Three Marketing Trends to Watch to help grow Your Business
In the natural world, it's not the most robust species who survive, nor the most intelligent however, they are the species that are the most adaptable to change. It is the law of natural selection in action, and you can see this law working in the business world as well.
In your role as an entrepreneur it is essential to embrace and adapt to changes in order to thrive and survive. Technological advancements and trends, as well as changes in the needs and expectations of your clients, and changes in your competition can all wipe you out if you're in a hurry. Instead of avoiding change, it's best to take advantage of it whenever it comes up and then adjust accordingly.
It's the best moment to start a new business with your skills
Every industry has consumers who look for data to help them solve a problem or achieve a specific end-product. This presents a huge possibility for those who want to pack their knowledge and experience into products, programs, and other services that could be made into profits.
In order to put this in perspective To put this into perspective, the 2017 global market for online education (e-learning) reached an enormous $255 billion ( World Economic Forum). This doesn't even include the amount of money being invested in coaching, consulting expert advice or non-fiction books.
If you're an writer, speaker, trainer, coach, consultant, online course creator, or a service supplier, there's an emerging reality is important to know about as you develop your company.
Since the beginning of time many years, a wealth of information that is free or cheap has been published online. Some of it is great (and some of it just not as good) However, the fact is that information has lost the perceived value that used to. In many industries the information is now an item of trade, meaning that selling information is becoming increasingly difficult.
Customers aren't likely to need more information. They already have plenty of information available at their fingertips already. The only thing they require is somebody who will aid them apply the right data in the correct way,to solve their problem or get the outcome they'd like to achieve. What they need is a transformative.
The beginning of Transformation Age
I don't know who is in charge of defining the time period we're in however, if it were up to me I wouldn't call this era one of the Information Age anymore. I'd call it the Transformation Age.
As we shift to an Information Age to the Transformation Age There are certain patterns you must be aware of in order to 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 traditional way:Build a massive audience
For whatever reason, the rise of social media has led countless entrepreneurs to lose focus on what is truly important. Instead of creating excellent products and services for their customers, they started looking at vanity metrics including the number of followers, likes, comments and shares they get on their social media pages.
Being an entrepreneur, you don't require millions of people to be aware of who you are for you to create your business to be successful, and there's no need for you to be known as a household name. Unless you're building a global name (think Coca-Cola, Apple, Disney or any of the others.) you don't need the entire globe to know who you are.
The new way:Become the leader of a community
Instead of creating a huge audience, change your attention to being an influential leader in a group with a area of expertise. Define your ideal clients and then create a place for them to interact with each other, share ideas, support others and connect with your directly.
Facebook leads the trend of creating online communities. In the spring of 2018, Mark Zuckerberg announced a important change in the way the company will present content on the News Feed. In the future, Facebook will be severely restricting the organic reach of articles from Facebook Pages. Instead, they're encouraging publishers to develop meaningful interactions and develop communities.
Related:
"Those companies that have strong tribes and have developed a real community are going to shine, and those who do not have it will have to catch up quickly."
- Scott Oldford
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.
The past couple of years, we've watched numerous entrepreneurs at the beginning of their careers struggling to develop what's frequently referred to"an "Ascension Model" of services and products.
In an Ascension Model, you start by offering something cheap (like a book or a short course), and then you upsell your customers to more expensive items and services like coaching, consultation, and live events. This is what it could be:
It's not working if you try to market a product or service instead of what they actually want is private coaching. Or trying to promote private coaching to someone that would like you to complete all the work on their behalf as well as trying to sell a ticket for a conference to someone that wants to join a mastermind.
Each of these kinds of products and programs appeals to a different type of customer with different priorities and spending budgets. Although upselling is a great idea in principle, there are some clients who have a clear idea of what they are looking for, which in many instances doesn't mean it's the most expensive option.
The new way:Start with high-touch offers with premium prices
The marketplace shifts from the need for information to demand for transformation. Clients need assistance in achieving their goals and are willing to spend more for the help they need.
With that in mind, we recommend not trying to sell your customers your least inexpensive product first, to increase the chances of selling customers on a higher-priced product or service at some moment in the near future.
Particularly if you're at the early stages of building your own business that is specialized We recommend that you offer a service that is high-touch (coaching, consulting, done-for-you service, etc.) before you start selling information products that are less costly like books or courses. When you have reached your ability for working with people one-on-one and then you can start developing products to help more people.
Many entrepreneurs in the early stages don't realize is that it's very difficult to promote inexpensive ebooks or online classes to a huge number of customers effectively. If you've only just recently established your business, you should concentrate on selling the more expensive products first. You can later, use the money generated by those sales to finance the creation and the promotion of your less expensive offerings.
Trend #3: Customer Experience
The old way:Acquire as many customers as you can
Many entrepreneurs make the mistake that they focus all their efforts on acquiring new customers, at the expense of offering a pleasant experience for the customers. Consequently, many of their customers will never purchase again or refer other people to them. It creates an endless (and cost-intensive!) cycle where the entrepreneur must constantly find new clients to remain in business.
As competition in your industry is increasing, as do the expectations of your prospective market, not providing your customers with a positive experience before and after the purchase can have an adverse impact on your profitability and the sustainability of your company.
The newest method:Help your customers achieve the success they desire
It is the result that customers desire and appreciate. Your customers will see that your product or service may be only a tool to achieve the goal, but it is likely just one of many alternative options that promise to help attain the same goal.
So while acquiring new customers is crucial helping your clients is even more important, and vital to the growth and profitability of your business. If you're not able to assist your customers in achieving the result they want with the product or service you offer, they likely won't remain the long-term customer of yours.
The most successful entrepreneurs of today are committed to understanding the unique challenges and expected outcomes of their clients, and they're designing experiences to help their customers overcome their obstacles and get their desired results. They're prioritizing 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 see the changes and their impact and create the success stories ."
-- Nick Unsworth
Discover the methods to assist you in adapting to these changes
There's never been better time to begin building an enterprise by sharing your experience and knowledge with others. Every platform, tool, and resources that you will ever require for establishing a successful business are in your hands, and there is a huge market of people who can profit of your experience and expertise, and are willing to spend money for it.
As thousands of industry experts and entrepreneurs continue to build their companies over the coming years, those who establish themselves as getting customers who are successful are likely to rise to the top of their industry. In embracing and adjusting to the latest trends discussed that we've discussed in this post and we're sure you'll soon be among them!