7 Small Business Marketing Trends You Need to Tap Into

Have you been scratching your head trying to come up with small business marketing strategies to boost business? I give this advice with a very strong warning - not every trend needs to be tried! Ensure your core marketing strategy is solid, your channels are established and you are getting great traction with your current efforts.

Only then are you ready to start experimenting with other marketing trends. With that in mind, here are 7 trends you can tap into right now.

1. Customer-Centric Content

This trend goes hand-in-hand with pretty much every other marketing trend you can find. These days’ consumers look to brands for compelling content that engages, entertains and informs them. They’re not looking for sales pitches 24/7, and they certainly don’t want to be hassled into a purchase based on false advertising.

So what does this mean for small business marketing? It means that now more than ever it’s important to create and curate videos, photos, stories and all other content that your audience sincerely cares about. It’s also critical that you are transparent about your services and products as well as your price points. If you offer valuable content to your followers, they’re a lot more likely to make a purchase later on and continue doing business with you.

1. Mobile-Friendly Campaigns

You spend a load of time on your smartphone, don’t you? Guess what? So do your customers. That’s why 2015 has been primed as the year of the mobile campaign. Your small business marketing efforts (including emails, social media, website, ads, profiles and blog) should all display well on mobile devices and also use location-based mobile technology.

1. Micro-Targeting

When it comes to 21st century digital marketing, it’s all about relevance. If you send out an email to a customer about a service they couldn’t care less about, they could start ignoring you and all your communication. Targeting your offers and content, though, to specific customer segments is exactly what consumers have come to expect, even from small businesses.

The trend of micro-targeting actually takes targeting a step further. It drills down into extremely small customer segments to provide highly customised, relevant experiences. That means now is the perfect time to start using the customer data you’ve collected in your business management software to make sure that your small business marketing messages definitely resonate with your audience.

1. Social Media Advertising

There’s not getting away from it – social media is here to stay. Social media advertising is certainly not a new concept and there have been some seriously positive returns from social advertising of late. Social platforms have become highly sophisticated in terms of targeting who sees your advert: Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn have invested heaps of development work into designing robust ad serving tools and Facebook’s targeting criteria is certainly extensive. Experiment a little to find out which channel will be most effective at driving new business from your local customers.

1. Video Marketing Has Gone Viral

While businesses have been producing and distributing videos online for many years, this year has seen video take centre stage as an effective content marketing tool. Social platforms like Instagram and Facebook have made it easier than ever to share short and engaging videos with your audience. What’s more, the amount of places online that you can share videos seems to be increasing by the day. All you need is a phone with a decent camera and a couple of interesting topics for discussion and you’re on your way to creating a variety of videos that will strike a chord with your audience and boost their online engagement with your brand. Bottom line: add video to your small business marketing endeavours.

1. The Rise of Digital Personal Assistants

More and more consumers are making use of personal digital assistant apps like Google Now and Siri. In fact, 56 percent of smartphone owners, reports a study by Search Engine Land, have used a digital assistant to look up local information. So instead of entering search terms in a search engine, more people are outsourcing the task to digital assistants. Stay ahead of the trend by ensuring your website is easy to find by these digital helpers.

1. Marketing Messaging to More Personal Audiences

The standard for marketing messages has changed. A couple of years ago, every company wanted big email lists with loads of people signing up to hear from you. They’d sent the odd blast email to this huge list and try not to overwhelm with frequent emails. Today, however, in the era of social media and mobile marketing, it’s absolutely fine to send more frequent messages to your followers, so long as those messages are highly personalised and customised. Use location-specific social media accounts and email lists to reach out to your audiences on a 1-to-1 level.

The Bottom Line

While the trends ruling small business marketing this year aren’t radically different to previous marketing practices, they definitely require a greater level of planning and time investment.

If you need to free up your time to focus on growing your business, talk to Rosy Marketing about assessing your marketing plan and determining ways to spend your marketing dollars.