How to Spot Trends
If you want to excel in business you’ll need to be able to identify what your particular market wants before it becomes obvious. Trendspotting is useful in helping you tailor your goods or services to appeal to your target audience.
Firstly, you’ll want to know your market, know it like you know your best friend. What inspires and motivates them? What completely turns them off? Are there any emotions (anxieties, fears, stressors etc.) that your audience members may be experiencing as a whole? Aiming at common values held by the members of your audience can be a fantastic way to ensure that you create something that will appeal to them. Don’t forget relatability is key. People become excited when they can relate to your product or service in some way.
Research is your friend when it comes to good trend spotting. Read publications, newspapers, the information found on relevant websites and, anything that either affects or impacts your business. Also, talk to your audience and other members of your industry. They can provide you with some useful insight into a myriad of topics that you may find useful in helping you to generate content (such as cultural relevancies, generational struggles or social issues).
Next comes predicting. Using the information, you’ve gathered determine things that will help benefit your audience. Understanding factors that influence your audience’s decision making (both the rational and irrational aspects) will play a role in being able to see and predict trends early on.
There are trend tracking tools, such as Google trends, that you may find useful but remember that you are not the only one looking. Ultimately the choice to follow a potential trend is yours to make, but it is difficult to move up in one’s career without taking a few calculated risks. As William Faulkner once said, “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”