If there’s one constant in the world of content marketing, it’s the perpetually changing content marketing trends. For marketers and businesses, the cost of lagging behind the trend curve can be massive. But fear not! We’ve got your back. To ensure you’re not left in the digital dust, we’ve sifted through the noise to bring you 10 content marketing trends that will shape the industry in 2024 and beyond. Some are fresh off the digital press, while some content marketing trends from 2023 are still going strong, refusing to fade into the background.
So, no more beating around the bush – let’s dive headfirst into the content marketing trends that will pave the way for your success.
TL;DR here’s a quick video summarizing the top 10 content marketing trends 2024 –
1. AI will continue to enhance content marketing in new ways
2. AI in conversational marketing is going to be big
3. There is going to be greater demand for podcasts
4. AI-generated social posts, short-form videos, and leveraging Meta Threads for marketing
5. Optimizing your content for voice search will be more important than ever
6. Memes and relatable content will drive engagement
7. B2B content marketing trends 2024 that will change the game
8. Developing niche content catering to specific demands of target audiences
9. UGC content will work wonders for eCommerce
10. Creating strategic topic clusters will elevate the brand authority
Top 10 Content Marketing Trends for 2024
1. AI and automation will continue to enhance content marketing in new ways
If you’ve been keeping up with the latest content marketing trends for 2022 and 2023, you’re probably aware of the growing popularity of AI content creation software. The launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 kicked off an AI wave, and many brands quickly realized the benefits of embracing generative AI with open arms. In fact, a 2023 Influencer Marketing Hub report found that almost 61.4% of marketers are already incorporating AI into their marketing strategies, and 54.5% feel that AI is enhancing their marketing efforts greatly.
With greater demand for AI in marketing, new technologies and tools are coming out every day. A prime example of this is automated content creation. We’re talking about AI content generation tools that give you content on autopilot. That’s exactly what Narrato’s AI Content Genie does. With this AI tool, you can get fresh AI-generated social media and blog content every week, complete with image recommendations and customization options. It generates this content on autopilot, picking up ideas from the themes you’ve shared or the website link you’ve provided. It also allows you to publish content to Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, WordPress and Webflow in just a few clicks. Think of it as a multi-talented marketing assistant who handles content creation, strategizing, and marketing all at once.
Narrato’s AI Content Genie
It’s clear that the world of content marketing is changing dramatically with AI marketing tools. AI is helping us determine what content to create, how to create it, and how best to make sure it reaches its intended audience. This suggests that AI will play a crucial role in shaping content strategies moving forward in 2024 too.
2. AI in conversational marketing is going to be big
Another content marketing trend that is gaining momentum is the fusion of conversational marketing and artificial intelligence (AI). The way customers interact with businesses is going to change significantly in 2024. Today’s consumers, fueled by a need for instant satisfaction, demand quick responses and instant solutions, and AI chatbots are helping businesses deliver on this front. These intelligent tools interact with customers through dynamic conversations, providing quick answers to questions and helping in decision-making. The result is a seamless and personalized customer experience that boosts satisfaction and drives more conversions.
Lyro AI from Tidio is a fine example of such a tool. This conversational AI chatbot helps customer service representatives by handling conversations with customers in a personalized manner. It picks up relevant information from your company’s knowledge base to promptly resolve customer inquiries. In situations where it cannot provide an answer, Lyro smoothly hands over the conversation to a human representative.
Tidio’s Lyro AI chatbot
The development of chatbots, from early versions like ELIZA to present-day tools, demonstrates remarkable progress in AI’s capabilities. This new generation of AI-powered chatbots goes beyond basic customer service and into effective content marketing, offering the potential to revolutionize the industry.
3. There is going to be greater demand for podcasts
Following the content marketing trends of 2022 and 2023, into the content trends 2024, podcasts continue to remain a popular choice for consuming content for people. Podcast listenership is steadily increasing, and as per recent statistics, it is projected to reach 504.9 million by the close of 2024. Given these statistics, including podcasts in your content marketing strategy seems only logical. Podcasts offer a unique way to approach your audiences. It serves as a platform for relationship building, delivering value to listeners, promoting sales, increasing brand visibility, and establishing brand authority.
But here’s the burning question – how is podcasting going to be different in 2024?
According to this insightful article from Podcastle, these are some trends podcast content creators could hop on to –
- Live podcasts that allow you to interact with your audience in real-time are going to be popular.
- Audiences will be interested in more “edutainment” content, that provides some value while being entertaining.
- AI transcription technology (such as that offered by Podcastle) is going to be a game-changer. Podcasters can use AI tools to generate scripts (Narrato’s Video Script Generator), enhance and edit audio (Auphonic), and automate other tasks.
