This year has brought with it a whole range of new trends in marketing. Constant developments in technology and changing consumer perceptions mean we need to continuously adapt our marketing strategies. In this article, we outline the 27 most important marketing trends for 2024 that can help you reach your target group more effectively and take your marketing to the next level.
Marketing has become very fast-paced. These days, it’s essential for companies to take a stance on social issues and openly communicate their value to the world at large. This year’s trends will also continue to be influenced by technological changes, such as the advancement of artificial intelligence. Read on to find out about the marketing trends arising from current developments.
Key points at a glance
- Constantly adapt: Actively follow current marketing trends so you can identify new opportunities early on and adapt your strategies accordingly.
- Technology is key: Use innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and voice search to develop personalized and targeted marketing strategies.
- Focus on customer centricity: Put your target group’s preferences at the center of your marketing activities and offer unique content and experiences.
- Sustainability and ethics: Integrate sustainability and ethics into your marketing strategy to gain customers’ trust and build long-term relationships.
The 27 most important marketing trends of 2024
Let’s take a tour of the most popular trends and developments in marketing. We’ll start with online marketing trends, then look at more specific areas such as B2B marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, marketing automation and AI marketing. For each area, we’ve pinpointed three trends for 2024 that will help you optimize your strategies and adapt to current developments.
Online marketing trends in 2024
In 2024, online marketing continues to be shaped by technological developments and emerging consumer trends. Here are three key trends that you should integrate into your marketing strategy.
Voice Search Optimization: Voice assistants are revolutionizing search
The use of voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant continues to grow. Studies show that more and more people are using voice search to find information or purchase products. You should therefore design your content so that it performs well in voice searches: use natural language, answer frequently asked questions directly, and optimize your content for local search queries. This will increase your visibility in search results and help you reach new target groups.
Interactive content: Captivate users with interactive content
Interactive content is becoming increasingly popular and promotes customer loyalty. Content such as quizzes, surveys, interactive infographics and 360-degree videos not only encourage interaction, but also increase the time spent on your website. This type of content improves your UX and can help boost your SEO rankings. Interactive content also provides insights into the behavior of your target audience, which you can use to optimize your marketing strategies.
Privacy-focused marketing: Data protection as a competitive advantage
With increasing data protection requirements, it’s becoming ever more important to protect your users’ privacy. Transparent data protection practices and responsible data handling will strengthen customers’ trust in your business. To increase the likelihood that your marketing messages will be positively received, and to strengthen customer loyalty in the long term, choose privacy-friendly technologies and give your users clear and comprehensible information about how their data is used.
B2B marketing trends in 2024
Trends are also developing rapidly in the area of B2B marketing. B2B is becoming increasingly similar to B2C and requires new approaches to remain successful. Here are three important B2B marketing trends that you should consider in 2024.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Personalized strategies for top customers
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) remains a key trend in B2B marketing. This method focuses on creating personalized marketing strategies for specific, valuable customer accounts. ABM enables better targeting of individual companies. By using specialized software and data analytics, you can better allocate your marketing resources and increase ROI.
In the video below, our CMO Andy Culligan explains how you can implement ABM in six simple steps:
Data-driven marketing: Improving decisions through data analysis
Data-driven marketing is becoming increasingly relevant. By using AI-supported tools, you can gain deeper insights into your customers’ behavior, helping you develop more precise marketing campaigns. Companies that use data analysis and business intelligence are better equipped to respond to changes in the market and create personalized experiences for their customers. With MARMIND, you always have an overview of all your campaigns and can plan them effectively.
Hybrid events: Combining physical and digital experiences
Hybrid events combining both physical and digital elements are becoming increasingly important. These events offer you the opportunity to reach a wider audience while still taking advantage of face-to-face interactions. Hybrid events also allow you to collect valuable data and improve interaction with your customers. By combining live streaming, virtual meetings and physical events, you can maximize your reach and address a diverse audience.
