Do you often hear experts in the digital marketing world talking about market intelligence? The reason for this is that it’s growing in importance for marketers to understand the world around them. Naturally, many of the older, traditional systems are being replaced by automatic versions and this makes market intelligence simpler.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves - what is market intelligence? Why is it important for your business? Let’s answer some of the most common questions today!
What’s Market Intelligence?
If we rephrase the term, we can also devise a definition because this topic seeks intelligence regarding different aspects of the market and business. Through market intelligence, the aim is to learn about the market, brand, audience, competitors, and more. Here are just some of the questions that market intelligence can answer:
As you answer questions like these, it fuels the marketing department because it can react accordingly. The more you know about the market, the easier it is to meet the needs of consumers while also competing with other services in the niche.
Therefore, we hope you see the value of market intelligence. Although knowledge is the goal, this isn’t where it finishes. Instead, market intelligence is only worthwhile if you’re willing to act on the information to improve your service or products.
Types of Market Intelligence
Another misconception is to think that market intelligence only teaches businesses about the competition or their own services. In truth, market intelligence now invades all corners of the marketing strategy. Consequently, you’ll learn about your pricing structure, the ad campaigns of competitors, customer satisfaction, customer demographics, strengths and weaknesses of competitors, the value of your USP, social media monitoring, web analytics, and more.
When performing market research, it normally falls under one of the following categories:
Directional market intelligence uses existing market conditions and similar data to discover pricing and product placement insights. On the other hand, transactional market intelligence uses customer behavior data to make predictions about the future.
When you see the phrase ‘marketing analytics’, this is normally used as an umbrella term to cover both types of market intelligence. This being said, it does seem to lean towards transactional analysis types rather than directional analysis. When researching online, keep this in mind because it could affect where and how data is collected.
Also, you might see the following phrases when researching market intelligence:
When you perform market intelligence, you’re trying to learn about the conditions of the marketing strategy. Alternatively, competitive intelligence is more of a comparison against other companies in the niche. You’ll learn about the strengths and weaknesses of competitors as well as how you can improve your service to better compete with these companies.
Benefits of Market Intelligence
You might find the information so far interesting (you’re welcome!), but you might also wonder why it’s important. Why does it matter? Do you need to perform market intelligence? No, you don’t. However, research shows that businesses embracing market intelligence are in a better position to compete against others, win the hearts and minds of the audience, and grow.
As discussed, the goal is to learn more about your position in the market, consumer habits, and how these habits are likely to change in the future. With all this information, it’s possible to introduce changes that actually work. You make better use of your marketing budget, and you meet the needs of your audience.
If you want to succeed - and we assume you do otherwise you wouldn’t be doing this sort of research - you need to take an oath to continually improve your service and adapt to the evolving market. Part of this journey includes learning as much as you can about the audience; you may have had a great understanding of your audience when you first launched the brand, but this means nothing if you’re still working with the same customer profile many years later.
With market intelligence, you have all the information required to make strong marketing decisions. In other words, you shouldn’t make decisions based on estimations and guesses any longer. If anybody in the business is telling you that this is the right approach, correct them immediately. In a world full of data, guesses are outdated and provide competitors with a chance to send your business backward.
When you partake in market intelligence, you suddenly spot growth opportunities as well as prepare the business for future market changes. You’ll optimize ad campaigns, adjust your website for trends, and spot weaknesses in competitors. You can’t predict future winning lottery numbers, but you can predict changes in consumer behavior and the wider market.
If you aren’t utilizing market intelligence, you’re only going to fall behind those who do use it. Why? Because you’re reacting to events in the industry while others are ready for them each time.
Let’s talk money - market intelligence allows you to make more effective marketing decisions. As well as eliminating wastage, you resonate with customers more effectively and this leads to a better ROAS, ROI, revenue, and profit.
Real-World Applications of Market Intelligence
How do you get started with market intelligence? The good news is that many tools now exist to welcome businesses that want to embark on this journey. While some tools accommodate focus groups, others prioritize surveys, ethnographic research, or another form. Elsewhere, other tools in this niche take data from various locations around the business and generate insights, trends, patterns, and predictions.
Fortunately, the field seems to move forward every year, and one recent progression is a result of artificial intelligence and machine learning advancements. If you’re unsure of the value of machine learning and AI algorithms, let us just say that they can process and understand data faster than you can pick up a skipping rope and get to five. Whether you’re more surprised by the speed of these algorithms or the reference to your childhood, it’s impossible to ignore this technology.
How do you use market intelligence? Some businesses learn about their audience so that they can produce better ad campaigns. What’s more, competitive intelligence helps here because you see where competitors are succeeding and failing with their campaigns.
If ad campaigns aren’t your thing (they should be!), you might use market intelligence to segment your audience. These days, marketers cannot send universal emails to every single member of their audience. Instead, they need to segment based on interests, demographics, and other data. Segmentation is possible with market intelligence, as is determining customer lifetime value and generating content.
Market Intelligence Tips
Firstly, when shopping the market for various tools, make sure you choose the one that matches the needs of the business. For example, those who seek competitive intelligence features will need a platform where this is at the fore. On the other hand, those who want to learn about their customers will need to prioritize audience intelligence instead.
Before anything else, think about the questions that you want to answer with market intelligence. If you don’t, you’ll too easily get lost in the sea of insights and statistics. Do you want to learn how to allocate your resources more effectively? Perhaps you want to know the buying patterns of customers. You might even want to identify potential new markets for your business. In any case, start with the question and then choose the most efficient route to the answer.
Secondly, businesses often worry about generating data. In all likelihood, however, you have enough first-party data in the business already to benefit from market intelligence. Depending on the tool, it will draw data from the following sources:
Next, we also recommend carefully assessing your competitors. In the past, plenty of businesses have performed detailed comparisons with other companies only to find that they aren’t competitors. Over time, both you and other businesses release new products and move around in what the industry likes to call ‘the market’. Before performing any sort of competitor analysis, make sure you know the closest competitors rather than just assuming that the list is the same as many years ago.
At all times, you also want to remain ethical with the market intelligence that you’re performing. Sometimes, you’ll find yourself in a position where a poor decision leads to ethical problems. If a frustrated employee has recently left a competitor, this poses ethical dilemmas. There’s nothing wrong with approaching the employee, but you shouldn’t just hire them to reveal sensitive information about the other business.
Finally, automate as much as possible because this will make your life infinitely easier. When starting with market intelligence, choose the right companion in the shape of a reliable tool. Then, have fun uncovering valuable insights and driving your business forward!
