4 CMO Recommended Content Tactics for Q4 2024 Success

Today, much like Alice in Wonderland, who had to run fast just to stay in place, marketers must keep up a rapid pace to maintain their market position. 

As technology advances and societal trends evolve, your customers’ desires and priorities may shift over time, and a marketer’s job is to provide them with relevant content.

Drawing on my experience as CMO, I recommend a mix of data-driven content tactics to drive engagement and growth in the B2B sector.

In this article, we'll discuss the most in-demand content types, accompanying trends, observations and insights to help achieve business outcomes.

1. Short-form video content: optimal size ensures better results

According to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing Report, short-form videos were the best way to generate return on investment (ROI) (17% of respondents believe so). Moreover, 30% of marketers who haven’t utilized the benefits of video are planning to start in 2024. And 25% of respondents plan to invest more in this type of content.

But what defines short content today? HubSpot’s data says that 36% of marketers think the optimal length is between one and three minutes, 27% prefer four to six minutes, and 15% say seven to nine minutes.

Why are short-form videos so in demand 

Understanding the reasons behind the surge in popularity of short-form videos can help businesses leverage its fullest potential.

• Their lengths are well-suited to today’s attention spans. Due to the rise of social media and the general oversaturation of our mental space with information, we can stay focused only for a short time. Between 2000 and 2015, our attention spans decreased by 25% — from 12 to 8.25 seconds. So, messages must now be quickly delivered.
• They are trendy. Short-form videos have inarguably already become a part of modern culture.
• Their creation process is more affordable than that of the longer formats. Hence, you can post videos regularly, keeping the audience's engagement high. You often don't even need specialized software because some platforms allow you to edit videos right there.

Let's explore creative short video ideas to capture your audience’s attention

Here are some innovative short video concepts that can captivate and engage your audience effectively.

• Product teasers: You can interest your customers in a new release of your product in just under a minute. YouTube Shorts is a popular platform for such teaser videos.
• Short how-to tutorials: For a cosmetic brand, this could be a video with instructions on how to apply your products. 
• Behind the curtains: What's going on inside your company? Who works for you? How do you have fun at work? Showing a piece of your company's inside life can make customers more loyal.
• Brand challenges and other user-generated content: Colgate, for example, introduced the #MakeMomSmile challenge to honor Mother's Day and encouraged customers to share videos of doing something nice for their moms. This challenge became popular because it appealed to a deep emotional connection between the customers and their moms.

Source: TikTok

What are the challenges here and how to overcome them

Being aware of potential hurdles and knowing how to tackle them effectively can save time and maximize the impact of your short-video content.

• Putting in too much effort without a big return: Usually, this challenge arises when the time and resources you invest in creating content don't translate into significant engagement or results. To overcome the challenge of wasted effort, try catching social media trends. Keep an eye on what's happening on the platforms you use and create content related to the current trends.
• Creating generic videos: Generic videos often blend into the background noise of social media because they lack a distinct voice or personal touch. You'll get a better response if your customers feel connected to your brand. Also, consider involving executives or other employees in the video creation process.
• Forgetting your strategy:  Every piece of content you create should be a reflection of your brand’s mission, values, and long-term strategy. Before posting, ask yourself whether the content aligns with your brand’s core messaging. While hunting trends, don't lose sight of your brand’s core identity. Everything you create must align with it. To cope with this challenge, ask yourself: does the video I'm about to post support our values, mission, and strategy?

2. Interactive content: let customers participate and have fun

Research shows that interactive content is more engaging than traditional static content by 52.6%. On average, users spend 13 minutes watching interactive content and only 8.5 minutes watching static content. According to Statista, in 2022, 47% of marketers globally claimed that live streaming and interactive videos were the most effective way to reach their goals. 

To harness the power of this type of content, you should allow people to not just participate but also immediately see the result. 

Here are some examples of interactive content:

• Interactive videos: Netflix creates interactive movies where you can make choices, influence a character's decisions, and experience the outcome. One such movie is Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, rated positively by 81% of Google users. 
  
  There's no need to direct a whole movie for your customers if your business is far from the entertainment industry. However, you can make short, interactive videos and suggest that customers participate. It can be something as simple as a question or a feedback form or something more direct, like the possibility to add a product from the video straight to the user's shopping cart. 
• Self-assessment tests, knowledge tests, and quizzes: People are usually intrigued by answering questions and discovering something new about themselves. By introducing this type of content, you cater to their curiosity. To make things even more interesting, you can customize the next questions based on the user's previous answer.
  
