For a lot of digital marketers and brands, staying ahead of the curve is both an art and a science. And as the year ends, many marketers see that 2024 will usher in a new set of digital marketing challenges and opportunities. But first, you need to be prepared to navigate the ever-evolving landscape.
Here are some of the biggest challenges that marketers can expect in 2024:
Navigating the rise of artificial intelligence
Why is it challenging: Artificial intelligence, or AI, is only going to continue influencing a lot of aspects of digital marketing and business tasks. But while AI offers opportunities for automation and personalization, integrating AI into marketing strategies can be challenging. Certain risks come with it as well, including privacy risks, plagiarism risks, unintentional bias or prejudice, and more. This makes it one of the most significant digital marketing challenges for brands in 2024.
What to do: Marketers need to understand how to leverage AI tools effectively and ethically. They also need to understand that any AI-generated work needs to be checked and double-checked by real humans to avoid any discrepancies, plagiarized content, or more.
Knowing the social issues your audience cares about
Why is it challenging: Another significant change that has been brought on in recent years is that the audiences are prioritizing their values when it comes to brand support. Consumers are now more aware of various environmental, social, or political issues. And they want brands to support these as well. According to a Harris Poll research, 82% of shoppers want a brand’s values to align with their own and will drop a brand over a conflict in values.
What to do: Dive deep into the target audience or market and know what values they care most about. Go to online and social media spaces, conduct interviews and surveys, and get customer feedback. If their values align with the brand’s, make sure that they know about it. Brands need to show what they support, what they’re doing to help the causes, and more.
Choosing the right marketing tools
Why is it challenging: With the rise of AI and other similar technologies, it’s no surprise that there is an influx of AI-powered tools and automation. Brands and marketers might get too excited about all of these and end up spending a lot of money on marketing tools that are confusing or unnecessary.
What to do: Marketers need to carefully assess which marketing tools will improve efficiency in different aspects. These tools should also be easy to use and flexible, so brands will be able to maximize the benefits of their digital marketing efforts.
Generating leads through content
Why is it challenging: While content marketing can be effective, the internet nowadays is saturated with content. This will make it challenging for brands to stand out from others and actually generate leads.
What to do: Marketers will need to focus on creating high-quality, relevant content to catch the attention of the audience. Find out what content marketing types work best with the audience, and which receive the most exposure or engagement. Employing effective content distribution strategies to maximize exposure and content is also recommended.
Retaining customers
Why is it challenging: While attracting customers and garnering interest is important for brands, the next big challenge, of course, is retaining customers. Retaining customers is crucial for the growth of any business. And with consumer behavior continuing to change, it’s going to be challenging to retain a good customer base.
What to do: Retaining customers involves a lot of touchpoints, and brands need to make sure that they’re checking every single one. This includes consistency in delivering quality products and services, implementing good customer service, and utilizing various content or social media strategies.
Dealing with shorter attention spans
Why is it challenging: The current average attention span is 8.25 seconds, and it can only go lower from there. With the way online spaces are saturated with content and how short-form video platforms are rising, this shorter attention span on the internet is one of the top digital marketing challenges to expect.
What to do: Marketers may need to lean on bite-sized content, visual marketing materials, and short-form videos. They need to be able to quickly catch the attention of the audience and give them the information they need in a short amount of time.
Choosing the right social media platforms
Why is it challenging: 2023 saw a lot of fairly new platforms rise up (specifically micro-blogging platforms like Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky) due to consumers looking for an alternative to X, formerly known as Twitter. X continues to face criticism and decline, prompting people to leave the site and brands to stop advertising altogether. This means choosing the right social media platforms will be another one of the big digital marketing challenges for brands.
What to do: Before jumping to other social media platforms, it’s best to remember to do some reasonable research. Brands need to see if their audience is on these new platforms, if communities related to their industry are there, if this will affect their ROI (return on investment), or if it will take up unnecessary time and resources for the team. Impulsively joining all these new platforms is not the way to go.
Keeping up with changing search engine algorithms
Why is it challenging: Search engines are known to constantly update their algorithms. This, of course, impacts website rankings and visibility. 2024 will most likely bring a lot of algorithm changes due to the rise of new technologies and new audience behavior. Staying ahead of these and optimizing strategies accordingly will remain a challenge for digital marketers.
What to do: Brands and marketers are recommended to follow SEO experts and official updates to keep up with new search engine algorithms. It’s also important to always keep user intent and user experience as a priority when it comes to SEO.
To stay ahead of the curve, marketers should monitor these digital marketing challenges and industry trends, invest in continuous learning, and be prepared to adapt their strategies.
Do you think you need more help meeting the evolving landscape of digital marketing? Marketing Experts PH can help guide you through it! Talk to us today. and let’s get started with your journey!
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