The Top 3 Marketing Trends to Grow Your Business
In nature, it is not the strongest species who survive, nor the ones with the highest intelligence however, they are the species who are most able to adapt to changing conditions. This is the natural selection law that is at work. And it is evident playing out in business also.
Being an entrepreneur, it is essential to accept and adjust to changes in order to thrive and survive. Technological advancements and trends, as well as changes in the needs and needs of your clients and even changes in the nature of your competition all have the potential to destroy your business if unprepared. Instead of being resistant to change, it's best to take advantage of it as it occurs and adapt to it.
It's the best opportunity to create a company with your skills
Every industry has consumers who are searching for information to assist them in solving a challenge or get a desired outcome. This presents a huge possibility for those who want to pack the knowledge they have gained into products, programs and services that can be offered for sale at a profit.
For a better understanding To put this into perspective, the 2017 global market for online learning (e-learning) was estimated at $255 billion ( World Economic Forum). This doesn't even include the cost used for coaching, consultation expert advice or non-fiction publications.
But whether you're an author, speaker, trainer, coach or consultant, an online course creator, or even a service company, there's something new that you need to be aware of when you establish your own company.
Since the beginning of time there has been a huge amount of cheap and free information is available online. A few of the information is excellent (and some less so) however the truth is that information has lost its value as it once did. In many fields Information has turned into an item of trade, meaning that selling information is becoming more difficult.
Your customers likely don't need additional information. They have enough of that readily available. The only thing they require is somebody who will assist them to apply the right details in the proper sequence,to solve their problem or obtain the results they desire. They require a change.
The start of Transformation Age
I'm not sure who's in charge of defining the era that we are in and if it were mine to decide I wouldn't call this period the Information Age anymore. It's the Transformation Age.
In the transition between the Information Age to the Transformation Age There are certain things you need to know so you can adjust your company, grow faster, and make a positive impact in people's lives with your knowledge and expertise.
Trend #1: Building Community
The way of the past:Build a massive audience
For whatever reason, the advent of social media encouraged countless entrepreneurs to lose focus on the things that matter most. Instead of working on developing excellent products and services for their customers, they began focussing on metrics that are not important, such as the number of likes, followers, shares, and comments they get on their social media pages.
Entrepreneurs do not need millions to recognize you for you to create your business to be successful, and there's no need for you to establish yourself as famous. Unless you're building a global name (think Coca-Cola, Apple, Disney or any of the others.) there's no need for the whole world to know who you are.
The newest way:Become the leader of the community
Instead of creating a massive audience, shift your goal to become an authority within a particular segment. Define your ideal clients and then create a place that allows them to communicate with one another, share ideas, encourage one another, and reach out to your directly.
Facebook is leading the way in building online communities. In the spring of 2018, Mark Zuckerberg announced a significant change in how the company will present content on their News Feed. Going forward, Facebook will be severely limiting the organic reach of articles from Facebook Pages. Instead, they're encouraging publishers to develop significant interactions, and to create communities.
Related:
"Those firms that are part of strong tribes that have formed a real community are going to shine, and those that don't will have to catch up fast."
- Scott Oldford
Trend 2 Trend #2: Premium pricing
The way it was done in the past: Start with low-cost products and then increase the price of your products to attract customers.
Over the past few years, we've seen a lot of early-stage entrepreneurs struggle to create what is often referred to as"an "Ascension Model" of products and services.
With An Ascension Model, you start with a low-cost product (like books or a short course), and then you increase your sales to greater-priced products and services such as coaching, consulting, and live activities. Here's what this can appear like:
What doesn't work is trying to convince someone else to take a class instead of what they actually want is private coaching. Likewise, trying to market private coaching services to someone who wants you to do all the work on their behalf and trying to sell a ticket for a conference to a person who wants to join a mastermind.
Every single one of these varieties of programs and products is a target for a distinct type of client with different needs and financial budgets. While upselling may sound appealing in principle, there are some clients who have a clear idea of what they are looking for that in the majority of instances isn't your least expensive offer.
The way of the future:Start with high-touch offers and premium prices
The market is shifting from demands for information to demand for transformation. People need help to achieve results and are willing to spend more to get the assistance they require.
With that in mind, we recommend not trying to market your clients the cheapest item first. This is to increase the chances of selling customers on a higher-priced product or service at some point in the future.
Especially if you're in the initial stages of building your own business that is specialized We recommend that you offer a service that is high-touch (coaching or consulting, a done-for-you service, etc.) before you can begin selling less expensive information products like books or courses. Once you reach your capacity of working one-on-1 with clients and then you can start developing items to assist more people.
Many entrepreneurs in the early stages don't realize is that it can be very difficult to promote inexpensive books and online courses to a large variety of clients profitably. If you've just started your company, concentrate on selling more costly high-touch offers first, and later, use the money of those sales to pay for the development and promotion of less costly offerings.
Trend 3 The Customer Experience
The traditional way:Acquire as many customers as you possibly can.
Most entrepreneurs commit the error that they focus all their energy on getting new customers at the expense of offering a pleasant experience for those customers. This means that a lot of clients never purchase from them in the future or recommend other customers to them. It's a vicious (and expensive!) cycle of having to continuously find new customers in order to remain in the game.
The competition within your field grows, so do the expectations of your prospective customers, failing to provide your customers with a positive customer experience prior to and following the time the purchase could have a negative impact on the profitability and the sustainability of your company.
The new way:Help your customers achieve success
There is a specific end-product that customers desire and value. To your customers, your product or service is just a means to an end, and likely to be just one option among many solutions that can help get the same results.
While gaining new customers is essential helping your clients will be more important, and vital to the expansion and success of your business. If you do not help your customers get what they desire from your product or service you offer, they're likely to not remain with you for long.
Most successful entrepreneurs today have a keen understanding of the specific challenges and desired results of their customers, and are creating experiences that aid their customers to overcome their obstacles and get the desired outcomes. They're putting a premium on satisfaction of their customers and achieving success.
Related:
"We're not in business solely to convince people to purchase our items. We want them to be able to perceive the difference and effects and to create success stories. ."
- Nick Unsworth
Learn the specific strategies to help you adapt to these changes
There's never been better time to begin building an organization through sharing your expertise to others. The platforms, tools, and resources that you could ever need to build a company are available to you, and there is a huge market of people who can profit from your knowledge and experience and will spend money for it.
While thousands of experts in the field and entrepreneurs continue to build their companies over the next few years, only those who establish themselves as having successful customers will rise to the very top of their field. By embracing and adapting to the latest trends discussed that we've discussed in this post and we're sure you'll become one of the few!