For operating a business effectively, one of the most important things people do is to keep track of competitors and the positions of the industry. Traditionally, this factor is known as market intelligence for small businesses. Precisely, collecting market intelligence has expanded in recent years by including analytics and analysis in order to improve the business projection and models. Notably, it helps in understanding the market in a better way and run a profitable business.

Now let us first understand properly what market intelligence for small businesses actually is!!!

Market intelligence is defined as the information or data that is derived by an organization from the market it operates in or wants to operate in to help determine market segmentation, market penetration, market opportunity, and existing market metrics. Furthermore, it helps in looking at a company’s customers, competitors, problems, and opportunities for creating new products and services. Market intelligence can be collected by referencing sales logs, customer data, surveys and looking at social media metrics. However, people must know that market intelligence is different from business intelligence.

Market intelligence vs. business intelligence

People may often get confused with market intelligence as business intelligence. However, they are not the same thing. Business intelligence is the data and information that is about your business. Traditionally, business intelligence is the information about the products and services of the company, its sales, productions, and other transactions of the business.

While market intelligence is the information about your overall market, it helps in market research for small and medium businesses. However, market intelligence primarily focuses on the external information of the company, including customer demographics, competitors, governmental influence, and many other external factors.

How Market Intelligence can be Used?

Successful market intelligence helps in providing the answers to the questions about the potential competitors and customers and helps in determining the company’s internal goals. Some of the questions that are addressed by market intelligence include:

• Which markets should the company try to enter next?
• Where should it devote more resources?
• What are the different buying patterns of the potential and existing customers?
• What products could be cross-marketed to its existing customers?
• In what demographic segments can the company push new and existing products?
• Market intelligence helps businesses in analyzing the overall environment in which they are operating. This also supports them to spot the potential risks and identify new opportunities for growth. These things are usually based on four different criteria, which are used by most of the companies.

Market Understanding

Market understanding helps businesses to get a sense of different markets where they are selling their products and services. It helps them to know how well they are performing in those markets and additional markets where they could expand in the future.

Product Intelligence

Product intelligence comprises of analyzing the quality of the products and services. If a business is selling a physical product, then product intelligence helps in looking at the manufacturing process so that it can understand the efficiency level of the product in the market. Furthermore, the information gathered from product intelligence will help businesses to improve the value of their products.