2024 has only just begun, with brand-new marketing opportunities and tactics being ripe for the picking. No time like today if you’re looking to start a marketing campaign for your business!
If you’ve decided to start a marketing campaign, the first thing to look for is a marketing program. After all, blindly rushing with a marketing campaign with no plan will net few results, if at all. It’s only in your best interests to look into the best plan that suits your goals and helps you gain the highest ROI within your marketing budget.
The thing is, marketing strategy is more complex. Many considerations play into a successful marketing plan, such as your business objectives outlined in your business plan, target market, and current trends.
And with our ever-shifting world, a new year brings many changes to the marketing scene that requires careful marketing planning. It’s only natural that the strategies employed in 2023 don’t work in 2024.
So, to help you learn the ins and outs of marketing strategy and how to create them, we’ve created this comprehensive guide. Let’s leave no efforts spared in our marketing plan as we move into 2024!
Must-Have Marketing Strategies For All Marketing Types
You need to remember something about marketing: only some kinds of plans work for some brands or businesses. The key here is relevance, as people rarely interact with things they are not interested in. And it’s only natural that you market your brand to those who are more likely to engage with it rather than those who aren’t.
Here’s a brief overview of these marketing types and what you need to create a successful 2024 marketing plan template with them.
1. Social Media-Oriented Strategies
Social media influence has seen exponential growth in recent years, and it would be folly to refrain from leveraging it to your advantage. Influencers, user-generated content and live streams all hold a tremendous following, and building your marketing plan around them is generally safe.
These marketing strategies are an evolution of good old word-of-mouth promotions. After all, people are more likely to engage with a service or product if they hear about it from someone they know and trust.
And since the boundaries between influencers and their audience are minimal, collaborating with the former can help your brand tremendously. Here’s a fun fact: a vast majority of marketing plans revolve around social media influencer marketing. And for a few excellent reasons, too.
What this does is that it increases brand awareness, improves public trust in your brand, reaches your target markets quickly and brings potential customers effectively. Maintaining your brand relationship with a social media influencer benefits both parties.
Next, you can move on to live streams and user-generated content. Both can become key pillars of your marketing strategy, as they help eliminate the barrier between the brand and the audience.
Live videos and interactive content are great ways to engage your target audience. This can be seen with short-form content and user-made reviews in particular. No better way to gain public trust than to put consumer feedback front and centre in your online advertising and digital marketing strategies for 2024.
2. Consumer-Oriented Strategies
These strategies revolve around user needs and giving them the desired personalised experience. You can consider making a customer journey map to represent their buying process and what went through their minds. It can be a valuable marketing tool for creating a cohesive user experience.
Another way you can get the word going about your website is to change up the UX. The current UX trends dictate that minimalism is how to gain better engagement. Consider making your site free of intrusive ads and pop-ups while simplifying the interface. Other additions are voice-controlled interfaces, animated button prompts and website elements, appealing colours, interactive videos, block web design and more.
Lastly, you can incorporate voice search as an SEO tool to answer short queries. Some more complex search queries may also work, but responding fully may take some time.
You can adapt how you frame the pertinent information based on the user’s intent. It is more important now than ever that the content or blog post they interact with has a casual and conversational tone. And this quality is what voice search tactics strive to leverage. Instant and high-accuracy answers will only improve user experience and engagement.
3. Brand-Oriented Strategies
Building brand identity is the most critical factor when drawing a 2024 marketing plan for small businesses. Public perception of a brand often makes or breaks its initiatives and goals. A unique selling proposition, as outlined in your mission statement, isn’t enough to build a brand in the modern day. With the reach and resources at the disposal of large brands, they are also expected to give something back to society.
What a brand stands for is a simple point to include, which can dramatically affect new customers. Something as fundamental as using sustainable resources for packaging can motivate people enough to check a brand out. Every socially beneficial step, small or large, counts.
Some of these socially beneficial practices include public awareness campaigns for societal problems, donations, sponsored community activities and services and fair trade practices.
