6 great competitive intelligence data sources
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The document outlines six valuable sources for competitive intelligence data, including toolbar data, panel data, ISP data, search engine data, benchmarks from web analytics, and self-reported data. Utilizing these sources effectively can enhance decision-making and provide insights into competitors' behaviors and industry performance. The importance of analyzing and corroborating data collected from these sources is emphasized for maximizing its utility.
6 great competitive intelligence data sources
- 1. 6 GREAT COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE DATA SOURCES For additional information about Competitive Intelligence please visit www.Intelligence2act.com
- 2. www.Intelligence2act.com Gathering more data for your competitive intelligence (CI) will allow you to have the best picture of your company’s performance as well as having the ability to predict the directions that your competitors are headed in. Making sure that you have a solid plan for analyzing the data that you collect is important; especially if you are going to use all 6 off these data sources to collect copious amounts of data. The decision making ability will increase immensely as you harness the data that you can collect from these 6 great CI data sources. 2
- 3. www.Intelligence2act.com 1. TOOLBAR DATA Toolbars can offer people additional functionality for their browsing experience. As they are available and widely used from all of the major search engines and they collect limited information about browsing habits, you can gain this data and run a CI tool to leverage the information. The information can be used to help you find search terms used, time spent on each page, and pages visited. The toolbars are used by millions of people and can be a great source of information that will give you broad CI data. 3
- 4. www.Intelligence2act.com 2. PANEL DATA Panel data is a well-established method of collecting data, but it was designed for early browsing habits. The data that is collected for Panel Data comes from a piece of monitoring software that is installed on the user’s computer and will give fine details about all of their browsing habits. Large competitive intelligence companies such as comScore and Nielsen use panel data as a primary source. Because of the limitations it is best to corroborate this data with other data points. 4
- 5. www.Intelligence2act.com 3. ISP DATA Everyone uses internet service providers (ISP’s) to access the internet. As you surf the Web, all of the browsing data is stored in server log files including: sites, page names, keywords searched, browser types, and operating systems. While there are large data samples for CI, the information is increasing hard to get your hands on. 5
- 6. www.Intelligence2act.com 4. SEARCH ENGINE DATA All of the searches that are entered into the search engines are logged, along with IP address and browser information. With the increased access to tools such as Google Adwords, you can mine the data and find all sorts of relevant CI information from a highly reliable source that is great for determining ad spends. 6
- 7. www.Intelligence2act.com 5. BENCHMARKS FROM WEB ANALYTICS VENDORS. All businesses like data, and since web analytics can offer a large amount of data most people offer some in exchange. This data is then analyzed and formulated into benchmark data that you can use to compare your company and your competitors to. As another competitive intelligence tool in the toolbox you can use this benchmark data to get a great idea of the industry’s performance 7
- 8. www.Intelligence2act.com 6. SELF-REPORTED DATA An increasingly common method of collecting data is through the self- reported data that people offer to Google’s Ad Planner in exchange for advertising revenue. This data is clean and often a great place to focus attention if your competitor is pushing their data through the self-reporting softwares. The CI data that you can get from self-reported data can be some of the best as it is directly from your competitors. 8
- 9. For additional information about Competitive Intelligence please visit www.Intelligence2act.com