Growing your business requires social listening. You need to find out what’s happening and how you can tweak your strategies to stay relevant at all times. With all the buzz around content and content marketing, it’s a good place to start.
What are the current trends and how can you leverage them for explosive business growth?
You’ll find out some interesting trends in this blog. I’ll tell you what’s happening in 2024 and how you can start using them to grow your business.
I’m excited. Let’s start already.
Table of Contents
Content Marketing trends you should know in 2024
Before going into the trends proper, let’s get a quick definition of content marketing.
Content marketing is the art of creating, distributing and promoting text, audio or video forms of materials concerning a brand, its offerings, services or audience with the purpose of brand awareness, thought leadership or product promotion.
Beyond generative AI and all the talk about the ethical implications of AI content, there are a lot more trends you can explore to grow your business in 2024.
Trend 1: Increase in high-quality blog posts:
It’s 2024 and this is the year to write no-fluff content. Brands have moved from regurgitating AI content or just rewriting what’s on the SERPs.
Many marketing teams are writing content that is relevant to readers, satisfies search intent and provides solutions.
In 2024, lots of brands are taking advantage of content marketing agencies to achieve the high quality of written content.
Many B2B content marketing agencies in the UK are helping brands produce quality content.
With these content marketing agencies, you can ensure your blog is filled with logical, explicit and memorable content backed by statistics, relevant stories, real live examples and anecdotes.
They can even reach out to subject matter experts and customers to share their experiences and expertise to give your content more depth and insight.
Trend 2: More user generated content/ Social media authenticity:
In recent times, a large part of content marketing is sponsored by social media.
In 2024, social media will become much more important for creating and sharing content. The creator economy is on an all-time high and there’s no better time to invest in it than now.
However, social media content marketing is a lot different than it used to be before.
People are tired of the same old ad styles, salesy brand posts and traditional promotional content.
They want something different and authentic. They want content generated by users of a brand, giving honest feedback about a brand and promoting a brand from a place of originality and personal engagement with the product.
In a recent post by Buffer, one core social media theme that was predicted for 2024 is authenticity and personalization.
Source: LinkedIn
To leverage this trend, you must find ways to encourage your users to create UGC. Organize UGC campaigns just like the famous Starbucks red cup contest.
Also make sure to respond well to bad feedback. Collaborate with micro and even nano influencers and connect with your audience in the most authentic way.
Trend 3: Content personalization
Just like users want more authenticity in content marketing, they also want personalized content.
Personalization has moved from just including customer names to the subject line of your email newsletters. Customers expect more personalization.
They want you to use their previous buying behavior to curate a user experience that is customized to them.
In fact, an Epsilon survey showed that 80% of consumers would likely buy from brands that offer personalized experiences.
To get in on this trend, start by researching your ideal customers. Find out the kind of content they engage in the most and create more of that. Ask them questions about what content they want to see from you.
Also, include customization options for your product packages. Send curated customer gifts and packages that show that you see them personally even though you cater to a large audience.
Trend 4: More video content
It’s certain that many brands have to adjust to the fact that they have to create videos.
Video content would definitely be on the rise in 2024. With the increase in the use of social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, video content is non negotiable for business growth.
In Hubspot’s 2024 state of marketing and trends report, video-centric apps like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube were said to see the most growth in 2024.
From short-form to long-form video content as well as spontaneous live videos and behind-the-scene(bts) videos, there has to be a focus on showing real humans talking about a brand and connecting with the audience.
Source: X
Not sure how to go about this?
Start by repurposing written content into tutorials, how-to videos and relatable content.
People want to see real people telling them about the brands they love. Brainstorm with your team and come up with interesting video ideas that you can put out.
Trend 5: Accessibility
Inclusivity is a major trend in 2024. In your content creation, you must ensure that you pay attention to including minority groups.
There has to be an accessibility plan for people with hearing deficits, seeing challenges and other disabilities.
Optimize for voice search, include alt texts in your images so they can be picked up by text recognition AI. Also, create different forms of content. That way, you can appeal to different kinds of people in your audience.
Trend 6: Data privacy compliance
This year, customers are more particular about how their data is handled. They want to know what their information is collected for, how you process and how you store their data.
You can’t afford to get into the trouble of data regulation law enforcement agencies.
That’s why using the Google consent mode is a great idea. It helps you to obtain, manage and document the consent of your users for data marketing and data strategies in a privacy-complaint manner.
Lots of users have said how it has improved their targeted marketing strategies and has helped them organize and categorize their data.
You can also create data driven content without misusing users’ data and facing the penalties of data law-regulating bodies.
Trend 7: Advanced analytics
There are lots of new metrics to measure now. Gone are the days of
vanity engagement metrics —likes, reactions and follows.
Many brands are now interested in metrics that show engagements like meaningful comments, questions, private messages and sales. There are more analytical tools to get insights on the real progress of a business. The focus is now on real long-term profits, returns on investments and sustainable growth.
Also, many analytical tools in recent times are built to be simple, easy to navigate and data-rich.
Just like the managing partner at Silverback advertising, Shane Stender said, there will be a rise in cross-functional data usage and every content marketer must be prepared for that.
Source: X
Find new ways to analyze your data, get new insights and use them to make data-driven decisions. Use analytic tools that have been tested and proven to work.
Trend 8: Strategy-led content
Unplanned content doesn’t work anymore. You cannot just create tons of blogs, videos and podcast episodes and hope that something would work out somehow.
This is because, in 2024, people care more about quality rather than quantity.
So, creating a content strategy is a priority for every content marketer.
Create topic clusters, draw a roadmap for your website traffic, keyword development and content distribution. Every piece of content should be planned from start to finish even though you can leave room for spontaneous content.
Trend 9: Content distribution trends
In 2024, content creation is incomplete until you have properly distributed your content.
Many brands now have strategies to distribute content to ensure it reaches the right audience. You should too.
There are a lot of ways you can leverage this trend. It’s the time to turn to your employees to distribute content in an authentic way.
Your employees should love your brand enough to talk about their work in a way that attracts new customers. Ensure that every employee knows about every piece of content you create. Talk about things they’ll love to share, give credit for their work input and give incentives to employees who help in content distribution.
Another way is to leverage groups. Slack groups, LinkedIn groups and other communities where your audience may be in are great places to start.
Trend 10: Case studies
This trend is a no-brainer because people want to know what has worked rather than your theories.
Lots of businesses have embraced case studies as a way to show a portfolio of work.
In 2024, the ‘show instead of tell’ phrase has become vital. You have to keep records of results, metrics, feedback from clients and other relevant data that shows your work.
62% of B2B clients in a Demand Gen report, said they preferred ‘practical’ content like case studies as they consider it more trustworthy.
It’s simple. Tell a story about how you did X to accomplish Y and how you succeeded because Z happened. Give all the numbers and explain your process in the best possible way and you’ll have clients coming to you for more.
It’s been a long list of trends and I’m sure you’re geared up to scale up your content marketing strategy in 2024.
Let’s take a bow now.
Hop on the best trends to grow your business
Even though all these trends have great potential, you have to decide which is best for your business, resonates wi to your audience and will yield the greatest returns.
Remember, the only way to find out how effective these trends are for your business is by trying them out. Start with one, keep improving on your strategy and remain relevant for the future.
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Author Bio
Martins Favour is a creative content writer with over five years of experience writing SEO content for various brands. She finds a home in weaving worlds out of words. Stories are her life and LinkedIn is her favorite tool.