Next Big Digital Marketing Trends in 2024
Given how quickly the business is evolving, it can be challenging to stay on top of trends in digital marketing. Additionally, a great digital marketing plan or campaign involves a lot of moving pieces, making it difficult to stay on top of everything.
The Covid-19 epidemic changed how B2B and B2C businesses in several industries conducted their business as more and more consumers made their purchases online. The sector of digital marketing and the responsibilities of digital marketers were significantly impacted by this transition. The reopening of societies, however, coincided with declines in site traffic and online revenues as marketing teams adjusted their strategies to match the virtual need.
In order to determine the major trends in 2023, we conducted audio interviews with top industry experts to assist marketers and digital executives in navigating this new environment. You may incorporate future advancements into your digital marketing efforts by using this in-depth look at six major industries to better comprehend them.
1. Social Media Marketing Trends 2024
TikTok will keep expanding, and brands must take it seriously.
If you’re not already using TikTok, you should if you’re talking about social media. Due to TikTok’s quick growth, the app now has 1 billion users worldwide.
TikTok has a huge user base (U.S. users spend up to 850 hours a month on the platform) and gives people and businesses the chance for their videos to go viral, which is a major accomplishment in the social media world.
In 2023, according to Alison Battisby, a social media consultant at Avocado Social, marketers need to take TikTok seriously. “The rise of TikTok in the past year has been nothing short of astounding. Because so many of TikTok’s features are starting to appear in Facebook products, Facebook is undoubtedly concerned.
TikTok was the highest-earning non-game app on the platform in 2021, with customers spending more than $110 million on it. This only demonstrates the app’s earning potential for advertisers aiming to increase purchases among youthful consumers.
Influencers have also contributed to TikTok’s growth, with many of them making enormous sums of money through sponsorship agreements. Battisby thinks that influencer marketing on the network is increasingly being noticed by brands.
“TikTok was sort of dismissed for a while, and isn’t that just for the kids? Nowadays, we see a lot of influential people using TikTok, like Gordon Ramsay, elderly celebrities, and even Rod Stewart. Brands are starting to realise that TikTok has a much wider audience than Instagram or Facebook.
Social Commerce Will Succeed
Using social media to find a product or service is simpler than ever. Brands raced to platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok during the pandemic to provide clients online shops in place of their physical stores.
So it comes as no surprise that social shopping, also known as social commerce, is predicted to grow three times as quickly as traditional e-commerce to reach $1.2 trillion globally by 2025, according to a report by Accenture.
As platforms work behind the scenes to enable client payments without leaving social networking apps, creating a seamless customer experience, 2023 will see the evolution of the social buying experience. By 2025, Gen Z and Millennials will generate 62 percent of worldwide social ecommerce sales, making them the greatest spenders.
As a result of TikTok’s partnership with Shopify and Instagram’s significant advancements with its in-app shopping feature, Battisby predicts that social commerce will explode this year. “Pinterest allows you to shop, and YouTube is working to improve its shoppable tags within videos.”
Brands need to spend time on Instagram store window presentation if they want to increase interaction. A single outstanding image is no longer sufficient; businesses now need to use many photographs for each product and include keyword-rich descriptions. Video is particularly important because it is becoming increasingly popular with all audiences, as evidenced by TikTok’s expansion and Instagram’s new redesign.
YouTube Marketing Will Take Off
In terms of advertising investment, YouTube is projected to soar in 2022. According to Brendan Almack, Managing Director of Wolfgang Digital, “I feel that YouTube is a sleeping giant, but I think that the transition away from linear TV, fragmentation with subscriptions, and streaming services all indicate that more advertising spend is going to go to YouTube.
Through its parent firm Alphabet, YouTube’s global revenue increased to approximately $29 billion last year, up roughly 46% from the previous year. This level of revenue, which puts the social media platform on pace with Netflix, is the consequence of brand advertising, direct response commercials, and an increase in traditional TV advertisers on the channel.
