Tag: anticipate change

Fool-Proof Tactics to Find More Growth Sweet Spots

Many successful small businesses were started by entrepreneurs with the ability to see a trend before everyone else. They were able to take their insight and capitalize on it in a new and creative way. Businesses from Uber and Lyft to Airbnb and HomeAway are just some of the most recent examples of entrepreneurs benefiting from growth sweet spots. But just because it’s been done before doesn’t mean it is easy to find more growth sweet spots and capitalize on them.

Smart entrepreneurs are always looking for an edge. They want to know how they can identify trends and how they can use that skill to build and grow a business. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to develop this skill yourself.

The Fundamental Growth Elements

There are three fundamental elements that drive all trends:

  • Basic Needs
  • Drivers of Change
  • Innovations

The secret ingredient of trends however isn’t actually any of one of these elements. Rather, it’s the tension created as the three elements interact with one another. This tension can best be identified by understanding customer expectations and by looking for gaps between what customers want – both now and in the future – and what they are currently being offered.

Understanding this enables you to hit the sweet spot of trend-driven innovation with your new offering – when you beat customers’ expectations and resolve this tension.

Here are ten keys to find growth sweet spots:

Anticipate change

I frequently remind coaching clients that the only constant is change. Believe it. Assume that change is coming and look for it. Change can be either social — as in the rise of socially responsible business — or technological, as exemplified by the growth of mobile commerce. Sometimes change can be both. Social media is a great example of that.

The basic tools of the growth trend tracker are seeing, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. In other words, every sense that can be used to get information about the world should be employed in looking for upcoming changes. Start by reading and watching everything you can. That should include general interest news outlets, trade publications, blogs, government reports, and casual conversations overheard in elevators. Be especially alert for problems people are talking about.

Consider using trend-tracking tools like Google Trends, Topsy, and Trendhunter to help you zero in on trends that are worth investigating further. You won’t be the only entrepreneur looking for business ideas on these platforms, but you can use them to dig deeper to validate hunches.

Listen and observe

Today, there’s too much broadcasting and not enough receiving. Everyone is focused on pumping out information, but turning off our own signal and receiving and digesting, that’s a skill that has gone away.

I like to immerse myself in a topic by reading about it. I dedicate an hour in the morning, and again before I go to sleep, to reading. I actually schedule it

Look beyond your own boundaries

You have to look around and ask yourself: What are the general trends going on, even though they haven’t affected my business yet?. Early this century you might have noticed that people weren’t yet ready to buy music by the download, but the way they found new music was shifting. I thought, today it’s record labels, but I can see how companies will become major players launching new music, such as Apple through its commercials, or Starbucks with its stores. I saw a trend where people weren’t necessarily interested in discovering music by walking into a record shop or watching MTV anymore.

 

Be realistic

An online retailer that aims to beat Amazon at its own game is unlikely to show up on top of any fast-growing startup lists very soon. Make sure the solution you envision is one you can realistically provide with features and costs that will compare favorably to established alternatives.

Again, it’s vital to talk to potential customers. Don’t just brainstorm in-house. What you can do conveniently and inexpensively may be of little value to customers. The sweet spot for a trend-exploiting startup is at the intersection of business capability and customer need.

 

Create a competitive advantage

To get the biggest benefit, be the first mover. It is rare for any single entrepreneur to be the only one who sees an opportunity. Most will hesitate and not move at all. Many others will not move swiftly enough. Lasting competitive advantage usually goes to the first entrant to stake a market out and capture customer loyalty. Those who come later usually have to settle for slimmer profits and more competition.

Being first is not enough, of course. Business history is littered with well-financed startups directed by well-regarded leaders who committed too much, too early, and in the wrong place. So test before committing. Again, look for revenues that overwhelm costs and customers who are overjoyed.

 

Choose Your Sources

Just as it took multiple sources—bloggers, Facebook, word of mouth—to realize that the time is ripe to visit Colombia, spotting a trend in other industries is much the same.

As you put together a list of blogs, news sites, social media channels, and other sources, here are some tips to help you hone in and filter extraneous content:

 

Follow Trustworthy Thought Leaders

When selecting your sources for news and information, find reputable resources you can trust. These are people who are experts in their field, brands whose information you find to be reliable and valuable.

I follow a number of travel bloggers who have been in the business for years. Most of them I’ve found through other people I follow or trust. When their blogs are too gimmicky or inauthentic, I stop reading. Be selective and filter out the noise.

 

Take care on choosing sources

Just as it took multiple sources—bloggers, Facebook, word of mouth—to realize that the time is ripe to visit Colombia, spotting a trend in other industries is much the same.

