What are the 5 biggest content marketing trends we'll see this year? 2024 promises to be a year where personalized content and short-form visual media equal success for your business. Both B2C and B2B content marketing teams will find more traction with familiar, local faces than glossy, glamorous online influencers.
It's also a year where generative AI takes a backseat to real, human expertise — but AI still holds a valuable place in the content strategy process.
Here are 5 trends in content marketing for 2024 I'll focus on in this article (jump to the topics that interest you!):
Google Takes Back Control of Generative AI by launching Bard and punishing copy-and-paste content.
Short Form Video Still Reigns as the most effective form of digital advertising.
Local Experts Are the New Influencers — partner with local shop owners, bloggers, and local social media personalities.
Digital Consumers Use Social Media as a Search Platform at a higher rate than ever before.
Personalized Content Is In, and broad content without a geographic or regional focus is trending out.
Need a jumpstart on your 2024 content marketing campaign? I'm happy to get you started with a free consultation and overview of your plans.
2024's Biggest Content Marketing Trend: Google Takes Control of Generative AI
“Search engines know readers are savvy enough to sniff out copy-and-paste posts,” says Rob Glover at Wordstream.
Rob's right — the great experiment in using artificial intelligence to churn out unedited, unchecked copy in mass quantities has failed. Google has updated its algorithm to detect these highly-plagiarized blocks of text and punished them in SERP (search engine results page) rankings.
This is coupled with Google's own foray into generative AI, Google Bard. And we all know Google doesn't enter a space it doesn't intend to dominate.
AI Still Has a Place in Content Creation — In a Selective, Ethical Way
Content marketers shouldn't eliminate AI from their content strategy entirely. Used properly, generative AI platforms like Bard are an excellent tool to develop keyword strategy, identify popular consumer searches, and cultivate informed copy.
The simple trick to AI content success in 2024: There's still no substitute for good editing and fact-checking.
Copy-and-pasting from AI to page is a surefire way to create content that fails. You must invest the same effort in copyediting AI generated content as you do with copy written by humans.
Content Marketing Trend #2: Video Content Continues to Dominate
Video marketing reached high-water marks for success in 2023. According to Hubspot (via Wyzowl), 92% of marketers reported positive ROI from video content, while 72% of consumers preferred short form content marketing videos to all other forms of digital advertising.
Short form video is currently the unrivaled king of the content marketing world. Its average ROI is nearly 2.5x greater than any other form of digital video (Statista). Digital marketing teams that create effective visual content of one minute or less will capture every target audience under the age of 65 most effectively this year.
4 Tips to Create Killer Short Form Video Content
So how do you capitalize on the short form video wave? Here are 4 quick steps to effective video content creation for social media:
Lead with the hook. Your video is 60 seconds or less, but you have under 3 seconds to grab your viewer's attention. This is social media — if I can scroll past your video before the hook lands, you missed your window.
Preframe your audience. Preframing is simple — tell people what you're going to do, offer or accomplish within the next 60 seconds, and then do it. It's the strategy that's made MrBeast the most powerful marketing force on the planet.
You have 60 seconds — but don't use it all. The average TikTok video that finds success is 12-15 seconds long. Effective Instagram videos are even shorter — roughly 7-8 seconds in length. YouTube Shorts run between 15-45 seconds.
Remember — it's a video. Keep your script tight. Visuals first, spoken words second. Don't be afraid to mirror the key words you say with punchy text on the screen. If you offer 30% off, show “30% OFF” as part of your visual content.
#3: Local Experts Are the New Influencer Marketing
You probably can't afford Chiara Ferragni or Huda Kattan as the face of your Instagram and TikTok campaigns. But fear not — local experts are trending upwards as a great option for your 2024 influencer marketing strategy.
Local influencer marketing is popular enough to warrant “starter guide” articles across the Web, and some influencer agencies even offer locally-based options in their network. The digital brand Localfluence exists solely to connect businesses with local influencers to promote them on social media.