Social media marketing trends in 2024
Social media will remain a key factor for awareness and trust in 2024. New platforms and technologies offer you the opportunity to reach and connect with your target audience in novel ways. Here are three key social media marketing trends you should be aware of.
Longer videos: More space for detailed content
Platforms such as Instagram and TikTok have extended their maximum video length to five minutes, giving you the opportunity to create more in-depth and comprehensive content. Whether you use these platforms for product presentations, instructions or storytelling, longer videos mean you can present topics in more detail than before. This development encourages engagement and enables you to strengthen customer loyalty.
Telegram: New opportunities for targeted communication
Telegram has become one of the most important messaging platforms, with over 800 million active users worldwide. This platform offers unique opportunities for social media marketing, especially through the use of channels and groups. You can share exclusive content, give direct updates and launch interactive campaigns that reach your target audience without algorithmic restrictions. Use Telegram to maintain closer, more personal communication with your followers and maximize your reach.
TikTok: Development of the platform into an e-shop
TikTok is increasingly developing into an e-commerce platform. In the US, users can already buy products directly within the app, and this function could soon be available in Europe too. TikTok Shop allows you to present products in videos that users can purchase immediately without leaving the app. Product review videos from other users are particularly effective, providing authentic recommendations and building trust in the products on offer.
MARMIND’s interactive marketing calendar enables you to keep track of your social media campaigns. Use filters, groupings and colors to create individual views and save them using bookmarks. The hierarchical structure of the plan allows you to maintain a comprehensive oversight at all times – from the big picture down to the smallest detail.
Content marketing trends in 2024
Content marketing will remain very popular in 2024 – however, the way in which content is created and consumed is changing. Here are three important content marketing trends you should consider for 2024.
Video-first strategy: The rise of the moving image
Videos continue to dominate content marketing. Users prefer easily-consumable visual content – use short, engaging videos to get your message across effectively. Platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram offer excellent opportunities to reach your target group. Use storytelling to build emotional connections and make complex content understandable. Studies show that videos increase time spent on websites and improve conversion rates.
Long-form content: In-depth articles for experts
Long-form content offers the opportunity to delve deep into a topic and position yourself as an expert. Such content is particularly valuable in the B2B sector, as it offers detailed information and solutions. Providing comprehensive and high-quality content is a great way to gain the trust of your readers and improve your SEO rankings.
Content repurposing: Getting the most out of your existing content
Content repurposing is an effective strategy to maximize the value of your content. Leverage existing content by repurposing it into different formats – such as blog articles into podcasts, infographics or social media posts. This increases reach and ensures that your messages remain consistent across multiple channels. With this strategy, you’ll save time and resources and ensure that your content is accessible to a wider audience.
Email marketing trends in 2024
Despite the multitude of new communication channels, email marketing remains an important part of the marketing mix. Here are three key email marketing trends for 2024 that will help you optimize your email campaigns and better reach your target audience.
Hyper-personalization: Creating individual experiences
Email personalization now goes far beyond merely using the recipient’s name. Hyper-personalization uses data and AI to create tailored content based on recipients’ behavior, preferences and previous interactions. Use data analytics tools to analyze detailed customer data and create personalized content that engages your recipients and increases conversions.
Interactive emails: More engagement through interactive elements
Interactive elements are becoming increasingly popular in emails, as they improve user experience and increase engagement. Features such as surveys, polls, image carousels and even in-email shopping allow recipients to interact directly within the email, without having to leave the message. This interactivity can significantly increase click-through rates and overall engagement.
Automated workflows: Efficiency through automation
Automated email workflows allow you to send timed and targeted messages based on specific actions or milestones in the customer journey. This increases the success of your campaigns, as recipients receive relevant content at the right time.
Affiliate marketing trends in 2024
Affiliate marketing is constantly evolving and offers new opportunities for companies and marketers. Here are three of this year’s key affiliate marketing trends you should consider when looking to optimize your strategy.
Server-side tracking: Chrome abolishes third-party cookies
Following much to-ing and fro-ing, Google Chrome will begin a gradual phasing out of third-party cookies in 2024. For affiliate marketing, this means advertisers will have to grapple with new technologies and server-side tracking in order to continue tracking user behavior. A number of new providers are positioning themselves on the market and offering solutions.
