Business Trends in 2023 that SMEs Should Know About
Prepare your small business for the future! Learn what trends in business you should be aware of in 2023 and how to stay ahead of the competition.
Over the past few years, SMEs have encountered enormous difficulties and endured a tremendous amount of change; this trend won’t slow down in 2023. Businesses will need to deal with the pandemic’s aftereffects, economic difficulties, and the rapid digitalization, as well as an ever-faster development of technologies. To survive and grow in this complex and competitive business world, you must always know new trends and stay up-to-date. Here are the main business trends to expect in 2023.
Digital Marketing
The recent turn of events has digitized business operations throughout the world. Businesses are extensively leveraging digital marketing to up their game. With the increasing advancements in this area, this trend will continue to thrive as we move into 2023.
Communication with Clients in Messengers and Social Networks
Of all marketing activities, this method ranks third in terms of return on investment. SMEs should consider when communicating with customers that they expect quick responses on social networks. By using data in correspondence, you can personalize your offers, the customer will think that the product or service is for them. More and more tools are appearing on social networks and messengers to help entrepreneurs promote and sell their services and products. Therefore, the development of communication with customers in personal messages becomes even more important.
Short Videos
Video content is very popular, especially short videos. Many users don’t enjoy wasting time reading large texts, and video content allows them to learn more information in less time. Video gets attention, and it’s a great way to tell customers about the benefits of your product. Accordingly, it can help to gain more conversions for SMEs.
User-generated Content
User-generated content refers to any online content created by someone who is not a member of your brand. These people could be your customers, brand advocates, employees, or anyone else. User-generated content includes customer reviews or ratings, as well as stories about the brand shared by employees. Using user-generated content is a brilliant new concept in digital marketing. It shows the positive aspects of the brand posted by people not directly related to your business.
Staff
Working with Freelancers
In many countries, companies are increasingly cooperating with freelancers, contracting companies. This phenomenon has been called the gig economy, working on short-term contracts. For businesses, this is a way to cut personnel costs by working with some employees or even departments as contractors. Many employees are also comfortable with this option, as it implies greater independence and flexibility of the work schedule.
Remote and Hybrid Work Format
Another trend that emerged after lockdowns and continues to be relevant. Many employees prefer a remote or hybrid work format - a combination of working from home with occasional office visits. For companies, it’s a way to save employees time and company resources. Companies that don’t care as much whether an employee is in the office or at home can reduce their energy costs, office equipment, or even office rent.
Technology
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a major technological trend of our time that is changing the way we work in business. It allows businesses to store and access data on remote servers from anywhere in the world. The trend of moving business to the cloud is speeding up, and new entrants are constantly emerging in the cloud services market. Competition between cloud solutions can lead to lower prices and higher quality services.
Big Data
The amount of big data being generated is surprising and is likely to increase in the future. Businesses will need to store and process this data, which will become even more complex. In the past, companies used big data for digital marketing and advertising purposes. Now Big data helps solve more complex problems in health care, finance, and manufacturing, improve decision-making, and predict future trends.
Work Management Tools
The managers are always overloaded with work. As the competition increases, the project becomes more complex, and the project managers have to deal with a growing list of tasks and responsibilities. Here, work management tools come to the rescue. Tools like Toggl, OpenGrowthhub, Slack, and Basecamp, offer solutions to one umbrella. The features, like time tracking, activity tracking, daily reports, and multiple integrations with other software, make it easy to track work easily. It also helps to improve accountability, as everyone can see who is working on which topic and who is the topic owner.
Working with clients
User Experience
The ability to shop quickly and conveniently online has become commonplace for customers, and they expect that the whole process of choosing and buying should run smoothly and be enjoyable. Of course, that doesn’t mean that price and quality take a back seat. Quality and price also affect how a person goes through the entire product selection and purchase process.
Support before and during the purchase, referral services to choose from, and an intuitive interface are important prerequisites for a successful user experience. Millennials expect quick and courteous answers. And the user experience encompasses everything from online communications to actual interactions.
Caring about the Environment and Customer Health
Climate change is likely to become an acute problem in the coming decades. Natural resources are becoming scarcer, and many companies are aware of the need to take care of the environment. Consumers are paying attention to the composition of products, to the impact that companies have on the environment.
Businesses with a Social Mission
Besides choosing to support companies that care about the environment, consumers want to support companies that don’t just make money, as they have in the recent past. But those that have some sort of social mission and make a difference in the world.
Security
Cybersecurity
Hackers use artificial intelligence (AI) to automate cyberattacks, but companies can also use AI to respond quickly to threats. More and more companies are using cloud services, which offer collaboration and rapid scalability, but also put data storage at risk.
Protecting employee devices that work remotely has become a priority in information security since the pandemic began. Therefore, cybersecurity technologies will continue to develop, and there will be more of them, as will the number of companies that will use them.
Inflation and Supply Chain Security
Experts predict for 2023 that inflation and economic recession will continue in most countries around the world. Many industries have supply chain problems that arose during the pandemic and intensified with the events of 2022. Business owners who are associated with international supply chains should protect themselves by mapping all of their supply chains and identifying any supply and inflation risks.
These are just some of the new trends that will be relevant in 2023. With new digital technologies and global challenges, companies will have to adapt to new ways of working if they want to be successful in this dramatically changing world.
Export Portal knows how crucial it is to stay always updated on new trends for SMEs in the ever-changing environment of business. Therefore, we make many efforts to help SMEs reach new business opportunities and grow globally.
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