The small business landscape is arguably tougher than ever before. A recent Constant Contact survey found that 59% of SMB CEOs feel it’s harder to run a business than it was 5 years ago, a factor which can primarily be attributed to quickly-changing technology and marketing best practices. The difficulty of success means that competitive marketing analysis is more crucial than ever. As Expert Stacy Poehler points out, “nothing happens in a vacuum.” Without well-defined points of comparison, and continual analysis, you’ll never know whether your marketing strategy is really working, or allowing you to capture a greater share of your market. However, best practices have changed significantly, and the tactics you learned in business school aren’t necessarily effective today.
