If you are marketing your business without being a full-time marketer, you must regularly encounter new terms that seem to jump out of nowhere, albeit intimidating at first. These marketing buzzwords can hold the key to hacking your business growth and getting the marketing results you are aiming for.Â
New practices and tools often require new vocabulary in a field where innovation leads and new platforms and features are launched regularly. To market your business effectively in 2024, you will want to have these terms at your fingertips and disposal.Â
So we’ve compiled a list of the popular digital marketing buzzwords in 2024 that anyone dealing in the marketing space should be familiar with. These terms may appear daunting at first, especially if you’re new to digital marketing. However, they are crucial for creating successful online campaigns. They’ll also help you understand the best tactics and tools available to your marketing arsenal.Â
We’re here to teach you how to use them to optimize your digital marketing strategy.Â
Let’s get started.
Artificial intelligence is a term we’re sure you’ve heard more than once. You might not have realized how this complex term can be beneficial, relevant, and accessible for your business. In recent years artificial intelligence has taken over the tech world and is now redefining how brands handle operations and marketing activities.Â
Also known as AI, artificial intelligence describes the intelligent behavior of machines with a human-like ability to make decisions, perform actions and improve by learning from experience. In a nutshell, AI automates tasks and improves efficiency and productivity.Â
While big companies were the first to embrace the new technology, small and medium-sized businesses also discovered the benefits. With many companies launching AI tools that focus on day-to-day business challenges, there will soon be AI solutions for many of the problems you may encounter while running a business.
Some of the more practical AI tools for small businesses deal with branding and copywriting. There are affordable, user-friendly companies doing everything they can to make AI accessible for small businesses. One great example of this is Tailor Brands. Tailor Brands is a small business branding and logo maker that uses an AI algorithm to advise different colors, fonts, shapes, and styles based on your brand’s selections and details. Another great example is anyword, a copywriting tool that helps automate marketing messages and captions for all social media platforms.Â
An excellent example of innovative technology in this space is PromoAI, our cutting-edge tool that harnesses the power of AI to revolutionize social media management. PromoAI automatically generates, publishes, and schedules social media videos, combining unique and relevant copy, footage, music, and branding tailored to your business needs. This tool exemplifies how AI can streamline content creation, ensuring your social media strategy is both efficient and impactful.
These AI-generated suggestions helped Starbucks increase average order value and sales. They can help you with your business as well.Â
As customers become more conscientious and exposed to a sea of options, price and product quality aren’t enough anymore to set your brand apart.Â
Brand purpose is the reason a company exists beyond making profits. Essentially, it’s centered around your intent to make the world a better place while pursuing your business goals. Nowadays, customers want to associate with brands whose values resonate with theirs. That’s why brand purpose has become a significant yardstick for choosing companies to engage with.
Most companies know what they do and how they do it. But the “why” is the missing piece of the puzzle. Sharing “why your company exists” can help you build credibility, unlock brand loyalty and competitive advantage.Â
If you’re looking to create a powerful brand purpose, it should be related to your offerings. For example, if you’re in the health and nutrition section, your goal might improve your quality of life. Let’s say you’re in the educational sector. Your brand’s purpose might be to help young people shape their future.Â
For example, Dove’s brand purpose goes beyond selling beauty care products. They’ve created several campaigns around their brand purpose of promoting beauty, positive body image, and self-esteem in women.Â
This message aligns with their beauty care products and touches on issues that resonate with customers on a deeper level.Â
Other companies like Nike, Lush, Muji, Crayola are getting it right with their brand purpose.