Diversification of affiliate channels: More than just blogs
While blogs and websites remain the standard channels for affiliate marketing, it’s becoming increasingly important to diversify. Social media, podcasts, and video content on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok offer new opportunities to integrate affiliate links, allowing you to reach a broader target group. Developing a strategy that incorporates different media formats will help you maximize your reach and target different audiences.
Problems with affiliate sites: Poorer rankings on Google
Affiliate sites are likely to rank worse on Google in 2024. With search engines having previously strengthened measures to improve the quality of search results and curb spam practices often associated with affiliate marketing, affiliate sites now need to meet stricter quality standards in order to rank well in search results. To achieve good search engine rankings with affiliate sites, it’s essential to pursue a quality-oriented SEO strategy.
Influencer marketing trends in 2024
When it comes to reaching your target group and encouraging brand loyalty, influencer marketing continues to be a powerful tool. Here are three key influencer marketing trends to keep an eye on in 2024.
Micro-influencers: Maximizing authenticity and engagement
Micro-influencers continue to grow in importance. Compared to mega-influencers, micro-influencers tend to be perceived as more authentic and often offer higher engagement rates. Use micro-influencers in your marketing strategy to develop targeted campaigns that build a deeper connection with your target audience. Since micro-influencers usually cover specialized niches, this strategy allows you to work more cost-effectively and still achieve strong results.
Long-term partnerships: Building sustainable relationships
One-off campaigns are increasingly giving way to long-term partnerships. Long-term collaborations with influencers offer multiple benefits; since they give influencers the opportunity to get to know your brand better and create more authentic content, they allow you to spread consistent and credible messages, create a presence for your brand, foster a deeper connection with your target audience and strengthen brand loyalty.
Integration of social commerce: Facilitating direct sales
Influencers can sell products directly through their social media channels using shopping features offered by platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. This seamless integration of content and commerce makes the buying process easier for consumers and increases conversions. Take advantage of this opportunity to boost your sales figures while increasing the reach and engagement of your influencer campaigns.
Marketing automation trends in 2024
Marketing automation is becoming increasingly important in efficiently managing and optimizing marketing processes. Here are three major trends in marketing automation that we expect to play a role in 2024.
Hyper-automation: Increasing efficiency through comprehensive automation
Hyper-automation goes beyond traditional automation, involving the integration of various technologies to automate all business processes. Tools such as robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning are combined to make complex tasks more efficient. This enables companies to seamlessly integrate and automate not only marketing processes, but also other business processes.
Omnichannel automation: Creating seamless customer experiences
In 2024, omnichannel automation will become increasingly important. This technology allows you to deliver consistent and coordinated marketing messages across different channels – whether though email, social media, SMS or website personalization. A well-integrated omnichannel strategy ensures your customers receive seamless and coherent experiences across all touchpoints. This not only improves your customers’ experience, but also increases brand awareness and customer loyalty. Opt for platforms that support such integration to manage your marketing efforts efficiently.
Behavioral triggers: Automated reactions to customer behavior
Behavioral triggers are automated actions that react to specific customer behavior; for example, an abandoned shopping cart can trigger an automatic email, reminding the customer of their purchase. Such triggers increase conversion rates and improve customer loyalty. They ensure that your customers always receive the right information at the right time, increasing the likelihood of a purchase.
AI marketing trends in 2024
Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly central role in marketing – and it’s changing the way companies develop and implement their strategies. Here are three key AI marketing trends for 2024 that you should be aware of.
Predictive analytics: Predicting future trends
Predictive analytics uses historical data and algorithms to predict future trends and behaviors. This technology enables you to make informed decisions and proactively adapt your marketing strategies. By analyzing customer patterns and market trends, you can anticipate future trends and develop personalized campaigns, helping you use marketing resources more efficiently and maximize ROI.
