly, you can then prepare to meet the challenge of moving with the industry and make a plan to answer the demands that may increase as a result of these changes.
When he’s not busy helping his clients’ increase revenue with online ads, you can find Tanner binge-watching true crime and war documentaries, listening to WW2 podcasts, doing epic 5000 piece puzzles, watching or reading anything Star Wars and Marvel-related, or spending time with his friends and family.
