Content Marketing Trends 2024

Clean your room!
- I’ll do it later, Mom!

No now!
 - Why not later?

Because I said now!

You must have had such conversations with your parents at some point, right? Surely you must have, considering it’s their go-to line when they just want you to do something! No words, no explanation, just the use of LOUD VOICES!

If you haven’t had such conversations with your parents because they explained the reason and idea behind their requests, kudos! In that case, you’ll agree that such conversations offer better meaning and understanding, especially when it’s backed up with real-world understanding, right?

Parents, if you’re looking to instill values in your children, take cues from how modern businesses approach content marketing: personalized, tailored and interactive! #UnderstandYourAudience

You can update your parenting techniques the way businesses stay updated on the latest trends to ensure they derive the most value they can from their content marketing efforts. However, in this blog we’re focusing on the content marketing aspect – sorry, parents!

In 2023, we saw that interactive content, generative AI, virtual reality, hyper-personalization and diverse and inclusive content were driving the content marketing industry.  So, what’s going to happen in 2024? Let’s dive in and explore the top 5 Content Marketing Trends of 2024!
 

Trend 1: Generative Artificial Intelligence Will Help With Rapid Personalized Content Creation

Building up from 2023, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is set to trend in 2024 as well. The last few months have seen tremendous development in tools such as ChatGPT and Grammarly for text creation and curation, while tools like Midjourney are being used by marketers (and others) to generate tailored images instantly. At this point, they aren’t just bonuses but are being incorporated into a content marketers toolkit for daily use!

In fact, GenAI can help produce data-driven insights and in-depth keyword research, identify trending topics, analyze user behavior, develop content marketing strategies, and analyze reports and data sets – in a nutshell, AI can assist from content ideation to creation to marketing.

According to Lisa Murton Beets, Research Director for the Content Marketing Institute, “To stay relevant in an AI-fueled world, marketers should sharpen their technology skills … In particular, they should learn as much as they can as fast as they can about AI tools that will make their jobs more efficient.”

Furthermore, a survey of 1068 content marketers by the Content Marketing Institute found 75% use GenAI tools for various tasks, including brainstorming new topics (47%), researching headlines, keywords, etc. (46%), writing drafts (36%), proofreading (29%) and outlining assignments (25%). As you see, Generative AI offers a lot more than just content creation and businesses must outline a proper path to enable its seamless integration in 2024!

TechDogs’ Takeaway: Businesses must conduct a detailed study of their organization to find where GenAI tools can be used to enhance content creation and campaign management, especially to scale up output without compromising on quality. In order to identify key areas moving into a GenAI-driven future, businesses will need to secure the skills of experts. Businesses must also keep up with advances and updates, as GenAI tools require regular updates and feeding of data to function effectively. Those new to the technology should consider using GenAI as a starting point and build from there. After all, businesses adopting the technology will free up people to work on more strategic and creative aspects!
 

Trend 2: First-party Data Collection Will Be A Critical Data Source

While businesses have always been collecting first-party data, recent developments have made it even more crucial now. The key reason for it being a major trend in 2024 is thanks to Google’s plan to eliminate third-party cookies. This will be done for 1% of Chrome users in the first quarter of 2024, with a complete phase-out by 2024. To enable businesses to test traffic in a cookie-less environment, Google introduced its Privacy Sandbox APIs. While this move only affects Chrome users, it’s important to address it, as Chrome remains the most popular browser in today’s digital world.

First-party data enables businesses to enhance their content marketing initiatives through a reliable supply of audience data, which facilitates data-driven decisions when creating content. An added benefit of first-party data is that it’s fresh, high in quality, accurate and can be used to create more personalized experiences (as we already explored in Trend 1).

Moreover, according to Gartner, 82% of marketing leaders said their organization was prioritizing first-party data to create immediate value for customers in 2023. Ant Duffin, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice, validates the trend, saying, “Third-party cookie depreciation is causing sources of data to disappear, and many marketers are still scrambling to shore up their first-party data strategy.” Duffin added, “As this data becomes more challenging to collect, marketers must adapt by leveraging new sources of data to fuel personalization and build deep customer relationships.”

TechDogs’ Takeaway: Businesses must assess how they collect, store and process first-party data internally and collaborate with various functions to set a seamless pipeline of data sharing within the organization. They must reduce reliance on third-party data and adopt better first-party data collection methods. This can be achieved by running surveys, leveraging on-site user registrations, tracking on-site user events and analyzing customer behavior, patterns, preferences, purchase history and other parameters. Additionally, businesses need to maintain data security and privacy. Hence, they must improve their security measures and tools to prevent breaches, malware attacks or leaks, as this will help build user confidence, trust and loyalty.
 

Trend 3: Dynamic And Interactive Content Will Boost Marketing Efforts

Building up from 2023, interactive content will continue as a trend in 2024, with the addition of dynamic content. Consumers are bored of static content (yaaaawwwwn) as traditional articles and blog posts can’t garner the same amount of attention they once did. This is where dynamic and interactive exchanges step in, set to redefine the world of content marketing in 2024.

Did you know what form of dynamic content is gaining attention? Videos! These include live events, podcasts, interviews, etc., as well as short-form videos such as Instagram reels. Speaking of social media, let’s not forget about memes, which are increasingly being used by businesses. Ahead of this, the world of Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality (AR/VR/MR) as well as emerging technologies like the Metaverse will shape interactive content efforts, which are being propelled by tech giants (leaders being Apple and Meta) announcing new and improved immersive headsets.

