December 12, 2011

It’s time for my annual prediction of small-business trends.

No matter what business trends are reported in the media, small businesses will always adopt them more slowly and in ways that don’t follow the hype.

Small-business owners don’t care what’s cool. They care about what’s practical and what seems obvious—and that’s not always what gets buzz. (I’ve been pretty much spot on with most of my predictions for small-business trends in 2011 and trends for 2010.)

Here are my predictions for 2012. Some of these might not seem as obvious as those in previous years. But, welcome to the odd world of small business.

Social networks evolve into markets

As social networks become more important in the lives of their users and the level of social behavior continues to evolve, they will become much more than outposts. These sites will move toward wholly functioning, self-contained marketplaces.

A growing number of people simply see the Internet as Facebook (and Facebook is OK with that). Other marketplaces such as Amazon, Etsy, Buy.com and eBay are moving toward socializing your product search and becoming decision engines.

This behavior signals the need for small-business marketers to view some outposts as destinations. Consider building a store on Facebook, Shoply, Amazon, Buy.com, Etsy and eBay.  

Ramp up your participation in these markets and educate yourself about them. Stop looking at them simply as transaction enablers. These sites are growing into major cities and you need to claim and increase your holdings there before they become overcrowded.

Content becomes conversion

Most small-business owners have come to see content as strategy, rather than merely words to be produced. Blog posts, white papers and in-person and online seminars  create awareness, build trust, educate and illustrate core stories.

That much is now a given in marketing now, but content adoption, expectation and use will evolve next year. I believe you will see a lot of content, social media-driven and otherwise, that is designed to convert rather than to simply inform.

Expect free content to get better and paid content to be part of the logical path. Expect video sales letters and automated online seminars. You’ll see members-only content, ROI calculators and content-enhanced products becoming the norm.

Mobile powers local

Last year, I predicted that mobile would finally land for small business. We've talked about mobile as a marketing channel for years, but it seemed it wasn’t happening.

Finally, mobile has become an important medium. This is in part because of smart-phone adoption and in greater part because of the shift to mobile behavior. Every age demographic is using mobile devices to locate local businesses and those people intend to purchase.

Mobile websites, mobile offers, mobile payments and geo-location will become essential elements of the small-business local-marketing toolkit. Even Near Field data exchange, which had a science fiction ring just a few years ago, will be part of that picture.

Oh, and small-business owners will get over their fear of using SMS in smart ways.

Customer service goes community

The cable provider Comcast launched Comcast Cares, a social media push to repair a poor customer-service perception. It set the bar for how brands need to engage with their customers in the always-on, always-public world of social media.

As the toolset evolves with players like ZenDesk and Get Satisfaction, businesses of any size can provide incredibly high-tech support without losing high-touch service.

Small business will embrace the community in a peer service-provider model and start providing service in public-facing, brand-building ways. They will embrace tools that turn customer service into a shared community model, where customers help answer questions and evangelize the products and services.

Search moves to apps

My use of search-engine technology is slowly being replaced by the use of apps that provide me with answers relevant to my personal needs. My guess is that while you may not have taken note, you’re using search engines less and answer engines more.

This trend highlights the marketers’ need to go beyond SEO and PPC and move deeper into social networks, mobile marketing and app-based local marketplaces.

Apps inside social networks provide answers. Apps inside social-bookmark sites serve up interesting reading. Apps in content-curation tools like Storify provide relevant context for content. Apps on mobile devices, such as Yelp’s, help you find bars and restaurants. Apps using QR readers give you deeper information on companies and products. Apps are delivering sports scores, movie times, videos and images.

John Jantsch is a marketing consultant and author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine. He founded the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network.

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Join the conversation ( 10 )

• duffyrico 1 months ago

  

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• Carmen Sognonvi 2 months ago

  

  Great set of predictions, John! The one thing I would add is the rising importance of voice recognition. Apple's Siri is of course, the big player in this area right now, but I suspect other companies will follow suit. I just read an article about how TV manufacturers are hoping to get rid of the remote control altogether by implementing voice commands instead. I think we'll see more and more attention paid to how you can optimize your website not just for mobile, but for voice search.

  • John Jantsch 2 months ago

    

    I agree Carmen, I guess I would put that in the app category - Siri will cut into Google search for people that get in the habit of using it. You're also right about getting found by the Siri type apps will become bigger - particularly for local biz like yours.

• Kevin Horne 2 months ago

  

  Ah yes, the year of mobile ;) THis will be the 6th year now i believe. PaidContent just had an article today noting that Mobile makes up around 1% of the average marketer's budget, after all this time. I think 2012 will pass just like the others as far as mobile goes (tablets excepted).
  
  I posted this almost 2 years ago, so the data is dated obviously, but the issues holding mobile adertising and mobile marketing back are still the same:
  
  http://lairigmarketing.typepad.com/lairig_marketing/2010/03/mobile-advertising-forecasts-a-stopped-clock.html

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• Drewry News Network 2 months ago

  

  I always tell people online that "content is king on the Internet". and, as businesses transition more and more daily into social networking, it provides ample opportunity for traditional businesses to experience the awesome power of the Internet, in potentially increasing their conversions, while building meaningful online business relationships with people on social networks. Writing quality killer content will always convert people online not just in the moment of them reading it, but potentially for years to come :-)
  
  
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• Bradley Miller 2 months ago

  

  Great article! Content becomes conversion is key that is slowly coming true and one that we at Interior Branding Experience are betting on in 2012. We currently have two different groups in Facebook, one for our FREE Social Media Coaching content for small business owners and entrepreneurs https://www.facebook.com/groups/210689162344464/ and then a link to access our PAID clients only content http://www.jotform.com/form/13245935123. Business owners are now realizing that it is not about the number of fans that they have, but the number of fans they convert to customers, and most need to get more targeted with their fans and message. Again, all great points John.

• Ken Mueller 2 months ago

  

  Good stuff, however I somewhat disagree with point 2, only because I don't think we are there yet. You say "Most small-business owners have come to see content as strategy, rather than merely words to be produced." I honestly don't see that. I'm surrounded by small businesses that still think creating a Facebook page is all they need to do. On the local level, many small businesses aren't there yet, and content is still something "I really should do". It's getting better, but I still think we're a ways off on that one.

  • John Jantsch 2 months ago

    

    I suppose there's a bit of truth to that Ken, so I retract the word "most." However, we are getting to the place where it's not an option and those that don't wake up will be left to wonder what happened.

• Ashley Neal 2 months ago

  

  This is a really great article. Thanks for the tips :)
  
  @smallbizatlanta