5 marketers share their priorities for the rest of 2024

Feel like you’ve just blinked and the year is half over? It’s time to get focused on driving business value with your marketing initiatives through the rest of 2024. 

While you should already have a clear sense of your company’s priorities, you don’t want to get stuck in an echo chamber. Hearing from peers in the marketing industry about what’s on their radar for the next six months is also key.

That’s why I connected with five marketers working in diverse areas – business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), corporate and agency – to share their perspectives. We’ll cover:

• What these marketers’ top priorities are for the latter half of 2024

• Which consumer behaviour trends or technologies they believe will impact strategies

• The biggest challenges they anticipate marketers will face in the next six months

• Which types of content will be most effective as we close out 2024

Ready for some real-time collaboration and knowledge sharing? Let’s get into it.

Priority pulse check: take a forward-thinking approach

If you want to stay ahead, you’ve got to plan ahead. That’s what Katherine Pendrill, Senior Manager, Content Marketing at TouchBistro, is focused on right now. 

TouchBistro is an all-in-one restaurant management system and a global B2B hospitality tech brand.

“I’ve worked as a content marketer for other B2B brands, but what I love about TouchBistro is the opportunity to create content for restaurateurs,” Katherine says. “Who wouldn’t want to help their local diner or favourite brunch spot achieve success?”

The first half of the year is always incredibly busy for TouchBistro’s marketing team because that’s when the company generally releases its flagship industry reports. 

“We often spend the back half of the year putting those reports together for the next year,” Katherine says. “Right now, we’re also experimenting with webinars, so that will be a big focus for the rest of 2024.”

Pedro Porto Alegre agrees that planning is critical. He’s the Strategy Director at WJ Agency, a full-service marketing and advertising shop in Calgary, Alberta. Pedro has spent most of his career on the client side working across sales, analytics, field marketing and brand marketing, but recently made the jump to the agency side into the world of strategy and account planning.

“I’m focused on finishing the play on several client campaigns, websites and rebrands on the go right now. I’m also doing 2025 strategic planning for existing clients and for our agency,” he says. “Any and all primary research to inform my plans next year will need to be completed in the third quarter so we can hit the ground running in January.”

Focus on quality, innovation and community

In addition to planning their marketing in 2025, our guest experts are focused on a few key strategies and tactics for the next six months. Quality, innovation and community are at the core.

Take Kanaar Bell, for example. He’s a Digital Marketing Executive at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin, Ireland. He has also worked at an agency specializing in travel and hospitality marketing for major brands like ACCOR and Royal Caribbean Cruises; and later at Foundation Marketing, a remote content marketing agency for B2B software clients.

Here’s what’s on Kanaar’s radar when it comes to marketing in 2024:

1. Quality, timely and resonant content 

Content must meet deeper needs and retain audience attention to stand out. Refreshing old blogs and converting traffic from top-performing stories are valuable actions to take.

“In an industry that shifts often and innovates quickly, many marketers neglect the creation of content that satisfies a deeper need,” Kanaar says. “Gaetano DiNardi, a legend in our industry, shared a LinkedIn post the other day about how top-of-funnel content for B2B marketing is a waste of time.” 

While Kanaar isn’t 100% sure he agrees with that, he does 100% agree with Gaetano’s call-to-action for brands to do a better job at “stepping up” with content that goes deeper into relevant queries with more meat on the bone. 

2. Non-branded PPC

Beyond branded search terms, there's potential to explore more innovative pay-per-click (PPC) strategies.

“In my role now, we’re in the acquisition business, not the retention business,” Kanaar says. “Branded PPC is undefeated in capturing consumers with awareness of who you are already and converting them quickly. The intent is already there. But, for an acquisition business like ours, we need to be attracting thousands of new visitors each quarter/year.”

This means he’s bidding strategically on keywords like “what to do in Dublin” and “family activities in Dublin.”

“I think marketers might avoid bidding on non-branded keywords because it’s risky and so they rely on organic search,” Kanaar says. “But if you’re not publishing two new articles per week – minimum, guest posting, and acquiring quality, timely and relevant backlinks, then you’ll be stuck with the same acquisition problem. If you can’t do one, do the other. Regardless of your choice, commit fully.”

3. LinkedIn

Kanaar has been using this platform for more than five years and has seen careers and companies skyrocket from consistent posting, storytelling and community engagement.

“As marketers, we have to find that balance of right tone of voice, topics, and content mix because users on this platform love to engage, they adopt ideas/trends incredibly fast, and they’re very experimental,” he says. “These are all qualities that can provide qualitative data for your business and serve as a serious channel for acquisition, brand loyalty and retention. I’d say it can be as effective as email marketing with owning your own audience if you’re good at it.”

Trends and tech: optimize for personalization and user experience

Customers no longer compare their experience with your brand to only your competitors, says Chelsey Tattrie, Marketing Team Lead at the Shane Homes Group of Companies and Board Chair of the Calgary Marketing Association. Now, customers compare you to every experience they have had.

“My work is all about connections and brand. I’m helping to educate customers on making one of the biggest decisions of their life – where they’re going to call home,” Chelsey says. “I have the pleasure of working closely with our Customer Experience Manager, Liz Lipton. I’ve learned a lot, and something that sticks out to me is that consumers want to be wowed. Businesses need to keep up with that.”

Chelsey recommends diving deeper into your customer’s experience when they’re just getting to know your brand. Ask yourself how you can make it feel more personalized.

Matt Kenny, Ecommerce SEO Manager at GAMURS Group, agrees that marketers need to focus on customers and users. Matt is an search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing specialist with experience in SEO, content marketing, lead generation, and conversion rate optimization.

