What Marketing Can You Do For Your Small Business?
2020 is here, which means it’s time to evaluate where your marketing is headed. We’ve compiled our top small business marketing ideas to help you reach your goals, whether it’s increasing brand awareness, launching a new website, growing revenue, or a mix of all three. Let’s get started.
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User-Generated Content Will Out-Perform Studio Content
Small business owners, rejoice! One of the most helpful trends we’re seeing for 2020 is more user-generated content and less studio content. This means your customers become content creators and you don’t have to invest a significant chunk of your marketing budget into studio photography and video.
While you’ll still need studio shots for products on your website or headshots, using photos your customers (and greatest fans) are taking, as long as they aren’t blurry or otherwise low-quality, builds a stronger relationship with them while reducing your team’s workload.
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Content Creation Will Continue to Become More Accessible
Similar to the point above, in 2020 content creation will grow in accessibility. You don’t need a fancy camera or Adobe Illustrator to create high-quality designs for your marketing efforts. Phones, websites like Unsplash, and apps like Canva all help you create a visually engaging online presence without significant expense.
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Email Marketing Will Drive Your ROI
In 2019, Hubspot reported that email marketing was responsible for generating $38 for every $1 spent. As the unpaid reach on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram continues to decrease, email marketing will continue to drive revenue for small businesses that have small paid social media budgets.
If you sell a product, make sure that you have follow up emails promoting other products in your line, additional sales, and other valuable product information. If you’re a service-based small business, use email marketing in a similar way. Highlight different offerings and promote sales while building a relationship with your email list.
You own the email addresses customers and potential customers provide you, and you don’t own their follow on social media. Make it count with the technique that will also drive your ROI.
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Privacy Will Be (Even More) Paramount
2020 marks two years since GDPR went into effect. 2020 is also the year that the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect. While the CCPA only applies to companies with more than $25 million in revenue or 50,000 website visits a month, it could change in the future and privacy is always a good focus in today’s business landscape.
Take time to ensure that your privacy policy is up to date, and that you notify website visitors if you use cookies for ad targeting and other marketing tasks.
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Companies Who Collaborate, Will Grow
In Mailchimp’s report on 2019 small business marketing, they reported that 90% of people discover marketing tools by word of mouth. They also shared that the number of people using coworking spaces is expected to hit 1.08 million by 2022. And we agree with the research. These coworking spaces, meetups, and conferences are growing because collaboration and community are better than believing in competition above all else.
In 2020, we’re predicting that product collaborations with influencers, company partnerships within industries (and beyond), and simply providing support will all continue to grow. And while Mailchimp’s report focused on in-person collaborations, we believe digitally-built collaborations will add value for companies and consumers as well.
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Marketing Technology Will Be More Accessible
We’re calling it. 2020 will be the year where previously out-of-reach technology will be accessible to small business owners. Tools like Mailchimp offer automation at a lower cost than other platforms were offering it even five years ago, and social media scheduling tools are no longer just accessible to agencies and larger corporations. Platforms like Buffer offer a low-cost solution to staying consistent on social media.
If you haven’t implemented marketing software tools into your small business’s marketing strategy, 2020 will make it more accessible financially while also making implementation easier.
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Companies Will Explore Beyond Facebook & Instagram
Most small businesses are on Facebook and Instagram. It’s what they do. It’s where a bulk of people live online. Or is it? This year, small businesses will need to explore beyond Facebook and Instagram to meet consumers where they’ve migrated.
Platforms like Tik Tok have taken Gen Z almost completely off of other platforms, and is a growing opportunity for brands as the platform releases advertising options and influencers continue to support brand recognition.
And while Pinterest and Snapchat may not be new, they deserve a mention. Small businesses tend to forget anything non-Facebook and Instagram, which could be hurting how they engage with current and potential customers. This year, reconsider where you spend your content and your time based on your marketing personas’ demographics and psychographics to ensure you’re on the right platform.
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Marketing Personalization Will Drive Sales & Customer Engagement
2020 is the year when one blog post for all of your personas will no longer contribute significant revenue. Marketing personalization is the process by which companies create content and deliver it to the right people at the right time.
The best example of this is email segmentation. Email marketing, as we’ve established, is one of the best revenue sources. Segmented emails, then, can help improve that ROI by focusing on relevant content and product or service offerings.
By segmenting your email list by product or service purchased, as well as when they joined, you can deliver perfectly timed emails along the customer journey. If you’re selling a product to new parents, for example, time the emails based on their baby’s age.
Parents with a newborn have different needs than those with a six-month old, and personalization will help you deliver the products they need at the right time so they’re more likely to purchase.
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Snippets Will Continue to Rule SEO
2019 saw the rise of “snippets”, or answers to search queries on Google that don’t require the user visiting a web page.
This has already led to decreased traffic to websites with first-page results, because users can find the information they need without visiting pages. That being said, if your website has that coveted snippet, some users will still visit your website based on the value you’re providing.
To maximize your SEO in 2020, make sure you’re writing thorough, well-composed pieces. This in addition to a well-planned SEO strategy will increase the likelihood that Google will use your piece for snippets.
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SMS Will Be the New Email Marketing
Did you know that marketing text messages get an average 94% global open rate? While marketing emails are relegated to Gmail’s Promotions tab, texts are harder for current and potential customers to ignore.
In 2020, we’re going to see more small businesses harnessing what has typically been reserved for corporations with extensive marketing budgets. Great SMS marketing strategies include order upsells and sales notifications on a limited basis. SMS is ripe for overuse, and can damage a strategy. Focus on quality over quantity so you aren’t irritating users.
Platforms like Avochato help small businesses quickly launch an SMS marketing strategy for those who have opted in to receive texts.
From user-generated content to SMS strategy and everything in between, we’re predicting that 2020 will be the year companies focus on their own platforms, like email and SMS, while dedicating some resources to growing on new platforms like Tik Tok. Are your goals aligned with these trends?
Now is the Time to Apply These 10 Tips
If you’re looking for a team to help you apply these 2020 small business marketing ideas, let’s chat. We specialize in helping small businesses succeed online, and are passionate about the ideas that fuel your growth.
