With 2020 just around the corner, many people are either considering starting new projects or creating strategic plans on how to improve their existing ones.

Of course, creating quality content - both written and visual - is a top priority, yet most webmasters will tell that it doesn’t end there. Promoting your site the right way is just as crucial and this includes several things like:

• Content distribution, i.e. helping your content to get to the right people
• ranking in Google, meaning you optimize both your site and your content for optimal SEO results
• conversion rate optimization, or the art of getting more sales (conversions) from the same amount of traffic
• and so on.

All of this can require a lot of time, effort, and technical knowledge. You can’t really skip the first two, but a good set of tools can help you boost dramatically your marketing. This is also true for your WordPress site, where the right selection of plugins will take your marketing to the next level.

Today, we’re going to discuss 10 of the best WordPress plugins you can use in order to boost your marketing in 2020!

1. Linkbuild

We just discovered this plugin and while it’s not something extremely elaborated, you’ll find that the simple action it offers can greatly affect your link building efforts.

Basically, when the plugin detects an inbound link it creates a direct opportunity for you to input the respective contact information and contact right away the person that was mentioned there. Once you’ve placed that contact information, it will then allow you to ping all of the people involved at once, letting them know that they have been mentioned in your article.

This simple tactic is extremely effective as people will be naturally drawn to share a piece of content where they are mentioned. Furthermore, there is no trick here - both sides will indeed benefit from such move, so whether or not you have the Link Buildr plugin installed, this is a great technique.

Installing it on your WordPress though will immensely simplify this task, considering you can contact all of your potential partners with one simple click (and also, their contact information will get saved, so if you mention their website in the future, it will automatically bring it up!).

2. Rank Math

The newest entry into the SEO scene is quickly stealing the thunder of its older counterparts (such as Yoast and All in One). With 100K+ active installations, you can say that it’s becoming the new rising start of SEO plugins and rightly so.

Most people who tried it point out two great things; the easy administration and the multitude of features.

Amongst the many options you will see in their admin are:

• SEO Analysis
• SEO Optimization
• Keyword Optimization
• Rich Snippets
• XML Sitemaps
• AMP
• Breadcrumb Navigation
• 404 Monitor
• Redirection Manager
• Google Search Console Integration
• External/Internal Link Counter
• OpenGraph Mark-Up
• Local SEO options

As you may notice, several of these options would require the premium version of the other popular plugins, like Local SEO and Google Knowledge graph integration, or Rich snippets, which by the way feature the entire selection of schema markups. This seems to be the most complete free SEO plugin currently and we’d highly recommend that you check it out if you haven’t had this opportunity yet.

Remember to disable other SEO plugins, if you have any or additional plugins such as sitemap creators etc as they may clash.

3. Social Snap

Social Snap is a great social sharing plugin and while it may not offer revolutionary features you will find out that this plugin is very nicely packed.

The main purpose of plugins for social networks is, of course, to leverage the power of social media as a distribution channel. The thing is that most plugins will offer separately the necessary features such as social sharing, social auto poster, login via social media and so on.

That’s one of the things that make this entry so special - you will find all of this at the same place!

The key features are:

• Social sharing
• Social counter
• Social Auto poster
• Reposting
• Social Login
• URL Shortening Via Bitly
• Integrated Statistics & Analytics.

Feature number 3 and 4 are especially interesting, since usually they will require some sort of social media management software (Facebook does offer scheduling in their Creator studio, but it’s quite basic, to be honest).

The plugin will also allow you how your visitors will share and view your content, by setting a minimum share count rule.

Overall, it’s a very smooth and nicely built solution when it comes to integrating your WordPress with social media, so you can absolutely say it deserves a big thumbs up.

4. EWWW Image Optimizer

You may wonder why is an image optimizer in the marketing plugins stack - we have a good reason to recommend it, so keep reading.

In November 2019 Google announced that they will place a warning in Chome for sites that load slowly - sort of a badge of shame. This is the latest signal Google is giving us that they really, really disapprove of slow sites (because of the poor user experience).

Slow site speed will not only affect your visitors, as they are very likely to leave but also it will directly impact your SEO ranking. Compressing your images is a crucial part of optimizing your site for speed, so don’t miss out on this important step! You can do it manually, of course, but why do the extra work?

Ewww Image Optimizer (despite the slightly amusing name) is an incredibly popular plugin. While it does have some limitations that will be lifted with a premium version - quite reasonably priced at $5 per month - the free version will offer you more than enough when it comes to image optimization.

It has no limits in terms of the file size (something often found in similar plugins) and you can use it to compress, resize and generally optimize all the images you have uploaded in your WordPress.

One of the distinctive features of EWWW is the conversion to .webp which is a new and improved web format for images. In fact, since Google launched the Lighthouse tool the .webp format exploded since it was included as a recommendation in it.

What options you can find there? Let’s see:

• Bulk optimization
• Automattic optimization
• Several formats covered
• Lossy and lossless compression
• JS/CSS Minification
• Cloudflare integration

Pay attention to your site speed, as this will be an essential factor in 2020. There are several other things you can do in order to improve your speed, from installing a caching option to removing all unnecessary plugins. Make sure your hosting solutions is a good one as well by choosing a high-performance WordPress hosting (yes, hosting can significantly impact your speed too!)

