With competitiveness increasing across the board for local companies that face new competition from abroad and global websites seeking to suck trade away, businesses need as many advantages as they can muster.
Here we consider how in one city, Louisville, KY, companies can do better with analyzing their competition, collecting data in different ways, and protecting their digital assets.
Competitive analysis takes many forms. Companies can examine their competition to see where they’re weakest or whether there is an opening to launch a new product that can easily beat their competitor’s. Gaps in the market that can be taken advantage are discovered most often when looking at what other businesses are doing and realizing what they’re missing.
In terms of web site competitive analysis, businesses should look at how clearly organized their website is, the quality of the content published on it, and how many backlinks are pointing to the competitor’s website from other sites. A quick Google search for “site:[url]” with the URL replaced with the competitor’s website address will confirm how large their site is.
Using a tool like AHRef.com and a yearly subscription, companies can examine all the backlinks that are pointing at their competitor’s site to assess its relative strength to rank well in Google for relevant search terms.
Data collection has become a big thing for the largest conglomerates that collect big data and then filter through it to find useful information and draw meaningful conclusions. For smaller businesses, there’s still the opportunity collect customer information in an organized manner and store it in a central relational database like a Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL, or a simple Microsoft Access database file for that matter.
The advantage of using a relational database is that powerful searches can be performed to pull records based on a series of specific criteria: e.g. customers how have previously ordered, but not in the last three months, who spent over $500 in past purchases and have a phone number on file.
The issue with digital assets is how to store them safely and protect this intellectual property from loss via hacking intrusions. Being able to securely archive digital assets to safely lock them away in cold storage and still remain organized with scores of assets involved is a process in itself.
An online master of information degree covers the topic of managing digital assets successfully, along with other subjects like data management, how to organize storage, manage information and obtain actionable competitor information. The library science degree is a thoroughly modern graduate qualification that speaks to the needs of local businesses to effectively handle digital assets, work with large datasets and make use of them in their companies while controlling costs as they do so.
With the growing level of competition across the country and abroad, Kentucky-based businesses have to work hard to compete both nationally and internationally. By doing a better job of competitor analysis and managing their own digital assets well, they can gain a larger footprint in the business world despite the increased globalization and ultra-competitive landscape they face.
