With 2020 now in its infancy, businesses should have already outlined their goals for the new year. For small businesses, trying to keep up and progress in the highly-competitive world of business is incredibly difficult, but, keeping your eye on new trends and having easily recognisable personal brands – as online casino and mobile bingo do for example, are the key to enhancing your success. Here are some trends to look out for.

Social media is king

Without social media, a company is, quite frankly, limited in what it can achieve. Facebook has been the major force in recent years for social media marketing, though the likes of Instagram and Pinterest are not far behind following momentous growth.

However, it’s not just the current major platforms that need to be identified to give your business an advantage. With its organic growth and the absence of paid sponsorship and advertizing making it completely natural, Tiktok is experiencing a monumental boom.

Video marketing has played a key role in this as information can be accessed at the click of a button thanks to live videos and streams churning out content on a rapid and consistent basis.

“Influencers” have become an integral part of society in the past decade, and, as social media continues to grow, so will their importance – whether you like them or not. Micro-influencers – those with a large, concentrated following – have a smaller, more engaged audience than those you see with millions of followers.

And, it’s these micro-influencers that could propel your business to new heights as an endorsement can win over a substantial amount of people in a particular interest area.

Outreaching of bloggers

Generating as much content as possible is becoming increasingly prevalent for businesses, particularly in 2020. This is something which blogger outreaching can help with; using bloggers, businesses can bypass content-making that circulates linkbacks and instead leave outreaching efforts to those in the know.

Business owners will soon find they have more time to do the nitty-gritty stuff by delegating work outside the office. Time is key, right?

Personalize, personalize, personalize

Generic emails are a business killer; no one wants to feel like they are just another number on a page, so establishing a connection between consumer and company is imperative to get the sales a business wants.

Personalization is the way forward; this can be done by identifying your target market and then creating customer avatars based on the demographic found. Most importantly, personalizing your emails, addressing the customer and making them feel wanted/included are vital parts of a sale.

Trust can also not be underestimated. Making your brand transparent is a one-way ticket to authenticity. Presenting behind-the-scenes or conversing with personality gives consumers a greater understanding of the people behind the brand.

Brand personalization is the way to go – an Epsilon survey in 2017 concluded that four out of five respondents would be more likely to buy something if they had experienced brand personalization.

Aim for position zero

The position zero – the snippet at the top of a search that brings information from the page – is what all businesses strive for online. This can only be achieved if the content is formed around a question – the question that is the foundation for your keyword research.

There is also nothing worse than being vague; information must be presented succinctly and clearly – you could even use numbered and bulleted lists – to any potential consumer.

The post Personalization, outreaching and social media: Business Trends of 2020 appeared first on Smashing Buzz.