10 Top Small Business Marketing For 2020
Technological innovations have dramatically reconfigured the digital landscape, and with it, small business marketing. Today, it’s safe to say that there have never been more in the way of digital advertising and marketing capabilities.
From programmatic advertising to social media marketing, the tools you can use to highlight your business are nearly endless.
All of these changes and applications, however, can feel overwhelming. Especially if you don’t know how to take full advantage of them.
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of ten small business marketing goals for 2020 and beyond. Think of these goals as a survival guide for small businesses in the decade ahead.
Here’s what you need to do to stay ahead of the game and leave your competition in the dust.
1. Create More Effective Content For Small Business Marketing
Maybe you’ve already made content an essential part of your marketing plan. That said, is your content as strategic as it could be?
Could your content be categorized simply as sales pitches or clickbait? Then it’s time to reconsider your approach.
Why? Because you’re never going to gain trust from your audience with these kinds of communications.
Remember, building trust is essential to converting customers, and gimmicky sales talk and vapid articles won’t cut it. So, what should you be aiming for in terms of great content?
You should provide your target audience with valuable articles that are relevant to what they currently need. If you can do this, then you’ll earn a stream of loyal customers.
This tactic requires switching gears when it comes to how you approach the content that you publish. Instead of thinking like an old-fashioned advertiser and pushing your product with an aggressive sales pitch, take an educational tack.
Provide insight and information, and, most importantly, keep the tone light and conversational.
2. Know Your Customer
When it comes to small business marketing tips, this next one proves essential.
Start by getting to know your ideal market as well as you possibly can. Send out a survey and follow up with customers to get a better sense of who they are and what they like about your products and services.
You can also leverage social media to learn more about your customers. Thirty-eight percent of marketers already do this, and you should, too.
Only when you’ve got a thorough grasp of their interests, pain points, and demographics can you write to your intended audience.
You can also use forums such as Quora to learn more about the questions your customers have so that you can answer them with content.
Then, use the information that you gather to create buyer personas of each of your audience segments. As you produce new content, look over these buyer personas and craft your content’s message directly to an individual from this audience.
The trick here is to write as if you’re speaking to one person. Why? This approach will create a strong sense of connection that builds trust. Many times this is overlooked within small business marketing.
In conjunction with setting your company up as an authority through informational articles, you’ll be on the fast-track to more conversions.
3. Make Email Marketing a Priority
Did you know that 86 percent of consumers prefer to correspond with businesses via email than any other format? In other words, email marketing remains one of the best ways to reach out to your target audience.
Are you taking full advantage of this channel? If not, then it’s time to renew your commitment to email marketing in the 2020s.
What if you’re already regularly sending out emails but still not seeing the engagement that you’d like to? Then, it’s time to reassess your current content and strategy. These factors include subject lines and more.
4. Commit to Better Emails
Here are some email best practices to keep in mind. Always make sure that your emails come from a recognizable user name. Ideally, the “from” line should show your email address and name, as if you’re writing personally to your audience.
Subject lines represent one of the most critical means of grabbing your reader’s attention. If you do not see the open rate you’d like, then it’s time to take another look at those subject lines.
Ask yourself these questions as you evaluate the effectiveness of a subject line:
- Does it let the reader know what’s next?
- Is that “next step” worth clicking?
If you don’t like the answers to these questions, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
You should also optimize your content design for viewing on multiple devices. It should look visually appealing and easy-to-read. Finally, make sure that you include a call-to-action (CTA) that’s a cinch to complete.
5. Get in the Habit of Data Cleaning
Did you know that 72 percent of companies report that data quality issues impact consumer perception and trust of their brand?
For this reason, you need to make data cleaning a monthly routine. That way, you’ll ensure you’re using the most reliable data available. You’ll also guarantee your ability to make the best data-driven decisions possible.
Make 2020 the year that you stop neglecting your database and start making sure it’s accurate and useful.
If you don’t, you stand to miss out on valuable opportunities to appeal to your customers and differentiate your company from other brands.
6. Show Don’t Tell
Remember when you were a kid, and your teacher had “show and tell” days at school? What stuck with you the most?
The kid who told you about his pet toad, Harold? Or the kid who brought her toad, warts and all, to class? I’d wager you have a much better memory of the kid who decided to show, not tell.
Why? Because I know something about human physiology that you’d do well to remember. More than half of the human brain is devoted to visual processes alone.
The eye’s retina is an actual outgrowth of the brain itself, and it contains 150 million light-sensitive rod and cone cells. As a result, the brain can identify an image in as little as 13 milliseconds!
