2020 is around the corner and affords you another fresh opportunity to reset and start over. In this coming year, you must know which business tools or concepts are going to be worth adopting. We are living in a fast-paced world with ever-changing trends from time to time. Those who intimately and accurately interpret the times and know exactly which waves to ride on will excel in business. That is why in this article is shall be discussing 5 tools or concepts that you must adopt in business this coming year.

Digital Marketing

I have spoken about this extensively this year i.e. the need for businesses to leverage on the internet and social media for their marketing drives. This shall be indispensably important as we enter into 2020. There are critically important metrics that digital marketing increases namely, brand awareness, brand authority, and prospective customer leads amongst others. In your digital marketing approaches, you shall have to inculcate two-way communication (with your customers).

You shall have to also tailor your digital marketing strategies based on insights drawn from your online interactions with customers. An appreciation of data analytics, software, content management, multimedia production is some of the skills or services needed for effective digital marketing. So that is the bit about digital marketing; you will notice later that I will touch on the marketing aspect again. It is no wonder because I recently discussed the 3-ingredient formula to business success and one of those ingredients is marketing.

Being Youth-Centric In Your Business Strategy

As you step into 2020 become more serious about tapping into the youth demographic. This concept will unlock some amazing business prospects for you. Zimbabwe has roughly 70% youths i.e. every 7 out of 10 people is a young person. Just bearing that in mind and factoring it in your business strategies can be the most rewarding thing you will ever do in 2020. Some of the most popularly used social media sites today e.g. Instagram and YouTube are mainly used by young people.

The other thing to note is that young people now wield remarkable buying power. They also possess significant influence to inform the buying decisions of older generations such as their parents and relatives. Remember I earlier underscored the importance of digital marketing. If you are to effectively roll out your digital marketing campaigns you must target young people immensely.

Even in your hiring of human resources sway more to young people. In the 2020 National Budget, it was indicated that the government shall enact a tax incentive to encourage employers to take young people on board – take advantage of this.

Selling Products Or Services Online

E-commerce is in no way going to stop growing the world over. Especially with the increased use of the internet and social media, you cannot afford to turn a blind eye on e-commerce. Selling things online has not grown significantly in Zimbabwe but it is steadily growing. Zimbabweans are gradually warming up to their idea of buying things online. Other than that conducting e-commerce locally makes it easy for you to tap into the diaspora market.

Consider the Fresh In A Box business model as an example. Locals can buy products using Ecocash whereas those in the diaspora can buy products for their loved ones here using payment options such as Visa or MasterCard. If you closely muse on that approach you can see how e-commerce can expand your target market. In 2020 seriously consider exploring e-commerce for your business; the good thing is you can simply add e-commerce to your traditional approach and they run together.

Confluence Marketing

You probably might have never heard of this term before right. Well, it is a compound term conjoining content and influence. It basically refers to the marrying of content creation and the use of influencers (or influencer marketing). You probably might have seen this locally but never stopped for a moment to actually think of what it is. Let me elaborate; you have probably watched skits by The Comic Pastor and Nigel at some point. They come up with funny short storylines but the crux of those skits being to actually advertise a product or service. That is basically what confluence marketing is all about.

In 2020 you must adopt this concept for your business. Identify social figures that are popular – it needs not only to be those big celebrities (it can even just be someone popular in a particular town). Enter working agreements with them where you leverage on their public appeal to come up with content that you can use to market your products or services.

Outsourcing

This is not quite a new phenomenon since it has been around for a long time. However, locally most businesses have not yet realized how outsourcing can be a great tool to cost-effectively run a business. Why is it important? The first one is the cost-cutting element I have just mentioned in the preceding statement. The other importance stems from the fact that you get more time to concentrate on the key components of your business. Virtually any part of your business can be outsourced just as long as it is cheaper than to run that part internally. In 2020 you must take some time to explore this area because it can do wonders for your overheads. Especially considering the unstable economy you really have to reduce the costs of doing business – outsourcing is one way to do that.

If you effectively adopt these tools or concepts in 2020 your business will most assuredly grow. Those 5 tools or concepts can be the reason why you will offer a unique selling point that will eclipse your competition. It does not matter you think your business is too small; any serious entrepreneur can adopt these 5. With a few weeks left to the end of 2019, you can actually start brainstorming on how you will adopt these tools or concepts.