The new year has arrived. So far, the latest year doesn’t seem to be much different from December 2019. We asked dozens and dozens of digital marketing experts for their top strategies from last year. And, boy, were they right.
Here are 16 marketing strategies that will be the most effective in 2020.
1. Your content can educate your audience
The content has always been king, and 2019 was no exception.
Robin Barendsen is the head of digital at WehaveAnyspace and cites figures from Content Marketing Institute’s 2019 Trends Report. She noted that 77% of B2B marketing uses content marketing.
He said that the majority of B2B marketers used educational assets to build trust with their audience and nurture leads. This is essential for inbound marketing. Think about informative blogs, whitepapers, or quizzes.
Brands should produce content that educates and informs their audience.
2. Personalize your marketing message
Peter Wilfahrt is the managing director of the digital marketing agency Versandgigant. He said that marketers need to personalize each message by 2020. This can be done through analytics, understanding demographics and affinity categories, and segmenting customers. We’ll get to that shortly.
He said that only a few brands implement a personalized message strategy. “We’re not just talking about adding your first name to the email greeting. We’re really digging into your prospect’s head and discovering what they fear and wish for.”
Brock Murray, COO of digital marketing agency Seoplus+, agrees that consumers should feel special. However, he believes automation is the best approach, as it allows advertisers to create ads that dynamically change depending on who is searching. Murray says that the results of his research show that consumers are interested in this kind of customization.
Murray continued, “But, it’s important to note that timeliness is also a key part of any strategy, as users have shown they don’t like to be inundated with content, especially if it’s not relevant to them.” “Overall, your content and markup must be concise and easy to understand in order for your users to receive value from each interaction.“ Any digital marketing strategy should include transparency and respect for users’ privacy.
Frank Spear said that personalization has boosted his marketing strategies in 2019 far beyond what he expected.
He said, “We have tried to incorporate personalized content into virtually every aspect of our strategy.“ Our opt-in ads are based on what the user reads before triggering the popup. This relatable promotion is intended to show that we are aware of their problems and want to assist. When customers subscribe to our email campaigns, we allow them to choose the type of content that they would like to receive.
Sam White, marketing director at the Soul CBD CBD site, explained that effective personalization results from efforts such as behavioural segmentation. This involves separating audiences into groups based on their actions, such as first-time buyers, abandoned carts, repeat purchasers, and page views with no conversion.
White said that “each behavior group may look similar but act very differently.” “Behavioral segmentation allows us to communicate with each group in a manner that is consistent with their interaction with the brand.”
Vivek Chugh is the CEO of Listables. He agreed that data-driven segmentation had worked well for them so far. It allows Listables to tailor their messages and ensures they are getting in front of people who will respond to them. This segmentation, he said, would also be an important part of marketing in 2020.
3. Let data drive your creative
Natalia Wulfe is the CMO at the digital marketing agency Effective Spend. She says that platforms such as Google and Facebook are gaining more control over audience targeting while simultaneously moving away from manual bid capabilities. Their algorithms are also becoming more adept at determining which images and copy to use to drive the highest click-through rates and conversion rates.
She said, “With these changes, we have seen that creative has become a serious performance driver, with equal weight given to other important drivers such as placement selection and target audience.”
Effective Spend redesigned its creative process, incorporating a data-first strategy.
She added, “We analyze performance metrics to identify the gaps, then design new creatives that directly impact those metrics with poor performance.”
4. Invest in original research
Original research was one of the most effective marketing strategies in 2010.
Tamas Torok is the head of online marketing for Javascript developer Coding Sans. Since 2017, Coding Sans has published research on software development trends. These reports have garnered links from reputable sites and thousands of subscribers.
He said, “This strategy was successful because we created something new.” “New data attracted new links, and it was beautifully displayed. This made people share the information on social media.”
Coding Sans will publish three original reports in 2020.
Matthew Zajechowski is the outreach team leader at Digital Third Coast. He agreed that using proprietary data for long-form graphics content has been a successful strategy in 2019. This resulted in thousands of backlinks coming from high-authority publications.
He added, “Publishers are looking for new angles on a topic even if it has been covered a million times.” “Having proprietary data allows for us to have this unique angle, and presenting it in graphics makes it easier for them to share.“ We find writers who have covered the subject, and we present them with new research or studies.
5. Update your content
Don’t forget to keep the content that you have already published.
Cyrus Yung said that updating old content has been a successful strategy for Ascelade. Google uses a freshness factor in its ranking, and content on most websites eventually decays.
He said: “They have older articles that have been ranked well in the past and have received backlinks. However, search traffic is declining for this particular article.”
Mark Webster said that in 2019, Authority Hacker would focus on updating older content instead of just pumping out new, high-quality content.
