TOP 3 SMALL BUSINESS TRENDS TO DOUBLE DOWN ON 2023-24
Dominate your local market!
If you are observing the current business landscape, you will notice that things are changing so rapidly that if you don’t pay close attention, you might get left behind scratching your head wondering if your business is really just a hobby.
There are so many moving parts to keep up with as a small business owner and entrepreneur. Luckily, if you have chosen the entrepreneurship route, it means you have basically accepted the fact that change will be a set part of your life, and while change will be a part of your life whether you’re an entrepreneur or not, the entrepreneur has essentially chosen to embrace that change or those changes, come what may.
According to the U.S Census Bureau, Business Applications for March 2023, adjusted for seasonal variation, were 451,752, an increase of 4.5 percent compared to February 2023. [SOURCE]
There are hundreds of new businesses right in your local market starting up monthly, not to mention the ones that are already in business.
The question is, how are you standing out as a small business? This is a question that every entrepreneur should be constantly asking themselves, this question often is the catalyst for business innovation. I have always talked about creativity in business because I truly believe this is how you stand out, by being creative. And as long as you’re asking yourself this question, in my opinion, standing out to your customers and creating continuity in your business is just a matter of time.
LET’S EXPLORE MY TOP 3 TRENDS TO DOUBLE DOWN ON IN 2023-24
MOBILE MARKETING
PERSONALIZED CUSTOMER SUPPORT
GROWING AN ONLINE COMMUNITY
MOBILE MARKETING
What is mobile marketing?
Mobile marketing is quite straight forward. However, according to the definition on Investopedia [SOURCE] mobile marketing is any advertising activity that promotes products and services via mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones. It makes use of features of modern mobile technology, including location services, to tailor marketing campaigns based on an individual's location.
Mobile marketing is a way in which technology can be used to create personalized promotion of goods or services to a user who is constantly connected to a network.
This is one of the trends you should be thinking about perfecting in 2023-24. All of the trends I discuss in this post are things that I am also working on in my business as well.
It took me a little bit of time to get used to editing videos on my phone, I am a laptop person, but I will admit I started doing it a lot more after seeing my wife edit her videos for her social media channels on her phone, she hardly touches the laptop or desktop for editing videos.
To be honest, I’m starting to find it easier the more I do it. It’s quite efficient and if you know me, you know I strive to create more efficiency in everything I do.
When I talk about mobile marketing, for this post I am specifically focusing on Facebook and Instagram reels, Tik Tok videos and YouTube shorts.
People are on their phones constantly. It’s just the way it is, and that’s where you must reach them to maximize conversion and sales.
TAKE A LOOK AT THIS IMAGE ABOVE
I am writing this blog post at 7:43 AM. This is data from the dashboard of one of my websites.
From about 4PM yesterday to now, look at the amount of people who are visiting the site from their mobile phones. This is gold! And when you think about the fact that people are always watching YouTube videos etc., you can use data like this to set up a google ad campaign for mobile to target people who search for video content related to the products and or service(s) you offer.
YouTube is a search engine platform. Why not have your video show up on You Tube when customers search?
If you haven’t doubled down on mobile marketing yet, I say you should at least start to consider making it a major part of your strategy.
PERSONALIZED CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Personalized customer support is proving to be a very effective part of marketing these days. I’ve heard a quote once and I can’t remember where at this time, but to paraphrase it was something to the effect of “people buy from people”.
It seems to me that people want to feel like they know who they are dealing with. In my opinion small businesses with the person at the helm being the one conducting the actual customer service relations and transactions are going to be winning in 2023.
I manage a small painting business that I also work in a lot of the time and recently some of our customers we have projects booked for have been calling me saying they would like for me to be there personally. What happens is that we get a lot of referrals and sometimes it’s family members referring us to other family members and I am a bit of a perfectionist so it seems they really love my neatness, don’t get me wrong the other guys I work with are also neat, however, I guess the combination of being neat plus having the actual person at the helm with whom they also did the actual transaction with around is what they are looking for, which goes back to personalized customer support.
This is the way to go for small business.
I must tell you though it’s a bit hard to show up personally all the time since as an entrepreneur I have started other business ventures which takes up some of my time and we have been collaborating with other small businesses on a contractual basis to fulfil some of our obligations.
But it just goes to show you that this is how customers are thinking these days.
GROWING AN ONLINE COMMUNITY
This a really big thing right now. The people who are bold enough to put themselves out there and transmit their message in a clear and concise way that educates, entertain and inspire their audiences are the ones which will be taking a huge part of the market share.
I get it, not everyone wants to be in front of a camera every day, it can be challenging. That is one of the reasons why I even started this blog, sometimes I would rather write than record a video. But you can grow an online community in many ways. However, there is no doubt that video marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing and it’s a way of building trust and more connection with your audience.
By growing an online community, your job becomes easier since your audience already know and love what you do and are therefore more likely to spread the word, share your product or services and you have social proof. It’s also more rewarding since you have product or service validation through customer testimonials.
CONCLUSION
Growing a small business is no easy task, the goal is to make the process as easy, fun and rewarding as possible. Use effective trends such as these discussed in this post to your advantage to dominate your local market and stay on top of your customers and potential customers’ mind.
As I always say, entrepreneurship is hard, but the most important thing to know is that it’s doable.
Until next time
GOD SPEED.
SOURCES
PAGE TITLE: Business Formation Statistics | SITE: U.S Census Bureau | ARTICLE DATE: MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2023 | LINK: Business Formation Statistics Press Release (census.gov)
AUTHOR: WILL KENTON | PAGE TITLE: Mobile Marketing: Definition, How It Works, and Examples | SITE: Investopedia | ARTICLE DATE: Updated February 27, 2023 | LINK: Mobile Marketing: Definition, How It Works, and Examples (investopedia.com)
Are you using any of these trends in your business currently?
Make sure to leave a comment below let me know what you think.
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