The year 2020 is here, and it’s time to get back to work. Business owners and marketers are preparing for the upcoming year by creating brand new promotions, marketing campaigns, and products. But there are other things you’ll have to keep in mind if you want to see your business rise to the top.
We are going to take a look at four clever marketing tricks you can start using to improve your brand visibility, lead conversion, and engagement in 2020. We are going to start with the design of your website behind the scenes, then we will move on to your email and social media marketing campaigns, and finally, we will wrap it up by showing you how to generate leads with components of your website.
Let’s dive in!
Optimize for Voice SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is commonly used to increase the visibility of websites to both users and Google’s web crawlers. The reason for this practice is simple: the higher you appear in Google’s search algorithm, the better chance you have at being seen by customers. When more people have their eyes on your business because of the right SEO strategy, you’re more likely to see explosive growth.
One thing that sticks out to us in 2020 is that SEO has changed drastically over the past couple of years. Most notably, voice search has taken the internet by storm as people use their Amazon Echo device or Google Assistant to do everything from look up recipes to restock the cleaning closet. The constant use of smart devices has spawned something new, voice SEO, which is predicted to make up 50 percent of all searches in 2020.
The way people talk often differs drastically from how they speak, and this leads to more direct questions. Due to the diversity in voice search, marketers and business owners should prepare by optimizing for keywords that their target audience might say instead of type.
Search through keyword topics on a website like Answer the Public, listen to people talk about your industry, understand their intent, and pick keywords that accurately fit what they would say that could lead them to your business.
Engage with Online Giveaways
We all know that social media is one of the fastest ways to grow your business. If something you post goes viral, your brand can become world renown in mere hours. Consumers expect companies to cater to their needs across their favorite social media platforms. Additionally, they are looking for opportunities to engage with your brand.
Hosting online giveaways are a great way to engage with your audience while growing your total number of subscribers and potential leads. There are several ways you can start your online contest.
Some marketers like offering products directly available from the business, so they can get a more refined audience. The people who enter these contests are far more likely to continue engaging with your brand after the contest is over, but the total number of participants will be on the lower end of the scale.
If you want to cast a wider net, you could offer a more generic gift that everyone can use, like a 50 dollar Amazon gift card. We use the WordPress plugin RafflePress to create and host our own contests, where we’ve grown our following consistently year over year.
Here’s a sample contest we built where we offered an Amazon Echo:
The key is creating specific rules that help you grow your business. For instance, you could ask people to tag three of their friends to enter. This gesture helps expose your product to more people, and a percentage of those individuals may become customers.
Get More On-Site Optins
Chances are, people are coming to your website right now. But are they sticking around long enough to buy a product, engage in the comment section of your blog, or subscribe to your email list? If not, you’re missing out on a huge marketing opportunity that’s expected to broaden in 2020.
Consumers love getting emails from brands where they offer promotions, newsletters, or lead magnets. However, sometimes you have to show customers that you have something of value, and you want to give it to them in exchange for their email address, feedback, or a purchase.
On-site optins are a great way to capture leads based on their behavior on-site. For instance, you could put a slide-in bar that shows up after a user has finished reading half of your blog post. Depending on your lead magnets, you can offer things that relate to the piece of content the user is reading, thus making it more likely that they will sign up for your email list.
For example, imagine you own a website that specializes in content marketing. You decide to write a piece that helps users come up with ideas for headlines, but you also have a lead magnet with research that has even more information. Halfway through your article, the reader might see something like this:
If they are genuinely engaged with your brand and want to know more about what you’re offering, they will subscribe. The more people you have on your lead list, the better chance you have at figuring out the sweet spot where your target audience resides, and your business can flourish.
Split Test Everything
Once you have some subscribers and social media followers, it’s time to start split testing your different campaigns. You may know split testing as A/B testing, but the premise is the same. You’ll change various elements of your marketing campaign, including positioning, colors, and text, in an attempt to get more conversions.
Depending on which campaign you’re split testing, there are other variables you can change. Email marketing campaigns can benefit from small changes like emojis in your subject line. Here’s how one small color change made a significant impact on the number of people that subscribed to get this ebook:
When you’re running split tests, it’s crucial that you only test one component at a time, per campaign. Some people will tell you that testing multiple variables yields faster results. While that may be partially true, it can also cost you more time because you have to sort through each variable and determine which ones made a positive or negative change. Simple one variable testing will help you get concrete results.
Conclusion
There are plenty of ways you can step up your marketing game in 2020. Start by understanding your target audience and optimizing your SEO for what they might say instead of type. Next, engage with consumers using social media by hosting online giveaways and conducting surveys and polls.
At the same time, grow your email list by adding on-site optins designed to attract more visitors to your website. Once you have an audience across all platforms, start split testing and making permanent changes based on your observable results.
Businesses and marketing strategies change regularly, but having good engagement and an understanding of your target audience is one of the best ways to grow your business in 2020.
Syed Balkhi is an award-winning entrepreneur and online marketing expert. He is the co-founder of OptinMonster, WPBeginner, MonsterInsights, and WPForms.