When conducting research on new and prospective clients, it’s crucial to strategize the best approach for gathering valuable insight. These types of details are critical in developing a strong plan for the client. Some information that lotus823 looks to includes is the company’s social media channels, its past media results, and what its competitors are doing.
Here are our top 3 tools we know and love in researching brand prospects:
Sponsorpitch
While Sponsorpitch is known as a platform for showcasing brands and their partnerships, it can be used for much more. You can pull news on recent campaigns, sponsorships, and key hires to create a better sense of a prospect and its past endeavors. Are they heavy on sports sponsorships? Do they work with a lot of non-profits? This is where you can find out that kind of information and channel it to work for your business development team’s big pitch.
Known for its strong connection to the professional landscape, using LinkedIn for business development purposes should come as no surprise. For the lotus823 team, it’s a go-to tool for researching important key decision makers. Perhaps a team member has worked with a prospect in the past or has a shared connection? That’s a valuable piece of information your business development team can use to create rooted connections to this contact. LinkedIn is where strong (professional) relationships grow.
Google Search
Google is one of the most widely used search engines and for good reason. For any search conducted, you can receive thousands of results relating to the specific topic. While search is a powerful tool, there are many other Google products that can help you research a prospect or even a competitor.
Google Keyword Planner can let you know how current fans or businesses are searching about the prospect or the industry as a whole, while Google Trends allows you to see current trending topics across the globe along with potential forecasting of those searches.
These are a few of the many available online research tools we like to use for business development, but we are constantly on the lookout for new ones too. Do you have any favorites? Share in the comments below!