Which Marketing Activity Helps Businesses Gather Information to Compete Effectively?

Seven Marketing Activities for Businesses to Compete Effectively

The value of information in marketing activities is found in its ability to guide strategic decisions, tailor customer experiences, optimize campaigns, and identify new market opportunities.

With the right information, businesses can better understand consumer behavior, anticipate trends, refine their messaging, and ultimately, drive higher engagement, customer loyalty, and revenue growth.

Here are seven strategies that help businesses understand their markets, customers, and competitors to make informed decisions and maintain a competitive edge.

1. Market Research to Gather Information

Market research is the backbone of any successful marketing strategy. It involves systematically collecting and analyzing data about the target market, customers, and competitors.

Through a variety of methods such as surveys, focus groups, interviews, and data analysis, businesses can gain valuable insights into consumer behavior, market trends, and competitive dynamics.

For instance, a tech company might conduct surveys to understand what features consumers are looking for in new products, enabling them to design offerings that meet market demands. 

2. Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis is essential for understanding the landscape in which a business operates. This process involves identifying and evaluating competitors’ strategies, strengths, and weaknesses to find areas where your business can gain an edge.

Companies can identify what works well and where improvements are needed by closely examining competitors’ products, pricing models, marketing campaigns, and customer feedback.

For example, a business might study a rival’s marketing tactics to discover a unique selling proposition that differentiates it in the market. We have talked about how credit card companies use these marketing tactics.

Benchmarking is also a strategic process where businesses compare their processes and performance metrics against industry standards or best practices or against each other.

This comparison helps companies identify areas where they can improve and set realistic performance goals based on the industry’s top performers.

For example, a company might benchmark its customer service metrics against other industry leaders to find areas for improvement, or a manufacturer might assess its production efficiency against competitors. 

3. Customer Feedback and Surveys to Gather Information

Direct customer feedback is invaluable for any business looking to improve its offerings and customer experience.

Gathering this feedback through surveys, reviews, and social media interactions allows businesses to understand customer satisfaction, preferences, and pain points.

For instance, an e-commerce company might send out post-purchase surveys to learn how customers feel about their buying experience or a SaaS company might use customer reviews to refine its product features. 

A great example for businesses’ marketing team is to implement Net Promoter Scores (NPS). NPS are a valuable tool for gathering customer feedback that can help businesses compete more effectively. By asking customers how likely they are to recommend a product or service on a scale from 0 to 10, companies can categorize respondents into promoters, passives, and detractors.

For example, if a software company notices that its NPS scores are declining, this might indicate dissatisfaction with a recent product update. By diving deeper into the feedback from detractors, the company can identify specific pain points, such as bugs or usability issues. Armed with this information, the company can prioritize improvements to address these concerns, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

4. Data Analytics

In today’s data-driven world, data analytics is a powerful tool that businesses use to gain insights from large datasets.

This practice involves analyzing data from various sources, such as website traffic, social media engagement, and sales records, to uncover patterns, trends, and actionable insights.

Companies might use Google Analytics, and Search Console to track the performance of their online marketing campaigns or analyze sales data to determine which products are most popular among different customer segments.

At AgilePR we use SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to see how we can compete with other digital PR agencies and see what keywords they target. This information is extremely valuable for any business.

Businesses that have an online presence can make informed decisions that optimize marketing strategies, enhance customer experiences, and predict future market trends by leveraging data analytics.

5. Social Listening

Social listening is monitoring social media platforms to understand what customers and the broader public say about a brand, product, or industry.

This real-time monitoring helps businesses stay informed about public perception, emerging trends, and potential crises. For example, a brand might track Twitter mentions to gauge customer sentiment or monitor industry-related hashtags to stay ahead of trends.

Social listening also enables companies to engage directly with customers, responding to feedback or addressing complaints promptly. This proactive approach helps businesses maintain a positive brand image and adapt quickly to market changes.

An example can be a tech company that releases a new software update and uses social listening to track user feedback across social media. They notice that while many users appreciate the new features, a significant number are complaining about increased battery drain.

Additionally, social listening reveals that users of competing software are frustrated with its latest update, which lacks key features. The tech company can then emphasize its own software’s superior functionality in its marketing, attracting users who are disappointed with the competitor’s product.

6. Focus Groups

Focus groups provide deep insights into customer attitudes, perceptions, and opinions by bringing together a small, targeted group of people to discuss and provide feedback on a product, service, or marketing campaign.

This qualitative research method is particularly useful for testing new concepts or refining existing offerings before they are launched to a broader audience.

For example, a tech company is developing a new productivity app and conducts focus groups with potential users to gather feedback.

During the sessions, participants praise the app’s features but express concerns about its complicated navigation and steep learning curve.

Based on this feedback, the company simplified the user interface and added an in-app tutorial to make the app more accessible. They also discover that users are particularly excited about a feature that allows seamless integration with other popular apps, which the company hadn’t planned to highlight.

Thanks to the insights gained from the focus groups, the company improved the app’s usability and adjusted its marketing strategy to emphasize the integration feature, leading to a more successful product launch and a stronger competitive edge in the market.

7. Cross-site Tracking

Cross-site tracking plays a crucial role in enhancing the value of information for marketing activities. By monitoring user behavior across different websites, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of customer preferences, browsing patterns, and purchasing journeys.

This detailed insight allows companies to create highly targeted marketing campaigns, personalize customer experiences, and improve ad performance.

Through cross-site tracking, businesses can also identify potential customers who may not have directly interacted with their brand but have shown interest in similar products or services elsewhere.

This capability helps in retargeting efforts, driving conversions, and maximizing the return on marketing investments. Ultimately, cross-site tracking enables companies to refine their strategies and make more informed decisions, leading to better customer engagement and increased revenue.

Conclusion

The seven marketing activities we’ve discussed, from market research to social listening, are essential tools that help you gather the insights needed to make smart decisions and stay ahead of the game.

At AgilePR, we’re here to help you take that next step. Whether it’s through SEO research or link building, our digital PR team is ready to give your business the edge it needs to thrive.