At the beginning of every year it is important for small businesses to evaluate their success of the previous year and to look for operational changes that will bring success moving forward. Constantly improving and adapting to changes is important for any business, but one thing that benefits small businesses over their large counterparts, is their flexibility. Most of these trends are nothing new to most, but utilizing them to their full potential in 2016 will great benefit any small business looking to grow.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media has grown into a a behemoth marketing tool for small businesses in the last several years. It is a very affective way for small businesses to market and sell to their consumer base in a cost effective manner. Heading into 2016 small businesses should put an even bigger emphasis on the their use of social media. Not only is the use of social media important for small businesses, but the vast analytical information that it provides to businesses is an exception tool for understanding the performance of your marketing campaigns.

MOBILE FORMS OF PAYMENT

Mobile payments are still in their infancy stages, but millennials and higher-income earners are leading the way and are now using contactless payments at least once a week. eMarketer is forecasting a 210 percent growth in payment transactions in 2016. This massive percentage increase will see mobile transactions increase form $8.71 billion to an estimated $27.05 billion. Even as mobile transactions become more widely accepted by businesses, it is important that there is also an added value for customers showing interest in using a “mobile wallet”. Android and Apple have begun supporting additional store and loyalty cards and this will give consumers more reason than ever to use mobile forms of payment in the very near future.

VIDEO WILL CONTINUE TO LEAD THE WAY

Video has been leading the way for search engine rankings and in 2016, video trends will continue to play a major role in developing a strong presence on search engines. According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, video will account for 80 percent of all global internet traffic by 2019. It is important for small business moving forward to use video as a main source of improving traffic to their website. There are endless possibilities for video content for your business and if your business has not jumped on the video band-wagon then it should be on top of your to do list heading into the new year.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Customer experience can be make or break for any small business and a companies ability to respond quickly to any customer request is important to it’s ongoing success. Keeping your website current is also important and this can be done through a variety of different ways including; clear and concise messaging, intuitive site-navigation, and optimization for mobile devices. With mobile traffic taking over desktop, it is important the your site is optimized for mobile use because consumers are always on the go and using their mobile devices more and more.

ADVERTISING

Advertising comes in many forms and moving into 2016 advertising prices will continue to increase. As the competition of digital space continues to grow the we will see an increase in bidding for space that is becoming increasingly limited. People are also using more ad blocking software, which has been costing businesses around $22 billion in lost revenue. Ad-blockers are a major source for the loss of potential sales, but they also negatively impact metrics that track digital advertising performance.

Many of these trends are already being used by many companies, but the importance of optimizing these trends moving forward in 2016 will pave the way for added success. It isn't easy staying up to date with the technology market as it is always changing, but the more you can stay ahead of curve the better chance your business will have for continued success heading into each new year. Let us help you make the most these new trends this year.

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