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The State Of Marketing In 2024

As we kick off a new financial year, we thought we’d reflect on the current landscape and look at what's ahead in the world of marketing. Using insights from HubSpot's list of marketing statistics for 2024, we will be covering all the important statistics from the report, analysing the latest trends and technologies in the marketing space. From content marketing to SEO, the report has something that will interest everyone. Join us as we break down this latest report and discover more about the state of marketing in 2024.

As we kick off a new financial year, we thought we’d reflect on the current landscape and look at what's ahead in the world of marketing. Using insights from HubSpot's list of marketing statistics for 2024, we will be covering all the important statistics from the report, analysing the latest trends and technologies in the marketing space. From content marketing to SEO, the report has something that will interest everyone. Join us as we break down this latest report and discover more about the state of marketing in 2024.

Search Engine Optimisation Stats (SEO)

SEO plays a key role in many marketers' strategies. It’s important in enhancing website visibility and rankings on search engine results pages. More than one in three marketing leaders cite conversion rates as a top KPI that they prioritise in tracking and 70% of marketers believe A/B testing is the key to boosting these conversion rates. The key takeaway from the report is that mobile search and use of mobile devices is the preferred method, with 80% of Gen Z’s and 62% of millennials picking mobile over desktop. What is also interesting to see is that most marketers report that mobile devices were responsible for more than half of their annual traffic. On top of this smartphones account for over 70% of retail websites worldwide.

Knowing that mobile devices are king in the online world shows that businesses need to ensure their websites are optimised the best they can be for mobile. Without doing this businesses will run the risk of losing potential customers as users won't be able to access key website elements quickly and easily.

Content Marketing Stats

From images and videos to blogs and podcasts, content remains king. The latest report shows that 50% of marketers plan to increase their content marketing investment in 2024. There’s a variety of content you can create to use in your marketing strategies, so let's cover the most popular three:

  • Blogging

The good old blog post is still the most popular type of content to produce, with 9 out of 10 marketers using them to help achieve their content goals. The report also shows that companies with recent articles produce an average of 67% more leads per month than those companies that don’t have active blogs. Blogs are a great way to communicate with your audience and give you a platform to really dive deep into any news or trends you want to explain. They show that your business is actively knowledgeable and that the team are all engaged with the industry. Blogs can come in any shape or size, but on average a typical blog post is 1,427 words, which is more than 70% longer than ten years ago (for context, this piece is ~1,700 words).

  • Video

Next up, we have our favourite; video content. In recent years the rise of short-form content has been the talk of the town, and with the arrival of TikTok, video has only gotten stronger. 91% of businesses used video as a marketing tool last year and 90% of marketers say video marketing has given them a good ROI. We LOVE using video as key, flagship content, so we’ve got a load of guides, tips and analysis on how you can (and really should) be using it. If you want to learn more about navigating the video landscape, you can head over to our blog where we discuss the age-old debate of short vs long video content.

  • Audio

The rise of podcasts has been key recently as many brands and creators are jumping on the growing trend. However, perceived barriers to entry still remain high, with only 25% of marketers leveraging the power of podcasts and other audio content in their strategy. Audio content could be the key to unlocking a new audience as 86% of consumers recall podcast ads more than any other channel and 61% of audio listeners pay attention to audio ads compared to just 19% of TV watchers who actively watch TV ads. According to the stats, there may be a missed opportunity in the audio world for many brands. Executing a podcast-focused strategy does still demand more investment than alternatives, but when done well, it’s incredibly powerful. Give us a shout if you want to find out how to get started.

Social Media Stats

Billions of people scroll through social media daily; it remains the go-to place for many brands when it comes to marketing. It’s key to know the key stats surrounding the platforms we spend so much of our time on.

Meta is staying at the top of the game as both Facebook and Instagram come top of the list when it comes to offering the highest ROI. Facebook may have twice the monthly users however, Instagram generates 23% more post engagement. Both platforms are a major player when it comes to brand marketing, leading the way on most awareness campaigns.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn continues to be the B2B powerhouse. 40% of B2B marketers list LinkedIn as the most effective channel for driving high-quality leads, so if you’re a B2B business and not yet utilising LinkedIn to its full potential you should consider using it!

