We are far from the days of digital being easy. The business world is online and competition is fierce. The industry is evolving faster and faster and if you are not nimble and focusing on the correct growth in 2020 all the clicks, leads, and purchases are going to the competition.
Every year Spin Markket + Digital plans the most important strategies, channels, content, ad platforms, and digital direction we provide to our clients. With years in the digital marketing space we have seen a lot of change and 2020 is going to be the hardest year yet.
Here are the 2020 digital strategies that we will be focusing on with our clients and want you to think about for your own digital marketing.
1. Master Attribution
You may have Google Analytics or a Facebook pixel, but do you really know what turned that individual from prospect to profit? Do you know what platform is getting you the best bang for your buck?
Now in today’s digital world individuals will visit your site several times prior to converting. They’ll find your Facebook ad, a blog, maybe a promoted LinkedIn article then return directly a week later and click a retargeting ad a day later. Then, they will finally convert!
So which marketing channel gets credit? Was it your blog? The Linkedin article? Or was it the Facebook Ad?
Make sure you have the right attribution model, so you know what touch point is influencing and contributing to the sale!
Accurate data is going to be pivotal in 2020. Invest in hiring a professionals to setup your Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and Google Data Studio. Test everything and report multiple attribution windows (First Click, Last Click, Time Decay, etc) then compare to your backend numbers to ensure it is at least minimum 90% accurate.
Short Example Of Spin Markket Dashboard All Our Clients Use To Measure ROI And Have All Digital Platforms, Campaigns, And Data In One Format
2. Organic Social is Going Obsolete
In 2018 Facebook rolled out a huge change in organic reach for business pages after they decided to “shift ranking to make News Feed more about connecting with people and less about consuming media in isolation.”
Similar changes are happening to Instagram and other platforms that were once organic utopias. Even in 2019 we continued to see a steady decline in the majority of platforms businesses previously invested a lot of time and money in growing. Page like campaigns and other social asset building strategies are turning into more vanity metrics then actual ways of increasing audience and sales.
In 2020 we predict that more platforms will continue to become ‘pay-to-play’ and the days of reaching all your followers are long gone.
Of course this doesn’t mean that there aren’t places you should be investing in organically (ie: YouTube, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, Google Search). But if you think growing your Facebook Likes in 2020 is going to solve your sales problems, you are going to have a bad year.
So what can you do in 2020 to dominate on organic?
It is extremely important to selectively pick which platforms your business grows on and then use the other platforms for good old fashioned advertising arbitrage and retargeting. The platforms of course need to align with your demographic. If you own a funeral home, Tik Tok may not be the best platform due to its younger user base. But you should already be all in on Google Search, YouTube and other platforms where you can target people looking for relevant information.
To be honest the one organic platform that is most effective across all businesses is Google Search. But you should be looking at YouTube as well. Most platforms burst your entire organic reach in the first 24 to 48 hours. With YouTube your views continue to grow quite significantly over the long haul. So you can post a video, maybe get 100 views the first couple days, but over time this number will continue to increase significantly if you know how to properly rank videos and even better, add a little paid promotion. Try this on Facebook and Instagram, you will get 99% of your views in the first 48 hours and then will never get any additional reach on the post. Making all that time you invested almost worthless after 48 hours.
Be smart with your organic investments in 2020, make a solid plan with your agency and double down on the networks that will grow over the long term. Also only pay for growth on platforms that have organic reach.
3. Thinking in house…. Think again
Now, In house marketing seems like a great idea, you have staff on the payroll you have them under your influence, you can be agile and responsive. Great!
But what’s the reality…
Unless you have endless hoards of cash it can be quite difficult to maintain the upkeep of world class media buyers, copywriters, graphic designers, video editors and web developers. Finding these skills in one or even several staff is almost impossible and YES you will pay a premium for these skill sets.
And let’s be real they have a cushy job… they don’t always have to perform.. It’s not as if though you’re not going to pay their salary next month if they don’t drastically improve your business’s revenue. (and legally you can’t just sack them).
Now, If you’ve read this far I’m almost certain that you’re a smart business owner and know that the ROI in marketing is paying word class marketers to think of new and innovative ways to acquire and retain lucrative customers.
