2020 is here, and you might be wondering what changes it will bring to the world of marketing. Well, so far, not many, as far as major players in the industry are concerned, most of the marketing strategies that worked well in 2019 are just as reliable in 2020. Naturally, there will be some tweaks here and there, but all in all, if you adhered to the advice given last year, you shouldn’t have to change your marketing strategy course dramatically this year.
Of course, there is always an off chance that something was missing in your 2019 marketing strategy, and that is why we are going to go over all the essentials that an effective 2020 marketing strategy needs to have to generate sufficient leads and promote substantial business growth. Let’s get started, shall we?
Content is your biggest asset
No surprise here, especially if you take into consideration what Robin Barendsen, head of digital marketing at office space rental company WehaveAnyspace, noted, and that is that 77% of B2B marketers use content marketing. With that number in mind, it is a no-brainer that you need to up your content game in 2020. So how does one go about improving their content marketing strategy?
Well, the answer is quite simple, seek professional help. Partner up with a company that can provide you with quality content that you can push out without worrying about backlash. In a nutshell, brands should create content that is relevant, authoritative and, it goes without saying, one that educates its audience.
We also shouldn’t forget about personalized content. You can combine this with marketing automation. According to research, mapping the customer experience and the use of personalized content are deemed the most effective tactics for optimizing marketing automation. So there is something to be said about customizing your content to the needs of your customer base. Just make sure that this is done by a company familiar with your target audience and the message you want your brand to promote.
Ensure that you have a goal-driven marketing strategy
Ah, quite a shocker isn’t it? Who would have thought that this little piece of advice would still be as relevant as ever? Well, except every well-informed marketer out there, that is. It is quite simple really, if you don’t set pre-determined goals, how will you know whether or not your strategy is effective. And even more importantly, which aspects to improve on for better results later on.
Now, depending on your company as well as your role in it, there are a lot of different possible goals you could have. You might be focused on driving clicks, conversions, leads, sales or revenue. For most, revenue is the key driver and for good reason. Just consider this, you can have all the clicks and conversions in the world and still operate at a loss if you aren’t driving revenue. Simple, right? So, the best course of action is to set a revenue goal, and then work backwards to see what means will get you there and how much money will you need to invest. That way you will have a clear marketing strategy for 2020.
It’s all about the data
Another quite obvious strategy that if you haven’t implemented in 2019 you should definitely be implementing this year. The benefits of data-driven marketing and especially data-driven advertising are significant. For example, 66% of marketers personalize their emails based on age data. So, you combine personalized content with the data collected on your customer base in order for your marketing campaign to have the best possible impact.
Another piece of information that you might find interesting when talking about data-driven marketing is the fact that data quality management metrics will be a major driver for marketing professionals in 2020. But let’s talk about what benefits your marketing strategy can have if you decide to focus on the data.
- More efficient media buying. The fact of the matter is that by leveraging algorithms and machine learning, marketers are removing a lot of the guesswork from their media planning and buying.
- Having insight into who the right consumers are. This will lead to ad spends and marketing messages being optimized to be shown only to the appropriate targets for the marketing campaign.
- Targeting the right people with your messages. Let’s face it, the age of generic, one-size-fits-all marketing messages is over. Marketing messages must get more granular in order to be relevant enough to resonate with consumers.
In the end, by keeping a close eye on the data and ensuring that you use all the numbers you acquire the right way you can expect to see a significant ROI. Careful targeting is what will prevent you from wasting precious marketing resources.
Don’t overlook the importance of consumer privacy
Sadly, repeated privacy scandals by Facebook, Google, along with security breaches experienced by numerous other brands that have led to the release of consumer details have heightened awareness of data privacy risks. Consumers are now aware that their data isn’t as safe with online brands as they have once thought. This is a relevant issue that is shaking the entire marketing industry. Especially if you take into consideration that record fines that came to be in 2019. Starting from the maximum penalty for contraventions increasing under GDPR to up to €20m (£17.5m) or four percent of global turnover – whichever is greater. A very clear example is British Airways being fined £183m for a breach of customer data. So it is clear that companies need to watch their back and do whatever it takes to guarantee customer data protection.
Now, you might think that this particular issue is not a marketing issue and that it is irrelevant for your 2020 marketing strategy. Well, you would be wrong about that. Marketers need to work closely with other departments in order to mitigate the potential impact of security breaches and reassure customers. Not to mention the fact that we are seeing a decreasing effectiveness of traditional identification methods such as cookies for tracking, which makes media ROI determination far more difficult. And as you know media ROI determination is one of the key benefits of digital channels. But don’t fret, there are a lot of modern tools that can be deployed to prevent this. But you do need to have them in place within your marketing strategy in order to ensure maximal success.
There you have it, and these are just the essentials that simply need to find your way into your 2020 marketing strategy. So go over what worked in 2019, polish up some parts and include some new items so that you are able to surpass your set goals by the end of this year. Good luck!
