About 20% of small businesses fail within one year, and this figure only keeps increasing as the years go by. 45% will be gone in 5 years, and in 10, 65% will have closed their doors.
As a small business owner, you’re going to want to adapt to new marketing tactics. If you don’t, you’ll lose loyal customers who want newer, faster marketing and service. Read on to learn all about the new market paradigm and why you should adapt to it.
It’s a Simple Model
2023’s market paradigm assumes that the customer is the most important part of the business. This ‘customer concept’ makes a ton of sense since consumers are the ones that give you money. It’s called a one-to-one paradigm.
You want to keep them happy and interested in your business. If you don’t, you’ll lose them to competitors that show them they value them.
Basically, you want to engage customers (and prospective clients) in genuine discussion. You want to let them get to know your brand and your business as they’d get to know a new friend.
This is the new norm. Consumers expect it and want to learn tons about you before they shell out any money for your business. This means that chatting and being transparent aren’t negotiable when doing business.
Beyond that, you have a ton of creative decisions ahead of you. You’ll need to figure out how to connect with customers. Researching what they like to see, what problems they’re looking to solve, and what platforms they use for communication is step 1.
There’s a Lot to Learn
As a business leader, you probably always want to learn more about buyer habits. A great source of marketing articles can help you figure things out before you even start talking to new customers. Actually asking clients questions and feeling them out will help you apply what you learn from your online reading.
Adjusting to the new market paradigm is fun. You’ll learn more about your target audience and how to do business with them. It’s a new challenge for high-achieving business lovers to tackle.
You Can Stay Ahead of Competitors
Customers expect one-on-one attention from their favorite brands. Most businesses are giving them this attention and making them feel valued. If you don’t, they’re not going to stay with you. They’ll leap into the more attentive arms of your competitors.
That’s obviously not great news for you. Adapting is a necessity unless you want your business to be left in the dust.
There are luckily tons of ways that you can make your brand stand out under the new business paradigm:
- Talk to customers on social media
- Send direct email messages
- Offer free consultation
- Pick up customer service calls quickly
- Respond to reviews to keep everyone satisfied
When your service is on point, your customers will stick with you. They’ll feel valued and get interested in what you have to say. In the end, you’ll get more brand loyalty and sales.
It’s Good for Branding
Part of creating a person-to-person relationship with customers is having a great brand voice. Your brand voice is basically the tone that you talk in with customers. It’s used in blog posts, social media posts, email newsletters, your official website, and DMs.
Your brand voice needs to be consistent.
If you’re going for a formal and professional brand voice, stick with it. Don’t get too jokey and don’t overuse contractions and slang. You should still use short digestible sentences, but don’t act like you’re best pals with your audience. Treat them more like business partners that you have a good rapport with.
If you’re marketing in a more approachable way, you might want to make customers feel like they’re friends. This means that you should joke with them periodically. Make puns and witty quips in your posts. Talk in an engaging and personable way that people will connect with.
In the end, talking to people consistently makes them feel invested in the person behind the keyboard. They’ll form a parasocial relationship with your brand and consider it a sort of friend. This will make them loyal to you over competitors.
You’ll Get More Business Insights
When you talk directly with customers, you also get more intel about your business. You’ll learn what pain points your target audience needs to cope with. You’ll learn more about their values, interests, and what they want to see from their favorite brands.
You also can ask them to fill out a form while waiting for a consultation or after talking to your customer service team. This will give you insight in the form of answers to questions you wrote.
This direct information can go into refining your buyer persona. This fictional person that represents the target audience you’re working with needs to be as accurate as possible. After all, it’s the best way to keep your marketing efforts focused.
When your business shows customers they’re valued, you’re also going to get more web traffic. This isn’t just good for sales. It’s good for data-driven analysis.
Plug your website into Google Analytics. See the demographics of people that are clicking your page. Assess what channels they’re finding you through (organic Google search, PPC ads, social media posts, etc).
Figure out which of your pages are the most interesting. You can see which leads people to make purchases. Then, you can emulate these pages and their success when making new posts.
You also can see which pages make people click away from your site the most. You’ll be able to figure out where you went wrong and avoid mistakes in the future.
Basically, the new market paradigm doesn’t just get you immediate sales. It helps you grow in the long term, too.
Adapt to the New Market Paradigm Now
Now that you know why your business strategy needs to adapt to the new market paradigm, it’s time to learn more. You’ll want to better understand finances and industry-related information ASAP. Check out the rest of our blog posts for articles on tons of different topics relating to business, money, and more.