He said that after some testing, they found that simple changes and tweaks, and most importantly, changing the date to reflect the latest revision, [made] their rankings [jump] instantly. It’s no secret that Google favours new content, but we did not expect this to be an easy win.
Webster calls this simple technique “a huge win“ because it is cheaper than updating old content.
Jeroen Minks of PPC agency Vazooky Digital also called updating website content one of the most effective marketing strategies he used last year.
He said that by updating each page and article individually, he saw a significant increase in organic ranking. This led to increased website traffic and more customers. “Part of content optimization involved involving other experts in my article, which led more external links and an improved social media presence.”
6. Subscribe to HARO
A popular strategy for 2019 was to respond to questions from journalists about services such as Help A Reporter Out. Journalists are always looking for experts across a wide range of fields.
Olga Mykhoparkina (CMO at chat platform Chanty) said that answering HARO questions was “by far“ the best marketing activity they had done this year, more than guest blogging or fixing broken links.
Chanty receives an average of 5-10 links per week from relevant queries.
She said, “We have developed a method to select the best and most relevant questions, send timely responses to them, and, in the vast majority of cases, get backlinks from websites with high authority.“ This list includes outlets like American Express, Forbes, and CMSWire.
She added, “As a consequence, our organic traffic has grown and our domain authority is now noticeable in just a few short months.”
Vartika Kashyap is the marketing manager for Proofhub, a project management software company. She agreed that HARO was a good source of authoritative links and helped boost content rankings.
Alexandra Zamolo is the head of content marketing for Beekeeper, a communications platform. It’s free. It only takes a bit of time each day to write a few quotes that are relevant to your field. “How cool is that?”
7. Guest blogging is a great way to expand your audience
What other ways can you expand your reach? Guest blogging allows more people to contribute content to your brand. Pamela Bourgault is a digital marketer at DashThis. DashThis will enable clients to contribute content to their blogs.
She added, “This strategy is perfect for us both because they can leverage this guest post contribution in order to leverage their expertise while we can leverage their knowledge in order to leverage our blog to provide relevant information and generate leads.“ These articles are usually very successful in driving organic traffic to our website and generating leads. Some articles written by our clients still bring us over 200 leads per month.
8. Use more video
Video marketing was a very popular tactic in 2019, and it’s a strategy that you should use this year.
Stuart Leung said that videos help consumers form stronger bonds, which in turn makes them more likely to purchase products. Tutorials, testimonials, and behind-the-scenes footage are all options.
Chris Savage is the CEO of Wistia. He said that Wistia has been paying close attention to the growth of streaming platforms. They have seen many businesses adopt Netflix’s playbook by creating original, longer-form content to build brand loyalty. Wistia has created its own late-night talk show called Brandwagon.
He said: “Throughout the series I speak with some of top minds in marketing to learn some of their secrets behind some of biggest successes.” “Plus, our team welcomes some unexpected guests and buys a 91 wagon along the way to transform it into the ultimate Brandwagon.”
Wistia advertised trailers and clips on social media and allowed viewers to binge-watch the entire show. This resulted in an increase in the brand’s overall time spent and a steady rise in the volume of brand searches, Savage explained.
9. Livestream
Morgan Lathaen is a marketing specialist with Thumbprint. She noted that livestreaming has been on the rise and will continue in 2020. This is because it’s free, easy to do, reaches more people, and provides authentic user engagement.
She added that live content can generate more impressions than newsfeed posts.
10. Check out these explainer videos
Explainers are another option for video content. Raj Vardhman is the editor-in-chief of GoRemotely.net. He said that his website chose to use explainers in 2019 to help make complicated concepts more understandable.
He added, “Google’s algorithm continues to favour websites with video content. This makes them incredibly important for both marketing and SEO.”
Larissa Murillo is the Marketing Manager for SEO and Website Marketing Tool Marketgoo. She said that Marketgoo went one step further, creating a more educational course than a promotional one, specifically designed for Udemy, an online learning platform.
She said that the tactic behind it was to increase brand awareness for our SEO tool. The course would teach SEO basics and how to make use of our tool.
Murillo acknowledged that the attribution of signups could be tricky, as students would type in URLs instead of clicking links. However, he said the videos can also be used in other ways, such as blog posts.
11. Podcasts are available for you to host or join.
Digital marketing consultant Ryan Scollon said that podcasts were “a real breakthrough for 2019“ due to the surge in shows in digital marketing.
Scollon says that marketers can either appear as guests in existing podcasts or create their own. Both options offer many benefits and a few downsides.
He said that podcasts were a good way to build a loyal audience who would return every week without the need for you to be in front of a camera. They’re also a good way to reuse content you already have on your website.
Stacy Caprio of Accelerated Growth Marketing said that appearing on podcasts was one of the most effective marketing strategies she has used in 2019 as it has increased site traffic and brand recognition.
