Hello,
Wish you all a very happy new year. I know I am late in wishing but then it’s never too late to send in good wishes to people who matter to us :). A lot happened at my end in December. Unplanned travel, medical emergencies, multiple covid tests, meeting friends and family, and more. Many of us are relieved that 2020 is finally over! Phew, what a year it was. I jotted down some year-end musings and reflections on my Medium profile here.
Now that we’re halfway through the first month of 2021, I am sure all of us are back to business recharged, and raring to go! Wondering what are some of the trends that you must follow in 2021 to grow your business? I have some updates for you. There are gazillions of trend reports out there. Some will make sense and some will confuse the hell out of you. If you are a solopreneur, small business, or passion economy professional, it won’t be possible for you to follow all the suggestions. Some require bandwidth and some considerable amount of money - both of which are challenges for small businesses. So, here’s a gist for you, a list of practical insights that will be doable for small businesses.
Ephemeral content is on the rise. They are quick, easy, and economical to create. The platforms provide a variety of interactive templates. Go ahead and try the power of stories on Instagram, Facebook, and now even Linkedin and Twitter. If you are new to ephemeral content and would like to understand more, you may head to my posts here and here.
Videos are here to stay. People gaze five times longer at videos than at static content. And by videos, we don’t necessarily mean YouTube videos only. There are many other options available - Instagram reels, Facebook/Linkedin Live, TikTok, and more. Creating videos has become very cost-effective now. There are tonnes of free and paid video apps available apart from the native phone apps like iMovie and Movie Maker.
Google My Business is worth your time. It’s free and very easy to set up. It may require some bandwidth initially to finish the listing with photos and reviews but it helps small businesses immensely with search and map results. In case you haven’t set it up already, you may do it here.
Influencer marketing still works. That is when done rightly. In fact, the pandemic has made it more popular as many have taken to content creation while being at home. Creating an engaging content pool isn’t easy. Good influencers help us with reach as well as the content. Finding an influencer whose persona matches with our brand and who can create share-worthy content is the key. In case you’re looking for some help in how to find the right influencer, you may head to one of my earlier posts here.
SEO has come to Instagram now. No, it’s not just about optimizing your blog and website content for search anymore. Instagram has added the ability to search for content with keywords rather than being limited to hashtags. This means more opportunities to appear in search results. Time to give our bio and post content some serious thought and make them search-friendly.
Everything is getting shorter. Short-form videos, web stories, lesser text, key messaging in the subject line or in the first 5 seconds of the video. Unless you have something worth elaborating on, keep it short and simple. Making simple is more complex. But simple, and real are what connects with the audience.
Advertising gets easier, attention gets tougher. Are you investing in creating attention-grabbing content? A lot of my work involves interacting with startups and new businesses. 99 out of 100 times, the first question that I get asked is - I want to start advertising on Facebook/Instagram. Can you help me set it up? Of course, I can, but can we review the basics first - the product, the content, the target audience, and the messaging? Most of the platforms have simplified the advertising process. Anyone with a basic understanding of digital can do it. But what requires expertise and effort is attracting user attention. Invest your time and effort in that.
To sum it up - create fast, be interactive, ride on the popular trends, keep it simple and short.
Post pandemic, there are still a lot of opportunities waiting for us to explore. May the year 2021 open up many new avenues for your business.
Onward and upward.
*Before I sign off - if you are a solopreneur or small business, may I request you to help me with your answer to these 2 questions, please? It will take less than a minute of your time. Thank you in advance.
Cheers,
Kanupriya
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*This post is the seventh post in a 10-posts series that I have created for Small Businesses, Passion Economy Professionals, and Solopreneurs to help them in their Product Marketing Journey. If you liked it and would like to read more, you may read the eighth post here.
And If this post was worth your time, may I request you to help me spread the word by sharing this post? It would mean a lot to me.
Know more about ‘Connecting The Dots’ here. Looking forward to connecting the dots together :).