Business is such a competitive space that it can often feel as though our action needs to oppose and provide originality against all other businesses in the same field. This can mean that we regularly ignore what others are doing in order to not be overly influenced by their efforts, or to assimilate something that may be regarded as a copy.
But the truth is that businesses benefit from becoming more aware, not less aware of the forces affecting market trends, and viewing how other businesses operate with that space is an intrinsic part of this. The smart business learns from those around it, and leaders can unearth plenty of essential information in that space.
But how does this work for the most part? It’s easy to try and witness more market activity, but if you do nothing with said time spend recording the results of others, you’ll struggle to make any traction with that progress. With the following advice, you’re sure to learn from those around you:
Social Media Blunders
Social media blunders are unfortunately more common than you think. From Pepsi’s terrible advert to Gillette’s recent painting of their customers as flawed and unreasonable, it’s not uncommon for social media to become a real burden just as much as it is a boon. Thankfully, social media is so public and free to access that it can become a great measurement tool for other businesses in the same space.
While you will not be given the exact metrics of how certain social media posts may have traveled, you can often gauge the reaction through the comments, what they say, and also the like to reply ratio. Social media blunders can quite easily help you avoiding the same mistake. For instance, many modern companies now run social media support pages on platforms such as Twitter, replying to direct messages and publicly replying to support tweets, of which some are quite angry as can be expected. If the mask of professionalism lifts for a second, you will see just how easy it is for issues to get out of wack.
We can use these impressions to not only see when our competition are starting to stutter or fall victim to a social media firestorm, placing ourselves as the alternative, but we can also assess the big no-no’s that may prevent us from experiencing something like this in the future.
UX Perspectives
Userzoom’s article on the KPIs used to measure UX effectiveness is an essential read, because it carefully demonstrates just how you can divide certain measurement readings through behavioral, attitudinal and other metrics to come to the right result. It’s very easy to track data, but accurately reading it and then using it to inform your future experience is also essential.
UX perspectives can quite literally change your entire vision and business orientation, because they show you exactly how you’re performing, why you’re performing in that way, and how you are being regarded. Think of this as a profoundly important peer review. It’s very easy to convince yourself that your business is doing great work and clients or customers are intensely satisfied, but at the same time, you may be ignoriing some of the telling signs of problems or perhaps issues that aren’t being felt by the competition.
A business that ignores vital benchmarking of this type is one that is perpetually blind in one eye, while a business that pays deep attention to this data gathering and valuable insight will open its proverbial third eye. In this manner, you will not only be learning from those around you, but also through every data point of connection you have with your audience. That can be profound.
Marketing Ploys
Marketing is not only a careful social science, but also an art. To that end, there can be many interpretations of how it is best implemented. This is why using other businesses to impartially test out their own promotions can be a great indicator of how well you might perform if trying the same thing. For instance, it might be that you’re a new music streaming app hot on the scene. You’ve started to notice just how useful Spotify’s three month free trial of premium is allowing users to jump onto the ecosystem and make it their app of choice. You believe you could offer two months of your free trial while also promising more payment to artists as part of that streaming deal.
This way you will have used an excellent marketing opportunity, made it your own, and then also included something that is a known issue throughout the industry to ensure the right parties promote your own marketing efforts for you. This is an example of how excellent market research and the willingness to learn from others can get you started in the best possible sense.
Innovations & Influences
Innovation is also important to make note of, especially when large innovations shake market trends and expectations. For instance, Blackberry mobile phones were once the most used executive phone, allowing for a range of easy to use features to be best used in a career setting.
However, when the iPhone was released with its revolutionary approach to ‘app design,’ Blackberry did not recognize just how groundbreaking this was. Instead, they felt that you could access everything you needed via the internet browser option on their phones. How wrong they were, as today almost everyone has a library of apps on their smartphone that they use for a variety of measures, be that through secure mobile banking, encrypted messaging apps, or dedicated social media considerations such as Instagram and the photography filters it provides. If only Blackberry had learned from the competition and tried to make innovations in that space before it was too late, they may have held onto some of their market share.
With this advice, we hope you can find thorough benefit learning from the companies around you. To this end, you’re sure to prosper correctly.