So, allow us to run the numbers for you
· World Class Media Buyer – $6,000 / Month
· World Class Copywriter – $7,000 / Month
· World Class Account Manager – $5,000 / Month
· World Class Graphic Designer – $4,500 / Month
· World Class Video Editor – $6,000 / Month
· World Class Web Developer – $5,000 / Month Total: $33,500 / Month or annualized: $402,000
Now do you really think this one media buyer will understand ad buying on all platforms? Facebook? Google Ads? LinkedIn? Content Networks? Tik Tok? … Probably not. We have to hire all these media buyers individually, a great Facebook marketer is usually never a world class Tik Tok marketing, or advertising on OutBrain and Taboola.
Now, lets compare this to an agency like ours, we have hand-picked some of the best talent in the world (this is why we have staff globally). We spend thousands of dollars a year on training, development, software and testing with our staff.
Our staff have all designed, manufactured, written and launched campaigns that have profitably generated millions of dollars for our clients online.
Media buyers, copywriters, account managers, graphic designers, videographers, video editors, web designers and web developers.
All of this world class talent at your fingertips, working in the trenches, helping you take your business to the next level for only $5-10,000 a month. (Yes, that is not an unrealistic spend level although we can provide services at a lower costs.)
Or annualized: $60-120,000 You’re a smart business owner so we’ll let you make your mind up.
4. Content First
In the Digital age we are no longer influenced by someone shouting from the rooftop “buy my stuff” “We’re better, our product is superior.”
You may even be finding yourself asking the same question of businesses, “Why are they better”, “What makes this company superior to the other company.” You may even ask, “What’s this company’s mission, what do they stand for.”
And these are all the questions people are asking of your company, and that’s exactly why “content first” is the way to sell and absolutely dominate an industry.
Now what does “content first” mean, content first means producing informative content for the viewer (your prospective buyers) before you ask for the sale.
Make a video, a blog post or even an animation showing why you/your company are the experts in your field, show the customer ways the product/service can help, show them what problem it solves, show them other ways you/ your company can improve their life, give them industry information.
Think: How can I give information away for free that would improve my prospects life?
Advertorials and Native Pieces are a great example of content first marketing
Now, down to business. Why does this work?
We have this psychological phenomenon called reciprocity. When someone does something nice for you, you want to do something nice back. Interact, encourage, support and ultimately become a lifetime customer to the company that helped you have greater knowledge when other companies just expected you to buy.
An example of this is in December 2019 after Black Friday when we typically see campaigns fatigue. We started using content first for a client that sells different training worksheets and courses.
Our direct response ads were working great and generating record high ROI, but we were starting to get stuck scaling and needed to get to the next level.
So our plan was to go content first. Giveaway 6 eBooks in a listical article, no catch, completely free. In this article we would link to some of our paid funnels and insert options throughout for people to checkout our paid assets. This is of course a very simple explanation of the entire strategy but goes over the main principles.
Results
2x increase in ROI compared to the direct response campaign 4x decrease in link click cost 2x increase in overall reach and impressions on the campaign
This campaign didn’t just help us ROI more, but it also helped other campaigns by increasing our audience size and remarketing lists considerably. This strategy doesn’t just work on Facebook ads, it literally works across majority of paid networks. This is the future. Let’s call it stealth selling.
5. Multi-Channel is a Must
What is multi channel marketing?
Multi-channel marketing is the practice of using multiple mediums to advertise and reach prospective customers. This gives you the ability to reach customers you couldn’t reach on one platform alone.
You may have a user that initially views your branded content on Facebook, then searches Youtube and again views you content and converts on the Youtube advertisement.
And you will also have scenarios where an individual may not have Facebook, Snapchat or Pinterest, but they see you on Linkedin and Youtube when searching for solutions to their current dilemma.
Social Media Users by Age Demographic 2019
Conclusion
If you tackle these five items, you should see significant return on digital investment in 2020. They will help you save money, get a clearer picture, and make sure that you are expanding into the right places. (And do not forget to contact us at Spin Markket + DIgital as your partner in all that is marketing!