The Internet has opened up many opportunities for us, acting as a powerful sales platform in addition to a place for self-presentation and entertainment. Today, 63% of all purchases are made online, and this figure will only increase every year.
How can a business effectively sell its products and services online? At a minimum, it should keep its finger on the pulse and track key rising trends. Today, we will look at the hottest trends in marketing, e-commerce and sales in general, talk about high-profile cases of major brands and tell you what awaits the advertising industry in the future.
Anti-trends of digital marketing in 2024
Before we talk about the trends of the current year, it is worth remembering what has already lost its relevance. In the dynamic world of marketing, everything changes too quickly, and using irrelevant product promotion techniques can cost a business lost sales and audience loyalty.
The first thing you shouldn’t do in 2024 is make false promises. This anti-trend can be safely attributed to most areas of life, but today, we will focus exclusively on digital marketing, where it is just as unacceptable. When a user sees another clickbait headline in the style of “the best shower gel in your life”, and after clicking on the link does not find objective evidence of this, he feels deceived and distances himself from your product. Be careful with promises in advertising – this move only works if you can exceed them (and this rarely happens in practice).
It is definitely not worth posting content on social networks for the sake of regularity and generally prioritizing quantity over quality. Today, you can find pages of businesses in the vast majority of niches on social networks, and they all strive to win the user’s attention with original, catchy content. You can withstand this competition only in one case – if you really thoughtfully manage social networks and understand why you publish each post.
The last thing you definitely shouldn’t do in 2024 in marketing is to sell “head-on.” The modern user has long since developed “banner blindness” – the ability to subconsciously ignore all classic advertising, passing by it without reading it. Only a fresh look at sales and creative marketing helps to break through blindness. The consumer will be yours if you manage to win his trust, arouse interest, and consistently convince him that your product is worthy of his attention.
Top 8 Internet Marketing Trends in 2024
How can we most effectively promote a product online in our time? Today, in the digital world, there are a huge number of advertising strategies and creative solutions that can help you create crazy demand for your products or services in one day. Regardless of the niche, new trends appear every year that can significantly improve your advertising performance. Below, we tell you which of them are profitable to use in 2024.
Retention Rate is the New Engagement Rate
In recent years, marketers have seen a decline in organic engagement across virtually all social networks: while 10 years ago, every YouTube user had a few favorite bloggers bookmarked, whose videos they were ready to watch immediately after publication, today, the audience’s attention is divided between hundreds and thousands of creators. It has become extremely difficult for businesses to win users’ attention since, today, the Internet provides them with more choice than ever before.
To combat this, brands are creating fantastic social media campaigns. Millions of dollars are spent to keep the attention, surprise and entertain the person on the other side of the ad. But the catch is that you don’t always need to create perfect, expensive content to keep the user interested – the latest research shows that now it’s enough to just be natural.
Unexpectedly, this year a purely “business” social network, LinkedIn, is bursting into the arena of marketing trends. The platform was previously associated exclusively with business dating, but recently, more and more employees of top companies have started to appear there, using the platform as a social network. As it turns out, users like to study other accounts in search of advice, support, and motivation. In light of this, active management of LinkedIn can help brands promote their products “from the inside” in the most native way possible, sharing details of their work in the company, its values, and subtleties.
Artificial Intelligence Tools
Artificial intelligence and machine learning enable the customer to have a personalized shopping experience — a privilege that is impossible to obtain in a physical store. Artificial intelligence is able to continuously and with minimal error collect data, analyze it, and issue recommendations based on everything it has found. Many brands that are already using AI in their work have gained access to intimate information about the preferences, fears, and desires of their target audience — in such detail that no marketer could structure it today.
Medium and small businesses can also use artificial intelligence in their work. Here are some options on how you can improve your digital marketing strategy with AI services today:
- provide users with 24/7 support for basic questions using chatbots;
- analyze the effectiveness of your website through SEO services;
- assign automatic content planning to a robot;
- write blog posts and texts using artificial intelligence;
- process photos and edit videos (for example, make automatic voiceovers with your voice) without professional equipment;
- transcribe video;
- create new creatives and much more.
The beauty of AI is that the technology has matured enough to offer services to suit any budget, but is still new enough that you can reap the benefits by being among the first wave of users.
Data privacy
The international audit and consulting corporation KPMG conducted a global study on the importance of user data privacy. The results showed that about 86% of Americans consider data leaks a big problem, while 68% of respondents are not sure that their data collected by enterprises is sufficiently protected. The problem of personal information theft is acute all over the world – there are frequent cases when the largest sites have been hacked. Data leaks instantly cause users to lose trust in the resource, which greatly affects the company’s reputation. And in 2024, with the development of artificial intelligence, the issue of privacy is extremely acute.
