9 Tips For A Successful Marketing Strategy in 2020

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With the recent advent of 2020, it’s the perfect time to renew your current marketing strategy. A well-crafted and updated marketing strategy serves as a business plan that gives your business a clear direction. When implemented correctly, it can do wonders to propel your business ahead of its competitors by gaining more customers and positioning […]

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With the recent advent of 2020, it’s the perfect time to renew your current marketing strategy. A well-crafted and updated marketing strategy serves as a business plan that gives your business a clear direction. When implemented correctly, it can do wonders to propel your business ahead of its competitors by gaining more customers and positioning your product or service in the market.

It’s important to note that marketing strategies are more than just emails and product deals—it requires a careful process that takes your company’s brand and the ever-changing market trends into deep consideration. Unfortunately, creating an effective marketing strategy with valuable content isn’t easy. According to Articulate Marketing, 62 percent of marketers within the B2B tech sector have said that creating engaging content is their biggest marketing strategy challenge. Here are 9 tips to help you get started on your marketing strategy this year:

1. Define your marketing strategy goals

As a marketer, you may be eager to start working on campaigns, but first things first—you must reevaluate and define your marketing goals for the new year. Last year’s marketing strategy goals may not be the right fit for 2020, especially with the continuous shift in tools and technologies. The marketing world exists on an ever-changing spectrum, and if you aren’t constantly evolving with it, you risk getting left behind.

Setting up measurable goals is a smart way to keep up with the competition. It also allows you to guide your marketing strategy in a timely and attainable manner, leading to increased sales and traffic. Be sure that the goals you set are realistic, specific to your business, relevant, and well-timed.

2. Create consistent branding guidelines

Your marketing strategy is nothing without consistent branding backing it up. Your brand should look, feel, and sound the same across multiple platforms, including social media and your main website. Inconsistent branding can confuse potential customers and sabotage your business’s growth. 

This year, take time to create clear brand guidelines that define your business and its overall message. Remember that a brand is more than just a logo and slogan—it includes:

  • Visual colors that you will use in graphics, brochures, and other materials
  • Fonts that fit appropriately with your overall brand
  • Vocabulary through social media and other platforms
  • Tone of voice and messaging

You can create effective branding guidelines by asking yourself what you’d like your company to accomplish and what problems you solve for your clients. With enough consideration, you will have branding guidelines that encompass your entire business as a whole. 

3. Update your website

Be honest—when’s the last time you updated your website? Last month? A few years back? In 2020, it’s time for a refresh! Apart from following the SEO best practices, you should always ensure your website is visually engaging for any potential visitors. 

Google often rewards websites with interesting copy and visual engagement, helping them rank higher on their search engines. The higher your website ranks, the more likely users will discover your business. Effective content can also help visitors resonate with your company’s products and services, leading to possible conversions. When evaluating your current website, be sure to consider whether it’s mobile-friendly, quick to load, optimized for search engines, and visually engaging.

4. Blog as often as possible

If you’re looking to increase website traffic in 2020, blogging may be just the key ingredient you’re missing. Blogging started out as a hobby in the early stages of the Internet, but has quickly grown to be an essential part of marketing. In fact, having a blog on your website increases your chances of ranking higher in search by 434%

Other benefits of blogging include:

  • A space for client testimonials
  • Helpful and engaging content that visitors can use
  • Building your business as an industry leader
  • A way to connect your customers with your business

Make sure to include blogging into your marketing strategy goals this year!

5. Dedicate funds towards marketing

One of the most important steps in marketing is promoting your business—after all, how can anyone purchase your products and services if they have no idea it exists? If you aren’t sure how much to invest in your marketing strategy, you can try giving around 10 to 12 percent of your annual revenue to your business’s marketing efforts. This is especially important if you’re looking to expand or gain greater market share.

6. Invest in increasing visibility

New updates to social media algorithms have made it harder for businesses to stand out in their platforms. That’s why it’s highly crucial to plan out and implement an effective advertising campaign into your marketing strategy. 

Make sure to test out which platforms work best for your brand, and the ads that your customers resonate with. This data allows you to place your ads on a specific social platform where you reach the most visibility and connection with potential customers. 

7. Grow a social media presence

Social media is one of the world’s most popular online activities. According to a report by Statista, more than 2 billion people were using a social media network in the past 2 years, and the number is projected to grow between 2020 and 2021. 

With so many users spending their time on social media, it’s a good idea to invest some effort into growing a social media presence. Some well-worth platforms to start on include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn—just make sure to research and analyze which social media networks your customers are on, and place your focus on those platforms.

8. Review and take note of analytics

You can’t have success without measuring the impact of your marketing strategy! This year, make sure to regularly review and evaluate all data through Google Analytics (or any other web analytics service you use), social media insights and email open rates. 

While reviewing, take note of social media posts and ads that received the most impressions and click-rates. Also, focus on the level of engagement your customers have with your content. Are they showing interest in the comments? Do your social media posts get likes? Are customers signing up for your email newsletter? 

Once you have a clear picture of your audience and their relationship with your business, you can use the data to shape your future marketing campaigns in a way that reflects your company’s message. Overall, analytics is not just about numbers; it’s about listening to your customers by observing their reactions (likes, comments, clicks, etc.) with your content—be sure to take advantage of it!

9. Focus on email marketing

With the rising popularity of social media, you may think email marketing is redundant in 2020, but that’s far from the truth! Email remains just as relevant as it was back in the early stages of the technological age, and has been increasing in quantity every year. 

In fact, Sleeknote reports that customers want to hear from brands with a total of 91% of shoppers wanting to hear from companies they do business with via email. A surprising 15% of these respondents want to receive daily emails from these companies with online offers, product sales, and more! 

By implementing effective email newsletter content into your marketing strategy, you can reach numerous consumers and share your blog posts, product deals, videos, and other materials for your brand. 

With the tips outlined above, you should have a powerful marketing strategy to carry out your campaigns for the entire year. Remember to carefully implement each of these tips into your marketing strategy while also considering consumer behavior and trends. Melissa Parrish, a Forbes contributor writes that “as marketing strategy changes and marketing resources shift, so do consumers and customer loyalty — today, consumers use more devices, ad blockers and other privacy protection tools, and still have increasingly sophisticated customer experience expectations.” Therefore, get started as soon as you can, revisit your goals, measure your success, and adjust your marketing plans accordingly. 

If you aren’t sure how to measure your impact on social media, check out our blog, 10 Best Free Social Media Monitoring Tools for some helpful tools you can use!