Five Business Trends to Watch for in 2020

New Year’s means resolutions and new perspectives, personally and for businesses. Keeping up with business trends is key to the survival of any business, especially small businesses. These are some of the small business trends that I expect will influence businesses in 2020.
 
Going Green Gaining Momentum
Expect to see more emphasis on being environmentally responsible as a business owner. If you want to reduce your environmental impact some things evaluate is the consumption or use of non-recyclable materials, reducing waste, opportunities to use recycled materials and selecting local or green vendors. Once you have taken proactive steps and identified opportunities to go green be public about your planned or taken actions. When you share the story of your actions include what going green means for your business and why it matters to you, being authentic in sharing your company’s actions will help to establish trust with your brand.
 
Stories on Social Media
Instagram and Facebook both offer stories and are increasing promotions of stories, which allows users to share photos and videos. As a business owner, you can use this as a way to share information or to repost any mentions made of your business or your industry. Make sure you’re following the tags associated with your business and industry to follow the discussions happening online. You can also pay to have ads featured within stories.
 
E-Commerce Dominates
In 2020 e-commerce will be everywhere, and the channel will continue to advance the service and customer experience provided. More businesses are likely to make use of chatbots to drive sales and traditional businesses are realizing the necessity of providing e-commerce solutions. Brick and mortar businesses may begin to distribute products online and service-based companies could sell things like whitepapers or e-books.
 
Personalized Content
Personalization is already very important when presenting information to consumers, but the amount of personalization in content marketing will grow in 2020. Users have an increasing expectation of seeing emails and content online based on their actions, they expect to receive relevant content based on their actions or information. In 2020 there will also be a rise in dynamic content, which is content that is changed and that displays unique information based on the user’s demographics. Dynamic content is inherently more relevant and is more likely to result in a conversion or sale.
 
Workplace Equality
Increased focus on sexual harassment training and the number of states requiring mandatory training increased in 2019 and will continue to be a priority in 2020. If your business doesn’t offer any training you should look at the requirements in your state and plan on instituting a program in 2020, and if your business currently offers training revaluate the offering to make sure that it is sufficient. Additionally, pay equality will also be a topic of continued interest in 2020. Some states have passed laws making it illegal to ask about salary history or current pay during the recruiting process. Many businesses are choosing to be proactive and look at equal pay strategies, flexible working arrangements and childcare options as a way of making their workplace and culture more inclusive.

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