Most successful business owners are on the hunt for strategic insights or what I call ‘light bulb moments’ – revelations that allow an organisation to take its next big step.
The trick with strategic insights is finding more of them – that and making them happen. Although there’s generally not a single idea that, as if by magic, will take your business from A to B, leveraging key strategic insights can make a big difference in your marketing and overall business success.
So, what do strategic insights look like?
A strategic insight may be a tasty morsel that you can take advantage of: information about a competitor, research about your industry or a gap in the market that becomes apparent.
Other insights may include the overall condition of your market, changing customer needs and new products that your competitors are about to release – these are all tid-bits you’d be foolish to ignore.
Where can you find strategic insights?
A strategic insight could come from anywhere – chatting to someone at a coffee shop or *ahem* reading Anthill…
To get you started, here are just a few places you should go noseying about for strategic insights:
- Blogs written by your competitors
- Journal articles from leaders in your industry
- Trade magazines
- The business section of your local newspaper
- Other business owners at networking events
- Online business portals
- Your customers’ social media conversations
As well as subscribing to relevant blogs and reading online business magazines, it is a good idea to set up Google alerts for news topics relating to your business and industry.
Keep your eyes peeled and ears open – there be strategic insights everywhere! Most importantly, once your have your grubby mitts of a key piece of strategic information, use it.
Jo Macdermott is the chief Marketing Consultant from Next Marketing in Melbourne. Next Marketing is a full serviced Marketing Agency working with small and medium sized businesses.
