2020 is another remarkable year for anyone who’s in business and if you start researching best ways or new ways to market in 2020… well you’re going to be overwhelmed by change, choice and challenge. We are are we do this for a living. BUT – this year is more about how you marketing than what… so let’s dive in.
Vision leads to strategy,
Strategy leads to tactics,
tactics leads to success!
7 THINGS YOU NEED TO LET US HELP YOU WITH
#1 – PERSONALIZATION
Marketing currently proves that 90+% of your visitors probably don’t convert to a customer. It’s more likely that the number is higher and it’s not because your marketing is ineffective or misguided, and it’s probably nor because they are poor quality leads (although some are).
It’s more likely that your message doesn’t speak to all of your visitors.
Personalization changes that. You will be able to convert more visitors into customers – even fans!
When you go to Amazon, they know you. They’ve learned what you buy and show you what they think you want to see. It kinda works for you but it definitely works for them.
Next time you log on to Amazon, pay attention to what you see and then consider what you don’t. If you’ve never shopped or searched for whey protein – you won’t see ads or suggestions for body building supplements.
Businesses are catching on and in 2019 started experimenting with personalizing each and every single experience both online and offline. We learned a lot from this and that can benefit you.
Companies like Amperity are trying to create a customer relationship engine so you can better serve each of your customers, whether it is online or offline.
Marketing is now a game of personalization. With ad costs and even general marketing costs rising, you have no choice but to figure out how to convert the 97% of your traffic that just never comes back.
#2 – IT’S AN EVEN GAME
AI (artificial Intelligence) is a double-edged sword. It’s being developed, it’s being used and it’s sort of creepy but automation, which is a form of AI – has been a game changer for all business, especially small ones.
SEO is being overhauled with AI based services, that allows us to harness huge amounts of data – petabytes in fact, to increase your SEO performance:
- 60% increase in page views per visits
- 21% more keywords on page one rankings
- 2X increase in conversions
- SEM impact: 28% improvement in Ad Quality score
Automated SEO, means less hours trolling and tweaking data, and more time spent strategically building and growing your revenue producing efforts.
The marketing game is more even competitive than it ever has been. If you want to do well, you better learn to leverage AI and automation. You are going to get crushed if you don’t, because it can adjust faster and more accurately than a human.
This might be the only valid reason to embrace AI and we think it’s an important option if you want to stay competitive.
So, if everyone is leveraging similar AI marketing principles, how can you stay ahead of the competition?
Stay on top of everything else. Reevaluate price, increase customer service, upsell when you can, improve operations, and increase sales… All of these together, something we call strategy – will help you win.
#3 – YOU CAN’T RELY ON ANALYTICS ALONE
If you’re in business you’re going to have to love Google Analytics. You are probably wondering, what’s wrong with Google Analytics?
There really isn’t a lot wrong with it. It’s a great tool, especially considering that it’s free. But here is the thing… marketing has been changing. New channels are being constantly introduced. Voice Search has become a huge contender.
Transactions aren’t as simple as someone coming and buying from you. These days there are things like upsells, down sells, repeat purchases, and even checkout bumps.
On top of that, there are so many different ways you can generate revenue for your business; such as partnerships, affiliate marketing, even education based offerings. If you teach your customers for free – they will remember you when it comes to make a purchase.
This has caused companies to start using analytics solutions that tie into their CRM or database. We are advocates for business intelligence. By fully integrating your database and workflow (a central place where you can tie in all of your data and make better-informed decisions) you can optimize for your lifetime value instead of your short-term income.
What’s lifetime value? The value of your customer, to you, over the lifetime the do business with you in contrast to the value you are to your customer.
In 2020, more companies are adopting business intelligence solutions… paid ones and free ones like Google Data Studio.
#4 – OPTIMIZE FOR VOICE – BUT NOT REVENUE
ComScore reports that over 50% of the searches in 2020 will be from voice search. Which is nothing new. These number have been around for a while.
So, why should you consider it?
Optimizing for voice search is a clever way to gain brand awareness – it may not translate to revenue immediately but you didn’t build your business overnight and we don’t market it that way either!
We can get you familiar with Jetson.ai they makes it possible for people to buy from your site using voice search. It doesn’t matter if it is Alexa or Google Home, they work with most of the popular devices.
And Jetson.ai is really smart. It learns from each customer and then starts to customize the experience!
