8 Digital Marketing Trends 2024: Micro-pivoting, Hyper-personalization, and Pricing Revolution

The choppy waters of digital marketing are never easy to navigate, and 2024 is not an exception. While global inflation is gradually cooling, small players are entering the market, introducing unexpected ways to use AI for service personalization.

Customers continue to spend money consciously and reluctantly. However, their behavior will be heavily influenced by the community they belong to. They will also consider alternative values of products, such as social impact and sustainability. On top of this, digital marketing trends 2024 will be shaped by recent changes in the global data protection policy and Google’s content ranking algorithms.

Curious to see the full list of trends in marketing you shouldn’t miss? After annual reports on Creative Trends 2024 and Photography Trends 2024, we’re inviting you to explore marketing strategies and concepts that will dominate the digital world.

The key to understanding 2024 marketing trends

This year, most of the marketing trends we’ll be speaking about aren’t completely new to industry professionals; however, it will be the first year when factors like influencer marketing and AI-powered service customization start transforming business flow for global market players.

2024 is likely to become a year of experiments and learning at all business levels, including customer support, inner management, or the way brands communicate on social media. Retention rate will be prioritized over engagement rate. Clients will more often opt for expensive goods that actively manifest their social stance. Videos formats over 60 seconds will become a rare phenomenon in online advertising, and content marketing and short-form videos will become more complex in terms of sound design.

Marketing trends 2024 are all about technologies and their providers. For instance, strict privacy policy regulations introduced by governments globally have significantly reduced the amount of information companies can collect about users automatically. This stimulated many of them to be more creative and launch campaigns where they can motivate users to answer more specific questions about their client experience.

Winning content marketing strategies for 2024 will also differ from what we used to see in corporate blogs and on media years before. According to updated Google search engine rules, content that provokes discussions and shares is more likely to get top ranking. Similar algorithms were previously applied by Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Explore all the 2024 marketing trends one by one in our detailed review below!

8 digital marketing trends 2024: From community-centered campaigns to collecting first-hand data

#1 Community marketing

Remote work, migration, and online shopping has made customers feel a bit isolated, resulting in their search for new ways to feel like a part of a community. In Creative Trends 2024, this phenomenon manifested itself in the raising interest toward street culture and “-cores”, niche aesthetics popular among certain online communities.

In terms of marketing, people’s desire to gain a feeling of belonging and community support should be taken into consideration at several levels. First, marketers can try to focus on local communities and their needs and values when planning seasonal campaigns. Instead of launching sales at a global scale, companies can try design micro campaigns, engage with local influencers, and establish trusting relationship with audiences united by specific interests and contexts. Instagram (25%) and Facebook (25%) are the best places for growing brand communities in 2024.

Second, a brand can try to build its own community by introducing a system of values or lifestyle that customers can join. Find practical tips here: How to Build a Community Around Your Brand.

#2 Retention first

Engagement rate remains the major business metric, however, in 2024, marketers will pay extra attention to retention rates. The main reason for this is economical—acquiring a new customer is 5 times more expensive than retaining old ones. In the realm of digital marketing trends, where promotional budget is limited and competition level is high, working with old users and customers is a good way to gain extra profits, as well as make them stable. Old customers are more likely to purchase more expensive goods and longer subscriptions, as well as become free brand ambassadors for their colleagues and friends.

This year, retention-focused campaigns are likely to get more creative and carry way more useful information for users compared to previous content marketing decades. Free educational courses, branded entertainment series on YouTube and TikTok, and omnichannel personalized sales campaign are just a few examples of formats brands can use.

On top of this, we’ll see a more thoughtful approach to brand storytelling: with the same recognizable characters featured in seasonal campaigns, email campaigns, and on websites.

#3 Hyper-personalization

AI has significantly impacted almost every sphere of marketing, having automated processes of client data gathering and processing, as well as marketing strategies related to testing and content production. And while AI-powered technologies are still evolving and offering creatives new tools to explore almost every day (read our recent review here: 15 free AI tools for design and creative tasks), the most promising area of AI usage in 2024 remains product and service personalization.

AI-powered assistance chatbots on social media and websites are simple ways brands will continue to boost their sales and client loyalty this year. However, some of them will go further and adjust the look and feel of their apps or website pages based on client behavior and information already gathered about them. In the future, we’ll see more online stores that will contain visuals featuring models of our demographic group and show us items that can complement our previous choices.

Interested in AI? Here’s one more article for you—AI in 2024: Transformative Trends Shaping the Creative Landscape.

#4 Micro-pivoting

After years of a “new normal,” which started with COVID-19, we entered the world of “never normal”, which can be described as an ever-changing reality, where everything is turbulent and evolving fast. How can marketing adapt to such challenging circumstances? First, accept that any campaign can succeed or fail. Second, learn to adapt, recover fast, and try again until you succeed.