If you’re looking to develop your brand purpose, your customer should be at the top of your mind. Think of something your audience holds dear and center your brand purpose around it.Â
Not necessarily on your website about page. That might be a good start, but customers will need more. Your brand purpose should be apparent in your social media content at least as regularly as you promote a sale. The fastest and easiest way to achieve that is educational and thoughtful content. Let’s say that you are a shopping portal that also promotes artisans and local creators. You would want to promote small businesses to illuminate your message. A video like this might be a great choice:
In an age where companies and marketers strive to stay relevant, one way to reach more viewers and save time in the process is to cross-post on your social media channels. It’s a quick and easy way to post content in more than one place. For example, if you created a Summer Sale promotional video, you can cross-post that same video on all your social networks.
Cross-platform social media posting can be a money and time saver, especially for small businesses with limited resources. Rather than invest the time and effort in creating content for each platform, you can repurpose the content and reach a wider audience.Â
In addition to saving time and money, another advantage to cross-posting is brand recognition. The average social media user is active on six separate platforms and spends two and a half hours on social media daily. If they see the same content on multiple platforms, they’ll get more impressions, and their association with your brand will increase.Â
When crossposting, your biggest issue might be to resize your videos and photos for the different platform recommendations. For example – Instagram video sizes vary from YouTube video sizes, and each social media platform also has several different formats.
With Promo, you also have the power to take cross-posting a step further. Our Publish Page allows you to post your content directly to the leading social media platforms, saving time and energy when it comes to sharing your content. But the best part, with Promo, you can easily resize any video to fit all three main social media video aspect ratios.Â
If you’re looking to acquire and retain valuable customers and drive business growth, you need to learn customer lifetime value and how to measure it. Customer lifetime value (CLV) indicates your business’s total revenue from a single customer throughout the business relationship.
But why keep an eye on your CLV? First, monitoring your CLV helps you boost customer retention. According to Marketing Metrics, the probability of selling to new prospects is about 5%–20%, while selling to an existing customer is about 60%–70%.Â
This means that it costs less to retain existing customers than acquire new ones. Plus, repeat purchases can drive in more profits and business growth.Â
With regular customers, you’ll have an opportunity to sell, cross-sell and upsell your products. Typically they spend more money on your products, helping you build, grow and promote your brand. You can calculate CLV by multiplying the average purchase value, the number of purchases, and customer lifespan.Â
For example, let’s say you run a food chain, and an average customer spends $65 per visit once every week (52 times per year) over a 10-year relationship. So your CLV will be 65 x 26 x 10 to give you a value of $16,900.
By predicting how much value a customer can bring to your business (CLV), you can:Â
Digital maturity refers to a brand or marketer’s ability to respond swiftly, adapt and take advantage of disruptive technological trends. It often requires leveraging evolving digital technology to enhance the tech aspect of your business. Â
 One of the major driving forces for digital maturity is the neck-breaking speed technology is evolving. It’s no news that digital technology is changing the dynamics and future of business. Hence, brands must become digitally mature or risk being left behind.Â
Whether you’re a new or existing business, digital maturity shouldn’t be an end goal. Instead, it should be a continuous process throughout your company’s life cycle.
What’s in it for you? According to Deloitte, 43% of digitally mature companies enjoy higher net profits than industry averages.
Understanding your brand’s digital maturity is the key to creating value and driving profitable business outcomes with digital technologies. Even more digitally mature brands enjoy perks like:
Given digital contribution to business growth, the gap between digitally mature companies and laggards will widen. Without a digital maturity plan in place, you may struggle to scale and risk losing out to competitors.
To assess your digital maturity level, you can use the digital maturity benchmark tool developed by Google and the Boston Consulting Group. This model focuses on leveraging data to achieve digital maturity in all areas of your business.Â
D2C isn’t just a marketing term you should keep at the top of your mind. Instead, it’s an essential marketing strategy that has helped redefine the consumer-brand relationship.Â
The rise of social media has enabled brands to have direct access to their potential customers. This way, businesses can leverage data to create unique, personalized, more efficient service experiences. Research reports predict that D2C business models will experience massive growth in the coming years. This surge is further fuelled by the development of e-commerce and the internet.
