The 3 Top Marketing Trends to Grow Your Business
In nature, it is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones which are the ones that can adapt to changing conditions. It is the law of natural selection at work, and it is evident at work in business as well.
In your role as an entrepreneur you must be willing to accept and adjust to changes in order to thrive and survive. Technology changes, changes in the desires and expectations of your clients, and changes in your business rivals all have the potential to wipe you out if you're not careful. Instead of being resistant to changes, you should take advantage of it whenever it comes up and then adjust to it.
Now is a great moment to start a new business on your knowledge
In every industry, consumers look for data to help them solve a problem or get a desired outcome. It is a great chance for people to put their knowledge and experience into products, programs or services that are offered for sale at profits.
In order to put this in perspective In 2017, the world market for online education (e-learning) reached an enormous $255 billion ( World Economic Forum). That's not even including the amount of money being invested in coaching, consulting and professional guidance, as well as non-fiction books.
But whether you're an writer, speaker or trainer consultant, online course creator or a service company, there's something new that is important to be aware of as you establish your own business.
In the last few years, an enormous amount of cheap and free information has been published online. A few of the information is excellent (and certain of it is not so much) However, the fact is that information is no longer of the perceived value that it once did. In many fields the information is now a commodity, which means selling information has become ever more challenging.
Your clients probably don't require more information. They already have plenty of information accessible to them already. What they need is somebody who will aid them use the correct information in the right sequence,to solve their problem or get the outcome they desire. What they require is change.
The beginning of Transformation Age
I don't know who is responsible for the definition of this current era, but if it was my decision I would not call this one of the Information Age anymore. I would call it"the Transformation Age.
As we shift between an Information Age to the Transformation Age and beyond, there are a few trends you should know about to help you adapt your business, scale quicker, and have significant changes in the lives of other people with your knowledge and expertise.
Trend #1: Building Community
The old way:Build a massive audience
Whatever the reason, the introduction of social media led numerous entrepreneurs to divert their attention on the things that matter most. Instead of working on developing excellent products and services for their customers, they began looking at vanity metrics including the number of followers, likes, shares, and comments that they see from their social media accounts.
Entrepreneurs don't require millions of people to know who you are in order to establish your business to be successful, and there's no need for you to be famous. If you're not building a worldwide name (think Coca-Cola, Apple, Disney, etc.) there's no need for the whole world to know who are.
The new way:Become the leader of a community
Instead of creating a huge audience, change your focus to becoming an influential leader in a group with a niche. Determine your ideal clientele and then create a place for them to interact with one another, exchange ideas, encourage each other, and reach out to them directly.
Facebook leads the way of creating online communities. In the spring of 2018, Mark Zuckerberg announced a significant change in how they will display content in the News Feed. In the future, Facebook will be severely limiting the organic reach of content posted by Facebook Pages. Instead, they're encouraging publishers to develop meaningful interactions and build communities.
Related:
"Those firms that are part of strong tribes and have developed an authentic community will be able to shine. Those who do not have it will need to catch up fast."
- Scott Oldford
Trend #2 Trend #2: Premium pricing
The traditional way: Start by offering low-cost items, and later upsell your customers
The past couple of years, we've seen numerous entrepreneurs at the beginning of their careers struggling to develop what's often referred to as the "Ascension Model" of products and services.
In an Ascension Model, you start with a low-cost product (like books or a short course) in the second step, then increase your sales to more expensive products and services, such as coaching, consultation, and live occasions. What this could be:
It's not working if you try to sell someone a course instead of what they actually want is private coaching. Likewise, trying to sell private coaching to someone who would like you to complete their work, or trying to sell a ticket for a conference to a person who wants to join a mastermind.
Every one of these types of programs and products is a target for a distinct type of consumer with distinct priorities and budgets. While upselling may sound appealing in principle, there are some clients who have a clear idea of what they are looking for, which in many cases isn't your least expensive offer.
The way of the future:Start with high-touch offers as well as premium pricing
The market has changed from demand for information to the need for change. Customers need help achieving results and will spend more for the help they need.
To keep this in mind it is not advisable to sell your customers your least inexpensive product first, in the hopes of promoting the customers with a better product or service at a later moment in the near future.
Especially if you're in the initial stages of building your expert business Our recommendation is to offer a service that is high-touch (coaching and consulting, or a complete service, etc.) prior to the time you can begin selling information products that are less costly like books or courses. Once you reach your capacity for working with people one-on-one begin to create products to help more people.
The thing that early stage entrepreneurs do not realize is that it can be hard to sell cheap textbooks and online courses to a large amount of people successfully. If you've only just recently launched your business, focus on selling your more expensive products first. You can then use the profits generated by those sales to finance the development and promotion of lower-cost products.
Trend #3 The Customer Experience
The old way:Acquire as many customers as you can
Most entrepreneurs make the mistake that they focus all their efforts on acquiring new customers at cost of giving a good experience to those customers. This means that a lot of clients never purchase from them in the future or recommend other customers to them. It creates an endless (and costly!) cycle where the entrepreneur must constantly find new clients to keep running their business.
As competition in your industry is increasing, as do customer expectations. target market, not providing your customers with a positive satisfaction before and after the purchase will have a detrimental impact on your profitability and longevity of your business.
The newest approach:Help your customers achieve their goals
There's a particular outcome that customers desire and value. Your customers will see that your product or service is only a tool to achieve get there, and is probably only one of the many solutions that can help achieve the same result.
While gaining new customers is crucial, supporting your customers will be more crucial and essential to the expansion and success of your company. If you're not able to help your customers get the result they want with your service or product, they likely won't remain with you for long.
Today's most successful entrepreneurs are committed to understanding the particular challenges and outcomes for their clients and are creating experiences that help their customers overcome their obstacles and get the desired outcomes. They're placing a high value on customer experience and success.
Related:
"We're not in this business only to make people purchase our products. We want them to be able to perceive the changes and their effects and to create success stories. ."
-- Nick Unsworth
Learn the specific strategies to help you adapt to these changes
There's never been more ideal time to start a business by sharing your experience and knowledge to others. The platforms, tools and sources you will ever require to start a company are available to you, and there is many people who can profit from your expertise and knowledge, and are willing to spend money for it.
In the midst of thousands of industry professionals and entrepreneurs continue to build their companies over the next few years, only those who build a reputation for having successful customers are likely to rise to an elite position in their game. By embracing and adapting to the trends that we've discussed in this post, we are confident that you'll be one of them!