You know what they say: Time flies when you’re having fun! But seriously, how is it almost 2024?
After pumpkin spice dies down, strategists everywhere ask themselves the same questions: What will be the new trend and how are we going to make it our own? Like a new year’s resolution, predictions for the upcoming year have become part of every digital marketer’s end-of-year routine.
We spoke with our campaign managers at Liquid, revealing some 2024 predictions and advice in organic and paid social media.
What’s a breakout trend you saw this year?
Nano Influencers are the New Micro Influencers: Below the micro-influencer, I’m seeing everyday people become nano influencers, selling to their friends, family, and the 325K viewers of their video that happened to go viral. Whether they’re generating referral revenue via the link in their bio or using a channel’s native shopping platform, influencing has never been easier to profit from for just about anyone! - Riley Surovy, Integrated Marketing Strategist
More Slang and Emojis, Less Corporate Lingo: Often when brands are looking to be a thought leader, especially in the B2B space, brands think that their messaging needs to be very buttoned up and professional, but they fail to remember that the people they’re speaking to are humans, too. Lately, we’ve seen brands (like MNTN) try to lean more into messaging that shows their personality and voice more and less like you’re reading a legal document. They’ll use a few emojis and maybe make a nod to a current pop culture event to resonate with their audience better, especially when their target customer profile leans younger. But be warned, if you’re looking to adopt this tongue-in-cheek writing style, it takes some creativity that really only a human can do, so don’t look to ChatGPT to do it for you or it may come off too cheesy. - Melanie Cellini, Digital Marketing Team Lead
Video Feeds... Everywhere! While we’ve known that TikTok was the leader of the pack when it came to short-form videos, this year we saw similar concepts like Instagram reels, Facebook reels, YouTube shorts, and more, really take off. Like Melanie said, this was especially trendy for brands who were targeting Gen Z and Millennials as leveraging these short-form videos was the perfect opportunity for them to lean into a more casual style of marketing/posting and show off their sense of humor. If you haven’t yet hopped on this trend or need some tips on growing your brand through an app like TikTok, don’t mind me as I shamelessly plug my blog post to help you out! - Katie Gurinowich, Integrated Marketing Specialist
What’s your 2024 digital marketing prediction?
Social Commerce is King: With the continued rise in social media commerce, I think we’re going to see Instagram Shop and TikTok Shop grow in popularity. Currently, social buyers make up 32% of all online consumers in America. What’s even more telling is that sales happening on social media platforms across the world add up to $1.298 billion, with projections that this number will reach nearly $3 trillion by 2026. Gone are the days when consumers flocked to the mall to see the latest winter clothing at their favorite store. Now, Instagram and TikTok act as an online storefront, and I think we’ll see brands pair social commerce content with paid ads in 2024. - Riley
Social Followers Trump Email Subscriber Lists: Email will always have its place in marketing, especially for businesses with complicated or long sales cycles or those with an e-commerce presence. But let’s be real, our email inbox fills up faster than a rain barrel during a tropical storm. I believe email will become less effective as time goes on, and you will see more people following and interacting with the brands they love on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to learn about everything they’ve got going on. Newsletter-style emails like The Morning Brew and The Daily Carnage are the exception to the rule, as they’ve successfully built a subscriber base who really wants to read the emails they’re sending out. Most other brands, however, should lean toward growing their follower base on social, sharing content that their audience can learn from, promoting a sale or event, or learning about a new product, truly providing them with a reason to follow you. - Melanie
The More Podcasts...The Merrier?: Do you remember when listening to podcasts was just not as cool? Or remember the days when a podcast was just a person (or 2) behind a microphone, and didn’t include any visuals to go along with it? In 2024, I think we are going to see 1) more and more podcasts and 2) podcasts that include not only audio but also visual components, like video, really thrive. I think a lot of podcasters have realized that humans are visual creatures by nature, so giving their audience a glimpse of your facial expressions or body language will help form an emotional connection and keep them coming back for more. Maybe podcasts aren’t your style, or you want to dip your toe in before fully committing – totally okay! Consider a social media series with short, Q&A style videos with thought leaders or customer-facing employees at your organization. - Katie
What should a marketing team prioritize for 2024?
Jump In. Trends on social media are changing constantly, so I think going into 2024, brands should come up with a plan so they can be timely and "jump in!" Timing will continue to be so important to growing a community, especially on a new platform. Take the time to discuss your approach and ensure your team is on the same page (brand voice, creative support, workflow for approvals, etc.) before you get started. Then, as new trends emerge. you can move fast and really capitalize on the opportunity - Riley
Produce As Much Video Content as Possible. I’ve been saying this for years. Video continues to be the most engaging type of content and can be repurposed in so many ways, like taking a long-form video and chopping it into short clips for social, audio clips for music streaming, and so much more. And please stop gating the information that sets you apart from your competitors behind a form - Get that info into a video that your audience can easily view and share so they feel like they’re making the best decision when choosing to buy from you. - Melanie
Dare To Be Different. I totally agree with Riley’s point about jumping into trends! I think a lot of brands stay inside their comfort zone a little too much. A good indication that you are on the right track to launching something that is sure to make a splash is that it should make you feel a little uncomfortable. I highly recommend dusting off that list full of out-of-the-box ideas that your team has brainstormed over the years and bringing a few of them to life! - Katie
What’s one way a marketing team can prepare for 2024 before the year’s over?
Make the Most of What You've Got: As teams are preparing for the new year, I think making sure you're getting the most out of the tools and channels you're already leveraging would be a great exercise to go through. Inventory all your platforms and channels and figure out what areas you might be able to improve. Maybe you aren’t currently taking advantage of marketing automation capabilities on your email marketing platform or your Google Analytics setup and UTM tagging strategy could use some tweaking to really give you the best foundation for actionable insights! Whatever it is, use this time for preparing and planning as best as you can. – Riley
Brainstorm Video Ideas and Start Creating: Take inventory of all of your video content and make note of what performed well and where some gaps in content may lie. Start brainstorming video ideas and don’t overcomplicate it – a 15 to 30-second video can perform just as well as a 3-minute video. Don’t feel like you need to come up with a new message to put in the video each time! Just talk about your benefits, competitive advantage, products, etc. — really anything that’s already on your website should be fair game to talk about in a video. - Melanie
Put Yourself in Your Audience’s Shoes: I think two questions some marketers could benefit from asking themselves are, “If I saw this ad, would I want to click to learn more?” and “Would this post catch my eye if I was mindlessly scrolling?” Now is the perfect time to assess your audience and if you’re engaging them. Additionally, I can guarantee that your audience will appreciate and give more attention to your brand if they see you engaging with your followers, similar accounts in your space, and just remaining really active across all of your channels. If you are interested in learning more about your audience’s behaviors, trending topics, and the content they enjoy, I recommend you check out Sparktoro! - Katie
What trends most surprised you this year? What do you think is in store for 2024? Let us know on LinkedIn!
Want to keep talking 2024 planning? Hit our line!