Trends come and go, but they’re an essential building block for any business and being able to stay on top of them is crucial to maintaining your profit margin. Failing to realize that a trend in on the horizon or is coming to a close can be the difference between getting your products sold or having them sit on your shelves for months on end.
As a business owner, you need to stay on top of these trends.
However, how are you going to accomplish that?
Social Media
Perhaps a straightforward and obvious answer, but it’s certainly not one without merits.
People spend lots of time on social media, and if you’ve been using them for your business, then the people who are following you will be the ones that are most interested in your products. Taking some time to review what they’ve been posting and seeing what they like, maybe even holding a few polls to gauge their interest are all ways you can figure out what trends you should be following.
This isn’t without downsides though.
Monitoring your social media isn’t nearly as dependable or comprehensive as the other options on this list. You’re only ever going to be observing a small sample of the population, and it’s going to take a lot of time and energy to go through all of these feeds.
Still, just taking some time to monitor their posts and likes can be beneficial to understanding what people want from you and your business.
Competitors
As the adage goes, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
While that might seem a bit overdramatic, nonetheless it’s true. Your competition is going to be doing the same thing you’re going to be doing. They’ll be looking at market trends, trying to figure out what it is that their customers want the most from them so they can get their products off the shelves. If you realize that they’ve been purchasing certain kinds of product a lot more than usual, that might be a good sign that they know something you don’t.
Alternatively, it could just mean they overstocked on a particular product.
It’s important to remember that just because they think something is changing in the market doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re right. It’s important to be able to make your own observations and conclusions when dealing with things like these.
At the same time, this is an excellent way to get a better idea of what’s happening in your corner of the market and gauge what you should be doing.
Trade Shows
Trade shows provide business owners with unique opportunities that they can’t find anywhere else.
At trade shows you have the chance to meet and speak with people from all over the nation, sometimes from around the world! Not only will you be able to market your products to a far larger audience in person than you ever could before, but you’re also going to get the chance to bounce ideas off of one another and make observations you wouldn’t be able to in any other situation.
With often thousands of vendors gathered in a single location, it becomes a simple matter to walk around and see what businesses like your own are focusing on. You’ll be able to keep on top of what’s happening in the market and get your brand out there to interested buyers.
Attending trade shows will cost you time and money, and unlike the other options on this list, they require a lot more preparation to pull off. Nevertheless, attending a trade show can go a long way to helping your business grow and will be worth the effort if pulled off successfully.
Like any other part of running a business, staying on top of industry trends is going to require a lot of time and effort. Hopefully, this short list will have given you some ideas so that you can start narrowing your search.
Tips
- Hiring people who have worked in other related businesses can be a wellspring of information, make sure that you use the knowledge they’ve gathered.
- Create surveys for customers can help you narrow down what it is they’re looking for.
- There are a ton of statistics out there, be it private or government in origin, use them to monitor your target demographic.
