Imagine what your life would be like if you were trapped without a means of reaching the outside world. No phone. No Televisions. Or anything. It’s hard to even imagine such a situation.
However, some business owners place their businesses in such deary situations by adopting static business strategies. Our today’s market is an evolving one, from the customer’s needs to the competition. A successful business strategy is one that is dynamic enough to adapt to the changes in the market.
However, a major concern of business owners seems to be adapting to new marketing trends and at the same time having a unique and consistent brand. That goal is very attainable. It is possible to successfully adapt to modern marketing trends while keeping your brand’s message authentic and consistent. Here’s how:
Be wise in choosing trends.
Not every marketing trend guarantees a sale. Resist the temptation to jump on every trend as not all of them fit your businesses’ brand. The trend you should take advantage of is one that aligns with your company’s core values and objectives. One that can take your business to the next level. If a trend is the opposite of what you are as a brand then feel free to pass over it. Do not ruin your business over the fleeting experience of riding the wave of a trend.
Examine your environment.
As a business owner, develop the habit of observing your internal and external environment for any signs of change. Marketing trends do not just erupt from nowhere. Often enough, there are signals. Signals or indicators to watch out for including: changes in Sales, market share, customer satisfaction, or retention, or qualitative indicators, like customer feedback, testimonials, or complaints.
There are various tools such as PESTEL, SWOT, Porter’s Five Forces, or Scenario Planning, that can help you to analyze the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors that affect your business, as well as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing your business. You can also try out less complex tools such as; interviews, surveys, focus groups, social media listening, competitor analysis or web analytics, to detect patterns and shifts in market trends.
Analyze Marketing Trends.
The next step is to calculate the impact of those changes and trends you have noticed on your business. You must asses how they will affect the current and future value of your business. Will it increase your competition? Or affect your target market? Can your business benefit from it?
It’s a lot of thinking, but you will be glad you did this as it will inform you on whether or not to embark on it. Don’t forget to also consider the risks and uncertainties involved. Do not hesitate to back-off at this stage if you notice that engaging this trend will do more harm than good to your business.
Tools such as The Ansoff Matrix, the BCG Matrix or The VRIO Framework will help evaluate your resources, capabilities, products, and markets in relation to the trends and opportunities.
Adjust your strategy.
By now, based on your previous calculations, you should know if you want to change, trim or extend your business strategy to meet the current trend. Don’t forget to outline your objectives and allocate your time and resources accordingly.
Adjusting your strategy may involve creating new products or services, improving existing ones, exploring new niches, expanding to new regions or a partnership with another business. Employ techniques such as brainstorming, scenario planning, prototyping, mind mapping, or experimenting to test and validate each opportunity and choose the most viable one.
Monitor and Learn.
Many business owners often miss this step. As I said earlier, a new marketing trend is not a sure promise of growth. However, this should not push you away from them. The key to a successful business is knowing what trends to hop on.
After making such adjustments to your business strategy, monitor and evaluate the result as against your initial objectives. Was it a success? Feedback from your customers and stakeholders can also help you identify any gaps or opportunities for improvements to be made.
If you suddenly notice a gap or that your brand is losing its identity, then you have to go back to the board and evaluate your steps. Point out where things started going wrong and fix it before it damages your business. Don’t be discouraged by your mistakes but, instead, learn from them.
Communicate with your team.
Firstly, behind every successful business are hardworking and dedicated employees. As a business owner, you should know by now that your team can either make or mar your business. That is why, as a business owner, you should be careful with who you hire. Ensure that the people on your team are goal-driven, forward thinking individuals who share the same values and objectives as your business.
Sure, a salary is important but if that is all the members of your team care about then it’s going to be a deary ride for you. With a competent team, you can easily adapt to market trends, gain an edge over your competition and take your business to the next level.
As a business owner, you should give as much value to your employees as you do to your customers. Several studies have revealed that employees who feel valued are bound to be more productive and committed to work.
Also, a major ingredient that should not be lacking in your team is Communication. It is true that working with a team makes the work go by faster. However, things can go haywire very fast when you do not all have the same objective in mind especially as regards to your brand’s identity. Everyone on your team needs to be involved in branding and not just the higher-ups. A uniform understanding of your brand’s core values and concepts makes it easier to adapt to trends without losing your identity. The team should work together to ensure that the brand’s message is communicated at every step of the way.