  You can also add links, for instance, to other content on your website, which will help you boost traffic and provide customers with more information. Of course, you should ensure that the links are relevant and add real value to users. That's why knowing your audience is crucial. 
  
  Knowing what your audience likes and needs helps you create quizzes and tests that will really appeal to them. This way, your content becomes more engaging and useful, which makes people more likely to interact with it and want to come back for more. Tailoring your content to match your audience’s specific traits and behaviors doesn't just make it more engaging but also also helps build a stronger connection with your brand.
  
  Another tip: make sharing the quiz results easy. Many people like to post their achievements, and for you, it's a way to engage more users. 
• Augmented reality: Augmented reality offers almost infinite opportunities. For example, you can offer customers the opportunity to try your product on, as Christian Dior Parfums did when advertising Dior Addict lipstick. The company created the ad, which loaded a panel with different lipstick colors and invited users to engage. All they had to do was take a selfie. 
  
  The campaign was a success because it combined gamification with a natural desire for beauty. It reached over 4 million people in 21 days, and 41% of users interacted with the panel and tried on at least one lipstick shade. This number is higher than the industry benchmark by 3.5%. Moreover, users took over 2,000 screenshots. Now, any potential customer can taste a virtual try-on on Dior’s website. 

Source: Dior

Why is interactive content worth trying?

Interactive content offers a dynamic way to engage with your audience, yielding valuable insights; driving higher engagement and conversion rates.

• It helps you gain more insights about customers. You can evaluate the rate of engagement with various types of interactive content, receive users' feedback without asking them to fill out boring forms, and study customers' behavior patterns by introducing them to various interactive content that leads to purchasing.
• It increases brand awareness and engagement. When a customer shares the results of a quiz, you get more exposure. And if your video is catchy, it may even go viral. The classic example is Heineken's interactive video with 12 questions created to attract quality candidates for a job. It was so popular that the number of applicants tripled, and 67% of viewers finished the questionnaire. 
• It increases conversion rates and shortens the buying decision-making process. By providing personalized recommendations or insights based on user responses, you directly address their unique challenges and preferences. They are more likely to find the right product or service more quickly, leading to faster purchasing decisions. For instance, Sephora created a recommendation quiz that allows users to find the perfect products for every customer, with their specific problems and needs. As a result, clients were more likely to buy faster.

How to ensure your content hits the mark

There's always a chance that you won't hit the spot. But you should always do your research and find clear answers to the following questions: what are we trying to achieve by creating this interactive content? How can we be sure this is what our customers want to see?

It helps to grab people's attention, get them involved, and create engaging experiences that make them feel more connected to the brand. The brand can also learn a lot about our customers' likes and behaviors through interactive content, which helps to shape future marketing and products to better suit their needs.

Another challenge that may arise is that your content may be good, but it may be shared via the wrong channels or at the wrong time. To overcome this challenge, ask yourself: what platforms do your customers prefer? When are they more likely to engage with your content?

For example, Christian Dior Parfums carefully chose the timing for their campaign after doing research. 

They carefully timed their Dior Addict lipstick campaign to coincide with a period when consumers were most likely to engage with beauty-related content — such as during a major fashion event or at the beginning of a season when people were looking for new beauty products. The company likely chose this timing based on research into when their target audience is most active and receptive to new products.

The success of the campaign can be attributed not only to the innovative use of AR but also to the strategic timing and platform choice. By launching the campaign on platforms where their target audience was already engaged, such as social media during peak activity times, Dior maximized its reach and impact. This careful planning contributed to the campaign reaching over 4 million people in just 21 days, with an engagement rate 3.5% higher than the industry benchmark.

3. Shoppable content: encouraging customers to switch from watching to buying

According to HubSpot’s data, social media is the top product discovery channel for Gen Z and GenY. 17% of social media users have bought something there, and 87% of companies selling on social media are sure it’s an effective sales channel. Moreover, 59% of sellers had more deals on social media in 2023 than in 2022. 

Shoppable content makes it easier to profit from social media's selling potential. A brand can partner with influencers and celebrities. The American fashion brand Kate Spade started the campaign #MissAdventure with the actress Anna Kendrick. Customers could watch exciting videos about a star’s life and buy products they saw there.