Another idea marketers can explore is repurposing podcasts for maximum impact. If your podcast gets a lot of engagement, turning it into a blog or social post can be a smart move. The strong social responses show that there is an audience interest in exploring the topic in more depth. Narrato’s AI content repurposing tool offers an easy way to repurpose this content.
Narrato’s AI content repurposing tool
You can simply add your podcast URL or file, choose what you want to convert it into, select the tone, and your content will be ready.
4. AI-generated social posts, short-form videos, and Meta Threads for marketing
Here are some social media content trends 2024 that are going to change the game –
- Threads, a social media platform launched by Meta in July 2023, has quickly gained traction, attracting millions of users in a short time. This offers businesses a chance to tap into the platform’s expanding user base and benefit from first mover advantage. It’s a good time to develop your Threads content strategy 2024. Look for some useful guides that could help you make the most of this platform in 2024.
- The demand for short videos will remain strong, as platforms such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok continue to thrive. According to Hubspot’s social media marketing report, short videos yield the highest return on investment (ROI) among all types of social media content. If you’re not already, start investing in more short-form video content. There are tools like Opus Clip that can repurpose your long-form videos into short-form clips.
- AI social content generators are going to be used extensively for social media content, and many brands are using these tools already. Narrato AI social media post generator, for instance, can help you craft social media posts, with impactful quotes, personal stories, thought-provoking questions, or on any other theme, for LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It also suggests relevant emojis and hashtags for every post. Besides generating fresh weekly social media posts on autopilot, its AI content genie also comes with the option to search for relevant images/GIFs and publish content directly to the platforms.
Narrato’s AI social media content generator
Businesses that strategically embrace these social media content trends in 2024 can strengthen their connections with their audience and maintain a competitive edge.
5. Optimizing your content for voice search will be more important than ever
The use of voice search is on the rise, with more and more people using voice assistants for information retrieval.
Source: Demandsage
To make content easily discoverable and relevant in voice searches, businesses should start adjusting their SEO strategies to the way people naturally speak in real-life conversations. Unlike text searches, voice queries are more casual and conversational. Voice search optimization involves adapting to the commonly used but grammatically incorrect spoken sentences people use when interacting with voice assistants. This move towards voice-centric optimization will help businesses strategically position themselves in voice search and cater to the needs of a growing audience relying on voice assistants for information retrieval.
6. Memes and relatable content will drive engagement
Content fatigue is real. With the internet overflowing with information, people often feel overwhelmed, which causes them to overlook content that requires more mental effort. As a result, they gravitate towards fun and relatable content that’s easier to consume. Even companies in seemingly unexciting industries are seeing better results after incorporating something fun and funny into their content strategies. Memes have become an effective way for businesses to address customer frustrations and offer their products as solutions, breaking through the perception that their products/services are overly serious. According to a study conducted by NYU, memes have a 60% higher organic reach compared to regular graphics.
So, if you haven’t already, 2024 would be a great time to incorporate meme marketing into your content strategy 2024. With AI tools to help, it should be pretty simple. Start off by using Narrato’s meme idea generator to get some meme ideas. Simply input your theme, and the tool will give you a bunch of ideas you can work with.
Narrato’s AI meme idea generator
Then, you can use a text-to-meme generator like Supermeme.ai or Predis.ai to turn your idea into a meme, as we’ve done below.
Supememe.ai
Meme marketing by Semrush on LinkedIn
Beyond memes, various other types of fun and relatable content are gaining traction. Comic strips, short, funny videos, and interactive content like polls offer alternative ways for businesses to connect with their audience on a more personal and enjoyable level. As people’s attention spans are getting shorter, leveraging memes and relatable content can be a powerful strategy for keeping audience engagement high. This, in turn, can make content marketing efforts more effective.
7. B2B content marketing trends 2024 that will change the game
Getting B2B content marketing right is not easy. Marketers face creative demands, channel decisions, and budget limits while developing their marketing strategy. Here are two B2B content marketing trends 2024 that marketers can capitalize on –
Prioritizing videos in content marketing budget
B2B organizations are gradually realizing the power of visual storytelling and are allocating more budget to videos in their content marketing strategies. Videos offer a versatile and engaging platform to connect with prospects. The appeal of video lies in its power to communicate complex information effectively. As organizations seek new ways to showcase their products, demonstrate expertise, and establish thought leadership, the strategic use of video content emerges as a crucial trend in B2B marketing.
With a team of skilled scriptwriters and video-making and editing tools, B2B brands can create all types of video content, from product demos, explainer videos, interviews, impactful video ads, and thought leadership videos. To save time during pre-production, consider using a tool like Narrato’s AI video script generator. This tool can generate scripts for videos that are up to 6 minutes in length. You would also have the option to specify the number of hosts in the video and tailor the script to your channel’s unique format.
