4 Business Trends to Pay Attention to This Year
It’s the time of year when we focus on what the coming months will bring us, both personally and professionally. The year 2017 is bound to be a great one, and should bring a multitude of changes. If you're seeking business success, take a look at these four trends that will impact your business.
1. The freelance world expands.
Freelancers now makes up approximately 35 percent of workers in the United States, and is expected to reach 55 million individuals this year, up 1.3 million from last year. This means that you will likely work with freelancers in the near future, if you haven’t yet. There are a lot of positives to working with freelancers, including they can help your business offer more to your customers for less money than permanent hires.
2. Connecting with your customers.
Always strive to provide a customer-centric experience—it is one of many ways to stand out among your business competitors. This isn’t new news to 2017, but the expectation for personalization is on the rise; it is no longer an option, but a necessity. Businesses must embrace this growing customer expectation, and in turn, will see an increase in consumer loyalty. A personalized sales approach and good communication will help you build better relationships with your customers so they don’t feel like you're selling to them. People are tired of being sold to and prefer to do business with those they like and trust.
3. Increased desire for high-value content.
Most businesses realize the importance of high value content as part of their marketing campaigns. Focus on providing beneficial content for your followers—this is one of the many steps to planning a successful marketing strategy for the new year. More and more businesses will produce white papers, e-books, and checklists available for download.
Prepare for a crowded playing field as businesses realize the importance of robust content in their marketing plan. To make your content stand out, write about things that you have researched well, and always take the time to answer questions from customers—both potential and current. All of your written content needs to be professional, and content of all sizes needs to be meaty.
4. Video becomes essential.
Video is already hot and will continue to become hotter through 2017. We will see more businesses choosing to embrace teachable moments on video, and the focus will shift to "real" and “transparent” over commercial pieces.
Video is a great way to draw your audience in, address issues, solve problems, and increase interaction with your brand. Become a resource for your customers and also aim to entertain your crowd. People like to gain information and want to be entertained at the same time, so give them both and increase the likelihood they will enjoy and share your videos.
It’s easy to become complacent in our work, but the trends for 2017 are ones you need to embrace with open arms. Take the time to figure out how these trends align with your current business strategy, and implement at least one of them to help your business thrive.
