Is Jan 2020 any different from Dec 2019? Most likely not, however, it is that time of the year when you start making lists. Here is our list of the 5 key marketing strategies that every marketer should look at in 2020.

  1. Content is still king!
According to Content Marketing Institute’s 2019 trends report, 77% of B2B marketers use content marketing. They use educational content and not promotional content to generate and nurture leads and build audience trust. Content marketing is the holy grail of any inbound marketing program.

Marketers use a variety of content that includes blogs, articles, white papers, case studies, newsletters, videos, infographics, webcasts, podcasts, eBooks, how-to guides, and social media content.

It is great to have all of these, though it is not necessary to have all of these. You can start small and focus on a few content types before you spread yourself into other areas. This way you will know what works and what doesn’t with your audience segment.

How do you go about creating content for your business? Few steps to look at include:
  • Create a content plan
  • Identify the assets that you want to create and the resources available to create those assets
  • Make sure that you have some fresh content every week
  • Constantly update your content – we will look at this in detail later in this piece
  • Create a calendar and stick to the calendar
  • Personalize your marketing messages

Every consumer wants to be made special. When I get to see what I am looking for, the experience is different. Automation, analytics, and demographics are the way to go when you want to personalize your messages.

At the same time, you have to be careful not to bombard your audience with too much content and make sure that every interaction is useful and relevant to them.

Also, look at behavioral segmentation based on what the users read, what did they do in your site – made a purchase, abandoned the cart, abandoned after providing payment information, or made a repeat purchase.

This would allow you to separate them into groups and you can speak to each group based on how they interact with your brand.

  • Do your original research

Speak to your target segments and customers and try to understand things from their perspective.

I was recently talking to a customer of ours and he shared this insight. They are into business intelligence and they were serving a handful of customers. One of those customers was a long-standing one and the engagement was constantly going. He asked them as to why they continue to engage them?

The answer that he got was, “whatever we throw at you when it comes to business intelligence, you are able to deliver” and that’s the reason why we continue to work with you.

This insight allowed them to reposition themselves and they started getting more business.

Talking to your customers, prospects and user groups allows you to get a unique angle on your product stories or service stories. This would let you target your audience in ways that wouldn’t be possible otherwise

  • Constantly update your content

I was watching a video of Neil Patel on how he was able to increase his website engagement by 238% in 2019.

He started with a base of more than a million visits already.

One of the key strategies that he talks about is updating the content regularly. In fact, he writes a blog post every week and has his team of 3 content developers update about 90 articles/blogs every month.

After all, search engines prefer fresh content and it is a sure-shot way to rank higher on the search, resulting in more visitors and customers.

  • Start making explainer videos
Have you tried explaining complex concepts?

The best way to explain is to do that with videos. There are umpteen tools available that would allow you to produce explainer videos very easily.

Explainer videos allow you to explain complex concepts concisely. Most organizations use them to explain the benefits and functionality of what they do in an unambiguous manner. Search engines tend to rank videos better than other forms of content. So, it makes a lot of sense to invest your time and budget in explainer videos.

Some of the companies that have made the most of explainer videos include Dollar Shave Club, Spotify, Microsoft, Crazy Egg, Chipotle and PayPal.

These are simply bite-sized videos and the core focus will have to be towards making them simple, understandable and relatable to your audience.

Attempt these 5 key strategies and your engagement with your audience would increase manifold.

Tags: content marketing, digital marketing, search engine ranking, explainer videos, personalization, web personalization, personalization marketing, content refresh, behavioral segmentation