2024 predictions: Shifts in social media behaviour and the way we sell our offers

Every year, I like to gaze into my crystal ball and give some predictions for what I think the year ahead will hold in the online business space. As we ring in the New year, this episode I'm sharing with you my predictions for what may lie ahead in 2024. Plus we take a quick look back at how my predictions for 2022 played out—spoiler: I was pretty good!

In this episode, some of the predictions I'm talking about:
– What I think will happen with Instagram in 2024 and how you can protect yourself against this
– What's going to happen with web3 and what this means for you as a business owner
– Why the value of smaller communities will outweigh larger audience platforms
– How establishing foundations will be key to sales and growth

Episodes referred to in this episode:
– https://listen.stephtaylor.co/525 – A lowdown on web3 and why it's about to totally flip how we market our businesses
– https://listen.stephtaylor.co/552 – Are communities the new social media? Here's what you need to know about this current trend

 

Today, I'm reviewing the predictions I made for 2022 to see how far off the mark I was. And I'm sharing a couple of things that I predict we're going to see in the online space in 2024. So first up, let's review what I predicted for 2022. 

 

1. People would be less willing to invest money

The very first prediction I made was that people would be less willing to invest money in coaching services courses, etc. Given the economic uncertainty and all of the recession talk. And I think this one was yes and no. Yes, I predicted right because people aren't spending frivolously like they were two years ago, but they're still spending on the things that they prioritise. So I personally haven't noticed a large drop in sales and I know many other business owners who haven't, but I also do know some who have so. I think, yes, it's a bit of both. Yes, there has been a drop, but also, maybe not across the board. 

 

2. Reaching content saturation

My second prediction for 2022 was that we are reaching content saturation, peak content saturation, which means you need to be really picky about what content you're sharing and yes, I was spot on with this one, especially with all of the short-form content that we have at the moment. 

We have so many Reels and TikToks and YouTube shorts. And the content that is going deeper and giving a unique perspective or some kind of fresh insight is relatively rare. It's so easy to just create content for the sake of content, especially now that there are all these incredible AI tools that can literally write an entire blog post for you.

And you wouldn't even know that it wasn't written by a human. And that's where I think the advantage of being able to create content that is sharing that unique insight or perspective that an AI machine can't go and copy and can't go and create that's where you are really at an advantage. And I think that's something we're still going to see going forward. It's not just 2022 unique. 

 

3. Rising Ad costs

The third prediction that I made for 2022 was that rising ad costs would mean you'd need to place a bigger focus on your lifetime customer value rather than what you're just getting from one transaction. And yes, this one was absolutely spot on and you know, this was something that we had to implement in this business as well, looking at what else can we sell to our very engaged students who have been through all of the different courses and still want to keep buying because it's so much easier to keep delivering epic value and keep re-engaging existing customers than it is to try and get in front of new ones, especially with all of the noise that's out there today. 

This is something that I really started teaching. How to design that offer suite that takes your clients on a journey where you can increase that lifetime value, both for yourself and in your business. And the lifetime value that you are delivering to them. And I teach that inside Offer Less, Sell More.

 

4. Email list will be more important than ever

The fourth prediction that I made for 2022 was that your email list will be more important than ever. And yet this one was spot on. Most of my revenue comes from my email list. I have seen this also with my students. I've seen this with my friends in the business. For most of us, our revenue is coming from our email list. It's not coming from social media. It's not coming from anywhere else. It's coming from those people who read the emails and then they buy from there.

 

5. Those who haven't niched down are going to need to niche.

It's getting too expensive and too difficult to market to the masses. Yes, this one was correct. I think it was already at the start of last year, it was already pretty expensive and pretty difficult to market to the masses.

Unless you have an ad budget, unless you have millions or billions of dollars to spend on marketing, it's very difficult to reach that mass audience. But when you niche down, it becomes a lot cheaper to get a yes from the right people. Now all of these predictions, I think still stand true for 2024. Although I do wonder a little bit if there's less fear and less uncertainty around the economy right now than there was at the start of 2023. 

I don't know if this a personal shift inside me, certainly 12 months ago, I was feeling a little bit of doom and gloom, because everyone else around me is talking about the recession and then you're freaking out a little bit internally. And now I don't feel that fear. So I wonder if maybe that's me projecting my lack of fear and uncertainty now. 

All I wonder is if it is actually that people are feeling less fear and uncertainty. I'm really curious about this. Now I do want to disclaimer and say all of these are my own opinion, do not go and put it all on black based on what I tell you in this episode. These are all just my opinion.

 

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