If the disruptions of the last few years have taught us something, it is that the world is fast-changing and full of uncertainties. However, even with continuing geopolitical conflicts and a generally tough economic climate, it’s safe to say that that the year 2024 will create unprecedented growth opportunities for businesses. And these will be driven by advanced technologies – particularly AI-powered ones. 2023 saw AI-powered technologies being used in multiple ways by leading marketing teams, and their use will increase exponentially in 2024 as they go more mainstream. They will create new opportunities for marketers, boosting their creativity and productivity. While many of the trends from 2023 will remain and even strengthen in 2024, this new year will bring into sharper focus many new digital communication trends that businesses large and small will benefit from greatly. For example, we will see chatbots getting smarter and doing much more than answering FAQs. We will see brands focusing on hyper-personalized marketing to meet the unique needs of each individual. There will be a greater focus on user-generated content and zero-party data.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the most dominant trends in 2024 that we hope will help you stay ahead of the curve and make smart choices for your business. Read on!
While AI-powered chatbots have been gaining traction over the past few years, in 2024 we will see them being used more widely by businesses for customer communication. The AI chatbot industry is set to grow by 30 percent in 2024 (Source: Spiceworks), with many companies creating their own AI-based bots. With the rise of conversational commerce and increasing customer comfort in chatting with non-humans, companies across industries will focus on augmenting their chatbot skills and adding new functionalities and capabilities to bots, making the interactions sound more natural, almost like an in-person conversation. The tone of conversations will be much more personalized as bots chat with customers, understand what their preferences are, and suggest products based on these interactions. Bots will help to make virtual clienteling services available to a broader set of customers. They will be deployed to facilitate more business processes like creating a sales pipeline, engaging in cross-selling and up-selling offers.
Bots will not just help customers with queries and actively help them shop, they will also be trained to pick up customer sentiments and will become more adept at guessing exactly when to transfer the conversation to a live agent, reducing the possibility of losing the customer mid-conversation. Powered by large language models, bots will “learn” from past conversations, identify patterns and discover customer intent, and provide better responses that sound more human-like, delighting customers. To further improve the chatbot experience, many forward-thinking businesses will convert webpages, PDFs, and FAQs into interactive AI chatbot experiences, making the maximum possible content available in a conversational format. In 2024, bots will be able to support more languages, assist and complete sales, handle a wider range of customer queries, and can be integrated into websites, mobile apps, and social media platforms more easily. In fact, a CNBC report has predicted that chatbots will handle 75-90 percent queries by 2024. Chatbot usage will particularly pick up in retail, healthcare, education, real estate, travel, and BFSI.
While the importance of offering personalized experiences is well acknowledged by businesses, in 2024 we will see a whole new level of personalization aided by analytics. While many companies have had significant volumes of customer data, it has not always been analyzed to reveal granular details about customers that can help brands understand what customers actually want. This will change to a fair degree with the aid of advanced analytical tools. AI and machine learning algorithms will continuously update a brand’s understanding of their customer, enabling brands to adjust their marketing messages, pricing, and advertisements in a dynamic way for each customer. In fact, even email delivery times will be tailored based on a person’s browsing behaviour. This will be a key differentiator will help brands cater to the uniqueness of each customer, leading to more successful campaigns that increase conversions. The whole concept of mass marketing will become obsolete – strategic targeting will become very important. Hyper-personalization will be a top priority for businesses in 2024.
One of the most exciting trends of 2024 will be the widespread use of AI-generated content – whether it’s in the form of text (blog posts, ad copies, chatbot scripts, product descriptions), images (for ads, banners, social media posts, et.), audios (text-to-speech apps to be used as narrators, audio ads, voiceovers, audiobooks), or even videos. ChatGPT took the world by storm for its generative capabilities in 2023. Now, its premium, paid version, the ChatGPT Plus, is already being lapped up due to its great features. So great has been the enthusiasm among companies that new subscriptions had to be paused briefly by the maker before they were resumed. OpenAI will allow companies to customize their own ChatGPT experience based on specific instructions, knowledge files, and actions via OpenAI’s GPT Builder.
In 2024, AI tools will help to generate all kinds of marketing content including ad copies, chat dialogues, tailored email campaigns, blog posts, video scripts, and more, often in near real time and based on recent customer interactions. It will help marketing teams create a content supply chain, do more with less, and level the playing field for smaller players with lesser resources. It can optimize content from an SEO point of view as well. Tools will become more adept at creating and optimizing content in 2024. From writing blog posts to creating video scripts, AI’s role in content generation will continue to expand. Not only will AI help to create tailor-made content for each user, it will also be able to optimize content for SEO, ensuring better visibility and reach for a brand. AI is poised to significantly impact content creation and optimization, fundamentally changing how marketers approach these critical aspects of digital marketing.
AI-generated videos, like those by Synthesia, Pictory, Synthesys, DeepBrain AI, etc. are becoming quite common now. They have AI avatars turning text into speech in over 120 languages. Brands across verticals are using them to create short explainer videos for their products and services. The brand can select the tone they want and choose from many high-quality avatars. This will significantly reduce a brand’s video production cost and also the time taken to come up with a video.