5. Thirsty Affiliates

 Thirsty Affiliates might not be something super complicated, as many of the entries here, yet for people who do affiliate marketing, this can be quite useful. Its primary purpose is to disguise the affiliate links, which more often than not are extremely long and incredibly ugly. 

This can significantly improve your conversion rate, especially if you are using an unbranded shortener like Bitly. Because of shady marketers using it to send people to all kinds of pages, users are understandably more and more hesitant to click on it, so this can be a pretty good solution.

The creators also confirm that the plugin helps to protect affiliate commissions from theft, which is another really great thing about it. If you happen to be an Amazon affiliate, the smart uncloaking feature will come quite hand in order to make your affiliate links compliant with Amazon’s terms of service.

Let’s discover some of its key features:

• Autolink Keywords
• Amazing Reports
• Geolocation Links
• Smart Uncloaking
• Proactive Link Fixer
• CSV Import/export.

6. MailChimp

If you haven’t heard of MailChimp, you’re in for a real treat (although, let’s be fair - that is quite unlikely considering they are one of the largest email marketing platforms).

MailChimp will give you the possibility to take your marketing game to the next level by providing you with a complete, 360* solution for email marketing. Right now emails are still a hugely used communication channel and the conversion rate from them ranges from 5% to the astonishing 20% depending on the industry.

To be fair, they are way more than a simple email platform, but today we’ll be talking about their email subscription plugin - MailChimp for WP.

This amazing plugin will allow you to effortlessly integrate your WordPress and your MailChimp account with minimal hassle. Once installed, you will have at your disposal a wide range of great-looking opt-in forms in order to start building your email list.

 There is also an option to integrate it with several other plugins and solutions, such as:

• Default WordPress Comment Form
• Default WordPress Registration Form
• Contact Form 7
• WooCommerce
• Gravity Forms
• Ninja Forms 3
• WPForms
• etc.

The main management will then happen on your main MailChimp account, but you can still find several administration options within the WordPress dashboard, including some simplified statistics. 

7. EditFlow

If you still aren’t using a content calendar, now is the perfect moment to change this! Marketers across all industries have reported amazing results after the implementation of a content schedule in their daily routine. This is quite understandable, given the fact that planning content ahead will allow for much better quality, especially if you are preparing visual materials yourself and not relying on stock photos from image banks.

EditFlow is here to help you exactly with this part of your business. The plugin is basically a customizable editorial calendar that will help you plan ahead and manage the content you’re uploading on your WordPress site.

Aside from its general options, it has been also adapted for teams, so when you schedule a post you can choose from several statuses that will help you manage smoothly tasks that have been assigned to several people.

In EditFlow, you will find the following features:

• Calendar
• Custom statuses
• Editorial comments
• Editorial metadata
• User groups
• Story budget

 For simpler task management, such as content planning, this plugin can entirely substitute more complex solutions. 

8. WP-Chatbot

With news reporting that the industry is expected to save over $8 billion by implementing chatbots 2020, you can imagine that these solutions are becoming an incredibly popular option amongst marketers.

It may sound expensive and complicated, but the reality is that chatbots can be rather easy to manage and more often than not free, especially for smaller projects.

A good option here is the free WP-Chatbot plugin. This amazing plugin will help you greet your visitors immediately, and then allow you to take over the conversation at any time

The best part is the seamless integration with Facebook Messenger, which will give you access to the 1.3 billion messenger users, or more importantly - give them access to you!

What you will find in WP Chatbot:

• One-click-install for WordPress
• Detailed positioning and customization
• Custom greeting
• Facebook page branding
• Full integration with MobileMonkey Facebook Messenger

Marketing automation can be amazingly beneficial to the business - don’t miss out!

9. ImageInject

Don’t have the time to create images from scratch, even with content planning? Don’t worry, we have the perfect suggestion for you. ImageInject is a great option for anybody who uses image bank photos. Its main advantage is that it allows you to search for the perfect image directly within your WordPress, saving you the time to go around within the different stock image sites. 

The plugin currently works with Pixabay and Flickr, which will give you more than enough image material to choose from!

Some of its additional advantages include automatic adding of the required attribution links next to the image and populated ALT and title tags of the image for search engine optimization. 

10. WP Coupons & Deals

Another great entry for all affiliate marketers: Best WordPress Coupon plugin is used to promote affiliate coupons and deals on your WordPress site.

While affiliate marketing is never easy, presenting the deals in the right way can be done with minimal hassle thanks to this amazing plugin.

A great thing about it is the wide and very well-designed portfolio of templates, through which you can make offers to your visitors. The plugin will allow you do add features like click to copy, expiration countdown, and hide coupon code to make it more interesting.

Want a printable coupon? No problem, there is an option for that too (although, considering the rise of the green movement, we’re not sure that is a smart option to offer).

 Some of its most notable features:

• Very Lightweight & Loads Fast
• Click To Copy Functionality
• Expiration Countdown
• Hide Expired Coupons
• Responsive & Attractive Templates.

Conclusion

Don’t skip the marketing efforts in 2020! Offering great products and high-quality content is just the foundation of any business; everything that follows next is related to how you will marketing whatever you’re offering.