Think about it: you're a startup bistro and coffee shop in a small town. What good is hiring an Instagram personality with 5 million followers who's never heard of your town? Spend less money on a few locally-based bloggers, brand owners and media personalities who have a built-in audience in your neighborhood.
How HOMR Is Winning Dallas With Local Influencers
HOMR is a 24/7 home management app that's winning its home market — the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex — in part, by using Dallas-based contracting experts as local influencers.
HOMR uses its Home Experts Blog and LinkedIn presence to present market insights and industry data from contractors, service providers and local industry representatives.
The resulting content provides HOMR with 3 distinct benefits:
Local influencer marketing that builds consumer trust by presenting realistic data from current jobs in the area where its readers live;
Deeper relationships with featured service providers and contractors who see tangible ROI and increased sales leads from the content they help create; and
Inbound leads for their proprietary 24/7 home management app, as Dallas homeowners gain trust in HOMR's local authority and expertise.
Interested in more valuable information about local SEO and marketing? Check out my Local SEO Strategy 101 Guide to learn how to write with local intent and capture the search traffic of your friends and neighbors.
#4: Social Media as a Search Platform
Over half of Gen Z prefers TikTok over Google as a search engine, according to SearchEngineLand.
Read that again. 51% of Gen Z consumers use TikTok as their primary search engine.
TikTok reported the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt garnered 12.4 billion video views last year. This isn't an accident — TikTok recently introduced search ads to its content strategy offerings.
If your target audience is under the age of 30, it is imperative that you treat TikTok as a search platform. Add Instagram to your digital search strategy if you intend to use non-video visual content (images, infographics, etc.)
How to Integrate Social Media Search into Inbound Marketing
I agree with a recent article from Content Marketing Institute regarding the use of social media in content marketing strategy. While the benefits of treating social media as a search engine are tangible, they must be viewed as a part of your overall inbound marketing strategy.
As Michelle Garrett of Garrett Public Relations says in the article:
I think there should be more of a focus on owned media. [I]f you focus on your blog and content created for your site, then add in the social channels where your audience spends time… that can be a winning combination.
#5: Personalized Content In, Broad Content Out
Your content creation process must feel more personalized than ever to individual consumers in 2024. Marketing content must accomplish 2 seemingly contradictory goals at once:
Have a broad appeal (rather than bloating your marketing budget writing 300 versions of one piece of copy); and
Feel specific enough to make individual consumers feel spoken to and appreciated.
So how do you write broad content with narrow focus? The answer is interactive content. Create content that encourages user participation and interaction — then, let individual users choose their own journey.
Polls, Instagram reels and surveys are excellent examples of interactive social media content that engages the user on a personal level while appealing to a broad consumer base.
How Spotify Makes Broad Content Creation Feel Personal
Draw inspiration from Spotify Wrapped. The concept is simple — Spotify tracks a user's listens, then presents them back as a personalized list at the end of the year. There's nothing specific or personalized about the process.
So why does the “Spotify Wrapped experience” evoke such a personal response?
Bright colors. Flashy graphics. Pictures of your favorite artists. And the use of your name.
Sure, it's plugged in using code — but it's personal. And it keeps Spotify users flocking back to the platform day after day, month after month, building towards the following year's Wrapped.
How can your business draw that level of personal engagement from its customers this year?
Focus 2024 Content Marketing Efforts on Specific, Personal Messaging
2024 is the year quality content is defined by the individual, not the group. This year's consumers prefer a personal touch — even if they're buying a global product.
Here are 4 simple content ideas to build out your digital content marketing strategy for 2024:
A targeted blog post series with informed, location-driven content.
Interactive content with geographic intent (i.e. give Denver consumers a different user experience than those in Charlotte — and even those in Colorado Springs).
Video content featuring a local expert with roots in the community the content serves.
Hyperlocal ads on social media platforms with specific language for individual cities and neighborhoods.
If you need a content marketer that understands how to blend searchable, highly visible content with a locally-driven strategy, I'm happy to help guide and inform your strategy for the year.
Take advantage of a free initial consultation — let Perk Copywriting write this year's chapter of your content marketing strategy.