There are two types of entrepreneurs: those that seek to be rich. We are okay with that. But some entrepreneurs seek out markets that share their common interests and gain a lasting relationship with their customers. In today’s world, business owners need to adapt. Clinging on marketing trends from a decade ago (or even from two years ago) will not guarantee survival for your company. At the end of the day, an entrepreneur should place himself in the shoes of his customers and ask: “Why should I buy from you instead of buying from the other guy?” Most importantly, business owners need to consider selling to millennials seriously.
After all, they make up more than half of the people who made purchases online.
In this article, I will be discussing marketing trends business owners need to consider to adapt to today’s market environment. Marketing, after all, is all about knowing: who buys, where they buy, and why they buy. Armed with the knowledge of today’s marketing trends will also help answer the question: How to reach those who will possibly buy.
1. Using Google My Business:
This is a powerful marketing medium if you aim for your local market. It is a creditable way to get your leads to take notice of your small business more often. For instance, if the marketing team hired by florists, restaurateurs, and small retail outlets, can get their businesses in the top 3 listings, they are bound to get an enormous amount of traffic and visibility.
Google My Business is the platform that combines Google marketing tools such as Google+, Google Analytics, Google Reviews, Google Insights, and Google Maps profile. With some advice, it is not difficult to get a good search rating through Google My Business. Optimizing your profile and getting good reviews and citations will help your search results.
2. User-Generated Content:
Social media is expanding fast. Companies have been latching into this arena initially with their own created content. But what sells more is User-Generated Content or products being vouched directly by users. This is because the content is more relatable to customers if made by actual users. Usually, this is done directly by influencers with myriads of followers who view and share the content more than they do if the content was produced by the company that made them. Another form is by ordinary folks who do product reviews or post themselves with products that satisfied them. These posts have the potential to trend and gain visibility with less expense for the company that made these products.
3. Social Media E-Commerce:
To differentiate from traditional e-commerce platforms where purchases are made distinctly in a different app from social media (example: Amazon, Ali Baba), Social Media E-Commerce are conducted directly from business pages within the app. Combined with User-Generated Content, this is a perfect tool to gain massive media exposure. The potential for making a sale this way is huge as over 70% of people are more likely to purchase if the product is referred to them through this channel.
4. Use of Content Marketing:
Web content like blog posts and long-form content is still so successful because it gives users what they want and provides them with valuable information in response to their searches.
The key to content marketing is to target relevant users with valuable content. You want to target searches for keywords that relate to your business, and you want your content to be helpful, actually to answer users’ search queries, so they’ll click on it. After all, 90% of online marketers are using content creation to make their first move on their audience, with 72% of them attest to an improvement in engagement levels.
5. Ranking for Position Zero:
Ranking first in search engines is a highly desirable position to reach. Position zero, also known as the featured snippet, is a box that appears at the top of the search results. The click-through rate goes down by 8% for the first organic result that follows a snippet. This is still attainable for small businesses. This can be achieved by including short, direct answers to questions in your content. Consulting an SEO can help your business achieve this.
6. Tying up With Other Brands:
One of the best ways to grow a small business is to collaborate with other ventures that can help grow its lead base. An example is a Nanny-for-Hire firm that ties up with a group of caregivers who can offer home-based senior care. In this way, you can advertise your small business amid the ready-made clients of other enterprises.
7. Advertising In Print Media:
This may sound anachronistic, but we need to consider that the cost of advertising in print media has decreased over the years. But there is still a significant portion of the population who take on print media, and your advertisement is visible across all sectors of society as a magazine, for instance, tends to be retained at a longer time and read by multiple numbers of people over time.
8. The Use of Webinars:
This seminar is conducted online in various demonstrations, discussions, and presentations. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, B2B brands in the United States reallocated resources from live events to webinars, among others.
Early last year, the number of brands offering webinars grew by 36%. Clever marketers use webinars to generate a more extensive email list (more on this later) as people who join a webinar have to give details such as name, phone number, and emails. Studies show that 80% of sales are generated after five times of follow-ups. This can be done later on through email marketing. Another advantage of webinars over sample videos are being far more engaging because of the live Q&A sessions for the subscribers. Getting satisfactory answers will make prospective customers feel special.
9. Personalized Email Marketing:
Remember that many people want to have more information and convince before making a purchase decision. Email marketing is a low-cost strategy that you can use to enhance your global reach of the business. Emails are easy to set up and run, and you can establish communication with your consumers immediately.
But first, your business needs to gather the email addresses of your potential customers. You can entice your potential customers by offering a free download, a “seat” at a webinar, a coupon, a free service trial, and so on.
Add a simple touch such as personalizing your emails by adding the subscriber’s name to the email.
Personalization increases the conversion rate for emails by 10%.
10. Video Marketing:
Video marketing is a tremendous attention-grabbing marketing tool in the world today. For instance, your attention will probably be grabbed by a video while scrolling through your social media feed. Using videos in your email marketing can increase your click-through rates by 300%.
Once your video content has pulled over the attention of your prospective buyer, this will be the perfect opportunity to connect and convey your message.
11. Purpose-Driven Marketing:
Between two products, 91% of millennials will switch to a product that relates to a cause.
Millennials are willing to place a premium on their purchases if their product is associated with a cause. Another more comprehensive definition is offering a product your target audience can relate to. Here are several forms of Purpose Driven Marketing today’s companies are applying:
- Supporting causes that your target market is interested in
- Donating a part of the proceeds of purchase to charity
- Putting a human side to your product
- Being timely and reactive
- Advertising themes that sound fun
12. Reconnecting with Your Customers:
World-changing events such as the COVID-19 Pandemic can have enormous consequences on the business. The world is very different before 2020, so some business owners ask their customers directly how different their world has become. Some companies considered rebranding to survive. But to rebrand, they need to communicate directly with their customers to maintain their client base and adapt through several ways:
- They communicate with both their current and prospective customers through marketing surveys.
- They either hire or talk directly with their customers through email or phone.
- Small business owners talk directly with their customers over the counter.
13. Loss Aversion:
One big motivation to buy is having avoided getting a bad deal. That is, the buyer having averted a loss. We can see marketers create this by offering limited-time offers or mentioning great deals from purchasing from dwindling stocks. But in today’s market environment, with many of us hit hard financially due to recent events, companies have several forms of loss aversion strategies to make and sell their products.
14. Browser Push Notifications:
As we end this enumeration of 14 marketing trends relevant in today’s business environment, we need to consider the mechanics of how a user in your site leaves. One example is dangling an offer to prompt signing up for a webinar to be added to an email list. As users move their cursor up to click away from your site, you can arrange for it to trigger a box that appears with an offer. Doing this can ultimately provide you with a higher number of leads from nothing.
Small businesses need not be left behind, striving for additional markets as required for their growth. Companies such as Office Huddle offer tools for your business to improve its marketing capabilities. The objective of your marketing team is to achieve maximum reach for your business’s message. Thorough knowledge and engagement using today’s marketing trends will help your business stay competitive in today’s world.