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