Leading digital marketers advise businesses to be as transparent with users as possible about what data they collect about them and why they need it. Many people don’t fully understand what cookies are for, what personal information a site has access to once they sign up, how companies manage that data, and where it’s stored. If you can be upfront with your audience and give them answers to these questions, your credibility will skyrocket.
Video advertising
In the last few years, video advertising has become one of the key digital trends, and its popularity will only grow in 2024. There are many reasons for this – from the development of artificial intelligence, which has freed businesses from the need to arrange professional filming to obtain high-quality video, to the increase in the number of smartphone users with high-quality screens and optimal Internet speeds, allowing you to play any video without any obstacles.
Today, businesses can choose a video advertising strategy from a variety of options to suit every taste and budget:
- show how a product or service helped real people solve their problems;
- talk about the process of creating a product to show the processes from the inside and attract the audience;
- create a series of educational videos that help your audience better understand your product, service, or industry as a whole;
- Conduct interviews with experts in your field to increase brand trust;
- Show in detail how your product works and what benefits it provides;
- encourage your audience to participate in a challenge or competition using your product.
The video format allows for a deeper understanding of the meaning behind the advertisement. It simultaneously appeals to several channels of perception (vision and hearing), and creates the illusion of presence and immersion in the content. In addition, video allows for storytelling and evokes a powerful emotional response. The human brain perceives and remembers information presented in the form of a narrative better, so the response to video advertising will be higher than to static images.
Personalized Marketing
In a year when competition in advertising has reached unprecedented levels, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from other advertising offers. The only way to get the user’s attention is if your message hits the mark. Micromarketing and personalization are the hot trend of 2024 that will help you stand out from the competition and win the favor of your audience.
The idea behind this approach is to segregate the target audience as finely as possible, offering each micro-group a separate ad layout. In this case, it will be difficult for the user to close or scroll past the ad, because it speaks specifically about his pain, problem, need. The difficulty of this approach is that it requires a lot of time and effort, but the results are definitely worth it.
Nano-influencers vs. macro-influencers
Influencer marketing remains a relevant promotion method in 2024, but there have been changes within this method. If it was profitable to buy advertising from large bloggers with a large reach earlier, today, they have been replaced by nano-influencers – accounts with up to 10,000 subscribers. Users are tired of the abundance of advertising in large blogs, while brand marks in small accounts are still perceived as a sincere recommendation.
Beginner bloggers tend to have a better reach percentage and engagement rate. In addition, advertising with nano-influencers will cost the brand significantly less than integrating with a large blogger – this allows you to choose several potential partners and compare the effectiveness of advertising.
UGC for advertising
In the era of accessible advertising, users increasingly value sincerity, humanity, and imperfection. UGC creators can provide advertising integration for a brand on such terms: social media users who are ready to record a professional video for you demonstrating a product and giving a review of it at home.
UGC videos usually look like TikTok or Reels videos. They include background music and voiceovers, cleverly editing footage, showing the product from all angles, and doing everything else that will endear you to your audience. The most powerful hook here is that the video is being made by an ordinary user — someone your audience identifies with.
E-commerce Marketing Trends
It is worth talking separately about advertising in e-commerce – a kind of branch of digital marketing with an emphasis on online sales. Every year, businesses try to find new, unconventional ways to win audience loyalty and increase sales. Let’s figure out what marketing trends will work in e-commerce in the near future.
Chatbots
Today, users value the availability of a business at any time more than ever. It also happens that consumers order the same product in several places and then pay for the one that responds the fastest. If ten years ago, a person was ready to wait for a response from a company that offered a product he liked, today, the competition is too high, and the client will simply go into the hands of the fastest competitors.
To prevent this from happening, companies are actively introducing chatbots to their websites — virtual assistants based on artificial intelligence that can take an order, answer a couple of simple questions, and communicate with the user before a manager gets in touch. Chatbots allow you not to lose a client, even if he needs help late at night.
Mobile shopping
Mobile-optimized websites and platforms allow customers to make purchases from anywhere and at any time. This is especially important in today’s world, where users are accustomed to placing an order in one click. If your site is poorly optimized for mobile devices, you risk missing out on a large flow of customers. In 2024, accessibility from different devices is a must-have for any business. Many companies are going further and investing in the development of their own mobile applications to provide an even more comfortable shopping experience for their audience – consider adjusting your services and advertising for different screen sizes.
B2B
In recent years, global B2B e-commerce retail sales have amounted to over $5 trillion — if you have been ignoring this segment, you should consider that it has not disappeared and is developing no worse than the usual B2C. The times when wholesale customers were served through order forms on the website or by phone are long gone — today, more and more businesses see the advantages of working with partners on the Internet. Many businesses can switch to a wholesale sales model or combine it with retail — today, there are many opportunities for this.
