The 3 Top Marketing Trends to Grow Your Business

In the natural world, it's not the most robust species who survive, nor the ones with the highest intelligence rather the species which are the ones that can adapt to changes. This is the nature of natural selection at work, and you will see this principle at work in business too.

As an entrepreneur, you must be willing to accept and adjust to change in order to be successful and endure. Changes in technology or in the wants and expectations of your clients and even changes in the nature of your competition could all ruin your business if unprepared. Instead of trying to avoid the inevitable, be aware of the changes as it occurs and adapt in line with the changes.

  It's the best time to build a business on your knowledge  

In all industries, customers are searching for information to assist them in solving a challenge or achieve a specific result. This creates a tremendous possibility for those who want to pack their knowledge and experience into products, programs and services that can be sold at a profit.

In order to put this in perspective In 2017, the world market for online education (e-learning) has reached $255 billion ( World Economic Forum). This doesn't even include the money that is used for coaching, consultation and professional guidance, as well as non-fiction literature.

But whether you're an instructor, author or trainer, consultant, online course designer, or service supplier, there's a new reality that you must be aware of as you build your expert business.

In the last few years, an enormous amount of free and inexpensive information is available online. There are some that are great (and some less so), but the reality is that information has lost its value as used to. In many fields Information has turned into a commodity, which means selling information has become increasingly difficult.

Your customers likely don't need additional information. There's plenty accessible to them already. The only thing they require is someone to help them apply the right information in the right sequence,to solve their problem or achieve the result they want. They require a transformative.

  The beginning of Transformation Age  

I don't know who is responsible for defining the time period we're in and if it were my decision I would not call this era the Information Age anymore. I would call it the Transformation Age.

As we shift to our Information Age to the Transformation Age, there are some things you need to know in order to adapt your business, scale more quickly, and create an impact on the lives of other people through your experience and knowledge.

  Trend #1: Building Community  

The traditional way:Build a massive audience

Whatever the reason, the introduction of social media led countless entrepreneurs to lose focus on the things that matter most. Instead of creating amazing products and services to their clients, they began focussing on metrics that are not important, like the amount of likes, followers, comments, shares and shares they receive on their social media profiles.

Being an entrepreneur, you don't require millions of people to recognize you for you to create a successful business, and there's no need for you to be a household name. If you're not creating a global name (think Coca-Cola, Apple, Disney or any of the others.) there's no need for the whole globe to know who you are.

The new way:Become the leader of the community

Instead of creating a massive audience, shift your goal to become an authority in a specific area of expertise. Determine your ideal clientele, and build a community where they can interact with one another, exchange thoughts, help others as well as reach out to your directly.

Facebook has set the pace for trend to build online communities. The year before, Mark Zuckerberg announced a significant change in how the company will present content on the News Feed. Going forward, Facebook will be severely restricting the organic reach for posts from Facebook Pages. Instead, they're encouraging publishers to create significant interactions, and to develop communities.

Related:

   "Those businesses who have strong tribes and have developed a real community are going to shine, and those that don't will need to catch up quickly."  

   - Scott Oldford  

  Trend 2: Premium pricing  

The old way: Start with low-cost products and then sell your customers more expensive products.

Over the past few years, we've seen many entrepreneurs in the early stages have to come up with what's often referred to as the "Ascension Model" of their products and services.

In an Ascension Model, you start by offering something cheap (like books or a short course) Then, you increase your sales to greater-priced items and services like coaching, consultation, and live activities. What this could look like:

The thing that doesn't work is trying to sell someone a course that they're really looking for is private coaching. Or trying to sell private coaching services to someone who would like you to complete the work for them, or trying to sell tickets for a conference to someone that wants to join a mastermind group.

Every single one of these varieties of products and programs appeals to a different type of consumer with distinct priorities and budgets. So while upselling sounds great in principle, there are some clients who have a clear idea of what they are looking for and in most cases will not be the most expensive option.

The way of the future:Start with high-touch offers as well as premium pricing

The marketplace shifts from the need for information to need for change. Customers need help achieving results and are willing to pay a premium to get the assistance they require.

In this regard, we recommend not trying to market your clients the least expensive product at first with the goal of upselling customers on a higher-priced item or service later on at some time in the future.

Particularly if you're at the early stages of building your own business that is specialized, our recommendation is to market a highly-touch service (coaching, consulting, done-for-you service, etc.) prior to the time you start selling information products that are less costly like books or courses. As you grow in your capacity to work with individuals one-on-one begin to create items to assist more people.

The thing that early stage entrepreneurs don't realize is that it can be hard to sell cheap ebooks or online courses to a large amount of people profitably. If you've just launched your business, focus on selling the more expensive products first. You can later, use the money from those sales to fund the creation and the promotion of your less expensive offerings.

  Trend 3 the Customer Experience  

The old way:Acquire as many customers as you possibly can.

A lot of entrepreneurs are guilty that they focus all their time and effort on finding new customers, but at the expense of providing a great experience to those clients. Therefore, a large portion of their clients never purchase from them again or refer other people to them. It's an endless (and expensive!) cycle in which the business owner has to constantly find more customers to remain in the business.

As competition in your industry increases, along with expectation of the intended audience, neglecting to provide your clients with a pleasant satisfaction before and after purchase from you can have an adverse effect on your business's profitability as well as sustainability of your business.

The new way:Help your customers achieve success

It is the result which your clients want and will appreciate. For your clients, your product or service may be simply a means of achieving the goal, but it is likely just one of many alternative options that promise to help get the same results.

So while acquiring new customers is important, supporting your customers can be more important and crucial for the success and growth of your company. If you're not able to help your customers get the results they're looking for with your service or product and they don't stay your customer for very long.

The most successful entrepreneurs of today have a keen understanding of the specific challenges and desired results of their customers, and are creating experiences that assist their customers in overcoming their challenges and achieve their desired results. They're placing a high value on satisfaction of their customers and achieving success.

Related:

   "We're not in this business only to make people purchase our items. We want them to see the difference and impact and create the success stories ."

   -- Nick Unsworth  

  Find out the particular techniques to guide you as you adjust to these trends  

There's never been more ideal time to start an organization through sharing your expertise to others. All of the , platforms and tools can be needed for establishing a successful business are at your disposal, and there is a huge market of people that can benefit from your expertise and knowledge and will spend money for it.

As thousands of industry experts and entrepreneurs work to develop their businesses over the coming years, the ones who build a reputation for having successful customers will rise to the top of their game. By embracing and adapting to the trends that we've discussed in this post and we're sure you'll become one of them!