Here’s an example; I always ordering the same coffee pods from specific online store – Jetson.ai tracks that and allows me to reorder with little to no effort and removes friction.
Keep an eye on frictionless browsing and purchasing! If you want to know more about how that can benefit your business, book a call with us.
#5 – NO ONE HAS THE SILVER BULLET
There will be a big shift from focusing on one channel, after finding the “Holy Grail of marketing” to working on incremental improvements to each area of your marketing.
Many businesses build from one channel, online or offline:
- Dropbox grew through referral marketing (invite more friends, get more free space).
- Facebook was built off your email address book (it could invite all of your contacts to use Facebook for you).
- Yelp was built off of SEO (where rankings drove businesses).
You can’t do that anymore. As soon a new channel pops up, it gets saturated extremely fast. Even if it works and you see an initial big gain, it won’t last long. Your competition will be right behind you, doing the same thing.
Marketing is heading more in the direction of small or marginal gains that make for consistent wins.
British cycling coach Dave Brailsford says that if you improve every area (in cycling by just 1 percent), those small gains would add up to a noticeable improvement.
The same should be with your marketing strategy (and if you don’t have one – we can help).
From split testing campaigns to ranking improvements, adding upsells, checkout bumps on orders (on and offline) to spending a little more on your paid ads – even using Google Data Studio – it’s all about your lifetime value.
That’s what you’ll have to shift your mindset to in order to win in 2020 and beyond.
It’s all about the little things. That’s what is going to add up to winning.
#6 – CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING
Email Marketing Is King. It’s something we all use everyday right?
Something interesting has happened with email marketing. Heavily designed campaigns turn people off, salesy offers leaves us feeling pitched by something we didn’t ask for and guess what we’re seeing across the board.
Open rates are about the same (mostly because we’ve learned to clean and optimizing for delivery), but click through rates are going down by as much as 9%. Don’t worry email is NOT dead.
Email is here to stay for a very long time.
But in 2020 you will need to leverage other communication channels as well.
Chatbots are ready to take over (we’re not talking about Intercom style solutions that offer live messaging on a site), we’re talking
about the likes of ManyChat and MobileMonkey.
ManyChat and MobileMonkey use conversational marketing and leverage Facebook Messenger (also connected with Instagram and WhatsApp) and it’s getting popular.
In addition to chatbots, we’re using push notifications like Subscribers to increase the customer experience and grow our automation tools.
If you want wait to leverage chatbots and push notifications, you can but we’d recommend you start sooner than later. There’s a good chance your competitors already have or are working on implementing it.
#7 – BRANDING IS THE NEW MOAT
Moat? Yeah you know, the body of water around a castle or medieval home. It was a form of defense or protection and it’s a principle we’ve used in business for years.
It’s your service, your product, your market advantage or even your tech edge. Sadly, over the years in the online space and in most forms of marketing – the water has dried up or the bridge is broken. You don’t want to gates closed on your business but you need to protect what you have more than ever.
Branding is the new moat and fortunately for you – no one can ever impersonate that.
But you need to make sure your brand is stronger than ever.
People buy Jordans because they love Michael Jordan. He hasn’t played basketball for over a decade but his shoes are so popular, it has created a net worth that’s over a billion dollars!
He’s actually made more money since his retirement, but that’s another story. And he’s not the only one – many brands are worth millions.
Kylie Jenner (the worlds second highest paid celebrity) launched a billion-dollar company according to Forbes and it was all because of her personal brand. Her cosmetic company isn’t revolutionary, she is.
The same goes for companies like American Express, Ferrari, Nike, Tesla – you might be aiming for that kind of impact BUT don’t underestimate your brand in your market and how it affects your bottom line.
There’s a reason why influencer marketing spend is around $10 Billion a year!
You’ll need to build your brand strong in 2020 – it’s important for your moat and your Google EAT (expertise, authority and trustworthiness).
TIME TO ACT
We know this isn’t one of those sexy marketing, 5 tips to increase sales type articles and most of what we’ve said isn’t talked about a lot. It may nit feel like popular marketing topics – but it is the future.
These trends aren’t temporary and they will come true, some already are. You have to adapt for them.
Here’s the beautiful part, though. You just read this, and now have a chance to act on the information before your competition. So, make sure you go and do so.
We want to see you not only succeed but we want to help you to beat your competition. Whether you are a big company, or just starting off with very little to no money – there are options, strategies and tools you can implement right now.