As you put together a list of blogs, news sites, social media channels, and other sources, here are some tips to help you hone in and filter extraneous content:

Look Outside Your Industry

In addition to watching what’s going on in your own niche, it often pays to expand your horizons. Our world is so interconnected, true trends pop up everywhere. Keeping an eye on developments in other fields can sometimes be key in predicting changes closer to home.

The bottom line

To be effective in this new era of trend spotting, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares.
Today we need to manage not for stability, but for disruption. So instead of just planning against established metrics, we also need to continually ask what we’re doing to explore the unknown.
Not all who wander are lost.
We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire trend experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive trend spotting.

Trend Spotting Tools I Employ to Skyrocket Performance Results

How do some people seem to know about the next big thing way ahead of everyone else? Because they know how to recognize early signs of change. They also know which trend spotting tools to use.

trend spotting tools
Trend spotting tools.

What is a trend, and why should you be spotting them?

A trend is a general tendency or direction in which something’s going to move, develop, or change. It’s defined by a shift in mentality or behavior that then influences a significant number of people.
It’s important to be on the lookout for the newest trends on https://zenserp.com/trends-data-api/ so you can plan more effectively for the future and introduce more successful initiatives to your business. By focusing on what will happen next, you can make more informed decisions in less time, saving a lot of energy and money in the long run.

Anticipate change

I frequently remind coaching clients that the only constant is change. Believe it. Assume that change is coming and look for it. Change can be either social — as in the rise of socially responsible business — or technological, as exemplified by the growth of mobile commerce.
Sometimes change can be both. Social media is a great example of that.
Don’t forget the cyclical, up-and-down, back-and-forth nature of business while you are looking. Change doesn’t have to be permanent to provide a viable opportunity for business creation and growth.
For example, when the real estate crisis hit in 2008, construction activity shrank, and many people were forced to make do with what they had. But trend-spotting entrepreneurs were able to adjust their plans depending on the market.
In another example, savvy interior designers marketed their services to those who wanted something new but couldn’t find or afford a new home.

See it coming

The basic tools of the trend tracker are seeing, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. In other words, every sense that can be used to get information about the world should be employed in looking for upcoming changes. Start by reading and watching everything you can.
That should include general interest news outlets, trade publications, blogs, government reports and casual conversations overheard in elevators. Be especially alert for problems people are talking about.

Trend spotting tools… your sources

Just as it took multiple sources—bloggers, Facebook, word of mouth—to realize that the time is ripe to visit Colombia, spotting a trend in other industries is much the same.
As you put together a list of blogs, news sites, social media channels, and other sources, here are some tips to help you hone in and filter extraneous content:

Follow trustworthy thought leaders

When selecting your sources for news and information, find reputable resources you can trust. These are people who are experts in their field, brands whose information you find to be reliable and valuable.
I follow some marketing bloggers who have been in the business for years. Most of them I’ve found through other people I follow or trust. When their blogs are too gimmicky or inauthentic, I stop reading. Be selective and filter out the noise.

Look outside your industry

In addition to watching what’s going on in your niche, it often pays to expand your horizons. Our world is so interconnected; true trends pop up everywhere. Keeping an eye on developments in other fields can sometimes be key in predicting changes closer to home.
Once you’ve started a list of potential sources and brands you want to follow, it’s time to optimize your trend-spotting with a few tools. Consider using trend-tracking tools to help you zero-in on trends that are worth investigating further.
You won’t be the only entrepreneur looking for business ideas on these platforms, but you can use them to dig deeper to validate hunches.

what is trend spotting
What is trend spotting?

Trend spotting tools … Google News and Alerts

This first point is two tools. Google News allows you to create a stream of news stories for a specific keyword, person, or brand while Google Alerts will notify you every time that keyword is mentioned on the web.
 

Google News

To harness the Google News tool, follow these simple steps:
  • Go tohttp://news.google.com
  • Click the black down arrow on the right side of the search bar to pull up Advanced Search options
  • Enter a search term you want to track
  • If relevant, include where in the article you want to search for the term, a date range, and any specific periodical sources or locations.
  • Your search will pull up recent news stories related to the search term
  • For further filtering options, click the “Search tools” button to adjust your news source (Blogs or All News), time frame, and whether relevance or date should sort the results.
You can keep track of these alerts in your feed. To do this, copy and paste the URL from your search to add it as another content source. That way, whenever a new article with your search terms is published, you’ll see it in your Feedly reading list.
For detailed instructions on how to set up Google News sources directly in Feedly Pro, check out this tutorial.
 