Chatbots and conversational AI: Automating customer interaction
Chatbots and conversational AI are becoming increasingly advanced and offer personalized customer service around the clock. These technologies can answer simple queries, make product recommendations and even handle complex support cases. By using chatbots, you can improve customer satisfaction and relieve your support team at the same time. This automation of customer interaction helps customers get answers to their questions more quickly and more efficiently, improving the overall customer experience.
AI-generated content: Automated content creation
AI-supported content creation systems enable you to automatically generate high-quality text, images and videos. These technologies analyze existing content in order to create new content that is both relevant and engaging – saving time and resources while ensuring the consistency and quality of your content. AI-generated content can be created in different formats and for different platforms, allowing you to distribute your marketing messages more widely.
If you want to learn more about using AI in marketing, check out our podcast episode with Luis Sousa, co-founder of The AI Break newsletter, below.
Marketing trends of the future
The future of marketing is characterized by constant change, driven by technological innovations, changing consumers and new legal requirements. Here are some developments that are likely to shape the field of marketing over the coming years.
Personalization and individualization
Personalization will continue to play a central role in marketing. Companies will increasingly use data-driven approaches to better understand individual customers and deliver tailored marketing messages.
Sustainability and social responsibility
Customers expect brands to commit to environmental and social responsibility. Companies that integrate sustainability into their marketing will be better positioned to gain the trust of their customers and build long-term relationships.
Technological innovations
Technological advances such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, blockchain and 5G will impact marketing in many ways. These technologies offer new opportunities for personalized interactions, new experiences and secure transactions.
Voice and conversational marketing
The prevalence of voice assistants and the increase in voice-based search queries will drive the emergence of voice and conversational marketing. Voice commerce and voice-based search engine optimization will be key areas in which marketers will need to adapt their strategies in the coming years.
Data protection and ethics
In the face of increasing data protection regulations and growing privacy concerns, the ethical handling of customer data is becoming a priority for companies. Privacy-compliant marketing practices and transparent privacy policies are becoming more important.
MARMIND - your Marketing Resource Management platform in 2024 and beyond
Choosing the right tools and platforms will determine the success of your marketing strategy in 2024. As a comprehensive marketing platform, MARMIND offers you the possibility to plan, coordinate and optimize your entire marketing strategy. With features such as campaign management, content planning and team collaboration, you can control your marketing activities and ensure that you reach your target group with the right messages at the right time.
Find out more about MARMIND’s marketing planning capabilities in the video below.
Conclusion
Overall, this year’s marketing trends show a progressive merging of technology, data and customer focus. Companies that are able to adapt quickly and take advantage of the latest developments will be able to strengthen their competitive position and build deeper bonds with their customers.
By monitoring the market, adapting your strategies and making use of innovative technologies, you can successfully master upcoming challenges and achieve long-term success in marketing.
Frequently asked questions about current marketing trends
What value do marketing trends represent for companies in 2024?
Marketing trends are crucial for companies to remain competitive and keep pace with ever-changing consumer needs. They offer new opportunities for growth, innovation and the development of a targeted marketing strategy.
Why is it important to follow current marketing trends?
By tracking current marketing trends, companies can identify new opportunities early on, optimize their strategies and differentiate themselves from the competition. This enables them to make better use of their marketing resources and achieve better customer loyalty.
What role does technology play in marketing trends in 2024?
Advances in areas such as artificial intelligence, big data, augmented reality and voice search will have a significant impact on marketing and offer new opportunities for personalized interactions and innovative marketing strategies.
How can companies ensure that they benefit from current marketing trends?
Companies can benefit from current marketing trends by being flexible, constantly adapting their strategies and responding to the wishes of their target group. To achieve the best possible results, it’s important to understand, test and optimize marketing trends to fit your company’s particular needs.
How can companies ensure that they are visible in the midst of current marketing trends?
To be visible in the current marketing environment, companies need to build a comprehensive online presence, create high-quality content that addresses current topics and run targeted marketing campaigns that are aligned with the relevant trends. Effective use of SEO, social media and other channels is crucial to increasing visibility and reaching your target audience.