If you’re looking to launch a D2C channel and you want to edge the competition, here’s what you should do
Direct to consumer marketing empowers brands to cut out the middlemen. It enables marketers to build strong connections with customers and amass a community of loyal followers.Â
Some brands that have achieved success by adopting a direct-to-consumer business model include Glossier, Warby Parker, BarkBox, Casper, Dollar Shave Club, and many more. Â
Bypassing intermediaries to engage users directly means these companies enjoy complete control over price, sales, profit margins, and service quality.Â
One of the biggest wins of the D2C model is the ability to have direct access to customer data and feedback.
For an industry that’s deeply entrenched in the traditional retail mold, the D2C model helped them crush prices, win customers, and enjoy tremendous growth. For example, before Warby Parker came on the scene in 2010, eyeglasses were expensive. The company disrupted the eyeglass industry by creating a digital storefront to enable customers to access high-quality eyeglasses at an affordable price easily. Â
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion have been significant talking points in society for many years. The marketing world isn’t left out. Now the business case has become more vital than ever. Research shows that consumers readily align with brands that share similar values with them right off the bat ass DEI has become a significant differentiator for many brands. It’s no surprise. About 90% of campaigns with diverse representation experience a higher recall rate.
What is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and why does it matter?
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) involve creating an environment where everyone, regardless of their differences, has the opportunity to participate, contribute and thrive.
These differences include color, race, ethnicity, culture, gender, age, religious commitment, sexual orientation, language, socio-economic status, ability, and political perspective.
While planning your digital marketing strategy, you want to ensure your messaging, content and offers to meet these criteria.Â
This means it should cater to a diverse group of people. In other words, everyone should be invited to the party.
This means everyone should have a fair chance. No one should be left out. You can achieve this by communicating your messages across multiple mediums and channels.Â
For example, TikTok and Instagram appeal more to Millennials and Gen Z audiences. Therefore limiting your content to these channels may rob older generations of the opportunity to take advantage of your offers.
If your business has a website, make sure it complies with all accessibility laws and recommendations. This means your communication and content should be accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. For example, Promo subtitle maker makes it super easy for you to add subtitles to your video, making it accessible for people with deafness or hard of hearing.Â
Engagements measure user interactions over websites, apps, social media, and other interfaces. When it comes to measuring website engagement, the standard metrics and indicators include:Â
Engagement doesn’t just measure the number of visitors and time spent on your page. It also takes into account user actions. For example, measuring engagement on Facebook includes Likes, Comments, and Shares. By engaging with your post, the user demonstrates their preference for your post or content.
Engagement is a solid indicator of marketing and advertising effectiveness. Increasing engagement on your marketing channel can help boost brand awareness.Â
What’s more? It offers you more opportunities to develop stronger relationships with your customers, build brand loyalty and increase sales.Â
Data privacy laws and the use of third-party data are changing the structure of digital ads, and the touchpoints brands will have with their future audiences. To secure their ability to reach their target audience, collecting and owning their own user data is imperative.Â
First-party data refers to the data brands collect from online and offline sources, including:
Unlike second and third-party data originating from different sources, first-party data is unique to your company. They are a valuable data source that can help you Gather meaningful insights from your audiences and customer segments and build and nurture direct relationships with their customers. First-party data also creates value and increases advertising performance and effectiveness while creating a personalized experience.
First-party data can include website visits, demographic data, interests, sales transactions, time spent on the website, browsing behavior, and loyalty.
The best way to keep your first-party data consistent is to leverage a centralized platform like customer data and CRM platforms. These platforms can help you standardize, consolidate and make data accessible to everyone. The thing about first-party data is that you have the customer’s consent, and you can collect data for free. So not only is it cost-effective, but it’s also accurate, high quality, and relevant to your business.
