Key Developments in Digital Marketing: A 2024 Overview

2024 was a year of significant changes in the digital marketing landscape.

In this blog, I’ll review a few of the major trends that shaped the year and provide some insights. Check back in January and I’ll share my predictions for 2025.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This almost seems too obvious, but it has to be said: AI has revolutionized how knowledge workers do their jobs and perform daily tasks. It’s now used by digital marketers for:

• Brainstorming ideas
• Conducting research
• Outlining blog posts or website content
• Reviewing and revising content
• Segmenting audiences and personalizing content for these segments
• Summarizing information
• Combining and refining ideas
• And much more.

Digital marketing professionals are (or should be) aware of the risks associated with AI, such as overreliance, inaccuracy, hallucination, plagiarism, confidentiality and data security, poor content, and inherent biases.

To mitigate these risks, digital marketing departments or agencies should have a clear AI policy that includes:

• Purpose and scope
• Data protection and confidentiality measures
• Addressing potential biases
• Allowed use cases
• Training and education
• Monitoring and evaluation

Drafting and promulgating clear AI guidelines will empower digital marketers to safely and confidently use AI tools to make them more efficient, productive and creative.

Impact of AI on SEO

SEO has been a cornerstone of digital marketing for years, but its value has diminished (see this recent blog post from Rand Fishkin for more details), as the Google home page has become more and more crowded with less and less helpful links. In addition, more people are turning to AI tools like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, and Perplexity for answers. On top of that, ChatGPT introduced SearchGPT this year.

To adapt, businesses should leverage PR to secure earned media. Why? AI tools increasingly rely on fact-checked journalism and are striking deals with media organizations like NewsCorp (which owns the WSJ among other publications) to provide content for their AI-generated answers. So, the more your business is cited in earned media, the more likely you are to appear in AI results.

In addition, digital marketers should continue to rely on SEO best practices: many of the elements that make webpages appealing to search engines also apply for AI tools.

Short-Form Video

Short-form videos shown on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts dominated engagement metrics in 2024. Digital marketers should prioritize creating concise, engaging video content by:

• Using data-driven insights to create appealing pieces
• Developing high-value, long-form audio and video content
• Repurposing video content by dividing it up into shorter form videos

Ascension of LinkedIn

LinkedIn reached 1 billion members in 2024, with a significant portion of its user base being business decision-makers. Digital marketers should ensure your company and client LinkedIn pages are current and active (this applies to both B2B and B2C businesses).

First Party Data

First-party data, collected directly from customer interactions, became increasingly important in 2024. Despite Google’s decision not to phase out cookies, businesses should invest in collecting first-party data through methods like email sign-ups, surveys, and pop-ups. This data provides full ownership and control for digital marketing, making it a valuable asset for growth and conversions.

Threads and BlueSky

The social media landscape saw shifts with the introduction of Threads by Meta and the resurgence of BlueSky. While Threads is integrated with Instagram and offers a more visual experience, BlueSky is emerging as a viable alternative to Twitter, especially for PR professionals and social media managers. Businesses should consider reserving their desired usernames on BlueSky and experimenting with content across multiple platforms to determine the best results.

Conclusion

2024 brought significant changes to digital marketing, and 2025 promises to continue this trend. Come back next year (really, next week) to read my predictions for 2025.