Small Business

Which Marketing Trends Should Small Businesses Focus On? 

author-img By Subhasree Nag 5 Mins Read April 4, 2019 Last Updated on: October 23rd, 2024

Marketing Trends

As a small business owner, it’s hard to get yourself noticed above the crowd. Not only is the marketplace crowded, but attention spans are short, and your time and finances are more limited than those of your larger competitors. This is why, you need to focus on the marketing trends to make your business visible.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t succeed. In fact, you have a lot of advantages as a small business; it’s easier to implement marketing initiatives because you don’t have as much hierarchy. You are nimbler in your approach, and it’s easier to get buy-in. 

As you approach this year and look at your marketing strategies, here are four marketing trends you can’t afford to ignore. 

four marketing trends

The Rise of Video:

The average person watches more than an hour and a half of video content every day, and 15% watch three hours or more. People love video content, and your business cannot afford to miss out on the opportunity to connect in this way. 

Fortunately, video marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. You can get started on Facebook Live with nothing more than a cell phone. You can also invest in a nicer camera and some editing software to create videos for YouTube.  

Also, use a teleprompter app with your video for video subtitles. Your videos will be more meaningful. However, until you get a great financial return, there’s no reason to spend tens of thousands on a video. 

People will buy from those they know, like, and trust. Video gives potential customers a chance to get to know you more personally. When they can see your non-verbal communication, a deeper bond is formed. 

Be sure to take advantage of marketing trends! 

Local search refers to online searches that include local terms, such as “near me,” or the name of a city, town, street, or neighborhood. These searches – especially from mobile devices – are a strong buying signal. In fact, 50% of local searches from a mobile device result in a visit to a physical store within 24 hours.

When you’re a small business, you can’t afford to miss out on local search results. Google will give special precedence to local businesses in these types of searches by highlighting them on Google maps alongside the regular search results.

To take full advantage of local search engine optimization (SEO), be sure to claim your Google My Business page and fill it out completely. Build your online reputation using reviews. Ensure your website is mobile optimized and loads quickly.

If local SEO sounds like a lot to handle yourself, consider working with a company that provides SEO services in Toronto for help.

Personalized Marketing:

Personalized Marketing:

It’s said that there are nothing people like more than the sound of their own name, and there’s a version of that in marketing as well. There are nothing people like more than feeling like you completely understand their needs and struggles. They want to feel like an individual, not part of a marketing target demographic.

Personalized marketing allows you to focus your messages so that they meet each customer exactly where they are. From segmenting your email list to specifically targeting your social media ads, you can use micro-targeting to deliver a specifically tailored message to each potential customer.

Don’t offer a sale on your whole website to your whole customer base. Instead, target sales on specific items to the customers who are most likely to buy them. A good customer relationship manager (CRM) system can allow you to collect the data you need for highly targeted marketing.

The Power of Social Media Marketing:

Social media is a crowded space, but it’s still one of the best marketing locations available. Facebook serves more than 1.8 billion active monthly users spread across various age groups and demographics. However, the largest percentage is in the coveted 25 – 34 age group. 

Social media, especially Facebook, also makes it easy to target audiences very specifically through paid marketing.  

By building both your organic social media audience and using paid advertising to reach additional people, you can take advantage of these platforms to build your business. 

You can also work with people who already have a large following in your target audience. These social media influencers often have the admiration and trust of your audience in a way you don’t (yet), so they can help you grow your business more quickly. 

Social media gives you access to the entire world, literally. Don’t miss out on the opportunity! 

Chatbots for Customer Service

Chatbots for Customer Service  

In an age where people expect instant results, cloud computing is a game changer. Using the cloud, you can access your files and applications from anywhere, as long as you’re connected to the internet.  

For startups and growing businesses, this flexibility is invaluable. You’ll be able to scale up your IT quickly if you need to, but also scale it back when you don’t. 

Mobile Payment 

No longer do you need to have a cash register or even a credit card machine to accept payments. Mobile payment solutions like PayPal Here and Square allow small business owners to take credit card payments directly on their mobile devices.  

These systems are very user-friendly and have easy-to-understand fees with no contracts and money deposited directly into your bank account within 48 hours. 

With more people using smartphones for purchases, it’s time to start using mobile payment systems like Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Square.  

This makes it easier on your customers and helps you keep track of sales and inventory with no effort. For small businesses, this means a quicker, more convenient checkout that speaks to today’s shoppers. 

Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

Artificial Intelligence in Marketing 

It sounds like something only big businesses can use, but guess what? That’s not true. Small businesses can use AI too, and what better place to get started than with your marketing?  

We are living in a world where data is everywhere, and AI enables you to make sense of all that data easily and affordably, even as a small business. 

AI-powered tools can also analyze customer behaviors and buying patterns and then help you create personalized marketing messages based on that data. 

Why You Should be Using This Technology? 

Time is money, and you can find yourself saving a great deal of both if you’re willing to automate various aspects of your business.  

There are plenty of marketing automation tools, for example, that allow you to set up pre-scheduled campaigns so that they’ll send without you having to think about it ever again.  

The same goes for social media software that will autopilot much of the content on your Facebook Feed and Twitter Stream. 

The Best Part? 

Nobody will ever know! 

In fact, many people pride themselves on how active they appear on social media when they use several SaaS tools to handle all their postings for them! 

But seriously, by automating (your billing processes with FreshBooks), tracking (with Google Analytics), invoicing (again with FreshBooks), payment reminders (with the same), as well as follow-ups with clients and potential buyers, nothing can slip through the cracks. 

Great Marketing is Great Business:

Marketing great Dan Kennedy is known for asking people what business they’re in. They will say, “auto repair,” or “hospitality.” No, he’ll say, that’s wrong. So they try again. “Customer service.

Nope!

In the end, he points out that everyone is in the marketing business. You can provide any product or service you like, but in the end, if you don’t market it you won’t succeed.

The real reason you can’t afford to overlook these marketing trends is that to have a great business you’ve got to have great marketing. Don’t wait – get started today!

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Subhasree Nag

A self-proclaimed Swiftian, Instagram-holic, and blogger, Subhasree eats, breathes, and sleeps pop culture. When she is not imagining dates with Iron Man on Stark Tower (yes, she has the biggest crush on RDJ, which she won’t admit), she can be seen tweeting about the latest trends. Always the first one to break viral news, Subhasree is addicted to social media, and leaves out no opportunity of blogging about the same. She is our go-to source for the latest algorithm updates and our resident editor.

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