Also read: Why competitive intelligence is a must for your online marketing strategy
What does an organization want to know about the market?
Algorithms may provide interesting insights, but these algorithms cannot figure out for themselves what information organizations are looking for. In order to make successful decisions based on external data, leaders will first have to determine which insights can help their organization move forward. Which insights are interesting for the organization? What does an organization want to know about the market?
Does an organization want to anticipate the plans of its competitors early, as Apple’s competitors failed to do in 2016? In that case, monitoring new job openings, social media activity, patent applications or advertising spend would provide leaders with the right insights. But is there a higher priority for monitoring social media trend breaks, audience sentiment and identifying key influencers? In that case, location-based searches, customer reviews and popular influencers will provide more relevant insights. Algorithms can monitor almost any important “keyword” but without a well-thought-out strategy, a leader will still us phone number list be drowning in a sea of irrelevant information.
The 'Outside Insight' approach also requires leaders to communicate properly with internal and external stakeholders. Employees often want to feel included in decision-making and shareholders must be informed about the ins and outs of the organization. The right information must therefore not only be collected by a leader, but also effectively distributed to stakeholders.
Successful leaders clearly map out external insights using reports. In this way, they show shareholders what developments are taking place at the competition and what their own position in the market looks like. But employees also need the right information. Either to be able to prepare for changes in the organization or because they need the information for their work. The communications team will be eager for new insights about trend breaks on social media, the most important influencers in the sector and how advertising expenditure looks compared to that of the competition. And of course any other insights that are monitored. Newsletters, newsfeeds and an intranet can offer leaders an efficient solution here.