Top Marketing Trends in 2024

HubSpot’s new 2024 report on The State of Marketing offers a roadmap of the potential topics and trends we’re considering for the next conference in March!

Highlighted Excerpts from the Report 

AI and automation, alongside a fast-paced world, have the majority of marketers agreeing that marketing has transformed more in the past three years, than over the past 50. We no longer live in a go-to-market world where having information alone is enough – those who want to succeed must instead act on intelligence. We’ve shifted from the Age of Information to the Age of Intelligence.

This has significant implications for marketers. The way that people research and engage with brands impacts which marketing channels and strategies are effective. It’s increasingly challenging to break through the noise to generate traffic and leads. Taking a one-size-fits-most approach to anticipating customer needs no longer works. Marketers need to work through these challenges amidst a backdrop of tight budgets. As you’ll read in the report, 2024 called for marketers to think through awareness, engagement, personalization, efficiency and growth in new ways.

AI is more efficient, more effective, more everything
Time saved with AI leads to more creative work

• Get on the AI train: Marketers using AI and automation tools are 95% more likely to say their marketing strategy was very effective.
• Effective and Creative: 20% of marketers see AI primarily taking over menial tasks and 60% of marketers see AI as an assistant that helps them across their job duties. 81% of marketers using GAI say it’s effective at assisting them in their role.
• GAI content performs: 63% of marketers believe that in 2024, most content will be created at least in part with the help of generative AI. So far, 56% of marketers who use generative AI for content creation say it performs better than content created without it.
• Data-driven marketing made easier
• The #1 way to use AI is research: The top most successful use case for AI is research — 33% ranked it as #1, above context creation (31%) and data analysis and reporting (30%). 61% of marketers who use AI and automation use Generative AI to do research.

AWARENESS
To amplify brand presence, be easy to find and transact online.
Brand awareness starts with establishing trust via social media and video.

Social media is the place for search, sales, and service.
Marketers are increasingly targeting buyers who grew up online. Seventy-four percent of marketers want to reach Millennials and 67% want to engage Gen X, versus only 27% of marketers interested in Baby Boomer audiences. As digital natives grow as decision-makers, we’re seeing changes to how buyers interact with businesses online. Some of the biggest social challenges are coming up with ideas, creating engaging content that generates leads, and gaining followers. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have the strongest ROI — and these align with where marketers were investing in 2024.

Authentic influencer partnerships fuel brand growth.
In 2023, one in four consumers bought a product based on an influencer’s recommendation. And marketers are paying attention. Influencer marketing will grow significantly in 2024, with 50% of the marketers who use it planning to increase their investment. Kyle Denhoff, Director of Marketing on the Media Team at HubSpot shared, “Brands that partner with a select few Creators in their niche create demand and drive sales through channels like YouTube, Newsletters, Podcasts, and Social. More than half of our YouTube demand comes from Creator partnerships. Our audiences want to learn from credible experts over institutional brands. This mix of owned and Creator media is helping propel our business forward.”

Influencer marketing trends

• Less (followers) is more — micro-influencers are driving brand awareness.
• Influencer marketing is a sustainable growth channel for brands.
• Effective marketing teams invest in influencer marketing.
• Effective marketing teams invest in influencer marketing.
• Most marketers work with influencers a few times.

The future of content marketing is personal
In an increasingly competitive search environment, your content strategy must start with what users need, not what’s most efficient for you. If you look at recent Google updates, you’ll notice that Google has been refining what “helpful content” means and prioritizing the “E” for “experience” in E-E-A-T. Your content must be personal, demonstrate experience, and address real needs.

Drawing traffic to on-site content through search will become significantly more challenging.
With generative AI-powered search platforms, content that can be easily produced can be readily served in a chat box. If an AI can write it, an AI can serve it to users instead of a link. Generative AI offers powerful efficiency tools, but it may not be a wholesale answer to content marketing. In the report, HubSpot predicts an increased demand for verifiably human content about deeper and more complex topics.

Decision makers are going to social for everything — search, sales, and service.
Authentic partnerships with micro influencers are fueling brand growth. The best content is personal. Embrace individual personalities and creators. Invest in Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube and make it easy to buy from your brand on social. Try micro influencer marketing campaigns and work with the same partners over time. Build thought leaders within your organization and try new media formats like podcasts and videos.

ENGAGEMENT
The strongest connections happen via call, click, chat, and camera.
The customer journey is shifting and brand communication affects every decision.

VIDEO
Lights, camera, engagement — video is commanding attention and generating ROI. Among different content formats, video continues to bring in top ROI — so more and more marketers are diving in. Marketers are doubling down on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to address younger audiences going right to social video platforms to search and engage with brands, even more so than search engines. Short-form video is the #1 format, offering the highest ROI and has seen the most growth in 2024.

Read the entire report here.

Watch for our 2025 Agenda in the coming weeks to find the topics we’ve curated that resonate with the multifamily industry as well as your peers in other industries.

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HubSpot Report Methodology: HubSpot conducted a survey in September 2023 with a total of 1,400+ global B2B + B2C marketers across industries to gain these data points and representing a multitude of industries such as: advertising or marketing, agriculture, food, and beverage, business or consumer services, information technology, media and entertainment, retail eCommerce, travel and hospitality, and many more.