For example, ASOS launched a campaign asking customers to share photos of the company’s products on social media under the hashtag #AsSeenOnMe. Later, ASOS offered users a collection of pictures showing a curated set of products that allowed shoppers to buy the whole look on the spot. And the hashtag #AsSeenOnMe has been used almost 1.5 million times.

This campaign's success had several reasons. First, it appealed to humans' craving for attention and social approval. Second, it allowed users to compete: people posted hoping to be featured on the ASOS website. Third, it made people trust the content more because other users generated it. As a result, ASOS got lots of traffic, and this case became a marketing classic. 

Source: Call me Katie

Finally, you may consider livestream shopping. This trend came from China, where influencers invited people to online events. The host would test out products, discuss their features, and engage viewers with promotions and giveaways. It may be easier to sell during such events because the sense of time running out influences the audience and results in higher sales. 

What are the challenges here and how to overcome them

Being proactive about these common challenges around shoppable content can help you maintain a successful strategy.

• The excessive dependence on social media platforms. A sudden change in rules or regulations may put your sales in jeopardy. To avoid this scenario, it makes sense to diversify your channels and keep at least part of them under your total control (like a corporate website).
• Sell instead of telling the story. Even though customers like entertaining content, they still want it to have an underlying idea. They won’t appreciate too straightforward an intent to sell them something without providing some value. So, make sure your content has another purpose other than selling. 

Social commerce is likely to keep growing fast. In the USA only, in 2025, it will reach $100 billion, which means a 22.4% annual increase. So, adding shoppable content to your marketing strategy can help you increase sales and engagement simultaneously.

4. Voice search optimized content: help people find you in new realities

According to Statista, in 2022, over 25% of people in Western countries used voice assistants several times a day. The most popular assistants include Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant. Currently, there are over 4.2 billion voice assistants in use in the world. 

For example, Amazon uses voice search technology based on its virtual assistant, Alexa. Therefore, customers can make purchases and check the status of their orders via voice commands. It makes the user experience smoother and increases sales. Moreover, every seller on Amazon marketplace can achieve higher financial outcomes if they optimize their content for voice search.

What are the challenges here and how to overcome them

In the world of voice search optimization, businesses must navigate specific hurdles to ensure their strategies are effective and align with user behavior.

• Applying the same strategy as with regular search: Customer behavior is different when they use voice search. For instance, they spend less time researching the options and tend to make faster buying decisions. Let’s say a customer is considering buying a new pair of running shoes. The traditional search process can take anywhere from minutes to days as users browse multiple sites, compare reviews, and gather information before deciding on a purchase. 
  
  With voice search, the user simply asks, "Alexa, what are the best running shoes under $100?" Alexa instantly provides a curated list of top-rated options within the price range. The user can quickly choose and complete the purchase in seconds. Thus, companies should consider such behavioral nuances when optimizing the content for voice search. Voice search users ask conversational and specific questions, make quick decisions, and expect immediate, relevant responses. Understanding these nuances helps companies tailor content for better visibility, improved user experience, and higher conversion rates. 
• Misunderstanding the principles of voice search optimization: It's critical to use long-tail (three or more words) and conversational keywords and add question keywords (like how,” what, etc.). When people ask voice assistants to find something, they use different words than when typing. For example, they don’t say “how to do something” but “how do I do something.”   
  
  More and more people have started incorporating voice search in their daily lives. Some sources claim that 72% of people already use voice search. The trend is clear: if you want your content to continue getting traffic, you should optimize it for voice search. If done correctly, it will help you increase your presence in search results, strengthen customers' trust, and improve their experience with your web resources.

Where to begin

Engaging content presented to the right audience at the right moment can boost impressions, conversions, and sales. Still, content is a tool; without a proper strategy, its impact is fleeting. That's why the best starting point in creating any type of content is answering the questions, "What do we want to achieve?" and "How will it help us implement our marketing strategy?"

Also, great content is born when a company appeals to the most profound drivers of people's behavior. Every example in this article proves this point. That’s why it can be beneficial for a marketer to have a good understanding of human psychology, as it can be a key factor in driving exceptional campaign results.

Last but not least, since the marketing landscape never stops changing, it is best to explore new methods of promoting your content. 

If your content resonates with your audience's deepest emotional motives and is aligned with your brand strategy, modern technologies will unlock a new level of results for you.

Subscribe to the weekly G2 Tea newsletter for the latest tech and marketing thought leadership.

Follow Lina Lugova on LinkedIn for smart content tactics and marketing strategies.

Edited by Supanna Das.