At this time of the year I like to do a bit of research into forecasts of trends for the coming year. I wish I could say I’d found lots of optimism and positivity, but I’d be lying. I think it will be another challenging year but… cue soundtrack… when the going gets tough the tough get going. So here is an optimistic look at some of the key trends that I found in my research…
Customer Experience
None of us can take brand loyalty for granted anymore. Customers are making decisions based on their experience at every step in the buying journey. People want to be treated as individuals. The more personalised their experience the more likely they are to value it, want to repeat it, and share with friends.
How can you make the experience your customers have memorable? There are some great ideas in Chip and Dan Heath’s The Power of Moments which was our book club read in January 2021. The magic is usually created from something thoughtful and relevant; it doesn’t have to cost a lot of time or money. When people are careful about their spending giving them a great experience will have a real impact.
And when you’ve given someone a really great experience they are more likely to share it which could help you get more sales over the line. Make sure to share the nice things people say about you and ask their permission to share as testimonials or case studies.
Sustainability
Although sustainability has three strands… profit, people and planet it’s the environmental one which is mostly referred to by the trend spotters. More and more of us are introducing sustainable criteria into our decision-making. We want to get rid of plastic, especially single use. We need to use less harmful chemicals. We desire less packaging and for any essential packaging to be more environmentally friendly. We wish things would last longer or be repairable.
Have you taken any steps to make your business more sustainable? Are you telling your prospects and customers about them?
At Fabulous Networking we’re changing our stationery to more sustainable options as each item needs a reprint. We subscribe to Ecologi.com (Affiliate link) to offset our carbon emissions and to plant trees for each visitor who attends one of our in-person events. (The planting of these trees creates jobs in areas where they are greatly needed and eventually the trees should help offset carbon emissions. And I now read our book club choices on the Kindle app on my smartphone (yes I know it’s Amazon but at least it saves trees and the books are delivered through the ether!)
Buyer behaviour
Technology and the pandemic have had their impact on the way our customers buy. We do far more online and much of that on our smartphones. Are you ready for that?
- 48% of UK consumers used voice search for their queries in 2023, this trend is growing year on year. Our websites need to be able to respond to the ‘Hey Google…’ search.
- People are wanting to buy more locally, partly for environmental reasons, partly to support the local economy. Would you be found by a potential customer using local search terms? (Incidentally its much easier to rank on page 1 of Google for a local search than a wider area.
- With people moving to more online shopping they are looking for all the help they can get to make the right buying decision. Augmented reality is helping with that… things like trying glasses on your own face, testing paint colours in your own room. Is this something you need to investigate to help your customers?
- More customers are now wanting to make payments via their digital wallets on their smartphones, are you geared up to process those?
- Buying decisions are taking longer and involve more steps. Reviews are increasingly important to help with decision making. Are
your reviews up to date and obviously genuine?
Have you checked your buyer’s journey recently? Do you have enough touch points in, especially when they are at interest and consideration? They’re likely to spend much more time there than they did in the past.
Generative AI
Love it or hate it AI is here to stay and will almost certainly get even more clever in the coming months or years. Is this a threat or an opportunity for your business?
I’ve found Chat GBT useful for generating ideas when I’m stuck. If you train it well it can even produce some half decent copy in close to your tone of voice. That can be useful when you’re trying to get content out in a hurry or when you want something to brief a supplier for example. I don’t think it will ever be as clever as a talented copywriter, but it can be helpful when you don’t have the budget for one of those.
I’ve been less impressed with my own attempts at using AI to produce graphics but I have seen some great examples of what it can produce. Could you use this to enhance the service you offer your clients? Maybe an element of AI could save you time on a project and allow you to offer a service at a lower cost and win you some more business.
Resilience
If we want to emerge from these challenging times, we need to build resilience into our businesses. That might be resilience to threats caused by cyber-attacks, climate change or economic downturn to mention just a few.
- What would happen to your business if you were the victim of a cyber-attack? Do you have back-ups for your website, data, payment processing etc.? What protection do you have in place to mitigate your risks e.g. anti-virus software, fast response IT support?
- How are the effects of climate change impacting your business? Have you noticed changes to buyer behaviour? Are your premises at risk? What about your supply chain?
- As our finances continue to be under pressure what’s the effect on your customers’ buying decisions? Are they looking to buy less but at higher quality? Are they looking for extended credit or more flexible terms?
When did you last do a risk assessment on your business? Identifying the risks you face can help you to plan to lessen them. This may be the time to work on innovation and some fresh business thinking. Remember some of the most successful businesses have emerged from trying times.
