If you’ve been running your own business for some time, you can easily get into the habit of using certain methods. Whether it is the suppliers that you use or your marketing strategy, if you are short of time or simply forget to schedule time in, it can get missed.
The biggest problem with this is that technology and insights develop so quickly that the methods that were successful just a few years ago are no longer the best methods.
There are constant introductions of process improvements, like automation of tasks or tools that offer cheap ways to do things without compromising on the quality. If you’re not making the most of these opportunities, then you can guarantee that some of your competitors are using them to get ahead of you. If you want to keep up to date with business and marketing trends then you need to dedicate some time to researching it. You don’t have to spend hours each week on this, just keep up with the key headlines so you know what is happening in the world.
Signing up for newsletters from websites like Entrepreneur will help you to keep up to date. There are lots of really good sources of marketing expertise out there and it could save you time if it means your marketing strategy is more successful A ten minute video takes no time at all to watch, so do your homework and make sure that your business strategy is on track.
We’ve seen some huge changes in marketing over the last few years and sometimes you can see large shifts in just a few months, so it really is important that you do some regular research. If you are monitoring your marketing strategy well then you will already be getting an indication of whether you need to adjust your marketing approaches.
Take email marketing as an example. Over the last few years, insight has shown that segmentation of email lists and personalized content is the most effective way to get ROI. If you are still plodding along with the same email marketing strategy that you had 5 years ago, then you’ve probably missed this concept altogether. It is never too late though, so get up to date and see how much you can improve your ROI with just some small tweaks to how you are doing things.
It is not just email marketing trends that are changing. Even the content that people create for their websites is drastically changing. Video content is becoming more and more popular and using YouTube or Facebook Live has become the norm for many marketers and businesses of all sizes. It is no longer just the big companies that invest time and money in channels like this. Search Engine Optimization is also a huge influence in terms of marketing strategies and this is a constantly moving beast. You really do have to stay tuned in to the latest news to ensure you are mastering any marketing channel.