Agile Project Management.
Agile management is a methodology that fosters innovation and at the same time minimizes risk.
For example, Mingling Trends wishes to launch new e-commerce products. With image testing, target audience-segmented message testing, varying price points, customer service modelling, amongst others, Agile management allows us to ‘launch’ and strategically release this new product into the market and test their success. This of course happens before the product is fully launched thereby helping us avoid any future costly mistake.
In other words, Agile management helps your business assess the possible rewards and risks of new products or services and allows you to use results to re-strategize and quickly respond to market changes.
Build a culture of innovation.
Let your business be one that encourages creativity, learning, experimentation and fruitful collaborations with other businesses and stakeholders. Your team members should know that you recognize and value them, that their opinions and ideas are valuable. This will build a safe and healthy workplace where everyone’s opinion is valued thereby encouraging creativity and innovation. Building a culture and team mindset of innovation increases the capacity and willingness of your business to adapt to new business trends.
Repeat Process.
Adapting to business trends is not a one-time affair but rather a continuous process of evaluating and adjusting. A static strategy does not build a unique company but rather a company that is soon to disappear. So, resist the urge to stick to the moldy old-fashioned way all in the name of being unique. We don’t live in those times anymore. As I have successfully shown you, it is possible to evolve as a brand and still remain authentic.
Adapting your business to the market trends also offers the following opportunities:
1. Growth.
Do not rob your business of the opportunity to grow by adopting a static market strategy. Participating in trends opens you up to new people, connections as well as skills. With this, you can easily expand your customer base by engaging with new contacts and turning them into potential customers.
2. Stimulates new business ideas.
Changes in the market have knocked many businesses out of the way. Do not let that happen to you. Instead, take advantage of it and pull out your ideas board. Trends offer new events, varieties and styles of doing things. By observing this, you can generate new ideas that will take your business to the next level.
3. Leadership.
Leaders in industries today are those who always seem to be mystically ahead of others; in tune with the market. By constantly adapting, taking advantage of changes in the market and integrating new ideas into your business, other business owners will view you as an authority and this improves the credibility of your brand.
4. Forecasting
Practice birth perfection. By remaining in the loop of emerging trends, you begin to develop a bird’s eye on future trends. Also, your ability and skill in taking advantage of them and integrating them into your business will get better as well. With time, you will learn to maximize gain and minimize loss.
How then does one keep with marketing trends?
The modernized world we live in is an ever-moving train. Every second, new information is uploaded to the internet. However, businesses are still thriving, in fact, a new one seems to emerge with every rising of the sun. So there has to be a way to stay abreast. Below are some tips:
– Keep up with your competitors on social media.
Yes, your competitors. Don’t forget that they too are running a business and are also trying to keep abreast with the market trends. By observing them you will be able to detect changes in their sales or marketing strategy.
– Connect
A castle isn’t built in isolation. As a business owner, regularly take out time to connect and converse with other business owners in your industry. Ask them their opinion on the market. Do they suspect change soon?
Such conversations may even birth beautiful and beneficial partnerships.
– Keep up with experts or leaders in your industry.
Leaders are often the first to spot such trends in the market. After all, they are not called leaders for nothing. Their social media feeds are often filled with useful content that can help you as a business owner to get better at spotting trends and adapting to them. You might never get to meet them but you can take advantage of their knowledge and years of experience to take your business to the next level.
Have they authored any books? Take advantage of that. A wise man once said that reading a book written by someone who has embarked on the path you are planning on embarking on is like standing on his shoulders and seeing ahead. Wouldn’t you like that to be you?
– Sign up for an Email list and an industry publication.
Trends are emerging everywhere and everyday. Some go with the wind, others are here to stay. The world has never been smaller. Business owners just grew wiser.
Hire a consultant today!
Finally, as a business owner who has other duties to attend to, it might be hard keeping up with the trends. Hire a consultant today!
At Mingling Trends Marketing, we can help you assess the changes in your market and identify trends that are in tune with the objectives and goals of your business.
At Mingling Trends Marketing we not only help you get in on trends but with proper analytics, observe the success of each step taken and re-strategize each time a gap is noticed thereby taking your business to the next level.
Contact us today. We would love to evolve with you.