It’s a new decade. Nothing seems too outlandish now that we’re in the Digital Age. Once regarded as foolish or impossible are now considered as household items. For example, who from the 1500s would ever imagine that the microwave would ever exist and that its main purpose would be to heat up our food?
Breaking the status quo and taking a huge leap of faith is what running a business is all about. After all, without taking the risk of investing your resources into a business, you would not have a company to manage.
When it comes to business, there should be a never-ending cycle of marketing strategies. Once a marketing strategy loses its effectiveness, one should immediately replace it. That way, the brand never loses its authority on the market. This also ensures that the name does not get forgotten or replaced by other brands.
Here are some business ideas to try in 2020. It doesn’t hurt to try and you never know whether you hit the gold or not.
Establish A Strong Social Media Presence
If your brand is still not yet on social media by 2020, then it is safe to say that you are losing out on such a huge opportunity. While your competition is firmly cementing their hold on your target demographic by churning out entertaining content on social media, your brand is doing nothing, thereby losing what could have been sales already.
A social media presence, through a page or through an influencer or vlogger, has been found to bring in many positive results from increased sales, improved brand authority, and even acts as a medium for brands to establish a more personal relationship with their customers.
Hire International Employees
Your company will not be able to stand on its own without proper human resources running it. You can have the best business model there is but with underqualified and incompetent staff, your organization will sink faster than a dumbbell in the ocean. International or foreign employees have different experiences compared to yours. This leads to more varied perspectives in the workplace.
Take into account that you don’t just need Yes-men in the office but people who will have differing opinions from you. For example, there may be some unseen facets of your organizations that can be improved. Many companies are intimidated at the notion of hiring international employees because of the extra steps such as getting a Philippine, Indian or China Work Visa. However, history has proven that without the H-1B visa and foreign workers, Silicon Valley, one of the vital catalyst for America’s economic boost, would not have existed.
Publish Interesting Content
One great way of keeping your leads interested is by publishing interesting content. This content should be relevant to the products and services that you offer while also being interesting to your audience. There are multiple ways to go about this. The most common is by having an online blog that shares regular and helpful content with your audience.
Social media platforms may also be used and through this, other mediums may be taken into account as a possibility such as videos, pictures, and GIFs. It is through this way that you can establish a loyal following that will allow your brand to be known. Just how effective can Content Marketing be? Statistics say that websites that have invested greatly in Content Marketing see over 7.8 x more website traffic than those who do not.
Set Up An Affiliate Marketing Or Referral Program
Imagine having other people exert effort in improving your sales without the company lifting a single finger or spending a single dime. Many companies are now employing affiliate marketers as one of their main strategy for marketing. Affiliate marketing is a program that brands set up which incentivizes affiliate marketers for successfully referring a customer to the brand through their own efforts. If they do not generate a direct sale then the company does not release any incentives to them.
This acts as a win-win situation for both the affiliate marketer and the brand. Affiliate marketers are not pressured to produce numbers while brands do not have to shell out unnecessarily for ineffective methods. However, there is another win for companies and that is even if their strategies prove ineffective, the fact that they get your name out into the open is one valuable service that can help you establish your brand authority over the industry.
Create Relationships With Other Brands
This is an age-old tactic that seemed to have been forgotten by many companies. When it comes to business, it is vital that you create as many relationships with other brands as you can. A mutually benefiting relationship will definitely give you a boost in the right direction. When looking for brands to be partners with, choose those who are somewhat related to your industry but that you aren’t in direct competition with.
For example, if your company provide events planning services, it would be perfect if you can get in touch with photographers, videographers, party supplies stores, etc. Utilize your good relationship by leaving your company cards at their offices for them to refer you or creating comprehensive bundled packages of your services with their services.