“I believe user experience (UX) will continue to be the most important variable across any channel,” he says. “Connecting with your audience through authentic interactions will be a key way marketers will be able to stand out from the AI-generated noise.”

AI is everywhere

Speaking of AI, it’s on the minds of all five marketers I spoke to (and probably every single one of you reading this).

“I believe generative AI will continue to flood Google’s SERPs and various social platforms, which I think has the potential to decrease the total potential visibility that companies can achieve from these channels,” Matt says. “To respond to this as a marketer, diversify the channel attribution of your new audience attribution (SEO, social, email, referral, paid, video) and identify more ways to improve the value of your recurring audience.”

Katherine also believes AI will continue to impact marketing in 2024.

“I think consumers are getting pretty savvy about spotting AI-written content and about dismissing it immediately,” she says. “I think smart marketers know that the real value of AI lies in what the consumer doesn’t see – the SEO optimization, topic generation, the meta data, etc. – while leaving the actual content creation to real people.”

Kanaar says the AI tools available for Facebook advertising are incredible, but a well thought-out strategy behind the approach is key.

“I think for those who are noticing the shift of ad fatigue and desire for more in-feed advertising that feels more authentic and subtle, they’re the ones taking a newer approach to how to advertise, advertising partnerships, messaging, and design,” he says. “I’m seeing more experiential styles, more minimalism, podcast snippets and TikTok-esque videos. Anything that feels raw, in the moment and culturally representative.”

As for Pedro? He’s a firm believer that humans don’t change. As such, he says any and all trends in consumption and tech are details that: a) are already baked into existing plans or b) will be minor tactical adjustments for the following year.

“Trends and challenges to watch out for over the coming five or so years include short-termism tendencies, AI, gaming, brand building as a differentiator – particularly in B2B, and connections planning,” he says. For a deeper dive, watch Pedro’s recent webinar on these topics.

Top challenges: planning, budgeting and standout content

When it comes to watching out for roadblocks, Pedro cites planning for 2025 as a potential challenge.

“This is not a time to make major changes – only minor tactical adjustments tied to cut or increased budgets,” he says. “Get ahead of 2025 and review your research, segmentation, targeting, and objectives so that when January comes, you’re ready to jump into the game with a crystal clear idea of your priorities.”

Your planning should include thinking about the kind of content that will engage your customers.

“With the ability to query an AI chatbot instead of a search engine, how are you changing your content strategy to engage?,” Chelsey asks.

Kanaar suggests staying diligent with a differentiated strategy that still incorporates pop culture as well as mainstream conversations and innovation. 

“Quality copy stands out more than it ever has before,” he says. “A brand needs culturally relevant copy and diverse storytelling (i.e., experiences across income and race) more than it ever has before.”

He also says budgeting appropriately will be essential – and Katherine agrees.

“I think one of the biggest challenges right now is that both consumers and businesses are very cost-conscious,” she says. “After years of high interest rates, people are weary of spending money unless they think they’ll see a relatively quick return on that investment. As marketers, I think the biggest challenge will be communicating return on investment (ROI) in a really clear and effective way.”

For Matt, optimizing new audience channels, balancing generative AI with a human touch, and UX experimentation could potentially pose challenges for marketers – but are all essential to focus on. He says marketers would be wise to watch how Google’s AI Overviews evolves and how other companies adopt generative AI; as well as how their current audience interacts with their company and website.

Effective content formats to employ

B2B marketers especially should embrace a multimedia approach to their content – and not just on social media, Kanaar says. 

“I’m also seeing a lot of pop culture and advertising analyses, breakdowns, and commentary going on – and brands trying to benefit off of subtle co-marketing references,” he says. “Personal development for executives is another trend to watch, and social media SEO is also being taken more seriously now.”

Katherine adds that any content capable of communicating the ROI of your product will be essential in the back half of 2024. 

“Whether it’s video content, a webinar, or a blog post, I think any content that removes the fluff and simply shows the consumers or business that your product is worth their spend will be the most effective,” she says.

Content should also be intentional and data-driven – with a human touch, Matt says.

For Chelsey, it’s all about community. She’s noticed a trend toward short-form video showcasing corporate culture and the faces behind a brand. 

“If I could guess, I would think about content that makes your community feel like they’re part of something,” she says.

And Pedro nods to podcasts and longer form videos. He shares that recent data from Magic Numbers shows that podcasts – contrary to popular belief – are still being slightly underused by brands.

“Podcasts have a higher contribution to profit than channels like print, display and even online video,” he says. “Regarding longer form video, our newsfeeds today are flooded with bite-sized cut-downs of podcasts. So, I see an opportunity to zag while others are zigging in this regard, and invest into higher quality brand-building productions that can garner earned media by driving reach through said cut-downs on social media.”

Final words from our guest experts

Strategy is about making choices, Pedro says.  “If your plans don’t clearly show what sacrifices you’ve made, you haven’t made any choices. Be clear on what you’re trying to achieve next year, but also think long-term. Don’t get caught up on short-term key performance indicators (unless we’re talking performance marketing). Brands – particularly in B2B – must invest more into brand building (60%+ of their marketing budgets), which takes a lot longer to yield any sort of return (one to three years).”

Matt highlights the importance of continuous learning. “Stay testing and challenging hypotheses,” he says.

And Katherine leaves us all with an optimistic take to consider for the rest of this year, as well as our marketing in 2025. “Though 2024 feels like a bit of a tough year for content marketing, I think it's also a great time to build a solid library of content that will carry your brand through into 2025, when consumers and businesses might feel a little more open to spending,” she says.

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