The space, trends, and ideas for small business owners and entrepreneurs are continuously expanding. A wide range of opportunities are given to small businesses in order to develop quality products and services without sacrificing due to manufacturing costs.There are many factors contributing to the shifting marketing workflow, such as emerging mobile formats in technology, increasing Internet access, and the different short and long-term fluctuations in the market. Knowing and embracing the latest marketing strategies trends can give your small business a boost and the edge to compete with other businesses and even larger companies.It’s almost the end of the year, so if you’re a small business owner who craves technology, business growth, targeting customers, and success, here are the hottest marketing trends you should know for 2018.Millennials’ DemandsPeople born from 1982 to 1999 contribute largely to social and economic changes according to a report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation (USCCF). The millennial generation offers a wide range of new ways and techniques for managing a workplace and communicating with their employees. They crave an all-inclusive business ownership and demand changes and growth for every position they achieve. There are many factors affecting their social life, comfort, and success in the workplace, such as strong bond between the employees, as well as clear communication.The millennial generation can easily adapt to the latest trends in technologies, brands, and services. As part of creating an improved product and service, brands tend to focus on 24/7 customer service and online surveys for their consumers’ insight. The social responsibility and connection between the employer and employees is one factor affecting successful marketing for an entrepreneur or a small business owner working with the millennial generation.

A line of young people ready to work; image courtesy www.noobpreneur.com.

Millennials are actively seeking an organization or workplace that shares the same ethics and ideals as theirs and because of that, they also seek easy ways and techniques, especially with the use of technologies, to do their heavy-duty tasks. For example, virtual communication platforms for online conferences or meetings and workflow optimization productivity tools for better project collaboration and management.For a small business, honesty and transparency is the key to persuade the Millennials, avoid misleading advertisements, and gimmicky sales presentations.Web and other Online ToolsBuilding a website for your small business is always on the list of the latest trends. Different Internet-based technologies play a big role in controlling and managing brand development, online marketing, and customer service, as well. These tools offer low-cost, but effective solutions for a start-up business and bigger companies, too.Small businesses should build their websites with different website editing software or programs with integrated online storefront support and messaging services. This will lessen the cost of advertising and manual labor. Businesses should also outsource repetitive tasks to save time and money (more on that later).An excellent resource offering more on website building and marketing your website when it's up and running, How To Build a Website For Your Small Business, is definitely worth checking out. Also helpful is the recently released Definitive Guide: How Much Does A Website Cost? (2018).Business AutomationAutomation has been playing a big role in boosting the productivity of different companies and small businesses for years. It might not be a “thing” yet but in the upcoming years it will be, thanks to the never-ending innovations in technology. Automation in your business can reduce the required manual labor, as well as decrease payroll and manufacturing expenses.Here are three strategic considerations before plunging into small business automation:

1. Repetitive and redundant tasks. The first thing to consider is knowing what tasks occur repeatedly. These can be unsubscribing promotional and marketing emails, social media marketing, and bank account or credit card reconciliation.

2. Time-consuming Think about the tasks that eat a lot of your time. These can be communications, meetings, email marketing, banking, managing external relations, project management, or staff monitoring.

3. Business operations that need Inspect the different areas of your business that need automation, such as sales and marketing, finance, human resource management, manufacturing, administration, and customer services.

Here are some out-of-the-box ways for small business automation:

• Customer Relation Manager and Marketing. It lets you keep track of sales leads and sends material best suited to your target customers.

• Collection and Nurturing. It automatically collects leads for different social media accounts, websites, and emails.

• Receipt Scanning. Software that can scan, sort, and track expenses from paper receipts automatically are now widely available. These productivity tools can lessen the time spent on doing manual work.

• Bill Pay. It lessens the entire process of bill payments for personal and business bills.

Outsourcing Outsourcing is one of the latest business trends available for any service, such as content creation and advertising. It is a great way to automate crucial and redundant business operations. Here are some tasks that should be outsourced:

1. Content and Email Marketing. A key to successful sales is content marketing. This will generate leads and establish a connection between you and your customers without being too focused on “” This will also save you money that can be used for hiring people for production and distribution of your products and services.

2. Project Management. Hiring freelance project managers can help you, from launching new products to website design.

3. Customer Services. Cold calling can be effective if your business promotes events or home/office services. This will allow you to connect with your customers by providing them with the information or services they need.

4. Personal or Virtual Assistant. Personal assistants and Virtual assistants can improve the productivity of your business operations, especially for marketing and customer service.

Here are some reasons why you should outsource redundant tasks for small businesses, as well as bigger companies:

• Cost-cutting. The main reason you should outsource is to control and lessen the capital and labor costs of your business. Outsourcing can also attract investors to your business.

• Agile project development. The best way to develop your business’ projects is outsourcing. It lets you control the project demands, needs, and results without hiring people, which may sacrifice your start-up capital for payroll and training fees.

• Avoids Risks. A specialized outsourcing firm can reduce the different business risks in marketing, competition, technology, and financial conditions.

• Boost Your Business Productivity. Outsourcing lets you focus on other areas of your business and increase production efficiency. External contributors can have a great impact on your business’ competitive advantage.

Cryptocurrencies FinancingThe rise of Bitcoin made a mark in 2017. However, Bitcoin is not a trend for small business; the technology behind it is, though. Tokenization is the process wherein different business assets such as cash, gold, and stocks are transformed into digital tokens in blockchain. Blockchain may make funding for small businesses much faster, cheaper, accessible, transparent, and secure.In part two tomorrow, we’ll discuss trends in mobile technology flexibility (smartphones), artificial intelligence, social media marketing and e-commerce, and guest blogging.