AI, Engagement, & Niche Marketing: Insights from INBOUND 2024

The Stirling team is still fired up after connecting with top industry voices at HubSpot’s INBOUND 2024 conference last month. We’ve pulled together our top digital marketing insights for clients that will impact your brand marketing most in the year ahead. From AI-powered content to engagement-driven strategies, here's what to focus on to stay relevant in today’s fast-moving digital landscape. Let’s dive in.

1. “AI creates. People curate.”

As we continue adjusting to where Generative AI fits within the modern marketer’s toolbox, it’s important to remember that human touch is what most people are looking to engage with. In fact, research shows that human-written articles generate over 5x the traffic of AI-generated articles. While AI is an incredible tool for speeding up content production, your audience cares more about the insights that the people of your brand can offer, not what AI thinks they should. Your content needs to reflect a more personal understanding so that your audience can get excited about your brand.

2. Quality over quantity.

With 4.6 billion pieces of content published online daily, people have become exhausted with the oversaturation of their feeds and search results with non-personalized, generic content. Their engagement speaks for itself—over a 30-day period, <90% of websites get no traffic, while nearly 60% of new social posts get no engagement. If you really want to make an impact, focus on creating high-value content on fewer channels. It takes time to build a community and hone your content to your audience on a specific platform, but in the end, it’s better to curate a dedicated, engaged user base on 1-2 platforms than juggling little to no engagement on all of them.

3. Engagement is key.

Gone are the days of high follower counts and external links ruling your social media feed. Social platforms and their revenue models more heavily incentivize user engagement. This increasingly motivates algorithms to show users content that keeps them watching and interacting for longer. So, if your content pushes users off these platforms by being unengaging or using external links, your content won't get distributed, even to your followers. The new name of the game is high engagement. Posts that engage users to watch, comment, share, or save will be shown by these platforms to even more people. With this in mind, focus on creating content users will find most engaging rather than worrying if they'll press follow.

4. Own your niche.

This emphasis on high engagement doesn’t just affect how we measure success—it changes how we use these platforms. We’ve all spent a bit too much time watching a video about carpet cleaning, only to find carpet cleaning videos taking over our feed an hour later. As the internet increasingly floods with content, users are tuning into sources that are specifically focused on their interests. Trying to speak to everyone will only dilute and silence your message. Speaking your audience’s language makes it easier for them to actually hear you and start paying attention to your brand.

Need help with the next steps?

AI isn’t replacing strategic and creative minds—it’s making them faster and more efficient. If you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to keep up with your audience, the Stirling team is here with digital marketing insights to help you tackle your challenges head-on. We’re a tech-savvy team that knows how to blend human creativity with AI efficiency to deliver results that resonate with your audience in an engagement-focused world.

Let’s take your brand to the next level together.