In a world of constant change adaptability has become our saving grace, moreover, the ability to successfully adapt in a rapidly changing business environment gives us a competitive advantage. We learn to change with customers, with the economy, with new technology. Here’s or piece of advice for you on how to survive the adaptation in the form of 7 helpful steps. Let’s go.
Step 1: Make sure you know who you’re marketing to and why. We’re not going to get into the research or offer you advice on how to find the perfect audience for your business. I’m hopeful and believe you have enough experience to handle all of the essentials on your own. I want you to take a look at this from a different angle: over the last decade we were all fed tons and tons of information on how to market to Gen Y crowd without even connecting the dots that they are a) overwhelmingly financially unstable and b) were killing off whole industries one by one because of that. What this should teach us is: make sure you understand who to market to and who needs your product. Thus, step one: roll up your sleeves and start building that comprehensive customer profile, research your niche, survey a representative group or two of your clients, schedule focus groups, analyze buying patterns, SM activity, pay extra attention to buying cycles, etc.
Step 2: Understand the benefits of PA for your business. Predictive analytics is your only friend in the new business environment. This kind of AI analysis is now applied everywhere; you’ll be hard-pressed to find a field where PA isn’t being successfully used. From customer risk assessment to fraud detection or even predicting appointment no-shows – this is the tech you need for adaptation. PA can help you forecast your inventory, pin-point potential production failures, considerably reduce potential risks. PA is very successful in detecting fraud by tracking changes in behavior on a site or network. Surely, with PA you’ll have a much better marketing campaigns and, most importantly, will be able to precisely target your audience.
Step 3: Count your cash. We often bare whiteness to companies being pretty reckless with their marketing budgets while trying to adapt to new business environments. Absolutely unnecessary, especially for small businesses. When any factors influence your operating situation to the point of needing to change and adapt, you don’t just add additional spending to your budget, but rather mindfully rethink your spending. For example, suppose your coffee shop isn’t reaching the set targets due to the economic downturn, increased competition, or unsatisfactory customer service. Now, these days all of that can be addressed and fixed in a week or so with a digital menu + professional DS and location-based DOOH + mobile advertising and not by rolling out a new crazy expensive marketing campaign with varying success predictions. Implementing a mobile marketing strategy that incorporates SMS advertising is a smart investment. Since 90% of people across the globe own a mobile device, reaching them has never been easier. Texts are read almost instantly after being received, meaning their reach and engagement are unrivalled. In addition, SMS marketing is extremely affordable! Each message only costs a few cents, making this a low-cost, high revenue advertising channel.
Step 4: Study-up on your competition. While it may seem that you have already mastered this domain and there is nothing new to be found – search some more, you might just have missed something important. We have tons of data available nowadays and abundance of tools like an ERP solution for your small business to dissect, decode and analyze that data to then effectively help companies adapting to a new business environment. Additionally, in our age of continuously advancing tech, the competition will look much different moving forward and you need to clearly understand not only who you are in competition with, but where exactly you should be competing. Do all you can to familiarize yourself with your competitor’s playbooks.
Step 5: Seek expert advice. Though it is impossible to predict the next big thing that will speed-up your adaptation process. it’s not that hard to find out what currently works. Hence, enter experts. Just seek the advice of those who have enough expertise to analyze the industry and identify the biggest customer attractions. Moreover, if you don’t have the funds to hire professional advisors – search for their expert advice online, you won’t be able to receive expert recommendations specifically for your business, but you will have a general idea of what to expect in the foreseeable future. Just to give you an example: nowadays experts are ringing the bells for the upcoming wave of cyber-attacks on businesses, they warn against anything from the hacking of digital assets to attacks on manufacturing equipment, surveillance cameras, and data centers. You can take note and beef up your IT department. We have lots of expert advice at kitcast.tv, there’s tons of useful information to help your business strive on our DS blog.
Step 6: Adapt only with the omnichannel approach. We live in the times when the online and offline worlds are overlapping more and more, your customers are expecting you to meet them everywhere they are, or they’ll move along to the next brand. Let me just give you a bit of advice from a customer perspective: if your awesome DOOH ad has managed to catch my attention I fully expect then for a QR code or link to take me to your smartphone-friendly website and your employee or chatbot should be able to answer a few of my product-related questions on the FB messengers. I would then expect to get a discount for your app download and order the product on that app to be later picked up at your store or delivered to my home address. Now, if that chain of events will be missing a link or two, you are going to lose a client. So, adaptation these days starts with checking your omnichannel link connections.
Step 6: Know the tech trends in your niche. Make no mistake, in the age of technological advancements trends are not to be taken lightly; trends are the difference between scrambling to catch up, or staying two steps ahead. Voice search has shifted from just a trend to an absolute necessity in a blink of an eye, in just a decade our stores transformed into high-tech hubs packed with smart shelves and digital try-on mirrors, personalized shopping and futuristic AR tech. And now, when we’re entering a new decade, we will see even more advancements in technology so take a pause and learn about 2020 tech trends that just might help you to adapt with ease in any business environment. In the upcoming year, we’ll certainly see more automation, 5G technology will be making a huge splash, AI will only get bigger and better, voice technology, blockchain tech and, of course, analytics will all be taking the center stage.
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