If you’re looking to personalize customer experiences, you can analyze all touchpoints and channels along their path to purchase. By doing this, you’ll have a clearer picture of how customers interact with your brand, identify bottlenecks, and optimize the customer journey to drive conversions.Â
According to a study by Think with Google, companies using first-party data for critical marketing functions achieved up to 2.9X revenue increase and a 1.5X increase in cost savings.
If you’re looking to boost engagement and sales, personalization should be at the heart of your business strategy. Why? A whopping 73% of customers prefer to buy from brands that offer personalized experiences. In fact, personalization has become the new normal. And the business and marketing world has become more like “personalize or lose out to brands who do.”Â
Personalization involves tailoring your product, service, and communication to your customer’s individual needs. It could take many different forms. It could be a simple personalization like sending birthday greetings or calling customers by name.Â
With Promo, you have the power to create personalized videos in a matter of minutes. Create a video template with a designated space for your customers’ names, and then personalize it by duplicating and modifying the name accordingly.Â
As you’d expect, top brands like Amazon, Coca-Cola, Spotify, Starbucks, and Nike have taken personalization to a new level.Â
These brands execute top-down hyper-personalization like tracking user activity, lifestyles, behaviors, habits, and preferences and recommending products and services that’ll most likely appeal to them.Â
For example, Nike’s personalization strategy makes it easy for shoppers to find suitable products or create theirs. With Nike’s 3D sneaker customization platform, shoppers can build custom-designed shoes to fit their style and preferences perfectly.Â
In addition, the NikePlus loyalty program offers unique product recommendations to users based on their profile, shopping history, and preferences. Since people expect personalization, they’ll readily tilt towards brands that understand and meet their unique needs.Â
As a start, improve your email communication by breaking down your audience and messaging into key verticals. Also, make sure to send a personal birthday video or even a happy birthday gif to your customers and let them know you are thinking of them.Â
Newsjacking is the practice of leveraging current events, news, stories, or trends to promote your business. This marketing buzzword created by David Meerman Scott is a proven technique to generate awareness and boost visibility for your brand.Â
Many brands have incorporated newsjacking as a key marketing strategy. For example, when the iPhone 6 Plus launched in 2014, stories swirled that the phone bent. Many images and videos of this defect popped up in the news with the #bendgate. KitKat pounced on this trend with a tweet, “We don’t bend, we #break #bendgate #iPhone6plus.” The tweet received over 21,000 retweets and more than 11,000 likes.
LG also jumped on the trend to promote their bendy smartphone with the tweet: “Our phone doesn’t bend, it flexes…on purpose”. #bendgate
Here are some ways you can ride on the wave of trending stories. You can watch out for trending hashtags on Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, etc., use Google Alerts to monitor keywords, use Google Trends to monitor trending stories, and keep tabs on journalists and bloggers who cover stories related to your niche.Â
Another way you can leverage newsjacking is by using editorial content such as current trends, real-time events, news, fashion, entertainment shows, celebrities, thought leaders, famous figures, and more. Incorporating editorial media into your content strategy can help you get more eyes on it and engage your audience better.
It’s a smart and easy way to start a convo or build relationships with your followers. When it’s well-harnessed, they could become a strong asset for grabbing audience attention, driving engagement, and brand reputation over the top. You can plan for newsjacking based on predictable events in entertainment, politics, sports, etc. It could also be a swift reaction to breaking news, even in areas not connected to your niche. Reacting to trends means you will have to monitor the news or set up news alerts closely.
Remember that newsjacking also has its drawbacks. Feeding off controversial or tragic stories could portray your brand as insensitive or exploitative. You could face a backlash that might hurt your reputation. Before you jump on trends, ensure you do your due diligence. Triple check your content and run it by your team to ensure it’s worth talking about. When in doubt, don’t send out your content. It’s better to pass up an opportunity for trend jacking rather than risk a colossal backfire.