Google Alerts

To use Google Alerts, do the following:
  • Go tohttp://www.google.com/alerts
  • Enter a search term
  • Click on the “Show options” dropdown
  • Specify any restrictions you want on type of sources, language, region, and some
With Google Alerts, you can opt to get immediate notifications. Alternatively, you can add the stream of alerts to an RSS reader, like Feedly, and check in on your own time.
To do this, where it says “Deliver to,” select “RSS feed.” Then click the “Create alert” button. Next, click on the RSS feed icon to view the feed URL for your Google Alert. Copy this URL (it will start with http://www.google.com/alerts/feeds…) and paste it into your search bar in Feedly. Press enter, and you’ll be able to add the feed to your reading list.

 

Twitter lists

For minute-by-minute trends, Twitter may be the best source of breaking news. Although Twitter can be a noisy world, with Twitter Lists, you have the power to filter the input down to what matters to you.
Create lists for Twitter accounts of people or brands who share your interests, or who are thought leaders and influencers in your field. That way you can stay on top of their updates without the feed getting cluttered by irrelevant tweets.
To create a Twitter list, follow these steps:
  • Click on your profile image in the header (once you’re logged in to Twitter)
  • Click on “Lists” from the dropdown that appears (alternatively, you can type in http://twitter.com/yourusername/lists to get to the same page)
  • Here you should see any lists you’ve already created or subscribed to
  • Click the “Create new list” button
  • Type in a name, description of the list, and select whether it should be public or private
  • To add Twitter accounts to the list, go to each user’s profile page
  • On the user’s profile page, click the gear icon and select “Add or remove from ”
  • From the pop-up box, check the box for the list you want their tweets to show up in
  • Repeat the last three steps for each Twitter account you want on your list
 

Feedly

For your own, hand-picked blogs and websites, you can use Feedly to quickly and easily curate a reading list. Here are a few tips for getting your Feedly primed for trendspotting:
  • Use the search bar on the top right or the Add Content button to find and subscribe to new feeds by pasting in an URL.
  • Use theChrome extension or a Feedly bookmarklet to add feeds to your reading list from any web page.
  • Type a topic (example: social media) into the Feedly search bar to look up suggested sites from other Feedly users
  • With Feedly Pro, you can use the Power Search, including hashtags (example: #socialmedia) to help you find specific stories related to that topic.
  • Notice the popularity rating of the articles coming through your feed to see which ideas are getting more traction
  • To discover new sources, you may not have known about; you can check out theShared Collections from other users who have recommended similar content

Google Trends

So, you have a website selling footwear, and you need to discover the best time to market boots. So, you’ll need to know when in the year the demand for boots starts to go up. Here’s what Google Trends says:
As you could probably have guessed there are great peaks in the winter and troughs in the summer for boot sales, but what it does indicate is that people start their searches earlier than you would think: July and August. So that’s when your marketing efforts should start as well.
You can also see that June is a rubbish time to be selling either boots or shoes, so perhaps you should focus your efforts on selling sandals.
Google Trends also suggests related terms (Wordtracker’s Keywords tool also does this, of course).
And you can search by image, product mentions on the web. Or you can choose to narrow it down by country, restrict it to a specific period or search by category.
You can, for example, find out how popular searches for DVDs are in the category ‘Technology’ rather than in ‘Arts & Entertainment’ if you’re interested more in recordable DVDs than movie DVDs.

Yahoo Search Clues

Next, let’s look at how useful Yahoo Search Clues is at trend comparison:
We can see from this graph that Coolpix (the compact digital) is overall very slightly more popular than the Digital SLR D300 but their graphs over a year are largely similar. The split between male and female searching for the terms is broadly similar with a slight preference by male searchers.
The smaller camera appeals to an older demographic than the more complicated DSLR. And the biggest market for these cameras is the United States.
From this information it’s possible to decide which groups to target in advertising or marketing campaigns – with Coolpix we would have to decide between:
Targeting a new, younger demographic to bring in a new type of customer
Or concentrating marketing efforts on older customers to whom the product already appeals.

YouTube Trends Dashboard

The YouTube Trends Dashboard is a great tool for tracking the popularity of, unsurprisingly, video content:
If you wanted to narrow down the search results to those most popular with or most shared by 13-17-year-olds in the UK, this is where you would do it.
And if you wanted to compare what the young ‘uns are viewing with those videos popular with the more mature, perhaps even in a different country, you can do that, too.

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed organizes the most shared pieces of content on social media. Sign up for their main daily RSS feed or select a section you want to subscribe to, for example, Viral, Sports or Movies.
Getting a handle on the type of content being shared will help give you some ideas as to the kind of content you should have on your site.

