Every new year brings with it a new form of excitement and anticipation. The reason is that every new year brings about a “newness” for lack of a better term when we are able to start fresh and change those things that we did bad or things we have been thinking about doing.
For us at CEO Blog Nation, we get it. So that’s why we are excited about 2020 because there will be more and more entrepreneurs and businesses. There will be goals met and goals crushed and that’s why we love the new year and we know you do too!
Here’s the pivot other entrepreneurs are making next year:
#1- SMS marketing
What we realized is that SMS marketing campaigns are significantly more effective for us than email campaigns when qualifying the interest of new potential customers. Potential customers that have opted into our marketing list within the past 7 days are 39% more likely to respond to our SMS communication versus email communication. We don't use very much SMS marketing to engage with customers that have been on our marketing lists more than a month because when we do those customers are much more likely to get angry with that type of communication. They view our SMS communication and marketing at that point to be spammy. However, using SMS marketing with those new potential customers is extremely effective and those make up the bulk of our marketing campaigns. That means in 2020 we are switching about 70% of our marketing over from email marketing campaigns to SMS marketing campaigns.
Thanks to Jesse Silkoff, MyRoofingPal!
#2- Focus on trust and security
If I could sum up our 2020 strategy in two words they would be trust and security. Consumers are more skeptical about doing business online than ever before and for good reason. We are focusing a great deal on building trust through better customer service and more transparency. We are also focusing a great deal on cyber-security as we have seen an all-time high in risks associated with doing business online in 2019.
Thanks to Ryan Patterson, SeniorAdvice.com!
#3- Doubling down on creating valuable content
As an author, strategist, speaker, and owner of a business I launched this year, in 2020, I will be doubling down on creating valuable content for corporate entrepreneurs, the hard-working million+ people that we don't hear much about. I already started publishing content to get ready for next year, but to make this pivot successful, I need to do more. I already started scheduling 3rd party research, and one-to-one interviews with select intrapreneurs. What I think will drive this home, will be launching a podcast and youtube channel to reveal stories and insights from the field. What gives me comfort is that this is a subject I'm passionate about and feel that I can not get enough of it.
Thanks to Murat Bicak!
#4- In 2020 we are pivoting to enhancing older content
In 2019 we focused on adding new content to the site. Why are we doing this? We are seeing that it is taking a long time for new content to rank, so we think protecting our old rankings will generate much more ROI. It was a hard decision that led us to have to let go some of our long term contractors, but I am confident that this will be the right decision. 2020 is the year from the future, but for us it will be about making past content shine.
Thanks to Paul Bromen, HelpfulHabitat.com!
#5-Major diversification plan
For over a decade, our business has been primarily focused on providing virtual assistant staffing solutions to small to mid-sized business, with focus on the real estate sector. In 2020, we're pushing forward with a major diversification plan to begin pursuing other markets. The reasons for this include future uncertainty in the real estate space, coupled with massive new opportunities in other market sectors resulting from awareness of global outsourcing solutions, changes in business processes that facilitate outsourcing/offshoring, and a growing body of SMB clients in our own business who work outside of the real estate space leveraging our solutions in diverse ways. Diversification is good and market conditions make this a great time to forge ahead!
Thanks to Daniel Ramsey, MyOutDesk.com!
#6- Engage directly with my customers and subscribers
The biggest change I plan to make in 2020 is to engage directly with my customers and subscribers much more extensively – as often as possible, in fact. Whether that means talking with them through website comments, my brand's Facebook group, email, phone, Skype, or even live in person, this direct communication with customers is the most important work I can be doing to deeply understand my customer and serve them well. The concerns and feedback they voice will directly inform my content development as well as my marketing messaging. It will also help my business produce content that consistently adds value for customers.
Thanks to Andrew Chen, Hack Your Wealth!
#7- Newsjacking
We will be using newsjacking to ride the wave of trending topics in and around our industry. To supplement this, we drove extra traffic to the site to help it standings in the SERP's. Using Reddit, Twitter and other real-time news social media networks we will contribute on various high profile, high read threads with some insightful comments with a link to the article. However, we would use a URL editor/shortener to craft the link to look like a high publication site – such as guardian dot ly or sun. win .gs/SunNews. This would artificially increase trust in the link, and the extra traffic from respected social media outlets would be rewarded with higher positions in Google results.
Thanks to Peter Mead, Bitcoin Australia!
#8- More automation
In 2020, we are looking to engage more automation and A to speed up the hiring process. The truth for my business is that we rely on being able to provide the best talent in the world for companies. Candidates for jobs don't like elongated hiring processes where they sit around for hours waiting to be interviewed, then wait for weeks on word back. We are looking to move almost the entire testing, and interview process online to be done at the applicants convenience. Once they pass the test, their score will immediately trigger an initial or final interview calendar which will include an invite to a video interview with the hiring manager. This makes for a shortened process that will allow us to screen the most amount of candidates in the shortest amount of time, therefore giving our clients access to a larger pool of talent at the speed of commerce.
Thanks to Matt Narciso, Super Staff!