“The potential for expansion, or headroom for growth, is enormous. For CPVs, prices are still incredibly low, and the major brands are either absent or performing only mediocrely. This indicates that by using a clever YouTube advertising plan, anyone can get a slight competitive advantage.
If you want to build a YouTube channel that attracts viewers and generates traffic, take a look at our blog.
2. Digital Marketing Jobs Trends in 2024
Marketers must improve their digital skills.
The demand for digital expertise is high across industries as organisations scramble to engage, market, and convert successfully online.
Finding individuals with the correct skill set is the top difficulty facing the digital marketing business, according to our most recent whitepaper, “Perpetual Evolution,” which was produced in collaboration with The Economist Group. The lack of training to upskill marketers comes in at number seven.
According to Alison Battisby, Social Media Consultant at Avocado Social, “any brand out there is really seeking to better their competence in digital marketing, so there is a significant digital skills gap. However, a lot of individuals are having trouble discovering the talent. Upskilling employees is one of the issues that organisations are focusing on this year.
Although this demand is fantastic for marketers, it presents a problem for many in the sector who lack digital expertise or experience in digital marketing. What will be in demand in terms of digital marketing abilities in 2022?
Matching your knowledge with the abilities that employers are seeking is crucial if you want to enhance your career and upskill. Skills in social media marketing and digital marketing are highly sought after, according to LinkedIn’s study of its job posts. In fact, the digital or media industries account for half of the top 10 marketing positions listed below.
Rise of the Digital Gig Economy
Many workers have made the decision to live more flexible “gig” lifestyles over the last ten years. The introduction and growth of internet services and apps like Airbnb and Deliveroo have given people new options for employment outside of the traditional 9 to 5 workday.
Even before the pandemic, there were more gig workers. According to the “The State of Independence in America” report, there are more than 40 million gig workers in the US. By 2024, more than half of American workers might be self-employed, according to this analysis, which projects that this trend will only continue to grow.
People preferring to return to work on their terms at their previous jobs indicate that there is a greater sense of agency in the workplace. People have their own sources of income and a sense of agency, so there is less dependence on corporate America, according to Mischa McInerney, Director of Marketing at the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI).
With the gig economy, marketers with in-demand skills have more opportunities. More and more creative or digital marketing professionals are going the digital nomad way since it gives them freedom and the ability to choose their own working hours. In addition, a lot of digital nomads earn more money now than they did before.
There is fierce competition for talent in digital marketing.
It’s understandable that businesses around the world are finding it difficult to attract and keep employees given the rising demand for digital competence and the expansion of the “gig economy”.
Employers need to be proactive in recruiting and retaining employees, according to rla Stack, director of human resources at DMI. We will lose applicants to other employers because they are moving quickly as well if we don’t act immediately and meet with them tomorrow.
“The year 2022 will present a significant challenge for employers. Up to 60% of workers in the UK are expected to explore changing occupations this year. When candidates look at positions, they consider factors outside pay and benefits. It involves flexibility, career options, and what firms are doing to support employees’ development.
Stack contends that examining your Employer Value Proposition can help you draw in and keep talent (EVP). Unlimited vacation days may have been a desirable perk a few years ago, but with hybrid and remote working, this advantage has slipped in importance. Businesses must refocus and determine what current employees value.
3. Digital Rechnology Trends in 2024
The Metaverse Will Become a Playground for Marketers
The metaverse has been there for a while, but marketers only became aware of it after Facebook changed the name of its parent corporation to Meta in October 2021.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, claims that this decision was made because “the metaverse is the next frontier in linking people, much like social networking was when we started. I want to base our work and our identity on the metaverse firm I think we will eventually be recognised as.
What is the metaverse, though? Simply said, it’s a network of 3D virtual worlds that users can connect using Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) (VR). It already has well-known gaming platforms like Minecraft, Roblox, Pokemon, and Fornite, all of which are well-known to Generation Alpha, the youngest population of all.
The metaverse is a relatively new digital medium for marketing, but in recent campaigns, corporations have embraced its immersive aspect to advertise. For instance, Gucci Garden was a location on Roblox where users could try on and purchase digital Gucci clothing for their avatars. Its purpose was to increase brand recognition among younger customers.
