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When it comes to learning they say you should learn something new every day.
And we couldn’t agree more, especially when it comes to marketing.
So where do you start?
Well, a great way to begin is by looking at what is right in front of you.
We have two great tips on how to boost your marketing efforts through learning:
Tip 1: Learning from your competitors
In other words, keep your friends close and your competitors closer.
Now, when we say this, we’re not suggesting anything sinister, what we’re talking about is taking a leaf out of your competitors’ books.
The marketplace itself is in fact one of the greatest textbooks, as it’s full of people that have been there and done what you’re trying to do.
There are a range of organisations across the spectrum of development who can offer a sneak peek into your potential future, depending on what particular path they take.
As you may have already noted, you first need to find these competitors of yours, and not just the ones that have been around for a long time.
Thanks to the internet, a quick Google search can reveal a handful of your closest competitors but its not the be and end all of research.
Keeping a close eye on social media – and even more traditional marketing like posters and flyers – is equally important to keep track of new competitors entering the scene.
From there, you can dive into their offerings, be it products or services (or both!), and observe all the nitty-gritty details that make them tick (or not).
You can see all the mistakes and successes of their decision-making and learning from them can really act as a guide of what to do and what not to do.
To cut a long story short, this can all feed into an effective strategy of your own for meeting customers’ needs, which leads us on to our next tip.
Tip 2: Learning from your customers
The good news here, much in a similar vein to competitor research, is that there’s a whole plethora of avenues you can go down to get a better grip of your customers.
From sending out surveys to just directly contacting your customer base via email or phone (we’d definitely advise not abusing this option!), feedback is very much attainable.
The even better news is that a lot of the research you need may already be available at the click of a button (or two!).
We are, of course, referring to your own analytics and feedback!
The latter is a bit more to the point, checking out comments your customers leave on your website or social media platforms.
This can point to clear flaws in your marketing strategy, allowing you the opportunity to tweak things a little to boost its impact.
The former, on the other hand, is slightly more tricky but no less rewarding.
Tools like Google Analytics can inform your organisation on what really piques your customers’ interest, adding clarity to factors like shopping habits.
By utilising an enriched understanding of your customers, whilst avoiding the pitfalls of your competitors, your business can build a marketing strategy that clicks with customers.