How Well Is Your Business Prepared For M.A.S.?

There are three important trends that are changing today’s consumer landscape. Understanding these trends will help you better prepare your business marketing campaigns and get better results. The three trends are: Mobilization, Automation, and Socialization, or what I call M.A.S. Blog Website DesignThe first trend is Mobilization. In the last couple decades, our communication tools have taken a gigantic leap. Mobile devices such as iPhones, laptops, iPads, and SmartPads enable us to see each other’s faces as we talk person-to-person or on conference calls. They also help us do everyday tasks like pay bills online, check our bank accounts, use GPS map programs, and much more. Today, mobile device manufacturers are competing to make their devices so easy to use that even a 7-year-old child in a developing country, who had never see an iPad before, was able to navigate and use it within minutes. This shows how quickly our younger generations will learn how to use these mobile devices. In addition, the demand for mobile devices is on the increase; especially among business professionals who crave the mobile device flexibility which allows them to work on projects when, or wherever they want. The numbers of consumers using mobile devices will increase dramatically in the next few years. As a business marketer, this trend toward mobile communication is worth paying significant attention to, and you should consider it when developing your long-term marketing initiatives. Small Business Web DesignThe second trend I’ll mention is Automation. We live in a time of fast-changing-technology and the speed of the change is only increasing. Improved information technology tools are, unfortunately, replacing peoples’ jobs with machines. You’ve likely already seen it. Retail grocery stores like Cub Foods, Walmart, and Target have been using self-checkout stations at their registers for years. The airline industry has automated quite a bit; their task of checking in passengers used to be done by people, today it’s largely done by self-service kiosks. Today you can deposit a check in a machine that can read the check and deposit the money within 24-48 hours. Soon banks will utilize a virtual software assistant call Lola and replace some bank tellers with it, to minimize staffing costs. Lola is the cousin (or a newer version) of Siri, the virtual assistant that was built into Apple’s iPhone. These changes may affect your business, so it’s important to revisit your long-term marketing plan to make sure you’re in-tune with these trends. While we’ve automated more and let software and machines help us with more tasks, we’ve also created many new jobs along the way. A few examples are website content copywriters, search engine optimization (SEO) marketers, software application developers, computer repair experts, Internet providers, and more. The needs for staffing in these areas are on the rise, and might be hot spots for younger generations in coming years. The third trend is Socialization. Social media has become an increasingly important way for us to grow and connect with others. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and others have revolutionized the way people interact. Social media let you make friends and re-connect with friends (whom you thought you may never be able to find again) in the comfort of your home and on your mobile devices. Social media also helps you stay up to date with news that you may have never known without your circle of social media friends. One social media fact worth noting: one in every eight married couples in the United States, found each other on social media. Beyond dating, social media is where a majority of consumers spend quite a bit of their time. As a business marketer, you should think about segmenting your targeted customers on social media, or at least working to begin building a fan base. By setting up your company’s social media page such as Facebook and providing some valuable bits of information to people, you can begin to attract a fan base for your business. Not every fan on your social media site will purchase your products or services, but that’s okay, immediate purchases aren’t a realistic goal anyway. Growing a group of fans or targeted consumers who understand your products and services is a plus. People who have “liked” your page, on average, have higher buying and referring rates down the road. And because “share buttons” are everywhere on social media and web sites now-a-days, having a fan based such as Facebook or Twitter can lead to many referrals to your business, referrals you may not even aware of, until you ask the customers. With the increasing popularity of social media, business website, and search engines, business don’t just seek out customers, customers search for businesses; online through social media, or search engines. So having a professional web presence online, including social media pages and a smartly designed, compelling website, are absolutely essential to your online marketing success. Forward thinking businesses are ones that will come up with clever plans to adapt to these popular trends, in order to gain and maintain their market share, and stay competitive with their rivals. As business marketers, especially small business owners, you should pay close attention to these trends and possibly re-assess your current business marketing plan. It’s important to learn how to be more effective in communicating your brand, products, and services to your targeted customers on the Internet.