Topsy analytics

The social search engine Topsy features a Twitter analytics tool which you can to use to compare up to three subjects where you can look at up to a month’s worth of trending links. Topsy only includes ‘significant’ tweet mentions, i.e., mentions that have been retweeted or include a link.
The data comes from Twitter, and Topsy only includes ‘significant’ tweet mentions, i.e., mentions that have been retweeted or include a link.
It’s obvious which is getting talked about the most.

Twitter trends

Twitter Trends is the list of often hashtagged (#) terms you’ll see on the left-hand side of your Twitter account. You can track trends by location (there’s a choice of 150+ locations), or there’s an option to have ‘tailored trends’ – these are trends that are focused on your location and who you’re following. My tailored trends today are telling me that Nokia’s HERE maps have been launched on iTunes:

WeFollow and FollowerWonk

Find out what the influencers in your particular industry are talking about by finding out who those influencers are. In WeFollow add a tag, and it will suggest who are the top influencers in that niche. Mind, it’s user-generated. They gather their statistics from people who have submitted their Twitter name to them.
FollowerWonk also makes it easy to find influencers:
Click the ‘Search Twitter bios’ tab, and ‘more options’ then complete the details that you’d like to include in your search. You can sort by influence rating and some followers among other options.

Think with Google

trend spotting marketing
Trend spotting marketing.

A very useful newsletter to sign up for is Think with Google
Since Google are the ones with all the data, the marketing insights they pass on are surely worth a look. A current example on the site is a report on how and where users interact with their smartphones:

Google Instant

Last but not least is yet another Google tool, Google Instant: i.e., the drop-down menu that you see when you carry out a search on Google
Typing in “travel 2013”, for example, throws up some very interesting ideas on how you could be marketing your hotels, what to write about on your blog or which holidays to feature on your travel site. And it may even suggest terms that you hadn’t thought of before (for more long tail suggestions, try Wordtracker.

The bottom line

To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
word_of_mouth
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
 
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
 
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
  
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Pinterest Marketing … Rich Pin Tips for Discovery Shopping
Improve Success with Small Business Tagline Designs
How to Get Small Business Press Coverage
 
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
 

Disney Trend Spotting Best Practices: Obtain Trend Results Like an Expert

Many successful businesses were started by entrepreneurs with an ability to see a trend before everyone else. They were able to take their insight and capitalize on it in a new and creative way. They did this by employing the extraordinary Disney trend spotting best practices.

Disney trend spotting best practices
Trend spotting best practices.

Notice businesses from Uber and Lyft to Airbnb and HomeAway are just some of the most recent examples of entrepreneurs benefiting from emerging trends.
But just because it’s been done before doesn’t mean it is easy to see trends first and find ways to capitalize on them.

 

Trend spotting results

Before telling you more about some of these trend-spotting best practices, let me tell you a story about Walt Disney and his trend-spotting results.
Walt Disney and his abilities in trend spotting and rifts. Rift … what is a rift you may ask? A rift is a big tear in the rules we live by. Not a small tear, a fundamental change in the game type of tear. One that creates a small number of BIG, new winners, and bunches of losers who were sticking steadfastly to the old rules.
Walt was a three-time rifter. Can’t think of any others in that category. He was one of the few people who has successfully managed to find a rift in the continuum of business life, to bet everything he had on it, and to then make a great profit in doing it.
And, amazingly, he did it three times.
Let’s examine these rifts as a way to learn about spotting trends and acting on them.

 

Rift 1 … Motion Pictures

The first rift, or trend that Walt discovered was the motion picture. He noticed early on that movies would drastically change the world of entertainment.
Anticipating that there would be a huge demand for family-oriented entertainment, he pioneered the development of the animated movie.
His first film perfecting the form was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. And the fantastic growth of the rift was launched.
But he was not one to rest on his success … not at all. He kept looking for another change in the rules that would create further opportunity for his business enterprises.

Disney
Disney knew the value of a story.

Rift 2 … The automobile

The second rift was in the form of the automobile. Walt speculated that the car was going to change the way that families would get to entertainment.
His vision was a strategically located, extravagantly designed theme park could add a new leg to family entertainment and vacations.
And take advantage of the new way of family travel rift.
So, beginning with California’s Disneyland in 1955, he added a new business around this rift and it has dominated the theme park industry to this day.

 

Rift 3 … Television

He was now a giant in the entertainment business, but he was able to spot a third rift and opportunity: television. Many people regarded television simply as in-home movies.
Walt, however, saw it as an entirely different medium. So with properties like the Mickey Mouse Club, he established the third business to produce a never-ending stream of content for this new market.
Smart business people like Walt Disney, are always looking for an edge. They want to know how they can identify trends and how they can use that skill to build and grow a business.
Fortunately, there are best practices you can take develop this skill yourself.
Here are six best practices to spotting trends and capitalizing on them before your competition does.