Agile micro-pivoting is one of the most beneficial marketing tactics brands can leverage in 2024. In the context of sales and branding, it means that your overall strategy must be fluid enough to help you make decisions on the go and apply situational marketing where possible. Along with this, try to develop plan B, C, and D for campaigns with huge budgets and try to collect analytics soon after their launch to see if everything is going according your plan.

Another way to boost your adaptivity is to simplify the process of making marketing decisions and give your team members rights to conduct micro-pivoting themselves, which also contributes to building trust inside teams.
Read more on situational campaigns here: Why You Need a Powerful Social Media Marketing Strategy in 2024. Use our free Background Remover to save your content production time.

#5 First-party data gathering

Data leaks, as well as the use of stolen personal data for criminal purposes is a painful and not yet resolved issue in modern society. Situations like these can not only destroy one’s corporate reputation, but also seriously harm their clients. In order to protect users, governments and platforms are already trying to regulate the collection and distribution of personal data by organizations. In particular, this applies to cookies. Thus, marketers are gradually losing the opportunity to use third-party services to study their customers. Instead, third-party tools are now replaced by their own campaigns aimed at collecting first-hand data by directly surveying users when they register or make orders.

An additional advantage of internal surveys and customer interviews is that they allow you to get more objective and detailed information about your audiences, as well as make more data-driven decisions. More on this topic: How Do You Make Sense of Your Data? A Guide to Data-Driven Marketing.

Unfortunately, surveys mean extra steps that users have to take before executing a desired action on your platform. On the other hand, users who already have experience communicating with you, be it answering your questions on their professional field or filling in customer satisfaction form, are more likely to buy from you in the future.

#6 Ear-pleasing shorts

We’ve already seen short-form videos among marketing trends in 2022 and 2023. This year, the tendency continues to evolve—with over 91% brands leveraging video for marketing purposes. Animated promo videos or explainers of less than 60 seconds are easier and cheaper to produce, which is a huge advantage in economically turbulent times. And live-shot commercials of the same length garner more engagement among Millennials and Gen Z’s who consume similar content via Instagram and TikTok daily.

In 2024, branded shorts are more complex in terms of sound design. Soft and relaxing sounds paired with almost hypnotic voiceovers will be used to create a friendly atmosphere and stimulate users to watch till the end. In product design, we’ll see more thoughtful approach to user experience, with app soundscapes becoming more ear-pleasing and recognizable.

With marketing videos like ads, explainers, testimonials, and branded stories getting shorter, more condensed, and minimalistic, their soundtracks will become way more experimental and atmospheric. Try stock audio from our library to enhance the mood of your videos.

#7 Discussable content

With over 95% of global mobile search being operated by Google, it’s no wonder why algorithm updates reflect on digital marketing trends.

In 2024, search engines will prioritize content that stimulates users to save, share, and discuss. This means that content marketing strategies should be based on useful or a slightly controversial pieces of information in order to lead businesses to better positions in search results.

There are several ways content can start a discussion. First, it should touch on the fundamental values and interests of its target audience. Second, it should be highly informative or question what its target audience believes in. The third component is the strong emotion your content evokes (read more here: Neuromarketing: Key Insights for Understanding Consumer Behavior Better) and the high education value it offers to audiences. As a result, branded tutorials, lectures, and podcasts with invited opinion leaders will be on the rise.

When it comes to topics and methods of content creation, Google’s Search Generative Experience is all about producing content that can be described as something that possesses experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness—the concept is often called EEAT.

#8 Social-focused pricing revolution

The last of the marketing trends 2024 is dedicated to the way companies will form their pricing. In previous years, most customers were looking for the best quality for the lowest price. Another factor that influenced their purchase decisions was their experience communicating with a seller.

This year, customer focus will shift to social impact and brand stance. Millennials and Generation Z prefer to buy from companies that apply a zero-waste approach, actively support the LGBTQ+ community, or partner with charitable organizations—even if their products or services are priced higher than average.

However, the pricing approach transformation is not just about social responsibilities. Modern customers are more mindful when it comes to product and information consumption, which is why brand experiences are more important to them than ever. New experiences, exclusive educational information, or a better future for them and their children are all values they are willing to choose over a low-price tag.

Boost your knowledge with another article from our blog: 7 Core Company Value Examples & Tips on How to Implement Them.

Final thoughts. How to apply the marketing trends report

This year, marketing trends reflect the general situation in the world, which includes concerns about global security, AI-powered experiments in all areas of service and data processing, conscious consumption, and social media influence on user purchase habits.

To surpass your competition in 2024—stay flexible, creative, and keep an eye on world events that matter to your audience. Keep in mind that retention should become your priority in order to keep your business financially stable. Also, consider that new trends in marketing emerge almost weekly. So, follow our blog updates to save your time.

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