Predicting the future

For small businesses to survive, grow and stay ahead of the competition involves knowing the unknown – predicting the future. 

Understanding where you want to be and how to get there is a good, solid strategy, but knowing what the future holds for your industry, your market place and your working practices and planning for those developments is a great strategy.

So how to predict the future...

Simple.

Understand where changes could occur, what those changes might be and how they will impact your business.

Then plan for it.

But anything could change!

Of course we are not magicians, but we can do some simple wizardry. To understand what might happen, look at:

·  What has happened – spot patterns and trends

·  Read what the experts predict

o   Look at industry forums and check out business forums

o   Look up leading business figures and see what they are saying

·  Visit your main industry expos – see what’s on the horizon

Spot the trends.

When looking for future trends, remember that impacts on your business come from different areas, with the key areas being:

   

   1.     Industry sector movements

   2.     Changes in your market place

   3.     Customer buying patterns and attitudes

   4.     Technology advancements

   5.     Employees and working trends

   6.     Supply chain

The principle for small business is to focus on what is relevant to you and your business and then identify assess opportunities and risk. You will then be able to develop the right actions to capitalise on opportunities and minimise the impact of risks.

Focus on the future

Once you have a clearer picture of what the future has in-store, make sure you are geared up now with the right strategies. The right marketing tools will be those that work now, and will adapt effectively with change.

Here are some of the key marketing trends:

·  Make the most of smart devices – is your business smart-friendly? Customers are moving to mobile-decision-making

·  Do as you say – be open and honest with your customers and deliver on that

·  Let your customers market you – encourage reviews, get that feedback and make your customers want to spread the positive word

·  Content is the new... content! You can never beat amazing content for capturing attention, inspiring interaction and raising your profile in searches

·  Make social media work for you – interact online the way your customers do

·  Lights, camera, action! – get video happy and captivate your market place

And remember...

The past cannot be changed, but the future is still in your power.

Introducing ‘Marketechnologing’ (Martech for short, but far less fun to try and say!)

Growing a business is about making the right choices and taking advantage of the things that will help you grow. Two examples of this are marketing and technology. Both, independently, create amazing opportunities to springboard growth, but what about if you combine them?

Marketing + Technology=Marketechnologing (and loads of great opportunities!).

It’s part of everyday life.

Technology is a given part of a business’s day-to-day life – operations and communications – and marketing is happening all the time in your business, with or without your direction – every part of your business that interacts with your customers/stakeholders is creating an impression about your business. So harnessing the opportunities they can provide, separately or together, will massively boost your business development.

So this is ‘Marketechnologing’

Marketechnologing is the beautiful blending of marketing and technology and benefitting from the massive opportunities this can bring to your business. And guess what... you are marketechnologing already! Websites, social media, mailchimp, Google analytics, texting, Hootsuite, design tools, planning software, etc.

Understanding technology and how it can really help your business will enable you to market your business even more effectively.

- Your technology effects how you do communicate and how you can communicate with customers – having the best technology to communicate quickly, clearly and effectively is key.

- Customers use technology for more and more of their decision making – smartphones, ratings, reviews, comparisons, etc. So connecting with customers through the technology they use is critical.

- Technology has changed how fast, how far and how targeted your reach can be.

How good is your marketechnologing?

So if your customers are using technology to buy and make decisions, are you using technology effectively to get in front of them? You need to truly understand the technologies you use (smart devices, social media, websites, mailchimp, etc) in order to understand the potential and how to harness the benefits for your business.

Growth will come with great marketechnologing.