Another practice that benefits brands massively is inclusivity. A brand can promote diversity, equality and inclusion by including more people from all communities in its marketing activities. The problem with inclusivity has been around for decades, and even a small gesture can help the community and your brand image. This can lead to the message resonating with a large percentage of your target audience, further adding authenticity to your brand.
And lastly, consumer practices matter quite a bit in brand image. This is particularly the case with customer privacy, as several concerns about how some companies use private data have been raised. By ensuring the customer’s privacy and providing them with a secure system, you will make them feel safer when inputting personal information.
Ensuring The Inclusion Of All The Must-Haves
As a brand, you will want to include all the must-haves mentioned above in your 2024 marketing strategy. And to do so, you may set up marketing objectives.
Marketing objectives are a series of milestones that lead up to your eventual business goals. This will ensure that every step in your marketing process is completed. And you can provide instructions to everyone succinctly involved in the marketing.
You can assign different people to different marketing objectives, giving them specific tasks that handle different marketing metrics as part of your marketing team. These marketing teams can help you keep track of your brand’s progress and how far it reaches in the public eye.
Keep your marketing goals achievable, relevant and time-based to ensure your brand is always moving forward.
FAQs
1. What are the benefits of marketing strategies?
As a brand, you will always want new sets of eyes on the products or services you provide while also maintaining and engaging with your existing customers. On top of customer acquisition, you must strengthen your bond with current clients and consumers, improve sales and continuously increase retention.
A marketing plan gives you a proper, well-thought-out plan to achieve these goals. It outlines how the company can reach its desired goals and what to do afterwards. You will be maximising ROI and customer satisfaction in your 2024 marketing plan by doing so.
A key part of marketing plans is the turbulent nature of the market. The world constantly changes, and marketing plans must be flexible to accommodate said shifts. While your goals as a brand remain the same, the way you go about them will change from one year to the next.
2. How to keep the marketing plan updated and relevant in 2024?
It’s the age of digital communication, with thousands of brands vying for the consumer’s attention. A brand must be updated and in touch to ensure it is remembered in the public consciousness. Brand relevance is critical to surviving in both the physical and digital marketplaces.
You can consider a brand relevant and updated with these signs:
- High customer engagement with the brand on social media
- Regular sales of products and services
- High customer referrals
These three, along with conducting a SWOT analysis, are the telltale signs of a brand that walks with the times and is in the active consciousness of the public. The quality of services a brand provides will also heighten its relevance, further helping it increase its public image.
And to create an effective marketing plan and increase the reputation and relevance of your brand, you can try the following:
- Know what your target audience wants
- Keep up with current trends
- Bring updates to your brand
- Establish a set of core values
Elevate Your Business Strategy with a 2024 Marketing Plan
Marketing trends are ever-shifting, and marketing initiatives need to evolve with the times. Today, having a social impact and a great product or service is equally valuable in the eyes of the public.
You can step towards a more significant brand reputation and relevance by including the must-haves in your 2024 marketing plan for e-commerce businesses. Your plan will have to evolve as the company grows, and consequently, it will require you to streamline the marketing campaigns. With marketing teams dedicated to specific objectives, you can simplify the marketing strategy to a degree.
Remember that an e-commerce marketing plan with a high impact and adaptability is the key to staying relevant. Focus on your clients and customers first, leverage social media platforms and build your brand image to grow continuously and reliably.
If you need professional help with your marketing plans, seek out the services of sitecentre®. We can ensure that your marketing strategies include all the must-haves, ensuring that your brand generates the most number of leads.
Alannah Picking
With over eight years of industry experience across Digital Marketing, Alannah entered the sitecentre® team in February 2023 as our lead account manager. She comes highly qualified, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Industries from QUT (Queensland University of Technology) and a Postgraduate in Marketing. Alannah’s robust academic background and considerable experience make her an invaluable asset to the team.
Find them on their website: sitecentre®.