AI in B2B content creation
According to a CMI/MarketingProfs survey, improving content quality with AI is going to be a major content marketing trend in 2024. The survey report further stated that almost 72% of B2B marketers are using AI in their content marketing strategies, exploring new ways to integrate AI into their marketing processes. Around 51% of them AI for generating content ideation, while 45% employ it for researching keywords, headlines, and drafting content. Interestingly, AI’s integration into content creation extends to audio (5%) and video (5%) production as well.
B2B marketers using generative AI
So, there are two major takeaways for B2B marketers, invest in more video content and start using AI content marketing tools. Narrato offers easy-to-use AI tools that could be useful for multiple content marketing tasks.
Narrato’s AI content assistant
There’s an AI content idea generator, AI image generator, AI SEO brief generator, AI article writer, AI copywriter, and over 100 other AI writer templates for creating any kind of content you want.
8. Developing niche content catering to specific demands of target audiences
Content saturation is a big problem faced by content marketers today. With industries flooded with the same kind of content, it is harder to boost organic ranking for specific keywords. To overcome this challenge, innovative brands are focusing on specific niches and audience-oriented content to attract a more targeted audience.
This approach involves finding a niche where the brand’s expertise (in a service or product) intersects with a specific industry. Instead of general insights, brands can create tailored content for specific sectors. This approach not only tackles the problem of content saturation but also positions the brand as a trusted voice in a specific niche.
9. UGC content will work wonders for eCommerce
The fact that 85% of people trust content produced by fellow users highlights the immense potential of user-generated content (UGC), especially for e-commerce businesses. By providing your users with an opportunity to create their own content on your website or embed TikTok video, you can reap numerous benefits.
User-generated content, especially when mostly positive, is a powerful tool to leave a lasting impression on new visitors. It not only showcases your users’ positive experiences but also shows that their voices matter and are valued. As users become brand ambassadors, it helps create a sense of community and keeps them engaged with your website. We saw a brilliant use of UGC content in the Etsy content marketing case study, and how it is helping them boost their SEO.
So, if you’re planning to implement a UGC campaign in 2024, here are some strategies you can use –
- Crowdsourcing content: Ask your audience to share their experiences with your product or service by submitting photos, reviews, or videos on their social media channels. To encourage participation, you can offer discounts or prizes, and showcase the best submissions on your website or social media.
- Social media takeovers: Give influencers, customers, or employees the chance to take charge of your social profiles for a specific time. They can share photos, videos, or even go live, picking up a unique angle to promote your products or services. This will give your audience a unique and unscripted experience.
- Hashtag campaigns: Consider creating branded hashtag campaigns to engage with your audience on social media. Invite them to share their stories, experiences, or love for your brand. By reposting and sharing the most interesting posts, you can generate excitement and boost brand recognition.
To achieve UGC success, it’s important to actively monitor user-generated content related to your brand. Repost, like, and comment on positive posts, and address any misconceptions or negative feedback. By making UGC an interactive and integral part of your content strategy, you position your brand for success in 2024 and beyond
10. Creating strategic topic clusters will elevate the brand authority
Another key trend emerging in content marketing is the strategic use of Topic Clusters to boost authority and maximize SEO. Topic clustering was a strategy by Cambria Davies and Anum Hussain from HubSpot, who ran topic cluster experiments after the shake caused by Google Hummingbird and RankBrain updates. Their topic cluster experiments revealed that increasing interlinking (by creating topic clusters) led to improved placement in SERPs and increased impressions.
In today’s world, content should not only answer specific questions but also tackle the user’s problem. By structuring content into interconnected clusters, businesses can strengthen their authority within their domains. This approach aligns with the changing expectations of search engines and fulfills the user’s desire for in-depth, well-organized, and problem-solving content.
Here are some tips for creating topic clusters:
- Identify some key problems (maybe 5-10) that your target audience faces. Conduct interviews, surveys, and explore online communities to gather relevant data.
- Categorize these problems into broader topic areas.
- Expand on each core topic by researching relevant keywords and developing corresponding subtopics.
- Brainstorm content ideas that align with the core topics and subtopics you have identified.
- Validate each idea through industry and competitive research.
- Start creating content, measure its impact, and refine your approach accordingly.
That’s a wrap
Anticipating content marketing trends is a tricky business, but with this roadmap for achieving content marketing success you are set to fire up your content game and seize emerging opportunities. If this read was your morning coffee, we’re sure you’re buzzing with ideas right now!
Voice search, video content, AI, and immersive tech experiences are just some parts of the giant that ‘content marketing’ is becoming. Embrace these trends, incorporate them into your strategy, and watch as your audience engagement, brand awareness, and ultimately, your bottom line, amplify. It may seem daunting at first, given the pace of innovation and change, but armed with this knowledge, you’re already ahead of the curve.