Are you building the game plan for your next marketing campaign?

Maybe, you're digging the foundation for your company as a whole.

Whether you're scouting the market for your next big business idea or testing the waters for expansion into a new area, I've got a tool you can't pass up.

Best of all, it's free.

This Business Development Tool Could Be Your Secret Weapon

Carrot ice cream, looks like it may have some potential guys... #onfleek

Business development, marketing, whatever you want to call it - you want to take calculated risks and spend your resources wisely. Time is money, and maximizing return is what you're looking for, right?

There's certainly no magic formula, but being well-informed (and a little lucky) helps.

One of my favorite quotes is, "The harder I work, the luckier I get." This is one resource to help you work smarter, not harder, and ensure you can find the door upon which opportunity is knocking.

It's a window into the searching world - where your skills are needed - where your product is in high demand, no matter what you're selling. You can even catch a glimpse into the mysterious minds of millennials, probably the group of the most active Googlers.

Okay, enough build-up - let's get to the point. It's Google Trends.

Underwhelmed? Let me make my case.

How to Use Google Trends to Test the Market

Are you a new restaurant concept looking for the best place to launch?

In tandem with good ol' fashioned demographics on Mintel or other sites, you can find out where people are searching for your kind of chow the most.

Thinking of a pop-up shop? It might be wise when you find out that the searches in your budding markets are highly seasonal.

Develop To-the-Minute Marketing Campaigns, Nimbly Nab Expansion Opportunities

...And successfully land a leading role as an analytic marketing acrobat, nabbing each attempt with the precision only provided by data-backed suggestions.

Shameless... I know. Go Cavs.

Best of all? Google suggests correlations - you glean info on searches commonly done shortly prior, to or subsequent to, your specified keywords - another treasure trove of data to be mined by those who know what to look for:

• Seemingly unrelated topics that appear in this subset could be prime fuel for inside-joke type marketing shorts.
• You may get lucky and find other consumer tastes that could easily be integrated into your menu.
• Find out when a flash sale is in order - using a popular search as a sort of piggyback holiday to warrant brand festivities.
• Say you have already launched a campaign targeted at brand awareness. Did searches for your name spike after a tv campaign began?

You can use correlations and suggested searches to find out what people remember most about your content by words they pair with the brand frequently. Want more tips? I liked this article from Small Business BC.

These kind of insights are found easily through the Google Trends suite of sites. Explore theses business development tools now, and let us know what you think in the comments below!