While making online purchases, you’ll probably fancy products that have lots of positive reviews and testimonials. You’re not alone. According to Trustpilot, 89% of buyers read reviews before purchasing a product.Â
Practically speaking, if you’re visiting a new city, it’s common to think that the diner with a long line has tastier food than the empty ones on the same street. This behavioral, social, and psychological pattern where people follow the crowd or copy what others are doing is social proof. It primarily describes the influence that people’s actions and behavior have on us.
Building social proof can influence how potential customers perceive your brand. Not only will it build trust, but it will also encourage other prospects to buy from you. The endorsements and positive reviews about your product are an indication that your product is valuable to them.
By harnessing the power of social proof, brands can increase conversions and drive business growth. But how do you incorporate social proof into your marketing?
These strategies and many more can help you build social proof and a competitive advantage for your brand.
SoLoMo is one of the latest buzzwords to hit the marketing niche. It’s a new approach that describes the convergence of social, local, and mobile media.Â
You’ve probably read lots of articles about the power of the individual elements. However, SoLoMo combines the best of all worlds to revolutionize technology, e-commerce, digital marketing, media, and PR.Â
SoLoMo revolves around the idea that today customers now consume more content via mobile and trust the opinions of their community (social) around their geographical location (local).Â
According to a study, around 80% of mobile users prefer local ads. In addition, 75% of those who view relevant local ads are more inclined to take action.
Marketers can leverage the SoLoMo approach to position their business and segment their offers. They can also target new audiences, engage customers via their most active channels and locations, and deliver improved services and personalized customer experiences.
An excellent example of the SoLoMo intersection would be a solution or app that can:
Excellent examples of SoLoMo include Foursquare, Yelp, Gowalla, and Groupon. These platforms provide mobile check-ins, social marketing, and location data, enabling customers to access information about businesses in their location.Â
Think of people like Oprah Winfrey, Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tony Robbins, Neil Patel, and even the late Steve Jobs. You’ve probably watched their videos, read their articles, and enjoyed their takes on topics in their niche.Â
Beyond building their brand and successful businesses, one thing stands out among these people. They’ve become experts in their space and built credibility over time. That’s what thought leadership is all about.
Thought leadership is about expressing thoughts, ideas, or insights to demonstrate your expertise and experience in a particular topic, area, or field. When well-executed, it can be a golden ticket to boost your brand, enhance your content marketing strategy and build trust with your audience.
With the sea of brands fighting for consumer attention and looking to drive sales, thought leadership can put you steps ahead of the competition.
It can influence consumer buying decisions in your favor and help you build a strong brand. For example, about 60% of decision-makers said thought leadership influenced their work with specific brands.Â
Sounds interesting, right. Do you want to become a thought leader or the go-to resource in 2024? Then you’ve got do these things:Â
Being a thought leader may appear daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. With Promo.com, you have all the tools you need to create editorial, marketing, educational and insightful content that positions your brand as a credible authority in your industry.Â
While the words ‘voice search optimization’ may seem foreign, the concept hits much closer to home than you would expect. Voice search optimization upgrades the content and information on your pages to appear in voice searches.Â
As simple as it sounds, voice search optimization strives to optimize your sites to coincide with people’s questions when they conduct verbal searches. Voice search optimization enables the chance to get your page read by Alexa, Siri, and other voice search devices when a user asks for information related to your content.Â
To succeed in voice search optimization, you can focus on these strategies. Understand your customer type and preferences, focus on conversational keywords, ensure that your pages include FAQs, and think mobile. Watch the video below to learn more on the subject:
What is Phygital?
‘Phygital’ is a term that emerges from the fusion of ‘physical’ and ‘digital’. It’s a marketing strategy that aims to seamlessly integrate physical and digital experiences, creating a cohesive customer journey across both realms. This approach is increasingly relevant in today’s consumer world, where online and offline experiences are becoming more intertwined. Phygital marketing strategies are essential for ensuring a brand’s presence and engagement with customers at all touchpoints, thereby enhancing the overall customer experience.
