Digital Marketing Course: Trends to Watch in 2024

Reasons to keep up with digital marketing trends

The fast evolution of technology and consumer behaviour requires a proactive marketing approach.

Businesses must keep up with digital trends to remain relevant and competitive.

Embracing digital trends allows marketers to effectively leverage emerging marketing platforms, tools, and communication channels to help their companies stay top of mind for their customers.

This is where a digital marketing course can be beneficial.

Some of the digital marketing trends in 2024 include AI-powered marketing, voice-optimised search, video marketing, data privacy, and sustainability and green marketing. Let’s dive deeper into each one of these trends.

1. Rise of AI-powered marketing
AI has significantly disrupted the digital marketing landscape. It introduced many tools and techniques to help enhance productivity, personalisation, and overall effectiveness.

An analysis by McKinsey found that technology-related gains could triple South Africa’s productivity growth.

AI can help digital marketers and companies significantly speed up specific processes.

One prominent area where AI for marketing plays a pivotal role is content and image creation. AI can help companies create content in seconds, rather than the hours it takes humans to perform the same tasks.

Examples of such AI include ChatGPT — an AI-powered content creation platform that generates high-quality and contextually relevant content, saving marketers time and resources. Another example is InVideo, which produces video after being given simple text prompts. These of the sorts of platforms you would become accustomed to using if you had to undertake a digital marketing course.

AI has also revolutionised customer service and support. With the help of chatbots and intelligent virtual assistants that respond to customer queries in real-time, companies can provide instant solutions and enhance the overall user experience.

As for customer segmentation, AI algorithms analyse vast amounts of data to identify consumer behaviour patterns. This allows marketing teams to tailor their marketing strategies to specific audience segments so their messaging can be more personalised.

In the realm of SEO, AI tools help to optimise content, improve organic traffic, and enhance search engine rankings. This way, companies can be discovered easily whenever people search for specific solutions on Google and other search engines.

AI-driven data analytics also give marketers deep insights, making it far easier to make data-driven decisions and implement precise targeting.

Some of the primary benefits of incorporating AI marketing include the following:

• Boost productivity by automating repetitive tasks. This allows marketing teams to focus on developing better strategies instead of spending all their time implementing.
• It gives teams the ability to analyse vast datasets quickly, contributing to better decision-making and increased return on investment (ROI).
• It provides a more customised experience for users because personalisation can be done at scale.
• Streamlines marketing operations by automating email campaigns and social media scheduling.
• It helps with better allocation of resources, ensuring that marketing budgets are spent in the best way possible.

2. Voice-optimised search
Voice-optimised search is a technology that enables users to use search engines and digital devices with spoken language instead of written queries.

These include devices like smart speakers, virtual assistants, and smartphones with voice recognition capabilities.

Popular examples include Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri.

As a result of these devices, people’s way of searching for things online has significantly shifted and will continue to evolve.

Thus, marketers need to optimise their content for voice search so they don’t miss out on a large market.

Whereas text-based queries are often more concise, spoken instructions are often more conversational — making it vital for companies to incorporate informal language into their content.

Thus, more voice-friendly content is more likely to rank in search engines.

3. Video Marketing
Video marketing — both long-form and short-form is becoming more vital in the marketing industry as consumers are overwhelmed by options.

This is why it’s not surprising that platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram focus on video content over written content.

With their vast user bases, these platforms offer a unique opportunity for companies to target younger audiences and showcase creativity in concise, visually appealing formats.

More and more marketers are leveraging videos to tell stories, showcase products, and foster brand personality.

Furthermore, finding ways to make these videos more engaging, such as interactive hotspots, 360-degree videos, and augmented reality elements, is also a priority.

4. Data Privacy
With the rise of digital interactions and platforms, there’s an increasing need for security and privacy.

Consumers are becoming more and more conscious of the potential misuse of their data, leading to a demand for transparency and ethical practices.

Therefore, businesses and marketers play a vital role in ensuring the responsible and secure handling of customer data to comply with evolving regulations and build and keep trust with their customers.

Marketers must also navigate the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). They must adhere to ethical data collection, storage, and usage standards.

Enrolling in a digital marketing course will help you navigate the regulatory landscape of marketing.

5. Sustainability and green marketing
As environmental concerns, such as resource depletion and climate change, continue escalating yearly, consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of supporting brands that implement environmentally-friendly practices.

These include sustainable and purpose-driven marketing strategies demonstrating the company’s commitment to environmental responsibility.

So, marketers must incorporate sustainability into their marketing messages that resonate with consumers and position them as socially responsible.

Register for a Digital Marketing Course online

The marketing landscape is undergoing profound changes. It’s up to marketing professionals to be aware of and implement the latest trends in their strategies.

MANCOSA’s Digital Marketing course will help you learn digital marketing skills and equip you with knowledge of the latest developments.

Learn more about the Higher Certificate in Digital Marketing here .