Authenticity

In 2009, business marketing began focusing on letting the real people who work for your company become visible and show rather than hiding behind a company and website. Consumer and B2B buyers want to know who they are working with before hiring your company. This is because people want to know there is a real person to contact if they have a problem with your products or services. Business sales trends need to focus on connection one-on-one through a number of social media sites.

To use this business marketing strategy, you need to establish a social media presence with your real name through a social media site like Twitter in order to interact with customers and prospects by providing both personal and business information. Set up a company or individual profile on groups such as MySpace and start asking customers to join. Have a blog where you can keep your customers updated on your industry, products, and services.

Do It Yourself Marketing

The biggest issue for small business marketing is to get and keep customers, yet nearly two-thirds of small businesses don’t want any outside help when it comes to setting up a business marketing strategy. The cost of traditional advertising is continuing to rise while the effectiveness is declining and more people are turning to the internet. So how can you make do it yourself marketing work for you? Consider the following tips.

Take the time to do some market research with free online tools such as surveys. This way you can determine what is really important to your customers. Focus your marketing budget on direct marketing. Build a customer list and start sending direct messages to your customers. Target your message from the information you gained from surveys. If you can’t do direct snail mail, than an email marketing campaign is cheaper and easier. Lastly, consider videos or slide shows on your website and blog. Video content does well with website search engine and can increase the odds of potential customers finding your website.

Technical Word of Mouth Marketing

A business study found that most customers would leave a company if they don’t see a difference between you and a similar company. This is why word-of-mouth marketing has become popular business sales trends. Your loyal customers are going to spread the word to other family and friends and tell them why they keep using you. This is the best way to penetrate through the difficult marketing process and find your ideal customers.

To boost your word-of-mouth marketing campaign, you want to run a forum section on your website that has ongoing Q&A sessions. This way, your customers will have real reasons to choose you. Develop a referral and/or affiliate program. Contact the businesses that serve customers before they come to you, such as a car dealer referring an insurance agent. This can help you collect referrals from others within your industry.

Go Green

Green businesses are now mainstream. Green is the biggest of all small business marketing trends. When you tell customers that your business, product or service is ecologically and socially friendly then you will be able to expand you customer base. Many younger consumers are starting to make purchase decisions based on companies that are making a difference in the world. If you want to increase your customer base then you need to make this a criterion on your business sales trends.

Actively promote any community programs you take part in or any ecologically friendly projects you have sponsored. Don’t pass off any environmental friendly activity as too small. Even if you are switching all light bulbs to fluorescent or paper to recycled material then you need to tell your customers in order to get them interested. If you do business locally then show your customers as well by taking part in recycle programs or put money back into helping your community become environmentally friendly.

Mobility

Another of the more popular small business marketing trends in 2009 is the mobility factor. More and more individuals are accessing the internet from mobile devices or smart phones. If you website is mobile friendly, then you will have access to a large number of consumers who are looking for information while on the go. Mobility also provides benefits for your business since you can receive updates on your order information through text messages.

Check out some services that allow you to send text messages to customers from the internet. Discuss the issue with your technical department to see if there is a way to convert your website or blog into a format that can be easily viewed on the internet.