In marketing, it is often a task to forecast new trends. In 2024 we are due to some new trends. With this article, experts have expressed what they predict to be the most popular marketing trends in 2024. Read this new collaborative article and discover the top 3 marketing trends that will dominate 2024.
Michael Green
Head of Marketing at Kaleidoscope.Group
Michael Green’s top 3 marketing trends which will dominate 2024:
- AI delivers personal brand solutions globally online and offline.
- The power of the senses drives sales of every product and service in the world, as well as loyalty and ROI. It makes sense!
- Accessible solutions could drive your sales profitably by as much as 20%.
Melody Mijnen
Managing Director Marketing at Greystar
Melody Mijnen has more than 20 years of experience in marketing. Melody believes that the predominant marketing trends in 2024 will revolve around two key pillars. Firstly, she emphasises the significance of business transformation and innovation, underscoring the need for companies to undergo fundamental changes and embrace innovative approaches. This includes rethinking business models, adopting new technologies, and restructuring operations to stay agile and meet evolving consumer expectations.
Secondly, Melody highlights the increasing importance of Martech (marketing technology) and automation. In her view, businesses are expected to heavily integrate technology into their marketing strategies. The use of automation tools is anticipated to streamline repetitive tasks, enhance data analysis capabilities, and facilitate personalised customer experiences. According to her insights, these trends signify a broader industry shift towards data-driven decision-making and the optimisation of marketing efforts through advanced technologies.
Sudhir Kumar
Head of Digital & Marketing Technology Solutions
AI, personalisation, authenticity
We’ve seen a significant shift in how we communicate, manage, work, and market in today’s world. Since the pandemic, we’ve witnessed an acceleration in digital adoption that has completely transformed how we market and communicate with the modern buyer. Right now, marketers have to compete with so much noise. Consider your own personal life: how many connected devices do you have? Take our phones, smartwatches, smart TVs, and even the infotainment systems in our cars; we are constantly surrounded by distractions. This has led to us being very time-sensitive; we, as humans, now have high expectations when it comes to communication, especially from brands and businesses. Any communication aimed at getting our attention needs to be personalised to us, and that personalisation needs to go beyond “Dear _ PerSal.” The following are my top 3 predictions for 2024, which I feel as a B2B marketer will be absolutely key in addressing the points I’ve made about communicating and marketing to the modern buyer.
Personalisation
Keeping in line with what we’ve covered already, personalisation should come as no surprise as an area of focus. Over the years, I feel marketers have been limited to the extent they can truly personalise their outreach to their audience. But with the audience of data at our fingertips and the influx of martech, there really is no excuse as to why you can’t offer a truly tailored and personalised journey to your audience. First off, your personas and ICP: fictional characters and guessing/assumptions are a thing of the past now. You should be able to create real-life personas; you can now understand your audience, their preferences, the channels they use, the type of content they are consuming, the subject matters they are searching for, the formats they prefer, and this is without asking them a single question. That’s an additional layer that everyone should do. With tools like Rocket Reach, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and first and third-party intent data, you can carry out this activity with ease and start to understand your audience on a human-to-human level. It makes sense to stay on top of this, have a regular refresh, and add additional layers from research live interaction. Invest the time, understand your audience, and communicate with them on their terms. ROI is always front of mind with marketers, and adopting the outlined approach will have a positive outcome when it comes to your ROI.
The more you can understand about your audience, the better you can communicate with them and build that rapport. From my own personal experience, I find it annoying that Mercedes will send me marketing information about people carriers even though I’ve always driven a coupe. It’s those little things that leave a lasting impression.
Authenticity
No one wants to be treated like another name, number, or bum on a seat. We are all individuals, humans; we want and expect communications and experiences to be tailored to us. Take my example with Mercedes; it’s disappointing that no matter how much you can spend, the brand still doesn’t know me well enough to market to my preferences. Clearly, that touchpoint was generic or a very loose segmentation of data to create that campaign. That results in a lack of authenticity and a poor experience. To avoid this, it makes sense to carry out what we’ve covered in terms of understanding your audience on a human-to-human level. But beyond this, every business and brand should be showing their human side. People buy people, so I would encourage everyone to show the people behind their business and brand. Don’t just focus on sales messages or the same corporate posts that we all see in our feeds. Be human; showcase what happens on a daily basis, how products work, how long they take to set up, and address weak areas. This sort of thinking and communication will show your business and brand in another light and build authenticity. Guinness and budget airlines have all addressed the deemed faults or weak areas of their offering, but they’ve done this in a positive light. They haven’t shied away from it or painted a false picture; they have embraced it, they have shown they are real, and because of this, they have built a good rapport. For any businesses and brands, I recommend the same approach; in today’s world, step out of your comfort zone, break away from the norm, don’t hide behind the standard messaging, show your human side and build your authenticity with your audience.
AI
This should come as no surprise, but AI is going to be a key focus for us all, not just in 2024 but in general. AI and ML are here to stay, and the advancements in their development have the ability to lead to some amazing things for all marketers. But for now, keeping in line with what we’ve outlined in terms of personalisation and authenticity, AI has a massive role to play in this too. AI can help us understand data better through predictive analytics. We can now use intuitive AI to understand customer behaviour and their preferences, plus what’s more, what they may do next or are likely to be interested in. A level up from this is using AI to add a layer of personalisation via dynamic content. AI can analyze data and based on a customer’s behaviour and preferences, it can adjust the content and messaging so it is truly personalised to them. This can be ads, landing pages, the layout, imagery, and tone of voice, all in line with the preferences of the customer.
Naturally, many of us will have some reservations about embracing AI, but with these simple integrations happening across our martech and apps we use day to day, we all have an opportunity to start small and gradually become accustomed to AI and the value it can unlock.
In this article, Michael Green, Melody Mijnen Greystar, and Sudhir Kumar have highlighted key marketing trends emerging in 2024. Green emphasizes AI, sensory experiences, and accessible solutions. Mijnen Greystar focuses on business transformation, innovation, and martech. Kumar stresses personalised communication, authenticity, and the growing role of AI. Marketers should prioritize personalised journeys, showcase authenticity, and leverage AI to thrive in the evolving landscape. Learn from these experts and implement their knowledge into your marketing strategy.