Modern consumers expect a fluid transition between online browsing and in-store experiences. Phygital strategies cater to these expectations by creating a unified brand experience. For example, a customer might see a product online and then have a hands-on experience with it in a physical store, or vice versa, with each channel complementing the other.
Phygital in Action
In the retail sector, a classic example of phygital strategy is the use of QR codes next to products in stores. Customers can scan these codes to access online reviews or augmented reality experiences, effectively blending the physical act of shopping with digital engagement. In event marketing, phygital experiences might include virtual reality (VR) setups at physical event booths, allowing attendees to immerse themselves in a digital environment while being physically present at the event.
The Future of Phygital
As technology continues to evolve, the integration of physical and digital marketing is also expected to advance. The future of phygital marketing may involve more sophisticated technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), further blurring the lines between the physical and digital worlds. The ultimate goal of phygital marketing is to create more engaging, personalized, and memorable experiences for customers, which can drive loyalty and sales.
The Concept of Gen Zalpha
The term ‘Gen Zalpha’ merges Gen Z and Gen Alpha, referring to individuals born after 1996. This group is distinct for their digital nativity, progressive values, and unique consumer behaviors. As the most digitally native generation to date, Gen Zalpha has a significant impact on current and future market trends. They are not just early adopters of technology but are also shaping how brands interact with consumers.
Despite their relatively young age, Gen Zalpha possesses considerable spending power, which is expected to grow further. Engaging this demographic is crucial for brands aiming to build long-term loyalty and tap into an expanding market segment. Moreover, Gen Zalpha is leading the charge in social and environmental movements. Their preferences for sustainability and inclusivity are increasingly becoming central to brand messaging and product development.
Gen Zalpha’s Influence on Marketing and Product Development
In response to the growing influence of Gen Zalpha, brands are reshaping their marketing strategies to better resonate with this generation. This involves a significant presence on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, which are popular among this demographic. The focus is on creating content and campaigns that align with the values and lifestyles of Gen Zalpha.
Simultaneously, companies are rethinking their product development strategies. There’s a shift towards products that reflect the values and aesthetics important to Gen Zalpha, like eco-friendly materials and inclusive designs. This approach not only appeals to their sense of responsibility but also resonates with their style preferences.
The Future Shaped by Gen Zalpha
As trendsetters, Gen Zalpha is poised to continue influencing a wide range of sectors, including fashion, technology, entertainment, and even politics. Their ease and comfort with technology indicate that future marketing and engagement strategies will need to be more digital, interactive, and socially conscious. Understanding and aligning with Gen Zalpha’s values and behaviors is key for any brand or organization looking to remain relevant and successful in the years to come.
Exploring Edutainment
Edutainment merges ‘education’ and ‘entertainment’, creating content that educates and entertains simultaneously. This approach is increasingly vital in a world where capturing and maintaining audience attention is challenging. It’s particularly effective on digital platforms like TikTok and YouTube, favored by younger audiences for quick, engaging content.
Edutainment in Branding and Learning
Brands are leveraging edutainment on social media to engage younger demographics with educational yet entertaining content about their products or services. This strategy extends beyond marketing into education, where interactive learning experiences like gamified modules and engaging courses are transforming traditional educational methods.
The Future of Edutainment
Technological advancements are broadening edutainment’s potential, with virtual and augmented reality paving the way for immersive educational experiences. This evolution is set to revolutionize not just marketing but also how educational content is delivered, making learning more accessible and enjoyable.
As you can see, these buzzwords aren’t just there for fashion or semantics. They are powerful digital marketing and business growth tactics and optimizations available to your business. While these buzzwords hold immense value, you’ll need the right marketing tools and strategies to get the best out of them. We recommend using Promo video marketing software.Â
Promo offers everything you need to create visual content that enhances your reach, engages and converts your customers. You’ll access millions of premium images and videos, templates, and design tools to scale your digital marketing efforts.