Did you know that you have to familiarize yourself with your business’s target market to be successful? You’ve probably heard about marketing and what it means. However, marketing is such a broad term that most marketers agree that they don’t know everything about it. It’s all about continuous learning and the implementation of various marketing skills.
One of the critical aspects of successful marketing is about the collection of data on the target market otherwise known as market intelligence. It doesn’t matter whether you want to drive more profits or boost your competitive advantage.
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What is Market Intelligence
Market intelligence is the process of collecting useful data about the target market and using it to increase the success of the business. The data provides information about the customer’s needs, the available competition, and the possibility of the business’s growth.
Market research is vital for your business; otherwise, you will waste time and resources, hoping that your business will grow. You need to have a clear understanding of both your industry and the market for growth.
A business must incorporate both internal and external sources of gathering information. These include sales logs, observation, market surveys, forms, social media, focus groups, and competitor tracking analytics.
Here are some of the tips that will help you out on market intelligence.
Where Does Your Business Fit In The Market?
You need to understand where your business fits in the market if you want to succeed. If you are a small establishment, you don’t have to compete with the large establishments but those that are similar to yours.
Learn More About Your Competitors
Now that you know where you fit in, the next step is about learning more about your peers. How do they manage to keep their customers? Are they communicating effectively with them? Learning these aspects about your customers will help you establish.
You can use web scraping to gather relevant information from your competitor’s websites. This information may include promotional campaigns and any upcoming trends. This information will give you a competitive advantage over your peers.
There are marketing intelligence tools that you can use to gather information about
your competitors effectively. These tools include:
- Crayon Intel. This is a software tool that collects the business activities of your competitors. These can include their blog posts and video content. The best thing about this tool is that you can track multiple companies at once.
- SimilarWeb.com. This tool tracks the website traffic of your competitors. The tool identifies trends and any new affiliates.
- SiteAlerts. This is special software that gives you the answers about any of your competitor’s websites. You get answers about their traffic sources, social media statistics, and media statistics.
- Fanpage Karma. This tool allows you to manage all of your customers’ conversations.
Use Gathered Information to Learn the Competitive Advantages
Take time to go through the gathered information to understand why the competitors are succeeding. Go through all the available information carefully and take note of every decision the competitors have made. Then, try to know why they made that decision.
Once you have understood your competitor’s decision, you’ll be in a better position to get a solution.
Be Smart
Understand that information gathered may work for your competitors. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best. So don’t blindly follow their strategy before understanding all the “whys and hows.”
Get Clear Data
Make sure that you understand all the data at hand, especially during data presentation. One way to achieve this is by engaging experts and asking relevant questions. An excellent example of a company to consider is NetBase Quid.
NetBase Quid is a social media analytic and social media listening company that provides business with relevant information to help you grow. The company uses a type of technology called Natural Language Processing (NLP) that ensures businesses get accurate data.
Growing a business is not easy, but with the right mindset and relevant information, you can achieve your business goals. One way to help with your business success is through the use of market intelligence.
