Instead of just noticing trends and then getting back to business as usual, let’s take action on three important practices that will impact your small business marketing in 2016.

These three practices separate top-level companies from the majority that ignore them.

Putting it another way, if you skip even one of the following practices your business will be among the majority whose digital marketing is missing the mark. That’s why these 2016 trends will soon be considered best practices.

#1 – Intimately Understand Buyers

Understanding buyers is part experience, research, and community. You need all three. You will need to build buyer personas based on what you know now and refine them as you learn more through ongoing engagement and formal research that should be performed at least twice annually.

You’ve most likely heard of big data but assumed that it’s for big brands. No more. Digital sites give every business abundant data with which to better target potential buyers, but only if it’s regularly tracked and analyzed.

You are interested in accurately defining and describing what your buyers want to achieve and become. That information is the starting point for building better products and marketing.
I think the best way to market right now is SEO, you can get so much traffic for free from google. You still need to apply link building and on-page SEO techniques and its not cheap but at the end its worth it.

#2 – Build an Expert Body of Work

Only after completing practice #1 should you begin developing a plan for creating helpful marketing content and social media. To be successful, you will need a written content mission statement, a written content strategy, and a clear definition of success.

You want to build a themed body of work that speaks to your expertise and how your business can help its buyers. For a rock band, a body of work is a collection of acclaimed records and albums and a history of memorable performances that span decades. This is what gets the best nominated and voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Your body of work is comprised of memorable customer experiences and content that tells a global story about who you are, why buyers should listen to you, and most important, why they should take action with your business.

#3 – Offer Uniquely Appropriate Solutions

#1 and #2 are marketing planning and implementation that map out the ideal buyer’s journey. What follows should be an exceptional customer experience that builds on it.

Your unique product and service solutions are a direct result of your marketing. In fact, they are so intimately connected with your marketing that it becomes part of the product or service. That combination is your unique differentiator.

What I find most exciting about these trends is most companies will not have the foresight or discipline to implement them. Success is not a moment, but a journey that is the result of doing a few things like these three practices consistently well.

Don’t be a one-hit wonder. Prepare to take action and rock 2016. Good luck.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on adaptive content? Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+