So why, as one of the digital marketing trends of 2022, should marketers utilise the metaverse? In 2023, there will be 65 million monthly users of VR and 110 million monthly users of AR, according to eMarketer study. That many prospective young clients in one location is a lot.
Both artificial intelligence and data privacy will be hampered.
In recent years, data breaches have frequently made the news due to the risk they pose to people’s personal information. Customers and brands are concerned about the prospect of sensitive data being breached or disclosed as our world becomes more and more online.
Due to artificial intelligence (AI), search engine algorithms and recommendation engines are gathering data on people without their awareness. AI’s capacity to collect private data and invade people’s privacy grows as it develops.
By 2023, 40% of privacy compliance technology will employ AI, according to a Gartner study, and by 2022, $8 billion will be spent globally on privacy.
People are starting to use artificial intelligence, which has been around for a while. However, I believe that how it interacts with privacy will be quite significant. Ken Fitzpatrick, CEO of the DMI, asks, “How can you collect data while maintaining within the parameters of privacy regulation requirements?
Nevertheless, there are ways to deploy AI that respect privacy. Companies can categorise sensitive data using AI and use it to search data to find people who have requested to be forgotten as part of their data protection initiatives (a specification covered under privacy regulations like GDPR).
Brands Will Begin Using NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens)
The blockchain technology is not without its critics. Peer-to-peer networks are used by this technology to store data, and it has been connected to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. It now serves as the foundation for Non-Fungible Tokens, a well-known virtual money (NFTs).
“NFTs are incredibly fascinating. According to Brian Corish, Experience Architect at Accenture Interactive, “at first I thought, ‘Oh, not another one. “NFTs act as a form of signalling system. Why, for instance, would you wear a Rolex watch? You’re sort of implying that I’m prosperous or successful, then.
However, how are NFTs becoming a popular digital marketing trend in the marketing industry? Brands, which make up a sizable portion of the metaverse, use NFTs to connect owners to communities or serve as a virtual badge.
The NFL provided each fan with an NFT for the 2022 Super Bowl as a way to memorialise their tickets and serve as digital mementos.
The media behemoth and master of magic, Disney, is actively recruiting metaverse specialists to strengthen the connection between the actual and virtual realms. As a result, “storytelling without bounds in a Disney metaverse” will be possible. Another illustration is the art project Adidas and Prada started to invite artists to participate to a tiled canvas that would be turned into an NFT and sold.
“You can see that I can own this, that I have this unique item, and that it is a digital asset. You’ll see high-end companies entering the metaverse and offering to create a custom wardrobe for your character, says Corish.
Search Marketing Trends in 2024
Marketers have long been aware of the third-party cookie’s impending extinction in 2022. (now pushed out to 2023). Google made the decision to stop collecting this data owing to privacy concerns. The problem with third-party cookies is that they allow marketers to track customers’ online actions without their customers’ knowledge.
According to a recent Pew Research Center research, 80% of Americans believe that the risks associated with data gathering exceed the possible advantages, and 70% believe that their data is less safe than it was five years ago.
Google is adopting a privacy-preserving API approach, but other providers may reveal identifying information utilising PII (Personally Identifiable Information) graphs. This implies that advertisers using Google must find alternate methods to identify and target customers. The response? Marketers must comprehend how to use a first-party data approach to boost revenue.
Email marketing’s effectiveness, according to Cathal Melinn, director of digital marketing and expert in eCommerce, holds the key to finding the solution. “Email addresses are the pinnacle of first-party information. Under GDPR, you are permitted to upload someone’s email as a de facto cookie on advertising platforms like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn when you have their consent to use their email in a campaign or marketing activity.
As a result, in the upcoming months, maintaining and expanding your email marketing lists will be vital. To get the most of your first-party data, it’s crucial to develop an email marketing plan that integrates with your other marketing initiatives.
A customer’s preferences and purchasing intentions can also be used to provide zero-party data, which is even better. See our most recent webinar for more information.
