The Future of Digital Marketing: Trends to Watch in 2024.

Whatever made you successful in the past WON’T in the future. 

These are the words of Lewis Platt, former chairman and CEO of HP.

When it comes to digital marketing, truer words have never been said.

The internet has come a long way; from being a tool designated for government researchers to share information to being a universal entity that’s changed the past decades.

Whether you’re a solopreneur who’s just started or you’re a serial entrepreneur with years of experience under your belt, the only way to guarantee your continued success is to keep up with digital marketing trends.

You might say ‘I have a brick-and-mortar store so I don’t need to know what’s up with digital marketing

But I beg to differ. 

I tell you for a fact, the way it’s going, the physical businesses that will last will only be those who take advantage of digital marketing.

That being said, if you’ve been on social media for a while now, you’d have noticed how social media has been a major driver of commerce on the internet.

Digital marketing trend has moved from just websites and SEO hacking to the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Quora, YouTube and now, TikTok.

To show just how much power social media has on marketing, I’ll tell you about Pink Sauce. The pink sauce was made by the average Tiktok user but a video of her sauce blew up one day, and that was it. The sauce is now being sold at Walmart and is known by at least 600,000,000 people.

That’s proof of how strong social media is as a marketing tool.

The digital marketing industry has come a long way and with each passing year, the landscape undergoes a remarkable transformation, pushing businesses and marketers to adapt or risk falling behind. As we step into 2024, the pace of change in the digital marketing sphere shows no sign of slowing down. In this blog post, I’ll delve into the digital marketing trends to watch out for in the coming year, recognizing that the rapid evolution of this landscape demands vigilance, adaptability, and a keen eye for emerging opportunities. 

Let’s explore how staying ahead of the curve in this dynamic environment can make all the difference for your marketing strategies.

Trend #1

Interactive Content Marketing

Interactive content marketing is not new to the world of marketing. It’s a two-way conversation between marketers and their audience. 

You should note that “marketing” is not reserved for professional digital marketers. If you sell anything and you talk about it online or offline, that’s marketing. 

Interactive content is relatable content. Your audience/prospects/customers understand your content and respond either by liking, commenting, or sharing. That is interactive content. Interactive contact is engaging content.

How do you incorporate interactive elements into your content?

Storytelling – Instead of doing the usual “how to xxx” or “7 ways to do xxx” content, tell a story about the problem you faced that led to you figuring out “how to xxx” or the “7 ways to xxx”. It’s less mechanic and more natural.

For example: you want to create a post on “how to batch-create 7 days of content’’ where you just head dive into the ‘how’ with no introduction whatsoever. instead, start by talking about how stressful it was for you to create content each day and how the frustration caused by your inconsistency led you to look for a better solution which turned out to be ‘batch creating’.

Quizzes, and Polls – These are great ways to know your audience’s preference on the topic you are discussing. Add polls to your IG posts (you can do that now!), to your Tweets, and quizzes to your IG stories, Whatsapp/Telegram messages,  etc. 

CTA – Always add a CTA to your posts! ALWAYS. 

Do you agree

Tag your friend who should see this.

Comment “yes” if this is you etc

These are examples of call to action. Your posts should have a continuance carried on by your followers. That way you’re engaging them 100%

Trend #2 Social commerce

Social commerce is using social media platforms to market and sell products and services. 

With social commerce, the entire shopping experience from product discovery and research to checkout, takes place right on social media.

This way customers complete purchases without leaving social media apps. I mean why make someone leave Facebook to make purchases elsewhere if they can just click on a product they like and purchase it right there on the platform, and in a few minutes? 

In the buyer journey, it’s one less click for customers and that’s one less chance for them to abandon the cart. 

We are not new to social commerce but it’s going to become more explosive in the coming year.

Sales will be driven from social media pages to social media shops.

While it’s not every social platform that enables entire shopping experiences from product discovery to payment, it’s only a matter of time.

Trend #3 Brands that align with consumers’ beliefs

Value is now a top priority for consumers. They want to ensure the businesses they patronize have values that align with theirs hence the reason why consumers want to spend their money only on businesses that align with their beliefs.

They want to spend their money on brands that don’t just talk the talk but walk it too. 

This is quite tricky for businesses considering that they can get canceled, lose customers, share prices can plummet, sales can drop, and followers can unfollow for doing things that don’t appeal to their customer base.

 But you can act on this:

• By getting creative with how you showcase your brand values.
• Collaborating with like-minded businesses, content creators, and influencers.
• Letting your audience know that you care about them and their opinions

Trend #4 Video

There is no denying that video content has become the king of all content. The consumption of video across multiple platforms continues to rise year after year and it’s not going down anytime soon. So if you’re of the school of thought that it’s too late to jump on videos, I tell you, it is not. If you were, videos would be on the decline but it’s the opposite.

Again, building a sustainable business is hinged on optimizing trends. If that’s your goal, I’m glad you found this blog post. 

Can’t wait to see you smash your marketing goals next year.