Few will dispute the importance of an organisation staying up to date with market development. In fact, no analytical business tool can question the value of monitoring business trends and other relevant information. The internet can be a valuable tool in keeping up to date, and using the internet to get the latest marketing news can broadly be divided into three different categories, each with its own benefits and drawbacks.
The most obvious way to get marketing news is to use an online search engine to search for relevant news articles and press releases. While using a search engine is free, it can prove to be time consuming, requiring the use of several ones to find relevant information, and can therefore be impractical for an organisation to do on a day to day basis. Also, web pages that hold the most relevant information may not appear early in search results, either because the search engine deems that the popularity of other less relevant pages means they should appear first, or because the relevant website has not optimised its site for search engines.
An organisation may therefore prefer to use media monitoring companies to provide them with relevant marketing news. Media monitoring companies, as the name implies, constantly monitors news for their clients through various forms of media. Traditionally this has been done by browsing newspapers and journals and listening to the radio, cutting out print articles and sending them to the client.
However, since the turn of the millennium, more media has become available online, and a number of companies specialise in monitoring media that is digitally delivered. Most of these can provide clients with regular reports about what is being said about their companies, as well as their competitors and industry trends, all of course, depending on the client’s needs. While this is a good way to get information, media monitoring companies charge for their services and may not be financially feasible for all organisations.
A compromise could be to find a relevant site specialising in marketing news. These can offer relevant press releases and articles as well as industry reports. Some of the information, like press releases and articles, tend to be available at no cost, while industry reports may be available for a fee. The best marketing news website for an organisation depends on the organisation’s industry and the quality of the information available on the website. Indeed, using a search engine to find the appropriate marketing news site can be time better spent than using it to look for news articles themselves.
So ultimately, the optimal way for an organisation to get marketing news depends on an organisation’s needs, time constraints and budget. Nevertheless, ensuring organisation is receiving relevant marketing news is imperative to ensure the organisation is making informed strategic decisions.