Far from new types of marketing: advertising through psychology
In the world of advertising and sales, there are trends that change annually – and there are established rules that always work. We suggest talking about the latter – the psychological laws of sales, which will make your advertising even more effective and will work great in tandem with trendy ways to promote in the digital world.
Create a close connection with consumers
We like to build relationships, and, whether personal or business, it is much more enjoyable to build them if we like our partner. Building relationships based on trust, openness, and sincerity is an important part of advertising.
Businesses need to win the loyalty of consumers by creating a strong emotional connection with them – that’s why companies spend so much effort, time and resources on branding. The warmer the relationship your brand has with your audience, the more they are inclined to your product. And there are many ways to establish contact between you: using personalized advertising, giving access to secret links, creating heartfelt content and so on.
Show that everyone around you is using your product
Recommendations from family and friends are one of the most powerful sales factors. This works due to the peculiarities of human psychology – each of us has an innate need to like the same things that our loved ones like. In digital marketing, this is used constantly: through reviews, reviews, and buying advertising from influencers. By the way, the last point is especially important: when we see recommendations from “authoritative” people whom we trust, sometimes they can have even more power than advice from friends and family.
Prove your expertise
Why do most successful businesses put so much effort into developing their blogs? Aside from the obvious SEO benefits, it is also one of the easiest and most compelling ways to establish your business as an expert in your industry. When people see that you have answers to their questions, it builds trust and goodwill.
Authoritative facts and figures still carry a lot of weight. Communicate more with your audience, telling them what happens behind the scenes in your business. Even if the internal processes seem obvious and uninteresting to you, you can still surprise someone with your story. Remember that the audience wants to buy from the best – they will trust your authority only if you demonstrate it.
Restructure customer pain points
Cognitive restructuring is a term that sounds complicated, but it really just means looking at a problem from a different angle—something marketers do for consumers all the time anyway. For example, your client, a large company, thinks their problem is their low email response rate. But if you dig deeper, you’ll find that the real problem is that the subject lines are uninteresting—they’re the reason emails are being ignored.
It’s a popular move in sales psychology to change a prospect’s view of a problem by showing how your product can help solve a new version of it. You can use this technique whether you’re selling products or services.
Offer less, not more
We are used to the fact that the client needs to be offered more than necessary – it is logical that, in this case, he will choose you among all competitors. But in 2024, the rules of the game have changed a little. Today, consumers hear empty (and rather vague) promises from all sides, which is why they tend to trust them less. You can stand out from the competition if you offer specific, clear, and personalized results for a specific client request instead of vague advertising slogans.
Make a gift
The principle of reciprocity is a powerful trigger in sales psychology. The rule “you give to me, I give to you” works without fail: if you give something to a customer, he is more likely to reciprocate and do something positive for you in return. This is one of the reasons why promoters offer free tastings in supermarkets. Their motive is not only to introduce you to the product but also to provide a service, creating in you a desire to do something on your part.
The principle of reciprocity only works if you give the prospect something that is valuable to them. Free product trials, additional products, discounts – there are many ways to use the reciprocity trigger in your digital sales strategy.
Create a sense of scarcity
FOMO — the fear of missing out — is a powerful motivator for consumers. It forces them to make a purchase decision in the moment rather than putting it off for the future. If your product offers a limited-time discount or something similar, the consumer is more likely to make a purchase decision. How exactly you create a sense of scarcity depends on your strategy — it can be more or less organic, native, or artificial — but this tactic has proven to be very effective in both offline and digital environments.
Modern digital marketing trends and their future
While the world of digital marketing is quite unpredictable, there are some predictions about the future of advertising on the horizon. According to them, influencer marketing will show even more impressive results in the future: its market size is expected to reach $69.92 billion by 2029. This figure is due to the increase in the number of people using social media and, of course, the growth of influencers – today, showing up on social media has become a common thing.
Future trends will be actively set by artificial intelligence: the world of digital marketing directly depends on how intensively the technology develops. Online events will also enter the arena, having reached a new level thanks to the pandemic and, again, the development of AI. Today, companies are holding virtual corporate events, inviting speakers to speak online and conducting training in the online world.
Conclusion
In conclusion, staying ahead of digital marketing trends in 2024 is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge and driving success. By embracing the latest strategies and innovations, you can effectively promote your products and engage with your audience. To navigate these trends and implement them effectively, consider partnering with the best digital marketing agency. Their expertise and cutting-edge tools will help you harness the power of emerging trends, optimize your campaigns, and achieve your marketing goals.