Know objectives

Firstly, you shouldn’t dive into spotting trends before you know why you’re spotting them and what you want to achieve.
For example, are you looking to find an idea that will make you money, or that will encourage your existing target audience to spend more with you? Who are you targeting?
Establish your goals and chosen industry before you move forward.

connect the dots
Connect the dots.

Connect the dots

Once you’ve collated information and the latest news from your chosen area, you can start to group articles together, assess and find connections between the elements.
Tools for collating and bookmarking your findings:

Can Persuasive Advertising Assist in Your Ad Designs

  • Evernote – A great tool that lets you assign photos, docs, scans, notes, for future reference.
  • Pinterest – A great content sharing service that allows members to “pin” images, videos and other objects to their pinboard for future reference.
  • Delicious – An online social bookmarks manager that lets you save, organize and discover interesting links on the web.
  • Freemind – great free tool for creating mind maps
  • Old fashioned pen & paper, sticky notes & whiteboards!

Disney trend spotting best practices … test assumptions

Once you have connected the dots between your findings and found re-occurring themes and connections, you can then assess the potential trends to see how they are doing in the current landscape, and make potential predictions for the trends future using the following:
Google Keywords: By using Google keywords you can see the average number of searches that your potential trend is typed into Google each month, and compare them to other trends and keywords.
Google Trends: Google Trends is really good for seeing the fluctuation of trends, how well they’ve done in the past, how well they’re doing now and make predictions of how well they’ll do in the future.
Then ask yourself the following:
  • What are the needs that the trend satisfies (is it a trend or fad)?
  • How many people won’t be able to or be interested in taking advantage of the trend?
  • What will affect the speed of the trend?
  • Where is the trend now – who are currently using it on the innovation curve?
Once you have a solid idea that’s on trend and that will survive within the current landscape, find out the following:
  • What demographics are you targeting (get to know them and ask them questions)
  • What is the investment required and how profitable is the idea?
  • What’s the longevity of the concept?
The basic tools of the trend tracker are seeing, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. In other words, every sense that can be used to get information about the world should be employed in looking for upcoming changes.
Start by reading and watching everything you can. That should include general interest news outlets, trade publications, blogs, government reports and casual conversations overheard in elevators.
Be especially alert for problems people are talking about.

Listen and observe

Today, there’s too much broadcasting and not enough receiving. Everyone is focused on pumping out information, but turning off our signal and receiving and digesting, that’s a skill that has disappeared.
How do I do it? I like to immerse myself in a topic by reading about it. I schedule an hour in the morning, and again before bed to this to reading. I schedule it. I also carefully observe things going on around me.
It is amazing how much you can learn. Pay close attention and take notes.

 

Disney trend spotting best practices … look beyond your boundaries

You have to look around and ask: ‘What are the general trends going on, even though they haven’t affected me or my business yet?’ For example, many noted that people weren’t yet ready to buy music by download.
Few also noted that the way they found new music was shifting. They could see how companies could become major players launching new music, such as Apple through its commercials, or Starbucks with its stores.
What was the trend? It was where people weren’t necessarily interested in discovering music by walking into a record shop or watching MTV anymore.

 

Anticipate change

anticipate change
Anticipate change.

I frequently remind clients that the only constant is change. Believe it. Assume that change is coming and look for it.
Change can be either social — as in the rise of socially responsible business — or technological, as exemplified by the growth of mobile commerce. Sometimes change can be both.
Social media is a great example of that.
Don’t forget the cyclical, up-and-down, back-and-forth nature of business while you are looking.
Change doesn’t have to be permanent to provide a viable opportunity for business creation and growth. When the real estate crisis hit in 2008, construction activity shrank, and many people were forced to make do with what they had.
But trend-spotting entrepreneurs were able to adjust their plans depending on the market.
For example, savvy interior designers marketed their services to those who wanted something new but couldn’t find or afford a new home.

 

INTEGRATED_MARKETING_STRATEGY
Do you have an Integrated Marketing Strategy?

 

Need some help in building better customer insights from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer base?
 
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job of growing customer insights and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new insights that you have learned.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
 
Check out these additional articles on customer insights from our library:
Lessons from the Yale Customer Insights Conference
Small Business Customer Insights 101
Remarkable Marketing Using These 17 Customer Insight Techniques
A How-to Guide for Small Business Social Media Marketing
 
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.