5 Digital Marketing Trends for SMALL BUSINESSES and find out the DREAM TREND for small businesses

If you search for ‘Digital Marketing Trends’ it might just blow your mind! You might well read them and think:

What? (You actually don’t have a clue what the ‘trend’ is)

There’s no way I can do that with my budget! (You’d need a six figure marketing budget let alone a six figure turnover to make it happen)

That would take ALL my time! (In theory you could do this, but it would need a huge commitment, and you KNOW you couldn’t sustain it in the year ahead)

So I’ve read all the articles, had lots of the ‘WHAT?’ moments, I’ve filtered it all down, and compiled a list of trends for the year ahead that are actually achievable if you’re a small business owner. So this is for you if:

• You own your own business and you’re looking for tweaks you can make to your social media marketing in the year ahead.

• You don’t have a huge budget or huge amounts of time, but you’d like to make the most of the time and money you do have to spend.

• You’re looking for achievable gains that won’t blow your mind.

So here goes:

Trend 1: AI Powered Marketing

AI is here to stay, but it doesn’t have to be scary. It can save you lots of time, help you generate new ideas, and help your ideal customer find their ideal product or service (you!). Use a chatbot like ChatGPT to help you research topics and keywords, and to write your content with these handy tips:

• Be specific with it. Use prompts like ‘write me a long-tail keyword* Facebook post about……’, ‘write a blog post with a reading age of 17 about…….’, ‘search ten long-chain keywords about……

*A long-tail keyword is a specific and highly targeted keyword phrase that typically consists of three or more words. It is more specific and less competitive than generic keywords. Long-tail keywords are often used by search engine users who have a clear idea of what they are looking for. These keywords help businesses to attract highly relevant traffic to their websites. For example, instead of targeting the broad keyword “shoes,” a long-tail keyword could be “women’s running shoes with arch support,” which narrows down the search intent and audience.

• Use it as a basis for a post. AI isn’t perfect and sometimes gets things wrong, and although  the latest ChatGPT incarnation can mimic your voice, it doesn’t know everything. Use what it creates as a starting point, but DO take your time to amend and personalise. For example, I recently wrote a blog for a company about the benefits of living on the North East Coast of Britain. I used AI to generate a first draft which worked brilliantly as a starting point. It made some great points, some that I wouldn’t have thought of, but it also got some things wrong. It marvelled at the beautiful sunsets for starters, but as an east facing coastline, it’s the sunrises that are really spectacular. It also doesn’t know the quirky nature of the people who live here, or the personality of the community. Once I’d amended it to be correct, and added the really good bits, the  blog was good to go.

Predictive analytics is a new trend and this comes under the umbrella of AI too. It’s using AI to personalise ads depending on a person’s preferences. While this can come with a hefty price tag to do well, small businesses can think about personalisation when it comes to their own marketing too. It could be as simple as segmenting your mailing list and sending different offers to different groups of people, or doing some market research via Instagram polls and questions. This works brilliantly if you have a small customer base as you can tailor your message to YOUR people (this links perfectly with Trend 2).

Voice search is also on the up and the prediction is that it will be worth $40bn. For small businesses, this is simple. Just hold a pretend microphone (or ask your customers to do the same) and think about what people would SAY if they were searching for your product or service. Wording might be more casual or use different words to a written search, so take some time to consider this, and alter your wording accordingly.

Trend 2: Community Building and User Generated Content

This is the DREAM TREND for small businesses.

This is the movement away from macro-influencers and the race for likes and ‘going viral’. This is the focus on YOUR people, who share YOUR outlook, and have the same lifestyle as you. Where automation (Trend 1) might save you time creating content, you can use that time more wisely by building relationships and personalising your offer. That’s connecting and chatting with people in YOUR area, or who share YOUR values. Much more fun and rewarding!

Influencers remain important in this respect too, and they can really succeed where adverts can’t. Micro or nano influencers (those with smaller numbers of authentic followers) are having increasing success as their recommendation comes with a sense of TRUST attached. So finding relevant influencers in your niche is going to remain an effective way of spreading your brand recognition and generating sales in the year ahead. With the average being for every £1 spent on influencer marketing generating £6 of sales, why would you not?!?

Trend 3: VALUE

Another trend that smaller businesses can easily cash in on is creating value for its customers (and that includes ethical value). With the Cost Of Living Crisis people’s focus is more firmly on value than ever. So while they might be buying fewer Christmas presents, they’re being more thoughtful. They might have fewer meals out, but make them more special. It might be cheaper online, but they can get better customer service from a local shop. By adding value, you can ensure you remain in the forefront of people’s thoughts as they make more conscious choices about where they spend their money. 82% of shoppers look for brand values that align with their own, so make sure you tell people what your values are.

You can do this by:

• Tailoring your social media posts accordingly. Shout about your great customer service, ask happy customers to write a review, have your values clearly in your business bio.

• Use campaigns such as Colour Friday or Small Business Saturday and join up with thousands of other small businesses to celebrate independent businesses.

• Highlight ethical companies you use, stock and work with, and tell people why they are close to your heart.

Trend 4: Interactive Content

This comes back to personalisation, value and community building. Polls, quizzes, forms and discussions work brilliantly on lots of levels. They can give you vital intel about what your customers want, can bring people together and forge closer connections with potential customers, can highlight your values, and can cement community. And it’s fun!! Just make sure you harness the information you gather along the way! If you’ve got customers on a WhatsApp group, did you know you can create polls on there now too? You can thank me later!!

Trend 5: Video

Yes, video is here to stay. For many small businesses this might be still on the scary side, but it’s worth starting your journey with video and building it up gradually. For me, the biggest flag for this is the recent collaboration between TikTok and Google – they’re experimenting with the use of TikTok as a search engine. With more and more people using social media to search for products and services, this transition makes sense. The good thing is that TikTok isn’t sleek and it isn’t uber professional. It’s fun, low budget (mostly) and down to earth. This trend is one that, for smaller businesses, it is worth starting out with if you’re not already there. Or you can start by making video a more regular feature on the channels you are already on. There are lots of great editing apps and you can also create directly from many channels, but the more you do it, the easier it gets.

If you’ve found this useful, subscribe to the H Social mailing list for other social media tips specifically focussed on smaller businesses. Or book in for a social media audit. With this you’ll get a bespoke report about your existing channels from a user perspective, valuable tips for YOUR business (including researched hashtags and keywords), and an outline plan for content in the month ahead. We’ll then meet (online or in person where possible) to have your questions answered and more ideas generated.