Digital marketers have a lot on their table. They jiggle between pay-per-click search engine marketing, social media advertising, email marketing, landing web pages, sales pages, video production, audio production, visual design, and so much more.
The digital world is ever-evolving. Trends we saw in the early 2000s have pretty much changed during the 2010s, and here we are now on the verge of the 2020s. What will happen? Which digital marketing trends will emerge? Will we witness a drastic shift in some of the channels?
Well, probably nothing scandalously dramatic will happen, but success is now definitely depending on different strategies than it was 15 years ago.
Take a look at some of the most important tactics that will surely boost marketers’ efforts during the next year and bring increasingly better return on investment (ROI).
1. Engagement is the New Black
There used to be a race to the top for a massive base of followers. It was all in the numbers. But what have we learned from that? A million followers who are not actually engaging with your brand isn’t going to do you any good.
So now we know that having 100 followers who genuinely appreciate your brand appearance, engage with posts, ignite meaningful discussions, and click on your calls to action is way much better than having 100,000 followers who are not interested in the content you publish and never bother to click on your CTA button.
How to create an engaging online community? By putting your energy and passion in communication with your followers. Besides your profile pages, niche or branded Facebook groups are the right way to start. LinkedIn groups also. And building a carefully curated mailing list can make a huge difference.
Here is one more tip – and we believe this might become the next big craze in the social media world – use private Instagram profiles as a place to gather a group of truly engaged brand fans. Keep the conversation flowing. This could have a massive impact on growing a dedicated community.
2. Stop Neglecting Email Marketing Segmentation
Email marketing is here to stay, and it can pay off big time if you know how to use it right. Email campaigns are a great way of promoting your new product launches, new features, bonus discounts, time-sensitive offers, upcoming webinars and online courses, book releases, and everything else you want to promote.
It is always a good idea to get your campaigns automated, sequenced, and distributed through dedicated platforms. Whichever email marketing service provider you choose, don’t neglect the option of email segmentation. Everyone seems to be talking about it, but not everyone is doing it. According to HubSpot, marketers who used segmented campaigns noted as much as a 760% increase in revenue.
What does email segmentation even mean?
It means that not everyone on your mailing list has the same expectations, needs, intentions, and connections to your brand. So you need to divide your email audience into groups, such as newcomers, veterans, those who have already bought from you, those who are one step away of buying from you, and so on.
That way, you level up in the personalisation game (and personalisation will continue to be really important during 2020). Show your subscribers that you care about their time. Don’t waste it by constantly bombarding them with messages and offers that are not aligned with their current needs.
3. The Reviews Culture is On the Rise
The reviews and star ratings that you gain throughout various online platforms are becoming increasingly important. Why is that? Because those who leave positive reviews and 5-star ratings on your product pages are becoming your most valuable influencers. Yes, they are.
Nowadays, nearly everyone checks out reviews and ratings before they decide to buy.
This can mean only one thing – you need to start thinking about creating a 5-star rating strategy. And how do you do that? By nurturing long-lasting relationships with your existing clients, by delighting each and every new customer that comes your way, exceeding their expectations, and keeping the customer satisfaction index (CSI) on the highest level.
Once the great reviews start popping in, your digital marketing team can start diving in and creating authentic, engaging, and compelling success stories/case studies out of them while promoting them through channels of your choice.
4. Choose Your Channels Wisely
You already know that there is no point in investing in LinkedIn marketing when your target audience includes millennials who are fashion aficionados. In that case, it will probably be much smarter to spread your ads all over Instagram.
Likewise, you probably won’t even consider using Instagram as an owner of a B2B cloud-based platform for workflow automation. Your place of choice would be LinkedIn.
On the other hand, if you are in the event organization industry, you’ll need to step into the offline world as well and get all the printed promotional materials ready, and all the branded assets aligned with your current marketing campaign or an overall branding strategy.
The bottom line – you don’t need to be present everywhere. Choose the marketing channels according to the business and marketing goals. It could mean a single channel or a multi-channel approach. Either way, you need to go into the deep and gain an optimal outcome from every solution.
5. Comprehensive Content will Win the Day
A simple SEO optimization and quality blog posts might not be enough for your content marketing to thrive in 2020.
When it comes to business blogs, try going more in-depth if you want to rank higher in search results with your articles. Because Google loves comprehensive content and long-form articles that resemble well-researched guides on a specific topic and include a lot of expert advice.
If you are not sure what Google considers to be high-quality content, Google has put together a set of questions that could help you with your content marketing endeavour.
6. Value the Investment of Time
Success usually doesn’t happen overnight. So, apart from your short-term marketing goals, prepare to invest in achieving long-term goals as well. And think of your investment in a different currency – time.
Let’s say that your goal is to make your client’s CEO stand out as a thought leader in the highly-competitive industry. But she is „the new kid on the block“, and you can’t expect her to jump to the top immediately.
You need to create a specific strategy for her, carefully craft topics that she can talk about and write about, search for channels where she can contribute with her knowledge (think specialized blogs, podcasts, meetups, conferences, LinkedIn articles, etc.).
Eventually, she’ll prove herself as an expert in the field and earn the trust of the target audience. People will follow her, read her stories, associate her with the brand, and it will come naturally to them to start using her products or services. It will lead to generating a great number of valuable leads. That’s it. Goal accomplished.
Conclusion
As a wrap-up, tips for successful digital marketing campaigns in 2019/2020 are:
- Think about long-term achievements
- Build even stronger communities with your existing customers
- Start using email marketing segmentation
- Forget about sales pitches, create comprehensive, educational content
- Attract new clients with thought leadership
Success will depend on various variables, as it has been so far. After answering the questions about business goals, specific campaign goals, target audience needs and struggles, and choosing channels of promotion, you need to create a digital marketing strategy. Without a meaningful strategy, you won’t gain any positive outcomes in the long run.
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