However, despite the growing use of AI generated content, the human touch will continue to be important – no generative tool can substitute the human sense of nuance and authenticity, so top brands will continue to rely on the critical thinking and creativity of humans when it comes to marketing and weave in AI for its analytical and automation capabilities in marketing campaigns.
In 2024, we will see messenger platforms become even more business-friendly. They will integrate with other e-commerce functionalities to enable customers to make purchases directly on apps. Let’s take WhatsApp. With its Flows launched in September 2023, businesses are able to provide rich menus and customizable forms that support different needs. They will be able to book customized experiences for new users. For example, healthcare players can create their own appointment flows. In India, people shopping on WhatsApp could only make a payment without leaving the chat. They can add items to their cart and send a payment using the method of their choice from all supported UPI apps, debit and credit cards, and more.
China’s WeChat, with a subscriber base of 1 billion, already has more than 900 million active WeChat Pay accounts, through which customers can pay restaurants, clothing stores, street food vendors, etc. directly on the app. Handheld machines once used for swiping cards now come equipped with a barcode and QR code scanner. Even smart watches can display the WeChat personal QR code, allowing payments to happen from the simple flick of a wrist. Very recently, to attract international travellers, WeChat started allowing foreign customers to link their international credit cards to the application. While WeChat Pay allowed operations with international credit cards in specific sectors from back in 2019, the service has now expanded and tourists can now utilize WeChat Pay and link their international bank cards to make purchases at millions of merchants. In 2024, we will see more messengers add more e-commerce functionalities to make them end-to-end shopping destinations, which will help them expand their customer base and see a life in sales.
This innovation of mixing live video content and influencer-generated reviews on its own platform addresses the behaviour that consumers first research about the product online, watch review videos on YouTube and then come to Amazon to buy them. Amazon is practically eliminating the customer’s need to watch YouTube videos and other channels during the research phase. In 2024, we expect more marketplaces to follow this trend and create their own shoppable livestreams.
Overall, the year ahead will see an explosion of user-generated content – be it in the form of text, images, videos, or audio. This kind of content could be generated from fans of a brand, employees showing product demonstrations, or even influencers reviewing a product. Brands will value user-generated content a lot more because they realize that consumers prefer to hear from other customers about their experiences before they decide on a purchase. People trust real photos posted by customers over company stock photos, and like to read real reviews as they believe them to be more authentic. They prefer to watch influencer videos and hear genuine reviews. On social media, user-generated posts see more engagement than branded posts.
For brands, user-generated content is more cost-effective compared to other forms of marketing and also helps the brand establish a sense of authenticity and trust. It helps brands reach new audiences. As per Semrush’s Social Media Trends Report 2024, user generated content will resonate more with consumers rather than polished, professional content crafted by brands. Brands will try to make their social media page full of positive customer reviews, embed user-generated content in their product pages, within email content, and in ad campaigns.
One of the trends we are going to see in 2024 is smarter segmentation of customers. Segmentation will not just be limited to the basic age, gender, location, purchasing history, etc. Data will help to uncover new customer segments that were not previously thought possible. Analytics will help to identify new patterns and behaviours – customers’ aspirations, pain points, the frequency and recency of their brand interactions, etc., and uncover the most high-value customers with the highest conversion rates. Armed with the right knowledge, marketing teams will be able to target the right customer segments and increase engagement.
In 2024, zero-party data (i.e., data shared by customers willingly) will become more important, particularly with the deprecation of third-party data. Companies in general have had a hard time collecting customer data. Data privacy concerns have grown by leaps and bounds. Regulations and guidelines like GDPR, CASL, and CCPA have made it difficult for brands to track their customers. Cookies are expected to be phased out by Google completely by 2024. Apple’s iOS 14 update to privacy settings also require customers to opt-in to tracking when an app is first launched. This will have a significant impact on marketers’ ability to track their users, share targeted ads, and so on. So brands are trying to capture data from customers directly, for example, by sharing post-purchase surveys on messenger platforms. In 2024, companies will turn more toward their customers to ask them directly about what their likes and dislikes, and how they rate their purchase or product experience. Customer feedback collection on messengers will increase as it is more convenient for customers to reply with a single click than to fill out long forms. Brands will continue to share all kinds of surveys, polls, quizzes, etc. with customers and gain valuable insights into what their customers want. Many will reward customers with discount coupons etc, for sharing this kind of information.
In 2024, use of augmented reality (AR) will gain traction as more marketers try to capitalize on opportunities to blend the digital and real world. They will use AR more frequently in their campaigns. AR will help brands create lifelike shopping experiences. We will see more virtual try-on tools, whether it’s jewellery or make up or clothes. Many top-flight brands have smart mirrors in their stores. 3D browsing will replicate the in-store experience, delivering a firsthand experience for potential buyers. We will also see widespread use of AR manuals among businesses as they look to share detailed visually appealing manuals. In healthcare too, AR solutions will be used for remote support to patients. Doctor-patient communication will be enhanced through drawing and annotating on 3D screens. Overall, the AR market is predicted to grow from $25.1 billion in 2023 to nearly $71.2 billion by 2028, a substantial jump.
