Running your own small business is no easy task. Not only do you need to know how a business works, but how to market and brand your business successfully. Computers were first intended for business use mainly to store data, and other information processing needs. This marked the start of the digital age. With the growing number of people using personal computers, business realized that there is a new emerging market.

After two decades since then it has become a must for every business to expand their marketing efforts online. In fact some business solely relies on online market. Many big companies would make major investments on online marketing campaigns to launch a product and promote their brand.

For upcoming entrepreneurs it’s important to realize this fact and learn from the past trends on how successful companies use the digital media to promote their name and brand. There has been a lot of changes in the methods and ways companies promote their brands online. Innovation of mobile phones and mobile computers has forced companies to adopt their online efforts to their mobile audience.

There is also the presence of social networking. Social network giants like Facebook, and microblogging platform Twitter has also shaped the trend in companies online marketing efforts.

Is your business ready to divulge into online marketing campaign? The infographic below explains various marketing trends and how they will help you in your endeavors:

Via Northeastern University Online

Recap: Marketing trends to follow

• Want to stay ahead of the competition? Optimise for mobile devices. 20-30 percent of today’s web traffic is coming from mobile devices. Not in a too-distant future, the majority of your web traffic will be coming from mobile devices.
• Create content: 90 percent of marketers are using content marketing. Expect this figure to increase consistently in years to come.
• Establish your social media presence: 93 percent of marketers are on social media – and this figure will continue to rise.
• Get yourself reviewed: 90 percent of customers say online reviews influence their buying decisions.
• SEO is getting tougher: 74 percent of Google search data is hidden (“not provided”)
• Build communities and talk their language.
• Do video marketing on hip social networks, like Vine and Instagram – the shorter your video, the better

Takeaway

The trends and stats lead us to one conclusion: If you want to be successful in today’s market, you need to do marketing using techniques that are not so-last-season. Plus, you need to hang out in the hangout places for your target market: If your target market is on Instagram, you should establish a presence in there.

One last tip: When connecting with your target market, focus on building a relationship. A real, human-to-human one. With so many generic, engineered, even fake web and social media presence, presenting yourself as a real human has its own advantage.