She said that the trick was to join podcasts with a large audience in your niche. This way, their interests will overlap with yours. This works best when the podcaster is well-known and has a large following. They will see your interview as a recommendation that they would like to investigate further.
12. Prioritize local SEO
According to Dan Rice of recruiting firm Talent Locker’s marketing department, the best strategy for 2019 is to optimize and prioritize Google My Business. This free tool allows businesses to manage their online presence on Google, including search, maps, and more.
He said that they used it as part of an extensive digital marketing campaign to increase awareness of their brand. “Through consistently producing posts, updating and helping to drive people to our Google My Business listings, we have seen strong results. It doesn’t only appear to help local SEO, but it is also very significant in driving brand name searches.”
Leslie Whittaker, a digital marketing consultant, agreed. She noted that while the majority of businesses have claimed their Google My Business listings, only a very small percentage has optimized them. Google is constantly adding new features, and many companies don’t know they exist. This means that they are missing opportunities to generate leads.
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She said that Google My Business was an essential tool for businesses with brick-and-mortar locations. It’s where people look first when they’re looking for local companies, and it’s a quick way to get more leads.
Whittaker, for example, said that focusing solely on the Google listing of a client in Midtown Manhattan saw a 398% rise in the number of times the listing was displayed in Google searches. There was also an 84% boost in phone calls and a 153% jump in website traffic. One dermatologist in Long Island with a newly opened practice and a brand new listing has been featured 8900 times on Google searches and received 300 phone calls and 280 website visits.
Erin Sparks, CEO of Site Strategics Digital Marketing, said that the new Google real estate and the lead funnel functionality show that Google wants its customers to interact first with its properties, which is why Google gives businesses the tools to communicate with customers.
He added that “Google wants you to be able to communicate with your customers as quickly as possible using its tools, from the Get a Quote feature to the Custom Service Menus and the relatively new Google Local Service Guaranteed Ads.”
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13. Automate your email marketing campaigns
Maciej Baranowski is the manager of customer engagement for the career advice website ResumeLab. He said that ResumeLab automated its email marketing campaigns starting in 2019, and they were a “resounding“ success.
The company is able to send four times more newsletters than before, and this compensates for the initial decline in conversion rates.
He said, “Ideally, both are desirable, but the math shows that it was worth the trade-off. We’ve been surging since then.”
Email automation allows for more customization, including A/B tests, infographics, and sequences. It also includes time zones, CTA buttons, CTA buttons with CTAs, and CTA buttons.
Baranowski stated, “We are becoming more and more knowledgeable about the ideal newsletter with each passing week.“ The juice was worth it in the end. We are looking forward to further fine-tuning the approach after the transition pains.
14. Prepare yourself for the voice technology
In 2019, voice search continued to be a popular trend.
Paige Arnof Fenn, CEO of marketing consultancy firm Mavens & Moguls, noted that chatbots can reduce costs, convert visitors into leads, and optimize for voice queries, long-tail keywords, and more. Again.
Arnof-Fenn stated that voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant will maximize marketing and advertising possibilities.
She added, “I predict the brands who perfect the branded skills with more customer-friendly ads [and] less intrusive ads will win big.”
Faizan Ali is the PR person for the WordPress resource website WPBeginner. She said that adding semantics and optimizing for voice search yielded many featured snippets, which led to a 37% increase in traffic for WPBeginner in 2019.
Alexander Kehoe is the operations director at Caveni Digital Solutions. He said that Caveni uses natural language processing to evaluate the quality of its human contributors and provide more value to customers.
15. Try out augmented reality
Polly Kay said that interactive content, which allows customers to preview the products, was a big hit in 2019.
English Blinds has developed a tool that allows customers to upload photos of their interiors and create window treatments to see what they would look like.
She said, “This idea was inspired by hair design websites where women could upload pictures of themselves and see what it would look like with different hairstyles overlaid on top.“ This proved to be a huge success for us in testing for many reasons. People can see what our product will look like in their homes before they pay the money or take a risk. This in itself helps to encourage sales.
After a four-month trial of the Virtual Interiors tool, the brand decided to focus on enabling more interactivity in 2020.
16. Smart bidding
Wulfe said that Google and Facebook had also expanded their AI-based bidding and ad targeting capabilities in the past year, and her agency adopted them for “at least 90 percent of our social and search ad campaigns.”
Smart bidding options, like Google’s Target CPA, can learn from past data and optimize ad spending toward top-converting search terms, creatives, audiences, and demographic segments. Effective Spend tracked every important user activity on client sites and linked CRM data to each digital channel, giving the algorithm as much information as possible.
She said that the more information about engagement and lead quality you provide, the more data your algorithm will be able to crunch to optimize your advertising spending towards the leads most likely to become paying customers. “We experienced this first-hand and will continue to invest in it in 2020.”
