The Future of Small Business Marketing

What’s in store for the future of small business marketing? What next generation marketing strategies and apps should entrepreneurs already be integrating? And what does this mean for small business owners today?

Today and for the future, it’s all about information: business information and customer information. It’s about achieving information and even protecting it. The second point here is that the consumer data is already out there. If businesses don’t capitalize on it, the competition will. The more targeted your marketing and the better you get at the “right time, right place, right medium” trifecta, the better the better the results; maximizing marketing ROI.

Imagine the power this data puts in the hands of a restaurant owner for example. They can soon, if not already dig in, find out when a local sporting event is ending, who is talking about looking for a place to eat or drink, and which direction they are traveling in (and whether walking or in a vehicle), and then hit them with a barrage of billboards, electronic signage, mobile ads, text messages and even beam it into their retina’s via Glass. Where are you going to eat? What will happen to the rest of the competition that isn’t in their face?

Digital marketing is also on the rise with real estate. Forget clapping the lights on and off, houses are increasingly wired from top to bottom and use technology to enable residents to interact with their homes from setting security to temperature to streaming video of what the babysitter is up to.

It is perhaps new in home digital entertainment that could provide a big opening for small business marketing. Forget 3D TV, look at the new coffee table sized tablets being served up for multiple user entertainment. Now families can gather around the device to play games, spice up romantic evenings in, and be the center of attention at cocktail parties. With all the data available businesses will be able to serve up timely ads for suggesting pizza or Chinese restaurants for ordering delivery, or delicious new cocktail recipes.

However, it is perhaps Ashton Kutcher of all people that has perhaps really hit it on the head when it comes to monetize mobile and social at the next level. Speaking at the CTIA2013 conference in Las Vegas this week, Ashton says the media has hurt Twitter, but sees a brighter road ahead with more integration. He claims that when users are able to get personalized Tweets on when the next bus is arriving or when their coffee is done brewing is when it will really begin to become valuable.

So how can you use social to add more of this type of value to prospects and make it generate real revenues?