What’s more, humans can remember more than 2,000 images with at least 90 percent accuracy. No wonder visual content continues to grow exponentially in popularity.
Go Visual with Your Marketing Strategy
How can you apply this to your marketing strategy? Focus on producing more video content, and you don’t need a big production team to do this.
You can create compelling videos with social media channels such as Snapchat, Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and Facebook Live. Keep these videos under two minutes and make sure they’re engaging and informative.
Another valid route is the creation of explainer and instructional videos about your products and services. These will require more planning and preparation, including a script, professional videographer, etc.
Nonetheless, they prove highly popular on YouTube and will be sure to attract lots of attention to you.
7. Get Onboard with Marketing Automation
Let’s get real for a minute. Are you looking at this list of goals and thinking, “I don’t have time for all of this?” If so, you’re not alone.
Entrepreneurs are among the busiest people that I know. They’ve always got too much on their plate, and they pull some of the longest work weeks I’ve ever seen. I’ve got plenty of admiration for you.
Here’s the thing, though. There are only so many hours in the day, which you, no doubt, already know better than anyone. That’s why you must take advantage of every way to streamline your processes as possible.
Automating your marketing process will help lighten your burden. What’s more, it’s a proven approach that 67 percent of marketers use.
Marketing automation will also help you better capitalize on every customer interaction by gaining the ability to identify warm leads, track conversions, follow up faster than ever, and more.
Not sure where to start when it comes to implementing marketing automation? Let’s chat about the right automation options for your current marketing needs.
8. Don’t Ignore Reviews
The internet has changed how we do business in so many different ways that it can be hard to quantify the full impact. One area that some business owners feel less than pleased about is the ability of customers to review them online.
Everything’s fine and dandy as long as you’re getting plenty of five stars and kind words. What happens, though, when you get a bad review? Do you ignore it, or worse yet, reply with combative language?
Either way, you’re doing your brand no favors online. You see, brand reputation is a constant process of cultivating positive online interactions, even with bad reviewers.
That means responding to these reviews politely and proactively to remedy the problem at hand.
If you can do this, then anybody who happens across this review and your response will realize you care about your customers and work hard to please them.
As for positive reviews, you need to respond to them, too. Use reviews as an opportunity to interact with leads and customers and to enhance their overall customer experiences.
How can you make sure no more online reviews slip through your fingers? Monitor them through automation.
9. Get Serious on Social
If you currently dabble on social media, it’s time to take it to the next level. Why? Social media represents one of the best places to increase brand awareness and funnel people back to your landing pages.
That said, it’s getting harder and harder to reach your intended audience through organic reach alone. That’s why you need to invest in paid advertisements and boosted posts. These can help your company level the playing field.
Don’t believe me? Consider this stellar stat. Seventy-six percent of B2C marketers use paid advertising to promote their posts.
Where should you start? These channels all offer fantastic ad capabilities:
We recommend going to the ads section of each of these channels to explore the possibilities. Then, draft a social media advertising budget as well as actionable milestones and objectives to get started.
10. Construct a Marketing Plan
As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts that should go into your digital marketing plan. How do you keep track of them all and make sure that they work in concert rather than conflict with one another?
Think about your marketing plan like a symphony. Just as each member or section of an orchestra has a part they play, so you have many aspects to your marketing approach.
Just as a conductor has a score comprised of all the parts from which they conduct, so you need an overarching marketing plan. This plan should be updated regularly and contain enough comprehensive data to be actionable.
In your plan, address the core elements of a digital marketing plan:
- Website
- Email tools
- Blog
- Conversion tools
- Social media accounts
For example, assess your website critically to make sure it proves both professional and dynamic. If not, make its revision a priority heading forward.
Similarly, take a close look at how your emails and blog posts are performing. Look for gaps, such as lack of a solid SEO strategy or boring subject lines, that might hinder performance.
Conversion tools include widgets such as pop-ups. Are you using these tools effectively to capture more leads?
Finally, check out your social media accounts. Develop a set of objectives based around how often you’re going to post, the types of content you’re going to post, and how much you’d like to grow your followings.
Small Business Marketing Objectives
If you devote yourself to realizing the ten small business marketing objectives above, you’ll be amazed by the increase in traffic and sales that you’ll reap in the new year.
Of course, implementing all of these steps on your own and then tracking them can prove a serious challenge. That’s why we’re here to help. Find out more about the services we provide and how we can optimize your success in 2020 and beyond.
