New year, new start! 2024 will inevitably bring with it plenty of updates for content marketing, with evolutions of concepts that worked well in 2023 plus a whole host of brand new ideas.
It’s always good to start the new year with a look at your content strategy, planning what content you’ll need to produce for the next 12 months. With all the up to date knowledge at hand, you can work out how these trends will influence your content going forward.
So, let’s dive right in with our top 9 content marketing trends that you’ll want to leverage in 2024:
1. Content will become more personal
We’ve already seen Google strive to prioritise human-written content with its E-E-A-T model of ranking and this is set to ramp up in 2024.
Content which has demonstrable experience and authority will continue to do well in the SERPs (search engine results pages).
To stand out from the crowd against a sea of AI-generated content, content which has been written by a person rather than a machine will help drive traffic and increase trust and conversions. Good news for the human content producers out there!
2. Deinfluencing
Have influencers had their day? Probably not, and we may continue to see influencer marketing grow in 2024. However, the days of inauthentic reviews is over as consumers grow every more savvy in their research.
Most consumers now are aware that influencers are paid to promote products and services. And the dangers of working with influencers are well documented.
So what then is deinfluencing? Deinfluencing is simply telling followers NOT to buy a product. It started as a trend on TikTok (don’t they all?) where users speak about their experiences with products or services they paid for because they saw an influencer using them.
These products often don’t live up to the influencer review, perhaps because they’re expensive, or poor quality, and so they might recommend alternatives instead.
There is also a sustainability element to this, as a lot of deinfluencing kicks back against consumerism for the sake of it.
Which brings us on to our next trend…
3. Ethical content and sustainability is important
Over the last few years there has been an increase in consumer awareness. Customers want to know where their products come from and they want to ensure that they are being made both ethically and sustainably.
Global challenges such as climate change will continue to grow this awareness into 2024. If you have a sustainable element to your brand, now is the time to make sure you highlight this.
4. Optimising for voice search
Yes, we’ve all been banging on about voice search for the last few years but the need for voice search optimisation is increasing year on year. In 2023, over 125 million people used voice assistants to get their information (source: Demand Sage).
Voice queries are more conversational and less formal than text-based searches. To optimise for voice searches, content should be more conversational, reflecting the way that people actually speak.
Focussing on long tail keywords and question keywords will also be key to your success with voice search. Try adding FAQs to your content where relevant.
5. More authenticity from influencers
We’ve already mentioned deinfluencing and another influencer trend for 2024 focuses on more authentic content.
No longer do social media users want to see unattainable, highly edited images of influencers in princess dresses – they want real content that they can relate to.
Forget Instagram as a highlight Reel, influencers in 2024 will be talking more about their real lives and showing themselves without filters or edits.
6. Fun content
Has your content become too serious? There is so much content to consume now, that we have become overloaded and tend to avoid content which requires a lot of effort. That’s why it’s being stripped back in 2024 and fun content will gain traction.
Memes are a great example of this. Although they’ve been around for a while, they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Our attention spans are getting shorter and memes are quick and easy to consume.
Not only are they a fun way to communicate with customers, they are also super shareable with users often tagging their friends or sharing them on social media, amplifying their reach.
Over 60% of people are more likely to buy from companies that use memes in their marketing (source: Amra & Elma) and so they aren’t just for brand awareness, they can actually help with your conversions too.
Alongside memes, try some funny short-form video content, jokes, and games. This trend isn’t relevant for everyone so remember to make sure all your content follows your brand guidelines.
7. Inclusivity and diversity
Ok, so inclusivity and diversity is not just a trend, and it’s not just for 2024. It’s essential that you consider inclusivity and diversity for your content and marketing in general for 2024 and beyond.
Content should represent a range of backgrounds, situations, perspectives, and voices. And it can’t be just a token mention or gesture. Make sure your company culture and content is committed to inclusivity to be truly authentic.
8. Topic clusters
We’ve been beating the drum for topic clusters for quite some time now and they’re going to continue to achieve some great SEO results in 2024.
Topic clusters, or content clusters as they’re also known, help to ensure that you cover a higher amount of keywords while answering a user’s queries.
Google searches have become more refined with people searching for more precise queries to narrow down the large amount of information that comes back.
Topic clusters help you to become more of an authority on certain subjects and also have the benefits of internal linking.
9. Creating niche content to target specific audiences
We’ve mentioned a couple of times in this article just how much content there is out there. Because of this, it is getting more and more difficult to improve rankings for some keywords.
To overcome this, brands can try to find themselves a niche where they can create content to target a more specific audience. For example, a blog about travel may niche down to create content specifically about packing for travelling.
As well as hopefully increasing traffic to the website, creating niche content can also position your brand as an expert in this field.
