Four Ways to Outsmart Your Competitors with Technology. Back in the days when technology hadn’t taken over the world, marketing and business growth were relatively simple. Being business savvy or smart didn’t matter. All that mattered were the crisp currency notes in one’s pocket. If you had plenty of those, you could quickly grow your business by investing in equipment, production capacity, and traditional advertising.
We’re not saying that it was all that easy. Every marketing tactic, including direct mail, billboards, newspaper advertisements, etc., all cost a lot of money and creative labor. But one this is for certain – the competition wasn’t as challenging as it is now. There are more people, more brands with even more products competing in an ever-changing digital landscape. Thank you, Technology!
Now businesses have no choice but to become increasingly creative and competitive to serve the market in every possible way. The only way a business or company can stay ahead of its competitors is if it starts to invest in and make intelligent use of technology. Here is market modeling software.
So how can you use technology to stay ahead of your competitor?
- Make good use of social media
Astonishingly, many digital marketing experts still consider social media marketing a waste of time and money. When in fact, social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools available. It is easier to find your target audience on social media than on any other medium or platform. And with the aid of a variety of tech tools, you can reach out to them when they are most relaxed and receptive to your messages.
In present times, not having an excellent social media presence is no less than a cardinal sin for any brand. But the art is using it effectively to your advantage and not merely existing. To gain leverage when you market through social media, you need a proper strategy and a system.
The strategy is the most crucial element, no matter where or how you market. Without any strategy, you won’t be able to execute marketing techniques properly or even decipher the fruits of marketing. It will heavily impact your business. But you have to focus on the goal of achieving better revenue the most. And the key to increasing your income is to increase leads that will turn into customers.
This is where the part about staying ahead of your competitor becomes even more relevant. By conducting thorough competitive research, you can fill in crucial gaps in your marketing strategy to expand your customer base. You can start by downloading the list of followers and their key metrics through analytics tools. You can use these reports to create ads and generate leads from your competitor’s audience.
- Marketing analytics
Gathering marketing analytics and figuring out what to do with all that information is like hitting the jackpot! The fact is that you can’t begin to understand and manage anything if you don’t analyze and measure it before. So make good use of tools like Google Analytics and use their services to find out where your target audience is located and what they like. Technology makes identifying and analyzing demographics extremely easy. This way, you will know exactly where to water more for your plant to grow.
Technology has advanced to the point where it is possible to track and analyze marketing campaigns quickly. Without monitoring the returns, you won’t be able to decipher if your marketing tactics are working or not. So if you really want a fruitful return to your investments in marketing, analyze every spec of data you can gather. In order to do this, you might have to ask yourself: what is the top marketing attribution software that can provide insight into customer buying behavior and help you figure out what particular touchpoints impact your customer’s actions?
- Run video ads
If video ads aren’t considered one of the most incredible tech advancements in the modern era, then we don’t know what else is! Video advertisements on YouTube have given the world a powerful tool for marketing. Before the popularity of video-based content, brands and companies had to create compelling text and image-based content. However, with videos, they can now snatch a competitor’s audience from under their nose.
For instance, you click on a cellphone unboxing video of your favorite smartphone brand on YouTube. What is the first thing you see? That’s right, an ad from a competing brand. As annoying as they may seem, in-stream video ads have become a game-changer in the world of digital marketing. They are excellent tools to reinforce brand recognition among customers.
- Use the Google Display Network (GDN)
All hail technology, as it brought us Google and Google Display Network. GDN is a network of more than 2-3 million applications, websites, and videos that Google has the right to display advertisements on. Using GDN and its custom affinity audience option can help you acquire a competitive edge.
The purpose of the affinity audience is to target the audience that is perceived as most receptive towards your business and marketing tactics. So instead of wasting your advertising budget in places that don’t matter, try targeting your competitor’s pre-defined audience. GDN can quickly identify the target audience’s buyer behavior and get insight into who needs the information, products, and services you offer.
For example, a stationery company is targeting school students as their ideal target audience. Suppose you are running the same, or a similar business. In that case, your ideal audience is more or less the same as the other business. You won’t have to go through the tiresome process of audience analysis and fail at hitting the bull’s eye on the first try.
With your audience defined and a powerful advertisement tool on your hand, you can finally start generating leads from the same audience as your competitors and grow your business.
Conclusion
Staying ahead of your competitors means marketing effectively. There are many analytics and marketing tools available in the market now, thanks to technology. These tools have revolutionized the way businesses operate and how they gain customers. Technology has also forced companies to narrow their horizon and focus on the perceived audience only. While initially, it is a great plan, but as you grow, focus on increasing your market through brand impact instead of serving the same fraction forever.