#9- Changing our community
2020 is going to be the year of making a difference in our local community. The biggest opportunities in life come not as a result of focus on profit, but of focus on helping those around you. We plan on putting more effort into working with nonprofits and being active participants in changing our community for the better. Hopefully, we can bring people together and show that business has the capability to do good in the world.
Christopher James Foust, Motus Creative Group!
#10- Expanding our job searching strategies
In 2020 we will pivot our non-profit by significantly expanding our job searching strategies to the nation through our website jobsearching.org. An online career center is in the process of being built that will offer state of the art, original strategies, templates, videos and much more. When complete, it will allow a lot of people to pay a little to learn a lot; and in the process create a stable monthly cash flow.
Thanks to Damian Birkel, Professionals In Transition!
#11- It's going to be a year of the copywriter
In 2020, we plan to invest half of our marketing budget into professional copywriting to improve the conversion rate of our traffic. During 2019, we found that writing useful articles really helped to increase our monthly visitors. And it improved the quality of the clients we were attracting. This represents a shift in our previous strategies which focused on social media, cold calling and newspaper advertising.
Thanks to Josh Vinecombe, Changing Your Business!
#12- Including a weekly Spotlight Interview series
Every year I like to set a new intention and 2020 is all about building authentic connection and collaboration. I'm pivoting my business to include a weekly Spotlight Interview series in my Facebook group for members to get a chance to share their story of how they started their business, learn their top tips for attracting ideal clients and standing out in their industry as well as opening up real conversations about what it takes to create a profitable online business that is built with more ease and less hustle. There is so much noise online, I think it's important to share stories off those who have the heart and passion to make an impact in our world.
Thanks to Darlene Hawley
#13- Working from a professional “day office”
As a freelance non-fiction book editor, I’m able to work from home. It’s convenient and easy but it also can be incredibly distracting—laundry, dishes, dinner, etc. To fix this, I started working at public libraries a few days a week. The problem is that environment isn’t always conducive to work because of people talking and milling around and the inability to make and take phone calls. That’s why I now work from a professional “day office” 10 days per month. The days I work in that professional and well-lit environment are often 3x as productive as when I work from home so the plan is to graduate to an unlimited plan after the new year.
Thanks to Helena Bouchez, Executive Words!
#14- Shift to a B2B offering
2019 was the year Truxx established a solid partner ecosystem. We will double down on this work and pivot our truck-sharing service from being predominantly a business to consumer (B2C) model to a business to business (B2B) offering. We announced TruxxRetail in 2015 and since then we have seen tremendous growth in this space. 2020 will be the year where our service will be utilized more as a last-mile delivery service for large-item inventory and, to some extent, a supply chain service that can help operations with small-batch logistics at a much more competitive price point, than simply an end-user service. We are nurturing a number of national retailer relationships and looking forward to making big announcements in 2020.
Thanks to Jamei Hess, Truxxit.com!
#15- A number of changes
I run a design firm and in 2020 our pivot is to grow our niche of working with investors to help them make sure the investments are sound by providing roadmaps for products and businesses. We fell into this niche in the end of 2019 and embracing it whole-heartedly next year. We are also in the works to bring a full video production company into our team, bringing over 20 years of video experience and we’re excited to have this partner as we can better support our clients’ needs through video content now, from short ads to music videos, and longer. We’re also narrowing our main market down to a few niches and really focusing on what we love, more impactful projects and less micro transactions. It’s quite a bit of change, but it will benefit our firm and our clients, we are always looking to grow and hone in on the best path toward our mission and vision. It’s a process that never ends, but results in a lasting legacy.
Thanks to Ian Peterman, Peterman Design Firm!
#16- Growing my social media follower list
This year I'll be diversifying my traffic by posting more on multiple social media platforms. As an older guy, I don't spend too much time on social media. I have a Facebook account, but I never really caught the bug. This hurt my business, because I never got traffic from social media. Now that I recognize the potential of social media, I'm shifting my focus towards growing my follower list. I know that this is a great way to attract eyeballs to my business, and I'm excited to share my business with the world!
Thanks to Mike Miller, Wilderness Times!
#17- Having clear goals
Research shows that writing down your goals increases the likelihood of achieving them dramatically. We live in a world with technology and social media on 24/7 so if you do not keep your goals front and center it is easy to get distracted and lose focus with all the noise out there today. In 2020 I am committing my goals to writing to help me hit milestones and knock things off my bucket list over the year. Out of sight out of mind. Goals can change or morph over time but I know I respond well to having clear goals I want to achieve with the time I have. Call me old fashioned but I am a big believer in lists and sticky notes. The simple act of writing things down makes them real to me. I love crossing things off my to do lists, it is a great sense of progress and accomplishment. I find it hard to ignore notes on the bathroom mirror or computer screen every day.
Thanks to Paige Arnof-Fenn, Mavens & Moguls!
#18- Expansion in Mumbai
Change is inescapable and it might be what helps a business grow to new heights.As far as the changes we are planning to incorporate in our business is concerned, we are trying to expand our footprint, and strengthen our presence in Mumbai. We are also trying to establish ourselves as a strong branding agency, and are looking forward to make our presence more prominent in that field. Taking feedback from customers, focusing on what is missing, how to make it better and always serving customers better is what we aim for.
Thanks to Avinash Chandra, BrandLoom Consulting!