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Effective Strategies To Understand Your Competitors

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StrategyDriven Environmental Monitoring Article |Understand your competitors|Effective Strategies To Understand Your CompetitorsThere is no denying that the business world is highly competitive. This stiff competition is partly responsible for why 50% of American businesses fail in their first five years. Consequently, it is prudent to know and understand your competitors to learn customer demands, adapt quickly to market changes, and make better business decisions that strengthen your brand’s market position. Fortunately, understanding your competitors is easier in this age where information is abundant. Here’s how your business can better understand its competitors.

1. Attend industry events

Many entrepreneurs attend industry events to network with potential business partners, customers, and investors. However, these events are also an underrated way to better understand your competitors. A lot of valuable information comes to light anytime those in the same sector meet at industry events, thanks to exhibit booths and informational sessions. Moreover, these events are a great way to simultaneously monitor numerous competitors. For example, you can leave an industry event with in-depth information about five or more competitors. This knowledge may have taken you several days or weeks to compile.


2. Speak to your customers

Your customers are a major source of competitor information, but many businesses surprisingly do not seek their insights when studying rivals. You can learn a lot about how your competitors operate by conducting surveys to get answers from current customers who have once patronized them. These surveys should determine why they switched to your brand instead of sticking with your rivals. Similarly, reach out to former clients and ask why they ditched your brand for your competition. If you are opening a new business, you can ask your target audience for useful insights about competitors since you won’t yet have clients. For example, let’s assume you want to launch a fashion brand. Interacting with your target audience can help you discover particular market segments that your rivals have overlooked. Then, hire business plan writers for your idea who can write a detailed competitive analysis section that specifies how your brand can fill the gap in the market.

3. Check their websites regularly

Websites are often the first ports of call for anyone who wishes to learn more about businesses from multiple sources. These sites typically contain essential business information, events, product changes, and other relevant updates. The Small Business Administration estimates that 64% of American small businesses have websites, so there is a high chance that your competitor has one too. Consequently, check out your competitors’ websites to see what they are up to. Monitoring your rivals’ websites can give you various insights you can use to boost the customer experience for your site. For instance, you can create better blog posts, product descriptions, and contact information to make your website a more helpful alternative for your target audience.

4. Monitor their social media presence

Review42 estimates that at least 91% of American businesses leverage social media platforms for marketing purposes. Therefore, social media is a great place to head to if you want information that can help you understand your competitors. You can monitor the types and frequency of their posts, the topics they speak about, and who engages their content. Additionally, you can gather general sentiments about your rivals from social media, which can help you hone your own social media strategy.

The Single Military Strategy Every Business Needs

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StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article |Intrinsic Discipline|The Single Military Strategy Every Business NeedsWhat comes to mind when you hear the word discipline? Most people think of punishment. They view discipline as a way to gain compliance and turn people into unquestioning automatons. This type of discipline is extrinsic, and it’s common in many compliance cultures.

But there’s a second form of discipline, one that you’ll find in the best military units: intrinsic discipline. Intrinsic discipline occurs when people advance the common good voluntarily. It comes about when people understand the difference between right and wrong and do what’s right—even when the boss isn’t watching or when times are difficult.

Intrinsic discipline is a powerful tool. It creates the trust that’s needed to promote organizational initiatives, it empowers your people, and it produces a durable competitive advantage—all factors that lead to success in business and on the battlefield.

However, intrinsic discipline doesn’t happen by accident. As a leader, you must develop it intentionally, or your teams will get stuck in extrinsic compliance. But where should you start?

1. Define and explain the common good.

The first step to gaining your team’s commitment to the common good is to define and explain it so your people understand what it is, why it’s important, and how the organization will get there.

Xenophon, a pupil of Socrates and an experienced military commander, was the first great thinker in the Western world to outline this component of discipline. According to Xenophon, the first step to intrinsic discipline begins with the leader, who must possess areté—a combination of character and competence—to gain support from followers even in times of great danger.

Xenophon explains that leaders must teach their followers the common good and the difference between correct and incorrect performance and behavior. Defining and explaining the common good will create clear expectations and explain why you’re asking people to do what they do.

“Obedience,” Xenophon tells us, “must be given voluntarily rather than under compulsion.”


2. Gain buy-in by building trust.

The second step is to gain buy-in by building trust. People need to trust their leader, the desired outcomes (your organization’s vision, mission, and goals), and how they’ll reach these outcomes (through values, expectations, and strategies).

As so many studies of human decision-making attest, people make choices based on emotion and then rationalize those decisions. Trust and mutual respect are what create this emotional connection.

Exceptional military leaders understand this. While admonishing the United States Military Academy Corps of Cadets to end the practice of hazing in 1879, Academy Superintendent General John M. Schofield crafted what’s now referred to as “Schofield’s Definition of Discipline,” which still must be memorized by all West Point cadets:

The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instructions and to give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice to inspire in the soldier no feeling but an intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey.

The one mode or the other of dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them regard for himself, while he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward others, especially his inferiors, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.

