Stop Looking At Yourself! Look Around!
opens IMAGE file When you are building a brand, you are naturally going to think a lot about yourself and your business. It makes sense because…well…your success is based on YOUR business succeeding. But, what about everyone else around you? We’d beg to argue that you should be looking at your competitors and peers just as much as you are looking at yourself.
- Spot Emerging Trends. When you are watching others, you can keep a pulse on the newest trends that might be emerging. You can see if there are huge shift in businesses using certain strategies so that you can decide if you want on that bandwagon, or if you’re going to let that trend fizzle out.
- Spot Opportunities. When you know what is going on in digital marketing for your industry, you can see the opportunities for your business. Is email marketing working for other similar businesses? Perhaps you should include that in your digital marketing strategy. Or perhaps, you see strategies that no one is employing currently. Those could be viable opportunities for you to dominate and set your business out from the crowd.
- Create Allies. Not all businesses in your industry are your competitors. In fact, there are actually only a few businesses that are probably truly competitors. Others in your industry may be too far away, attracting different niches of customers, have different price points, and other distinguishing factors that make them a peer, not a customer. These folks are great people to bounce ideas off of, collaborate with, or share ideas. Take advantage of opportunities like these to grow your business!
- Expand your business. If you are in a growth mode or even just in a long-term growth mindset, you will always want to be watching your industry peers and competitors. You never know when there will be opportunities to merge and expand business models.
- Get Inspired. We all need a little inspiration now and then. Interacting with content, ad campaigns, and ideas that others are creating is a great way to stay fresh. We can’t tell you how many times an idea will hit us that was spurred from one sentence in someone else’s article, or how an ad creative sparks an idea to turn our own client’s campaign in a better direction. You can learn a lot when you look around!
Digital marketing changes rapidly, and that means that a crucial part to your process will be research and learning. One of the best ways to learn is to watch and interact with others who are doing the things you could, or should, be doing! At Data-Dynamix, we’re always watching the horizon for the latest and greatest so that we can stay competitive for ourselves, and for our clients. Staying aware is one of the best ways to be prepared in your digital marketing!