How will content marketing change in 2024? Over the past few years, content marketing has become essential for businesses in various industries and keeps getting more widespread. Its significance is growing, and according to Hubspot, 90% of marketers use content marketing and intend to stick with it.
To help you stay ahead, we’ve outlined eight important content marketing trends for the upcoming year. Use these trends to shape your content marketing strategy and stay up-to-date with the latest developments.
Content marketing trends change quickly because of new technologies, social media platforms, and the ever-changing digital world. Being innovative and creative is essential for successful content marketing.
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box, as someone else surely will. Keep your skills up-to-date by staying informed about the latest content marketing trends.
1. Repurpose, Refresh, Repurpose
Any good content marketer knows how valuable it is to reuse content as part of their strategy. The trick is to create one piece of content that can be used for different purposes and goals. For instance, you can make a blog post for SEO and then break it into short videos, hitting both your content marketing and social media targets.
In 2024, the opportunities for reusing content are expected to keep growing. Explore new and innovative ways to package and share your content, like creating interactive guides or turning it into videos.
Don’t just repurpose – also take a moment to freshen up old pages. It’s a quick process with significant rewards. Update articles with outdated information or tweak keywords on posts that aren’t aligning with search intent as accurately as they could.
2. Real Time Engagement
People today want real connections with the companies they like. Make your brand more personal by interacting with your followers, answering questions, and sharing user-generated content.
In 2024, live streaming will become even more popular. Use platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest to engage with your followers in real-time. Invite guests, host giveaways, and answer questions for an interactive experience.
Another part of involvement relates to customer service. Nowadays, people expect to get their questions or complaints addressed directly through social media, not traditional channels. Ensure your brand is prepared to handle customer issues on social platforms by having pre-written templates for common questions.
3. Short Form Video
Video posts grab more attention than pictures – that’s no secret. Content marketers are increasingly diving into video, especially short ones. This trend keeps getting stronger, and interest isn’t fading.
The cool thing is, lots of platforms let you share short videos. You’ve got Instagram Stories, Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and even Pinterest. Each of these has fun effects, editing tools, stickers, and more to jazz up your videos.
A quick note about Instagram Reels
In 2022, Instagram made some sweeping changes, including doing away with IGTV and “Instagram Video” in favor of a Reels-first approach. While horizontal videos, longer than the Reels max of 90 seconds, are still accepted for now, content marketers should definitely be prepared to incorporate Reels into social media content planning. Otherwise you do risk falling way behind in the algorithm.
4. Humanizing the Content Experience
The online space is crowded, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Using content to entice potential customers is getting trickier, simply due to volume which leads to decision fatigue. So it’s never been more important to analyze your customer journey, identify drop-off points, and rethink your engagement tactics.
As the world moves more and more into the digital space, humanizing your content and taking a holistic approach are key elements to keep in mind for remaining top-of-mind.
Consider the micro-journeys as well, within each piece of content, not just from one content piece to another. Interactivity is a big piece of this puzzle, and it’s definitely seeing a golden age. Not only is it more fun for the reader, it also keeps them engaged with your content for a longer period of time – rather than bouncing off to another site.
Consider creating interactive guides or reports, with expandable sections or animations to illustrate a point. Another kind of interactive content lives on social media: quizzes and polls are extremely popular and, as a bonus, give you some quick insights into your consumers.
5. AI (Artificial Intelligence) & MGC (Machine Generated Content)
Keeping up a steady stream of content has been a struggle and pain point for content managers since online content began. It’s a fact that more content means more keywords, means more pages for search engine crawlers to learn what your company is all about, means more search results, means more users clicking into your page.
AI-powered content marketing has been a significant trend that will continue in 2024. This technology can improve your site content personalization, from recognizing repeat visitors and offering in-app suggestions or driving specific email campaigns based on user behavior and purchase patterns.
MGC (Machine Generated Content), and other API tools for writing content, is the way of the future for scaling crawlable content on your site. It’s true that MGC is still lagging a bit when it comes to the human voice. But it has grown in leaps and bounds over the past couple of years and is important to keep your eye on. 2024 could be the year where you get ahead of the curve and look into how AI and MGC can augment and scale, not replace, your content creation machine.
6. AR (Augmented Reality) & VR (Virtual Reality)
One of the fastest growing content marketing trends is AR — augmented reality, and VR — virtual reality, programs that immerse people into artificial 360* worlds, providing new ways of sampling products and purchasing, through the simple use of their phone.
This type of content is bubbling into the mainstream now, and promises to be the next stage of evolution for brand & product marketing. Keep an eye on Pinterest and Snapchat in particular — Snapchat continues to innovate in AR functionality, providing unique ways for its users to share their interests, “try on” products before purchasing, engage with friends, and create content.
Copy and content writers should definitely think about honing their micro-copy skills. AR and VR experiences require a lot of explainers and clear CTAs to encourage users to tap into AR features. VR also requires strong visual & written storytelling skills, and an ability to match the two together seamlessly.
7. Co-Marketing
Collaborative marketing might increase in 2024 because social platforms now make it easier to tag other creators or brand accounts. This is a good way to get more people involved and counter the decrease in reach. Since influencer marketing is still a big deal, teaming up on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and others can be excellent opportunities for content marketers.
Another type of joint marketing, co-branded reports and guides, isn’t a new idea, but they’re still popular for attracting new business. They serve a similar purpose — partnering with other top brands and companies in your industry benefits everyone, pushing well-researched and inspiring thought leadership content farther than something done alone.
8. Expanded Social Universe
In 2024, social media will play a significant role in content marketing trends.
Similar to how the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has moved into its next phase, we are also stepping into what could be called the “expanded social media universe.” With fresh features on familiar platforms, TikTok maturing, and shifts in the Twitter landscape, content marketers have much to stay alert to.
Additionally, there’s the unpredictable realm for marketers like Discord, and there’s potential for Mastodon or another Twitter competitor to gain prominence!
What’s Not Changing in Content Marketing?
Certain basic principles in content marketing have remained consistent ever since it became a crucial aspect of digital marketing.
1. Backlinks are still key
Google often changes its rules for how search results are ranked, and they don’t always announce it. Usually, SEO experts only realize when they see unexpected changes in rankings, confirmed later by news. (Cue the frantic emails to your SEO friends.)
When setting your content marketing goals, remember that creating content others want to link to is crucial. Consider the latest trends in content marketing mentioned above to guide your strategy. Could an older blog post, for instance, be transformed into an interactive infographic?
2. Mobile first
Content marketing involves getting lots of people to see your content. But, it’s even more crucial to keep their attention and persuade them to do something else, like subscribing to your email list or buying something. A significant way to boost the chances of these actions is to make sure your content is easy to view on mobile devices.
More than half of the world’s web traffic comes from mobile devices (54.8%), and this number is expected to increase. If you make sure your content looks good on mobile, you’ll find it much easier to connect with today’s consumers.
To excel in content marketing in 2024, stay ahead by following these trends.