Social media has become the leader when searching for inspiration or shopping. Saumya Kala, from our social team, gave us an insight into what they have been seeing:

“In the last couple of months, we've seen social media platforms increasingly becoming the place for people to search and often buy products. People are ditching search engines and using social media to find answers to their questions through content created by people like them.

It's becoming ever more important for brands to find a different scale of influencers to showcase the use of the product and establish trust within a niche, as people are likely to believe people over brands.

The authentic nature of the content and its use becomes more important than the stylised product ad and placement. In 2024, we will continue to see brands using micro-influencers and user-generated content creators to help them create more authentic content, integrating the product or the service seamlessly into everyday life.

In the last quarter, within the brands that we work with, we have seen a stark difference in engagement and clicks between a very branded piece of content versus something created by an influencer in a style that is true to the creator. Going forward, we expect this trend to grow.”

Social media is the norm in the marketing world. More than 90% of working professionals aged 16 to 24 use it for work-related communication and around 60% of the world’s population use it, so it’s key that your brand is on it.

If you need help with your socials, you can get in contact with the team and we can help you evolve your online presence.

Video Marketing Stats

We already covered a bit about video marketing earlier in this blog, but let’s take a deeper look into some more interesting statistics. It’s clear that short-form content is a winner amongst users and marketers. 73% of consumers say they prefer to watch short-form videos to learn more about a product or service and 96% of marketers agree that videos help increase user understanding.

Video content is massive on social media. 71% of videos created by companies are made for use on socials. When it comes to video placement, YouTube (70%) still holds the title for the top sharing platform amongst marketers with Instagram (60%) and TikTok (30%) coming in 2nd and 3rd place. With the constant trends and technology revolutions happening in the video world we expect the love for video content to continue!

It’s clear that short-form content is a winner amongst users and marketers. 73% of consumers say they prefer to watch short-form videos to learn more about a product or service and 96% of marketers agree that videos help increase user understanding.

ADVERTISING STATS

Paid advertising is an important part of many businesses' marketing plans but the planned phase-out of third-party cookies by Google has significantly impacted marketing strategies. According to the report, globally, around 36% of internet users use ad blockers. However, it’s not stopping businesses from putting spend behind their online campaigns. Unsurprisingly, retail spends the most on display ads, accounting for 24.7% of the U.S. display ad spend.

Mobile ad spending is set to top over $300 billion by 2024, led by the US and China. With mobile devices driving over half of all web traffic, it’s crucial advertisers pay attention. Pay-per-click advertising is also doing well, with marketers claiming optimised campaigns doubling returns and personalised landing pages boosting effectiveness by a further 5%.

So, even though there are worries around cookieless browsing, the trends show that paid media online will still have some amazing benefits! We love getting down & dirty with data, so if you want to learn more about online advertising, talk to the team today.

MARKETING TECHNOLOGY STATS

The marketing landscape is constantly changing. Driven by technological advancements and changing consumer preferences, businesses need to stay ahead of the curve to be in the game.

One interesting takeaway to think about is how your audience can contact you; the report shows that 65% of consumers use social media messaging apps to contact a brand's customer services. 60% of consumers also prefer messaging over email and phone calls so it’s key your business can offer this service to keep your customers happy.

For us, the most exciting technology in the marketing world is augmented and virtual reality. It’s all getting particularly interesting over in the experimental marketing space. Last year 47% of marketers increased their spend in this space and 49% say they’re looking to increase this investment in 2024. There is a lot of room for growth, as only 14% of marketers currently utilise AR and VR, so getting into it now should allow for a real advantage. Again, barriers to entry do remain relatively high, but for the right brands, there’s nothing quite like it.

We love looking at what’s on the horizon so our team are able to deliver on-trend and tech-powered campaigns. If you want to dive into more future trends and insights with us, head over to our blog page to discover more.

That’s a rundown of some of the highlights from Hubspot's 2024 Marketing Statistics and everything you need to know as a marketer to stay ahead of the curve.

To see all of the stats head over to the report here, or if your brand needs any help on social media, branding, content or paid media please get in contact with the team today.

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