The takeaway? Leaders who are trustworthy and treat people with respect create an environment in which intrinsic discipline can emerge.

3. Strengthen accountability.

The third step is to strengthen accountability. Accountability means to be answerable. It’s a four-way intersection: up, down, and lateral. Everyone on the team needs to be answerable for doing the right things in the right ways.

Importantly, this includes you as a leader; accountability begins in the mirror. Leaders need to walk the talk and enforce standards consistently so that everyone sees that the standards are essential rather than arbitrary.

As Greek military leader Xenophon explains:

Good workers get depressed when they see that, although they are the ones doing all of the work, the others get the same as they do, despite making no effort and being unprepared to face danger, if need be.

Playing favorites and haphazard enforcement are morale killers—they indicate to everyone involved that the standards and expectations are arbitrary and unimportant. And Xenophon is quite clear that the leader, not the followers, is to blame if the expectations and their importance are unclear or selectively followed.

To illustrate this principle, Xenophon provides examples in his famous work Anabasis of two commanders during the expedition with Cyrus against the Persian king Xerxes in 401 B.C. Both commanders failed in different ways.

Clearchus, a Spartan commander, took pride in his severity, believing that soldiers should fear their superiors more than the enemy. Because his rule was considered arbitrary, many of his men deserted.

In contrast, Proxenus, a Boeotian and a friend of Xenophon, sought to win the love of his soldiers by withholding praise from wrongdoers instead of punishing them. He became an object of contempt, and his soldiers ran roughshod over him.

The bottom line

These three steps—clarity, buy-in, and accountability—are the foundations for intrinsic discipline. They interact like a Venn diagram: Clarity and buy-in without accountability mean that any good results are a matter of luck. Clarity and accountability without buy-in creates compliance only, and people won’t contribute their best. Buy-in and accountability without clarity creates the hamster wheel effect: a lot of activity but no movement toward your goals. Having all three in place helps organizations move from compliance to a deeply inspired culture.

About the Author

Christopher D. Kolenda, Ph.D., founder of the Strategic Leaders Academy, works with leaders who want to apply insights from history and military operations to take their businesses to new heights. He is a West Point graduate, internationally renowned combat leader, retired Army colonel, and former trusted adviser to three four-star generals and two undersecretaries of defense. He’s the author of Zero-Sum Victory: What We’re Getting Wrong About War and Leadership: The Warrior’s Art, a trusted anthology that’s been in print for over 20 years and helped tens of thousands of leaders succeed in combat and business. Learn more at StrategicLeadersAcademy.com.

Tips in Creating an Effective Video Marketing Strategy

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Video Marketing Strategy|Tips in Creating an Effective Video Marketing StrategyWhen you’re trying to create an effective video marketing strategy, there are a lot of puzzle pieces to be solved. You need to think about what kind of video content you want to create, where to host it, and how it will appear in social media feeds. You also need to think about how much time and effort you can put into creating videos on a regular basis. In return, you get to connect with your audience. You can show them what you’re all about, and they can see how you think and feel about your products and services.

Tips in Creating an Effective Video Marketing Strategy

You can maximize the potential of video marketing as a powerful tool for building your business if you will follow these tips:

Understand your Target Audience

First of all, identify your target audience. After that, you need to understand their needs, wants, and desires. By doing so, you can create a compelling story that speaks to them. Once you really get to know your target audience, you’ll be able to craft better videos that resonate with them. And the more you create content that resonates with them, the more likely they are to see it and engage with it.

Use Different Platforms in Connecting to your Audience

You can use different platforms to create and distribute your video content, depending on your goals and audience. There are so many different platforms and options for video marketing. The trick is making sure that you’re using the right ones and not just the ones that are easiest and most convenient for you. Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are some of the platforms you can choose to connect your business with your target audience.


Focus on Quality Video Content

When it comes to video content, quantity does not equal quality. A single amazing piece of video content will get more views and shares than ten mediocre ones. Always take your time to plan out each video before you start shooting it, and make sure everything from lighting to sound quality is perfect before pressing the record button. You can easily achieve high-quality video content if you work with a video production agency that will help you with your needs.

Make your Videos Short but Interesting

Most people will only watch a video for about one minute before they decide whether or not they’re interested in watching it any further. If your video isn’t grabbing their attention within that first minute, then chances are they’ll click away and find something else to do with their time. You need to be very selective about how much information you give viewers in each second of your video. If there’s something important about your product or service that should be communicated quickly and clearly, do it in the first few seconds of your video.

Embrace Paid Promotion

Paid promotion is the act of using a paid channel to drive traffic and engagement to your videos. There are many different ways that you can pay for promotion, including buying ads on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, buying sponsored posts on YouTube, paying influencers to promote your content, and buying ads on other websites or blogs.

Summary

Creating an effective video marketing strategy takes more than just a good idea and some equipment. It takes careful planning so that all aspects of the production process flow smoothly from start to finish. Even though creating a strong video marketing strategy is not easy and it can be difficult to balance the needs of your business and your audience, these challenges are surmountable. If you follow these tips above, you’ll be able to create a video marketing strategy that will help you reach the right people at the right time with the right message.

