“What should I be doing this year?!” – 2024 Content and Marketing Trends
Here we go …2024 has arrived and what does the best practice advice have in store for us this year?? When it comes to 2024 content and marketing trends, I always try to digest the information from the big agencies, influencers and players in the field, and then reduce this down to what I think small business owners and sole traders will find most useful.
From my research so far, there are 5 areas that I want you to think about so that you can remain on top of the most effective marketing tactics and content creation suggestions for you:
- Answer long form search queries
- Learn to use AI as a research tool
- Remain active on social media
- Be ready for visual search optimisation
- Get reviews and measure impact
5 2024 content and marketing trends to jump on board with
1 – Answer long form search queries
Using long tail keywords for search engine optimisation (SEO) has been a trend for a while. It’s really difficult to rank for core terms in any area, especially just one or two words, i.e. ‘copywriter’, ‘florist’, etc.
Using long tail keywords used to revolve around more detailed phrases, such as ‘website copywriter in Hampshire’, for example. This more detailed search term was more specific, would have fewer results and as a small business owner you had more chance of ensuring your website, a certain page or blog post would rank higher.
The recommendation in 2024 is to think about longer search terms, but in terms of questions and queries, i.e. ‘Why should I use a copywriter for my website?’. The content you use to do this can also be more varied, from webpages, to blog posts, to videos and social media content. Why? Because every platform is becoming more ‘search based’ and every platform is becoming used more in this way by consumers. Think about everything from TikTok, to YouTube, to Pinterest, to Smart Speakers – we are looking for answers, looking for advice and using these platforms more and more to ask questions and expecting them to provide the answer.
Answering questions and showing your knowledge and expertise is a great form of content for small business owners anyway. Forget just search engine optimisation, this form of content can be used to answer enquiries quickly and highlight your expertise to potential clients and customers too.
Showing off your knowledge and expertise has never been more important in a world of fake news and content overload.
2 – Learn to use AI as a research tool
The growth and development of the use of AI technology, particularly in writing copy, design and creating imagery will only continue to become more prevalent.
It’s time to embrace AI in 2024 and make it work for you.
Making AI work for you is a key 2024 content and marketing trend. This means that I recommend getting used to using software like ChatGPT or Bard and using it as a research tool – they are your assistants.
No copy and pasting to create blogs or social media captions please (as I do believe this isn’t best for business and with recent copyright cases a potential backlash is coming), but do use AI to do research, to inspire ideas, and to help you automate certain processes or responses.
Importantly, if you haven’t done so yet, do experiment with AI. It’s better to know and understand what is does and how it works than bury your head in the sand. It’s getting more and more prolific in so many areas of marketing so do try to give it a go.
Sara Thornton ran a great session on using ChatGPT for The Content Club – join today and access the replay.
3 – Remain active on social media
Now, if you know anything about me, you’ll know I am not social media’s biggest fan!
Why? Because I hate that it’s been put on some giant pedestal as the only marketing device a small business needs and ‘ta da’ we will all be earning six figures …and then if that doesn’t happen, “well it must be your fault, you silly little business owner”!!! Yuk… I hate it!
Social media is just ONE tactic you can use. It is also not going to be the main tactic for selling or engaging for every business as it completely depends on what type of business you have, what you have to sell, how you sell it and the content you put out on it.
However, social media remains a ‘necessary evil’ for most businesses in terms of visibility and trust. People (myself included) do check out businesses via social media to help them assess whether to buy. And, this won’t change in 2024.
The biggest takeaway for 2024 marketing trends, however, is that it will become more and more difficult to get reach or engagement on your social media channels if you just ‘dump and run’. By which I mean, if you post some content or schedule some posts, then forget just about it. The platforms are becoming more and more savvy to this and they don’t like it. They want engaged and active users.
Therefore, when it comes to your social media strategy (and especially if you are already struggling for time to post), I recommend spending your time on fewer creations and more time interacting on the platform itself, which in turn should help the reach and engagement on your own content.
It is also likely to inspire more ideas.
4 – Be ready for visual search optimisation …i.e. video
As mentioned before, we are ‘searching’ more than ever. We want information…we ask for it.
Visual search is going to really grow in 2024. We have had to rely on the written word (I’m not complaining) for a long time, but it looks like the ability for Google and other search mechanisms to ‘listen to video’ and to ‘read pictures’ is fast approaching as common place too.
What does this mean for small business owners? Well, it’s been a trend pretty much since I started writing these (!), but the time really is now to commit to producing video content.
Video needs to be a string to your content bow. You may have already seen that a YouTube video takes precedence in search result now (and that’s not just because YouTube is owned by Google). Nearly all social media platforms are also prioritising video content too…even LinkedIn.
So when thinking about those FAQs, thinking about how to get engagement on social media (to make you want to hang out there more) and how to help ranking for your website pages, it’s likely that video content is probably part of the answer.
5 – Get reviews and measure impact
I think this is a really interesting content and marketing trend for 2024, primarily because I think small businesses have a great chance of really capitalising on this one. It’s so much easier for us than for bigger businesses. Some always wants to complain or write a bad review for a big corporate!
Make 2024 the year that you ask for as many reviews and testimonials, as possible. Modern consumers are utterly persuaded by the number of stars!!! In all seriousness, credibility is becoming more and more important. In addition, every spend is precious and needs to be well thought through…so give your customers confidence to buy from you.
In addition, use the opportunity of gathering reviews and testimonials as a chance to get more in-depth feedback, if possible. Again, as a small business or sole trader, you may have relatively few customers to send out a simple survey to, or even, to organise a series of 121 interviews. It is actually quite manageable.
The ‘data’ you will get from seeking feedback can help develop your business in so many ways. A testimonial is always great to share on social media or your website. Constructive recommendations of how to tweak or change things in your business, or even develop or bring in new products or services …is all really valuable. Finding out ‘what your ideal audience, clients and customers really want.
Forget 2024 Content and Marketing Trends…just want some help this year?
Don’t get bogged down in trends and recommendations if you are already feeling overwhelmed by all of the ‘should dos’.
If you want support this year to plan your marketing, get content creation ideas and to feel surrounded by fellow small business owners who get it, then come and join The Content Club for just £23 per month.
Not heard of this marketing membership? Book a chat today and I can tell you all about it.