Moreover, interactive content will be a great way to onboard consumers and build first-party data too (see Trend 2). Alex Membrillo, CEO of Cardinal, an SEO company, believes, “Interactive content is one of the best ways to engage your audience and enhance the customer experience … Interactive content allows the reader to actively participate, as opposed to passively reading, watching or listening.”

According to OutGrow, static content captures about 8.5 minutes, as opposed to dynamic content’s 13 minutes. Additionally, interactive content witnesses 52.6% higher engagement than static content and garners 5 times more views. Hence, marketers will look to leverage dynamic and immersive content in 2024!

TechDogs’ Takeaway: If you’re a content marketer, here’s what you’ve got to do! Ditch the reliance on long-form static content and embrace dynamic styles and short forms of marketing content, such as infographics, short videos, memes, videos, podcasts and others. To get a step up in video content marketing, businesses can onboard expert scriptwriters and video editors or tie up with social media influencers and content creators. To ace the interactive content game, businesses must leverage quizzes, tests, polls, competitions, ROI calculators, demo videos, etc. The end goal for businesses is to make their audience participate actively instead of passively, right?
 

Trend 4: Hyper-personalization And Hyper-segmentation Will Produce Effective Content

Carrying on from 2023, hyper-personalization is set to trend in 2024 too – however, this time with its namesake: hyper-segmentation. So, what is it all about?

Well, delivering tailored content has always been the norm for marketers. However, the call of the day is to deliver that personalization in real time. Additionally, it’s got to be more than just in the same vicinity as what a consumer is looking for, it’s got to be the neighboring element. For example, let’s say a user searches for shoes on Amazon, the platform almost immediately responds by bringing up socks, shoe polish or similar items. Likewise, streaming platforms produce real-time suggestions based on what a user is listening to or watching. The key is to improve customer satisfaction through tailored real-time content, leading to a boost in loyalty and brand recognition.

According to McKinsey, over 70% of consumers expect personalization and will get annoyed when they don’t get it, while Twilio reports that 56% of 5000 consumers surveyed said a personalized experience would increase their loyalty chances. Hence, hyper-segmentation will be the name of the game for content marketers with massive, diverse audiences in 2024.

Laurie Tucker, SVP of Corporate Marketing at FedEx, says, “The way our customers operate their businesses and live their lives in today’s interactive digital world requires a shift to a hyper-personalized experience. Customers expect us to know them as individuals and provide them with access to more information and visibility.” So, if you want to go beyond the norm for clients and potential consumers in 2024, hyper-segmentation is the way to go!

TechDogs’ Takeaway: Businesses must start breaking down their audience and targeting them based on smaller groups in 2024. To do this, they must gather more detailed information, such as job titles, age ranges, gender, location, interests/hobbies, education level, pain points, lifestyle and values, etc., to figure out who they are and what they’re looking for. While businesses can use GenAI tools to produce personalized content, they must also make use of advanced analytical tools and customer insights to segment their audience well. Furthermore, businesses must provide marketing, sales and customer service teams with a no-code user interface, so they can quickly define and analyze customer segments in minutes using previously collected customer data.
 

Trend 5: Social Media Will Steer Your Content Marketing Ship!

Social media is making a comeback in 2024! Social media is the primary digital house where consumers reside. Whether it’s for entertainment or news, they stick with their platforms through thick and thin! No wonder, content marketers will look to social media platforms to connect and engage in 2024!

As content marketers will adopt GenAI (Trend 1) to create content in real-time, social media platforms will act as an excellent source to understand what’s trending and generating engagement on social media. We mean, even new platforms are garnering large user bases, with Meta’s Threads garnering over 100 million users within a week!

Still not buying into the importance of social media? Perhaps the king of sales can help you. Jeff Bezos, CEO at Amazon.com, says, “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”

Think of this: as of October 2023, a detailed analysis conducted by Kepios showed that 61.4% of the global population (or 4.95 billion people) were social media users. That’s quite a lot, right? So, it makes sense for content marketers to continue tapping into the real-time data insights offered by social media platforms.

In fact, even B2B buyers are gravitating towards social media now, with nearly one-fourth of buyers saying they’re spending more time on social media to reach and research vendors and solutions, using channels such as LinkedIn (36%), Instagram (19%) and Facebook (18%). You see, social media offers marketers more than just a platform to connect with audiences, it enables them to connect and study market and consumer behavior. So, keep your eye on social media in 2024 to develop a robust content marketing strategy!

TechDogs’ Takeaway: There’s no question that businesses are constantly investing more time, energy and resources to enhance their social media presence. This means keeping up with what’s trending on various platforms. To do this, they can leverage GenAI tools to quickly produce efficient and effective content based on daily trends. Businesses also need to use social listening techniques, which will provide them with real-time feedback and insights on their customers and the performance of content marketing initiatives. This will also enable them to adapt their strategies quickly. Finally, the biggest takeaway is that businesses need to ensure they’re servicing their customers well on social media; prompt replies, pacifying disgruntled customers and keeping audiences engaged via social channels will be vital for content marketing in 2024.
 

Wrapping It Up

So, there you go!

Content marketing helps businesses attract and engage audiences, convert them into customers and furthermore, helps retain them by using a mix of strategies and channels through various media. Each year, businesses leverage various techniques and trends to connect with their audiences.

In 2024, they will focus on using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), collecting first-party data, creating dynamic and interactive content, building on hyper-personalization and hyper-segmentation and bolstering their social media efforts. Consider how and where you can adapt these trends for your business, as they’re coming into full swing this year!