First of a three-part series.
Any company can lead its market. Companies that lead their markets have leaders and workers with similar behaviors. Companies are simply collections of people who observe, decide, and act.
This is what you need to do to be a market leader.
This week, we focus on observing. Next week and the week after, I will write about deciding, then acting.
How market leaders observe.
- Converse with your current customers. They have experience working with your company and will tell you what you are doing right and what you could do better. Side note: Steve Jobs used to spend a significant amount of time in the Apple stores each week; he used what he learned to guide his product design team.
- Hire someone to interview your customers at least twice a year, asking them about their experiences, why they chose to buy from you, and how they made their purchase.
- Use this information to make your marketing messages relevant to prospects and to improve what you’re doing. Instructions in my book.
- Test your own products and services. Have you tried to open your own packaging? Have you asked people you know to attempt to buy your product and report on how easy or difficult it was? Do your workers know this happens regularly?
- Use several AI tools to gather information about the size of your market, what your competitors are doing, trends to be aware of, etc.
- Use more than one AI tool. Relying on just one can lead to incomplete or even inaccurate information.
- However, no amount of AI-stalking your competitors or customers will point in the right direction the way customer interviews will.
- Use SEO tools to understand the keywords people use to find your types of solutions.
- Thanks to AI, customers are shifting from using terms Google can understand to posing conversational questions that AI easily understands.
- One of the questions you should ask in your customer interviews is, “What would you type into a search engine if you were looking for solutions like ours?”
- Interview your workers—especially those who come in contact with customers.
- What frustrates or pleases customers?
- What are the most common questions they hear from customers?
- Is it easy or difficult to find answers to customer questions?
- Are there things that customers want them to do, but your workers can’t do, because of some corporate policy?
- Create helpful content driven by the popularity of search terms and search terms that your competitors get clicks for.
- We’ve written articles for clients that have remained in the #1 position on Google for years. They continue to hold that top position as the world shifts from Google to AI.
- Nothing works better than an article that started with a conversation with one of your company’s subject matter experts and then was written by an excellent writer, supplemented by AI research.
- All types of search engines care about relevancy, frequency, recency, and popularity.
- Post the content on your site or blog, socialize it in the appropriate channels, and syndicate it to other relevant sites.
- Track the number of clicks you get for that article (more observation). If it is popular, try writing more content or creating videos on that topic.
If you got something out of this article, you may wish to download the guide I’ve written called “A Guide to Mindset-Driven Marketing in the Age of AI.”
Stay tuned for next week’s article on deciding.