How to Make Sure Your Manufacturing Business Is a Success

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Manufacturing Business|How To Make Sure Your Manufacturing Business Is A SuccessAre you thinking of starting a manufacturing business? If so, you’ll want to make sure that your business is a success. There are a few key things that you can do to help ensure this. Find out what they are below.

Have a Plan

Creating and following a plan is essential for any manufacturing business hoping to find success. The first step is to develop a clear and concise business plan that takes into account all aspects of the manufacturing process. This should include a market analysis, financial projections, and a marketing strategy.

Once the plan is in place, it’s important to stick to it as closely as possible and make adjustments as needed. Regular meetings with all members of the team can help ensure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal.

Knowing Your Market

It is critical that you understand your target market if you wish to succeed in the manufacturing business. To do this you need to make sure you understand their needs and wants, as well as what trends are affecting them. Without this knowledge, it will be difficult to create products that meet their needs and wants. Additionally, you will be at a disadvantage when it comes to marketing and selling your products.

Understand Your Costs

If you want to be sure your manufacturing business is a success, you need to understand your costs. This includes both the direct costs of making your product and the indirect costs of running your business. Direct costs are things like materials, labor, and shipping. Indirect costs are things like rent, utilities, and insurance.

To get a clear picture of your costs, you need to track them carefully and regularly. This will help you price your products correctly and make the best decisions about how to run your business.

Get the Right People on Board

There’s no manufacturing business without the right team in place. To ensure your business’ success, you need to make sure you have the best engineers, operators, and managers working for you. This can be difficult, as the talent pool in manufacturing is often small. However, with a little bit of effort, you can find the right people for your business.

Ensure Access to the Right Supplies and Equipment

For your manufacturing business to be a success you need to provide your workers access to the right supplies and equipment. This means that you need to invest in the big items like the correct milling machines, as well as pay attention to the finer details such as making sure you have the right end mills like these ball nose end mill parts you can get shipped from China. Although the precise items you will need will depend on your manufacturing process, as well as the requirements of your clients. For durable, reliable fastening and assembly solutions, consider partnering with companies like Dyson Corporation to ensure your production line runs smoothly.

Promote Your Business

There are many ways you can promote your manufacturing business including advertising and marketing online and via social media. Investing in industry-specific SEO is also vital for success in the manufacturing industry because many of your clients will find you by first searching online. Therefore it’s essential that you work with experts that can ensure you stay in pole position in the SERPs above your competitors.

How Different Automated Processes Have Improved Business

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StrategyDriven StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article |Automated Processes|How Different Automated Processes Have Improved BusinessOn the surface, it may seem like automation in business is a bad idea. The lack of human judgment should cause all manner of errors; however, many companies are embracing this technology for several reasons.

There is a lot that you can now automate inside your own business, and there are plenty of reasons to trust these processes. With that said, let’s look are the different automatic processes that are now entrenched in modern business to find out how they have improved productivity in some way.

Automation In Manufacturing

The benefits of using automated practices in manufacturing are fairly obvious and this practice has been around for a very long time. Machines can now be programmed to work as part of a conveyor system to build your product in record time. This means that you can manufacture a lot more in a standard hour than a human workforce ever could; therefore, you make more money in the process.

Automation In Inventory Management

Operating a large business can sometimes feel overwhelming. You have so much stock to manage, and one tiny error in this management system can lead to catastrophic consequences in the future. However, you can remove human error from the inventory and warehousing processes by using Texas 3PL.

A company like SCHC can handle all your third-party logistic needs with its automatic inventory management systems. These can place stock orders based on the current market trajectory and update your records regularly, so you always have an idea about how much stock you have. This prevents stock management problems, saving you money overall.

Automation In Human Resources

Automatic processes aren’t solely reserved for the mechanical side of your business. They can also be used in employee management.

Your human resources team is responsible for monitoring the work patterns and well-being of all your employees. Unfortunately, the data management side of this profession can sometimes take precedence over the human side, which can lead to your staff producing poor results. That is why you can now adopt a human resource database to automatically update your data systems. It can send out pay, update holiday leave, and even perform feedback checks to improve your employee’s experience. This allows your HR team to continue to focus on the more important aspects of their role, safe in the knowledge that all employee data systems are being handled.

Automation In Saving You Money

As you can probably tell, all the automated processes listed above are designed to save you precious man-hours during the workday. However, there is a more important reason why you should adopt these practices, and that is because it can save your business money.

Maintaining positive profit margins is the key to success for any business, so you need to cut costs to ensure that you always end up making money. Using automated systems removes the need to pay unnecessary employees and keeps the likelihood of human errors down. These errors can prove quite costly, so make sure that you trust your new automated systems to save your business money.

Summary

Any good business will already have some of these automated processes in place. Unfortunately, technology moves so fast that it can be hard to keep up. Try to stay on the lookout for new automated systems and you can operate your business at maximum efficiency.