Mediaboss Marketing

As we gear up for the year to close, it's important to evaluate your business strategies and how new trends will affect your business. In marketing specifically, where the landscape continues to grow, it's important to understand which marketing trends are killing your conversions instead of driving them. Here are three marketing tools companies should avoid in 2020, and what to do instead.

Pop-up ads are irritating and they are dwindling in conversion rates. Pop-up ads slow down website performance (which hugely affects your SEO rating), and they irritate your customers to the point of driving them off your site-- the opposite of what you want. Instead of a popup that interrupts your customer's engagement, try a sticky header or footer (sometimes called a pull-up or pull-down). A sticky header or footer is a bar located at the head or foot of the site that invites an opt-in. As the consumer scrolls, the sticky header or footer moves with them at either the top of the bottom of the page. This presents the opportunity to opt-in, but doesn't slow down your page or frustrate a potential lead--a win-win.

Simple or stock imagery on your website and marketing materials is another thing to leave behind as it brings no human connection to your brand. Consumers want to feel connected to a brand as automation increasingly takes over personalization. Anthony Kane, the Senior SEO strategist at 1SEO Digital Agency, adds, "Users have become very keen to spotting and ignoring stock imagery. Stock photos simply don't resonate with users as a personalized image or video does."

Instead of static or stock imagery on websites or promotional advances, try your hand at a customized video or interactive content. There are many free resources that walk you through the basics of video creation and editings, such as Lumen5, promo.com, and more.

Content for Content's Sake

Content is king when it comes to marketing. However, too many companies push out mass quantities of content to try to drive traffic. That is the problem. These companies are pushing out too much content, and the quality of that content suffers because of it. Engaging content is the best strategy for brand awareness. Engaging content means quality over quantity. Engaging, connecting, and well-thought-out content will resonate more with your readers (and present higher value to search engines) than limp content covering a topic that websites with much higher authority cover deeply. Stick to what you know best, and produce well-developed content with actionable items. Quality over quantity.

As 2020 approaches, repositioning your marketing strategies should be top on your list. Be sure to understand the top marketing trends to expect in 2020 as being blind to these can seriously impact your business.

Marketing acts as your brand's first impression because it introduces your business to the world. A Harvard study revealed that it typically takes eight subsequent positive encounters to change another person's negative opinion of you. Keep that in mind as you prioritize updating your marketing strategies in the new year.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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2020 Marketing Trends - What to Focus On, and What to Avoid - Inc.