Content 2024: these are the 3 not so obvious, greater trends
Uncovering the hidden, worthy, and exciting trends beyond AI and video
It’s that time of the year, and I’m even a bit late to the game: the trend predictions. I did the work, so you can benefit from a head start once the dust settles around AI as a hype.
Beyond AI and video
You can’t get around AI as a trend. Same for video. But what more is out there to keep in mind to stay ahead of the crowd and look beyond 2024, as some things take time to develop and implement?
This is my take on the 3 biggest things that matter. Please check the sources and credits at the bottom for more details.
- Speed in reaction and engagement
- Search: SGE with AI-generated content based on intent in google.com, the rise of social as a search channel, and prepare for voice search
- Paid media will change as well: embrace the creator economy to get reach, prepare for social commerce as a new sales channel, and don’t be afraid of the dark funnel
What you can do right now to prepare for 2024 and even 2025
- Ask your team to do the research
- Start now; this takes time in stakeholder management and development
- Revise your content strategy and update it to 2024 based on user needs, not on product features
Read more below, and let’s get started! If you don't, your competitors will.
1. Speed
Speed in reaction: adapt content to real-time events
Even more than before, you need an almost real-time reaction to events, trends, or other emerging topics. As soon as the golden opportunity and hook arise, your content should be ready in hours, not days.
Like Mark Schaefer strikingly describes how Oreo’s dunking in the dark changed marketing forever. Within 5 minutes after the blackout, their content was online on Twitter. Or what about IKEA's reaction to Bernie Sanders?
You better get the processes in place for super-fast production and approval. Especially align and involve with the legal and PR departments, as the best engaging, going viral content always has an edge and is outspoken.
Speed in engagement: maximizing reach through active participation
With the changing algorithms, the media landscape changes. For B2C and B2B, it’s essential to amplify the reach of your content with engagement.
As soon as you post your content, you have to monitor and actively participate in the comments. The more and faster you engage, the more the algorithm will push your content. This applies to organic and paid content.
The times that you just post and don’t look back are over. All social channels love it and reward you if you’re actively engaging with your community. This applies to brands and to personal accounts.
2. Search turns upside down
Till 2023, the benchmark for traffic was about 40-50% from search. Most brands focus on keywords and keyword matching in their content. This is going to change with the release of Google SGE.
SGE: revolutionizing search with user intent
This new Google search places generative AI content above the organic search results. Google still uses the same sources, your website, but gives the output back in a different format. Focused on providing the answer directly.
In short and simplified, there’s a shift from ‘matching on keywords’ to ‘intent-based’ search. The result is more relevant and tailored results and to deliver more insightful and engaging content.
Next to that, the users will probably stay on the Google page and not visit your page anymore.
Social search: adapt to new behaviors
Especially for the younger generations using social for search, and this will drip into Gen X and Boomers as well. More and more people turn to TikTok or Instagram to search for their perfect holiday in Ibiza, where to stay, what to eat, and which places to visit.
Social eats search market share for breakfast.
This applies to B2C and to B2B; for the latter, the search focus is more on LinkedIn and YouTube than on TikTok and Instagram.
If you use social monitoring for sentiment and reputation, it’s good to realize that the conversations shift from the public domain into the DMs or behind the login wall. So don’t over-rely on social monitoring anymore for user feedback.
Voice search: prepare your content
Maybe 2024 will finally be the year that voice will become mainstream. You better prepare your content for voice search as that requires some different assets.
A few characteristics are that voice search relies on more conversational keywords, must be easily digestible for voice output, requires more structure, and is written in a natural language.
Ask your team to do a deep dive into what matters for your brand, audiences, and content.
3. The paid media game changes as well
This is also heavily dependent on the social algorithm and cookie-third-party do-not-track-me data. The paid media will lose some value for reach and credibility.
If you really want to make an impact, embrace the creator economy. Everyone loves recommendations and reviews by peers and people they can relate to. Again, B2C and B2B.
Embrace the creator economy in paid strategies
Working with creators means you have to feed them with your product and brand identity and then let go of the control.
Dare to experiment and work together with the creators to produce content that resonates.
Social commerce as a new frontier in sales channels
Hopefully, 2024 will also be the year social commerce takes off in the West. Buying in-app directly on a social channel takes away all friction and reduces the number of clicks needed before the purchase.
Keep an eye on this and prepare your organization for shorter, faster sales processes with direct payment links.
Navigate the dark funnel: understand unmeasurable metrics
You can measure a lot. But not all that can be measured matters. And not all that matters can be measured.
Some of the social activities will remain in the dark. Accept that you will not know everything and realize that microdata and attribution on that microdata are still in development and far from ready to be used to make business decisions.
Your immediate actions for 2024: research, prepare, and strategy
Next to the obvious AI developments, these are the 3 things to consider: marketing speed, the search turns upside down, and paid will change as well. I don’t have all the answers and insights on what exactly to expect and to do, as these are trends in progress, and it’s still very early in the year.
Do your research
I kindly suggest you have a chat with your marketing and content team and let them do the research on if and how this applies to your brand and content.
Prepare for 2025
You better start right now so you’ll have a head start compared to your competitors. And you’ll need some serious time for research and C-suite and board-level stakeholder management as this is a whole new way of thinking and doing marketing.
And as we all know, the development and implementation also require some time before it’s all up and running. With everything changing faster and faster, you can’t permit not to start.
Most brands I’ve worked with are not even on par with their current content strategies.
Content strategy
Another thing is the content strategy. Most brands say they have one, but in reality, it’s more often than not a deviation of the marketing strategy where you jump from campaign to campaign and then call it ‘always-on’.
What mostly lacks is an overview of the ‘pain’ of your customers, what their issues are, and how your products solve them. Impactful content that drives conversion is about the user, the customer; it’s not about you.
And while you’re at it, also do some competitor analysis to identify the gaps and opportunities for more impactful content. And use your own data, such as Google Analytics, to find the content that resonates and what doesn’t. Obviously, what works well can be updated, republished, and reposted on social.
Conclusion: beyond AI, the road ahead in content strategy
There is more to content than AI and video. These are the not-so-obvious content trends for 2024.
- Speed in reaction and engagement
- Search: SGE with AI-generated content based on intent in google.com, the rise of social as a search channel, and prepare for voice search
- Paid media will change as well: embrace the creator economy to get reach, prepare for social commerce as a new sales channel, and don’t be afraid of the dark funnel
What you can do right now to prepare for 2024 and even 2025
- Ask your team to do the research
- Start now; this takes time in stakeholder management and development
- Revise your content strategy and update it to 2024 based on user needs, not on product features
It’s time to get started! The great thing is, all of this works excellently together with AI.
And don’t forget to have some fun along the way.
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