Businesses hire digital marketers to get more leads, increase their sales, and earn more benefits. Google rankings, content optimization, blogs, and video are all tools to achieve these business goals. In 2020, as the search behavior of people is changing and search engine algorithms are becoming smarter, it is time to tweak digital marketing strategies to suit the present times.
Here are some of the most popular lead generation trends you may want to implement to get the best results:
1. Use Chatbots to respond to customers in real-time
Chatbots are software programs that are designed to resolve the queries of first-time website users and existing customers in real-time. They save costs by answering common customer questions quickly – at all hours of the day and on all days of the year.
Digital marketers love chatbots because they provide instant information to customers and increase satisfaction levels. They can be personalized and answer all kinds of questions without frustraion or anger. These automated customer support bots are not prone to human errors and are never moody.
They can handle most queries quite well and help customers reach their buying decisions quickly. Thus, they can not only generate hot leads but also increase online conversion rates considerably.
A business owner can implement chatbots that can handle all the major messaging apps (such as WhatsApp, WeChat, and Viber) and also receive online payments through PayPal and other monetizing messaging apps.
2. Develop intent-focused content
Google’s BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) has deeply impacted search results. Content development in 2020 revolves around it. BERT is a deep learning algorithm that employs NLP (natural language processing) to understand a searcher’s intent. It helps the search engine to understand the nuances of complicated search queries and figure out user context.
It means that content developers now need to produce content that aligns with what users are searching for – whether it is in written text form, a podcast, or a video. Google now matches the intent of the content and the user instead of simply matching the strings of text.
So, in 2020, the use of keyword research tools may fade in favor of interacting with the audience directly to produce better content. It means that you need to develop content for each phase of a buyer’s decision making cycle – from the problem they want to solve, searching for information, comparing alternatives, deciding to buy a product or a service, and providing the after-sale service.
Content development also needs to focus on building an active community where a business provides quick support or information, stays relevant for future purchases, and advocates new opportunities or updates.
It is easier to capture potential customers and convert them when you provide the best answers to the questions they ask.
3. Marketing Personalization is the need of the hour
Earlier, digital marketers were happy with following Dale Carnegie’s advice to include a person’s name in every mail, SMS, or message he or she received. Now, we can do much more. Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify are some of the giants that put accurate data analysis to use and create highly customized experiences for their customers. Their customers receive messages relevant to them – based on what products they have viewed or purchased.
They recommend or showcase what a person might be interested in, depending on what he or she checked out earlier, similar products to the one they browsed, and products that complement their previous purchases. Gartner had predicted in 2018 that 90% of online advertisers will employ market personalization as their strategy by 2020. It also predicted that by 2021, we might see fully-personalized websites for each user.
Personalization can increase conversions dramatically. Campaign Monitor revealed that emails with personalized subject lines had a 26% higher chance of being opened. Experian said that personalized email had six times higher transaction rates.
Personalized marketing allows you to segment your customers and reach them better by creating more relevant and effective blog posts, opt-in forms, and email campaigns. Brands that send tailored messages can see a boost of up to 36% in their conversions.
4. Write content for Voice Search
The use of voice assistants and voice-powered search is rapidly increasing, especially in smartphones. Google, Alexa, and Siri are all popular voice assistants that play an important role in digital marketing strategy today. We also see that the voice-powered search is mostly used by mobile users and often includes local SEO keywords.
The semantics of searches and the AI (artificial intelligence) for voice searches dictate that online content needs to be optimized for:
- Conversational tone: To rank better for voice-based searches, you need to write engaging and conversational content. You need to use complete, grammatically correct sentences.
- Longer keywords: When people dictate a search, they often use complete sentences or long keywords just as they would do with a friend. For example: ‘Where can I buy pizza near me?’
Or ‘How to make a cake without an oven?’ This is a new opportunity for content writers and producers to write content that is more relevant for voice search or voice assistant users.
- Answer what people ask: Most people ‘ask’ Google when they look for information or research something. You need to figure out what questions people are asking and provide detailed answers to them.
When you answer correctly, potential customers start trusting you and are more likely to purchase your products and services.
5. Develop a Martech stack
A Marketing Technology (Martech) stack includes all the tools you need to collect and analyze data, manage digital media, and create innovative customer experiences. Smart Insights, for example, offers a wonderful infographic on essential digital marketing tools that you might use:
Do not forget to add CRM, MAP, and CDP to your Martech stack. Here:
- CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. In business, a CRM is a system or strategy to manage client interactions, develop deep relationships with existing customers, and turn them into loyal customers. Since customer acquisition is not easy these days, investing in CRM software can help you increase customer satisfaction and retention rates, and increase the efficiency of overall sales. Some of the best CRM tools for small businesses in 2020 include HubSpot, Freshsales, ZohoCRM, and Salesforce Essentials.
- Maps are a new way to interact with data. They help you to relate your data by location.
Adobe and SalesForce offer excellent mapping tools to filter data by region and gain new perspectives on it. Geospatial files mapping tools can help you find answers to new questions a business might have. Different mapping styles can answer questions like:
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- How does my data look on a map
- What things can I find nearby?
- Are things in a region related somehow
- The demand for which products and services are growing the most in a region
- Where do your customers come from
- Which areas show above-average sales or below-average sales of a product or a service
- How does the timeline of the demand for your product look like
- CDP stands for the Customer Data Platform. It is one of the fastest-growing marketing technologies today. CDP allows for data-driven marketing. It is a bit different from the DMP (data management platform) or CRM technologies though. Ideal CDPs bring together all your customer data in one place to create a 360-degree customer profile. Best CDP tools in 2020 that can grab customer information from online and offline resources (including websites, social media, mobile apps, and email platforms) include Segment, Exponea, and Optimove.
A good market technology stack is the arsenal all digital marketers need to generate more leads and achieve higher online conversions.
All those who are in the digital marketing business need to be aware of the new technologies and the changes in the way businesses work. Keep visiting us to know about the latest developments in the field that you can use to produce better results for your clients.
