Next Generation Digital Marketing Trends

Marketing on the internet is, unsurprisingly, big business. Last year an estimated $5.8 trillion of sales were conducted online, up from just $1.2 trillion a mere ten years ago. As such, it makes sense that brands from across the spectrum are eagerly jostling to carve out their niche online. But whereas conventional marketing changes little, the world of online commerce is fast moving.

Many disparate factors can influence the latest trends in digital marketing. In recent years we’ve seen the rise (and fall) of NFTs as a hugely promising sector, growing interest in Virtual Reality, and the untold impact of new AI models.

And it’s not just the technology itself that changes things. New social media platforms are emerging all the time, risking legacy brands getting left behind. For example, many businesses were slow to embrace the disruptive impact of TikTok and its now ubiquitous vertical short-form video.

All of this is to say that it’s essential for brands to keep their finger on the pulse if they want to ensure success in today’s online market by ensuring they’re accounting for these two key trends below making waves in 2024.

Bespoke Offers

One of the major distinctions between online commerce and its brick-and-mortar equivalent is the matter of scale. The largest department stores typically stock over 200,000 items – yet the likes of Amazon permits users to redeem purchases of over 13 million.

Likewise, special offers and promotions in physical business places must seek to appeal to the widest range of people likely to walk through their doors. On the internet on the other hand, the lack of spatial limitations means savvy businesses can adopt an altogether more nuanced approach.

When dealing with the truly global marketplace offered online, a one-size-fits-all approach is seldom the most effective. Rather, the best approach is more akin to offering dozens – or even hundreds – of unique, specific offers designed to cater to specific users and their requirements. One of the pioneering sectors of this approach is the iGaming market. All told today there are over 20,000 online casinos operating online, and these have increasingly come to rely on dedicated affiliate platforms to sort and direct traffic towards them. This is achieved by having said providers furnish would-be patrons with a huge array of welcome offers and sign-up deals ranging from no deposit bonus promotions to free spins on slots. 

In doing so, the sector is counting on the fact that not all casino gamers are looking for the same thing – thus, in creating the opportunity to let users choose a deal that’ll convey the best possible value to them alone, conversation and organic growth is comfortably sustained.

This approach is also commonplace in conventional eCommerce, with coupon extensions like Honey facilitating transactions through targeted promotions and discounts for end users.

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In-App Transactions

The internet of today is vastly different from 20 years ago, thanks almost entirely to the rise of Web 2.0 and social media. Now over 60% of all internet traffic takes place exclusively in-app on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. This has made these venues hugely successful places on which to promote and market products. Nothing drives home more the viability of this model than the fact that virtually all social media platforms generate over 95% of their revenue from selling advertising space and marketing data to third party brands. Though, more recently a shift has begun to occur.

While historically the goal of social media marketing was twofold – increase on-site engagement and direct traffic to your off-site shop or service, more and more brands are instead opting to conduct the entirety of their business within these social media platforms.

This has, of course, been made possible by the platforms themselves who have a vested – and competing interest – in keeping its users contained within their ecosystem. Thus we have the rise of services like Instagram Shopping and TikTok Shop that use their feeds to promote and offer deals on the latest viral products and trends. 

This offers near perfect integration, with influencers able to post selfies with a promoted product with links to follow through to checkout in-app with just a tap of the screen. What’s more, with the rise of generative AI the relative costs of creating compelling and visually attractive marketing material on these platforms is only coming down, further boosting this sector’s performance.