2017 Online Trends for Small Businesses

As 2017 is now well underway it is a good idea to take notice of the online trends that will impact your business this year.  For every business the technologies and new developments that are important will be different depending upon business needs, but why not keep a few of these in mind when planning your marketing and sales strategies for the coming year?

New Technologies

Experts consider that as the year progresses it will become more and more important to give customers access to newer technologies including modern payment options such as Apple or Google payments. Adapting to these newer technologies is considered to be easier for small businesses than large companies that have large systems that are more difficult to change.

Automating marketing will also prove to be easier as it reduces the need for human labor in the process. Marketing emails and posting to social media is easier than it used to be and it means that marketing teams will be able to look at dealing with larger tasks while many online marketing tasks are automated.

While not a new technology, cloud computing is rapidly developing and it is thought that as 2017 progresses more and more companies will opt to use a hybrid cloud model. Data can be stored in more than one place, helping to protect it from hackers. The rise of the hacker is not set to slow down at all this year and it is expected that attacks on businesses will become more frequent so there will be a stronger emphasis on protecting this data.

Social Media & Web Design

Google AI learning is going to help to change the way in which web pages are ranked by the various search engines. The focus is going to be on the user experience when it comes to web design so there will be new innovations in this area. The design of a web site can encourage users or turn them off, so thinking about the end user is going to become more important. Businesses will be encouraged to evaluate their interaction with customers and adapt where needed.

It is also going to be more important for companies to consider promoted posts and targeted ads when using social media. This is going to be the best way to reach the maximum number of potential customers. There are many benefits to this including the ability to better track the effectiveness of the ads.

There is also going to be a trend towards increased use of video on social media. There are many sites that use video including YouTube and Facebook Live and businesses that want to keep a finger on the pulse need to increase their video use as it helps to interact with customers.

These are just some of the trends predicted for the coming year but remember that not all of them will work for each individual company. It is important to assess the needs of the company and consider these trends carefully before including them in a marketing strategy.