A year comes and then it goes but for a businessman every New Year is the new milestone of hope to do well and thrive in the business. He looks forward to make profits and reach new goals. With technology advancements taking place at faster rate there is no time for businesses to waste. With a number of businesses have already started to pick the flow and move, you cannot stand behind and loose the market share. This means you need to be aware of the business trends that will reign businesses in 2019 and mould your businesses towards success.

Having proper understanding of the trends will help businesses to prepare themselves and this will reduce the struggles that the business will face on the way.

The top business trends for 2019 and the years to come are:

When we talk about the term artificial intelligence, the first thing that comes to the mind is interactions without human interference. You don’t have to relate to automated marketing techniques with AI.

AI can be categorized into three categories, first the basic one where the machines perform normal activities, second is machine learning, where machines start to have their own experiences and learn and third one is deep learning where things get to higher scale.

Big businesses are opting for artificial intelligence to perform large number of redundant and repetitive tasks. This also helps them to collect all the data and use it without any kind of human interference. Today AI is considered as a standard norm to offer better customer experience across all the sectors.

It is possible to evaluate GPS information using AI and few of the examples are :

Real-time customer data is made available from phones by Google maps.

GPS insight brings down scheduling window for different telecommunication companies. It will help municipalities to initiate and deploy repair crews and emergency responders to tackle different crisis.

With time there will be more specific and customized automated solutions which will match consumer persona.

- Communities promote live interactions through social media

There are a bit of confusion about whether social media or in-person interactions are better. A good number of companies have understood that the best way to reach people is by building strong communities. The practical way to achieve it is through live and in-person interactions. Then again, opting for live video can prove to be better way to do so. In short, opting for social media can help to make interactions more valuable. As more consumers are connected over the internet, such interactions can work on faster pace than expected for businesses.

- Gen Z will influence

The Gen-Z generation are those who were born after 1998. These people will soon be the part of workforce and start with decision making role. The peculiar thing about this generation is that they are born with devices in hand. The businesses and brands of today are trying to understand this generation as they will be the future consumers as well as the employees.

The number of employees working remotely is increasing and so companies are finding ways to keep people working together and connected even outside the workplace environment. This will pave way to a new concept of social learning. It is a new concept where social interactions work as a base to promote learning. Social interaction is a process where two or more people come together and they talk with each other, and share ideas on the way. Every time people learn bit more about things and processes.

Today around half of the companies are making use of social learning at their workplace and more are expected to implement them in the coming years. Social learning improves overall learner engagement through self-direction. Again, the online courses will slowly make an exit as the learners are not able to communicate with others and feel isolated during the course. This will lead to digital community for online programs where people will participate and communicate with others, ask questions, share knowledge and engage.

Companies will work to improve expertise at the company level through social learning and new tools will be adopted with time for the same.

- Video contents will become popular

Consumers are no more interested in impersonal marketing techniques. They want to experience real connection with the brand. The best way to achieve this is through videos and live videos play a crucial role in it.

Using live videos can be the best form of media for consumers to understand and engage with the brand. Here real people connect in real time in the most personal manner. This helps the companies build a different image from that of their competitors.

Businesses are making use of live stream videos to launch products, for FAQ sessions, for webinars, product reviews and others as a part of their marketing strategy. As per the research of Livestream, around 80% of the consumers opt for videos rather than going and reading a blog. With more people using smartphones, people opting for live video on social posts are around 82%. So the companies which plan to invest their time and efforts into live stream videos will be able to find a better place in the market without much competition. (https://livestream.com/blog/62-must-know-stats-live-video-streaming )

- Don’t just serve your buyers

The way the potential customer would follow to make a purchase at your store is termed as buyer’s journey. With time customer behavior has changed and they have become smart. They do their share of research, go through the company websites, swarm onto social networks and check out online reviews before spending a single penny. This means by the time they are on the website to make purchase, they are well aware of the features of the products, and the options available. They have narrowed down the options and know what they want to buy.

This means a new buyer’s journey has been set and it is almost unpredictable. For marketers this stands as a big challenge and with time it will keep on updating. The buyers in today’s time don’t just buy products but they are on constant move to learn on the way.

This turns marketers to look for ways to reach their prospects and the people they interact with. In short, serving everyone apart from the buyers will help the business to build value.

- Focus on problems to get results with proper marketing

Marketing is all about showcasing the features and benefits they offer to the buyers or shoppers. In case of B2B businesses, customers are not bothered about what features and benefits they get while, all they look forward is how the service or product can solve their problem. For such businesses it is all about the result they get on their investment. They don’t care about the solutions you offer rather look for the solution you have for their problem. So the marketing techniques will be around offering solutions than boasting of features.

- Subject matter experts will have a major role

As businesses are changing and technology is advancing, there will be desperate need for experts who can help businesses bridge the gap between them and customers. This role will be played subject matter experts. They will work to provide information about the company as well as services and products they sell on the website. This will work well for those clients who have no idea about the things you do.

Major role of such subject matter experts are to discuss long about the solutions you offer and differentiate how a solution can be better than another one in the said case, discuss different industry trends and let clients know about the best practices. Again, they enjoy better place among shoppers which on the other side salespersons fail to gain.

This situation leads the companies to take up a couple of steps. The first one is to train the subject matter experts about the different sales environments and secondly to build expertise within the sales department who can build expertise within the traditional sales team.

When dealing with subject matter experts, businesses should make the effort of finding and narrowing down the leads so that business can focus on right opportunities. This becomes crucial as subject matter experts cannot waste time on resources that are not worth trying for. They don’t want to get stuck with administrative work while they can use the time and efforts to serve the clients.

- Add in human touch

The businesses of today are focused on opting for technologies like blockchain and AI and they are definitely good options. But, above all, one thing matters is the way businesses should take care of the customers and work towards offering them best services. Innovation can seem to be exciting thing but, you should not go for them before they are ready for the market. In case you fail to do so, you may end up moving away from your clients and confuse your team for sure. For the same reason, you should keep your team on the forefront especially in the areas concerning customers like customer service instead of completely depending on bots.

Year 2019 will be for AR and it is expected to go further. It will bring together the physical and digital world together and influence large number of business processes. Instead of replacing the efficient workers at the workplace, augmented reality will work towards improving their performance. AR will cover the sectors of automotive, airlines, marketing and warehousing.

Conclusion

Trends are going to come and you can expect more on your way. It is all about the steps you are ready to take. For this you need to accept the changing scenario and be prepared to work on your business. Many people are stuck with the routine processes and have found a comfortable space within it. It is difficult for such businesses to grow and they will be left behind for sure. They will not be able to see evident changes and will not be able to have improvements year after year. Keeping up with trends and changing technology will take the business to new heights.