1. Refine your “ideal customer.”

When is the last time you revisited your ideal customer profile?  Not only is this one of the most critical pieces of your marketing strategy– it is something you want to define before you make any marketing decisions. It is also something you should revisit from time to time to make sure you are targeting qualified customers. A complete profile should define who your customers are, where they spend time online, and how your products/services can make their lives better.

Need a good place to start? Make a list of your top 10 customers, find their similarities, and determine what makes them a good customer for your business.

2. Find the marketing channels that matter for your business.

After revisiting your ideal customer profile, you should have a better understanding of what digital marketing channels matter most to your customers. If it isn’t a realistic option for you to have a strong presence on each one, be selective in where you focus your efforts. Always choose quality over quantity when it comes to marketing strategies. Set some realistic goals for your business on each channel, and track your successes and failures to determine what works and what needs tweaking.

3. Add additional tracking if you don’t have it.

We see it all the time– businesses posting mindlessly on social networks, spending hundreds of dollars on advertising, or spending countless hours writing blog posts– all without knowing exactly what their return on investment is. And no, we aren’t talking about how many likes on a Facebook post. Businesses should have a general understanding of whether their marketing message is reaching target customers AND if those people are buying their products and services. Well, you can’t measure what you don’t track, and you can’t improve what you don’t measure. In 2020, take the guesswork out of your strategy by using analytics, Facebook pixels, and tracking codes.

4. Review your website for 2020 standards.

Once you have a potential customer’s attention, make sure you don’t blow it with a terrible website experience. Making the journey effortless is important for both how the user and Google perceive your business.

• Make sure your website loads quickly. For every second a user has to wait, the likelihood of that user leaving without converting increases exponentially. (Test yours at http://tools.pingdom.com)
• Get an SSL certificate for your website. These are not very costly and actually help with search rankings and trust with users.
• Optimize your website for mobile. Depending on your audience, mobile traffic could be 70% of your site traffic or more.
• Have a clear “Call To Action” (CTA). Users need to know what the next step is for them– make it clear.
• Make sure your website is ADA compliant. Users who navigate by voice, use screen readers, or utilize other assistive technologies should be able to access the content as well as perform any of the digital activities available on your business’s website.

5. Invest more in digital.

In order to remain relevant, businesses need to approach marketing with a digital-first mindset. Why? First of all, digital marketing is more effective than other types of marketing in that it allows you to reach the right people, at the right time, on the right channels. Furthermore, research shows that leads generated from traditional channels cost more than double their digital counterparts. Yes, word of mouth is still very real. But it’s also very digital. Rethink your marketing strategy in 2020. We’d love to be a part of it. Contact us today for a free marketing review.