With the start of the new decade, businesses should expect a series of challenges in the year 2020.

Even though businesses face challenges year in, year out, the ever-evolving technological advancements can bring about new challenges.

As a business owner, you should strive to make conquests irrespective of the competitive landscape. To avoid getting caught off guard, you should keep up with all that’s happening in the marketing world.

By carefully following the trends, businesses can identify potential challenges and implement proactive marketing measures to tackle them.

Without further ado, we will be sharing the top marketing challenges in the year 2020.

1. Meeting up with Customers’ Expectations

Present-day consumers are increasing their knowledge and becoming more informed before making purchases. This is mainly due to the widespread use of mobile devices as well as easy access to the internet.

Gartner survey on customer experience

Moreover, statistics from Microsoft and Gartner revealed that  brands stand to lose 38% of customers because of poor marketing personalization efforts.

To rise up to the challenge of meeting customers’ expectations, businesses must utilize the right technological tools to improve customer experience.

2. More Competition

The best way to stay ahead of the competition is to have a robust effective marketing plan that brings in positive results. Notwithstanding, maintaining focus on your target audience should be your utmost priority.

Substantial promotion on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram is highly recommended for businesses. In fact, some of the top business marketers are on Instagram today. Also, email marketing and blogging should be considered.

social media traffic by monthly users

The goal should be to establish a strong social media presence across all platforms due to the influx of new social media users every day.

3. Ranking on Search Engines

You need an excellent business website to attract potential customers on the internet, most notably from search engines. This can be achieved when your web pages rank high on search engines; besides, organic traffic is vital for a business website.

A recent study revealed that the first search result in SERP gets a 53 percent click. If your website ranks in such a position, then you are guaranteed an influx of search engine traffic tailored towards your SEO strategy.

share of organic clicks by SERP rank

Having said that, search engine ranking has been a substantial challenge for businesses and SEO specialists alike. Take, for instance, the fact that search engines utilize complex algorithms based on factors such as speed, backlinks, performance, headline tags, etc. to rank websites and pair them with consumer searches. This involves utilizing the right keywords, improving site loading speed, building backlinks, and much more.

The primary way of overcoming the low ranking challenge on search engine result pages (SERPs) is by implementing an effective website’s SEO strategy.

4. Lead Generation

Lead generation can be a significant challenge for businesses in 2020 due to the diverse array of available lead generation tools on the market.

To increase your conversion rates, you should invest in an effective lead generation tool to track your leads. Businesses with nurtured leads hold a chance of generating more leads at a reduced cost.

This shows the urgent need to scrutinize available lead generation tools, and then opt for the best among them tailored to your marketing needs. Don’t just settle for any lead generation tool you come across.

5. Understanding Market Results and Analysis

Most business owners will find it quite challenging to comprehend the enormous volumes of data from sources such as conversion measurements, sales recoveries, pixel tracking, ad platforms, etc.

However, the best way of overcoming this challenge is by utilizing practical marketing analytics tools to analyze marketing results. That way, market results can be better understood and interpreted.

6. Voice Search Optimization

Voice search is a growing trend that might become very significant in the year 2020. Customers find it simpler than typing in text every time they’re looking for something.

Smart speaker sales are surging like anything. The figure will significantly increase before the end of the year 2020.

However, it is perplexing to optimize your website content for voice searches; besides, it is more complicated than optimizing websites for standard web searches.

statistics on voice searches in 2020

Nevertheless, businesses should prioritize voice search implementation for websites in the year 2020. That way, they won’t be left out when the voice search trend reaches its peak.

7. Personalized Marketing

Businesses can get the attention of their target audiences by utilizing personalized marketing strategies.

Generally, the use of Artificial Intelligence has a tremendous effect on product recommendation, content personalization, price optimization, and data collection. However, without the right digital technology, it will be challenging to send personalized messages to the target audience.

To eliminate the redundancies, the use of AI chatbots will come in handy. Besides, chatbots are reliable for collecting and analyzing data. This will lead to better customer experience (CX) along with saving on precious time.

8. Branding

Small business owners usually experience a series of setbacks when building a business brand, most especially a new business.

Due to the myriads of brands in the market, people will find it challenging to remember and patronize your brand. This especially applies to small businesses with low marketing budgets.

However, they can tackle this challenge in the year 2020 by implementing both online and offline brand marketing strategies.

For online brand promotion, businesses should consider guest posting, search engine marketing (SEM), and social media marketing. While for offline promotion, they should promote their business with catalogs, postcards, handbills, and other offline marketing means.

By implementing a solid brand promotion plan, and working with a reputable small business digital marketing agency, small business owners can effectively build a reliable brand name in the long-run.

Bottom Line

Most businesses face unique challenges every year, and the year 2020 is no different. Though the challenges may vary depending on the current implemented marketing strategies.

Nevertheless, any smart business should recognize and be prepared for the challenges and pitfalls which are expected to occur.  By taking the appropriate proactive measures, businesses should experience a definite boom in accomplishing their marketing objectives for the year 2020.

 

Author Credit: Tulip Turner is a Content and Inbound Marketing expert at Snewscms. Over the years, she has helped dozens of businesses in defining their content strategy. She believes that creativity doesn’t inspire customers anymore. A true story when recited well, is enough to build a connect.