Market intelligence software gathers publicly available and/or client-focused market information to better understand the customer and their behavior. The data can be collected from sources that focus on understanding specific trends or insights over a market or consumer industry rather than a specific business or individual company. Market intelligence solutions are most commonly used by a variety of marketing or sales personas to establish lists of broad or segmented market data and insights to better direct company strategy.
It’s important to note that there is a key difference between market intelligence software and competitive intelligence software. Market intelligence is specifically focused on the consumer as opposed to competitive intelligence, which is business focused. Competitive intelligence is gathered strictly to understand and analyze competitors. These can work in tandem with sales intelligence software since sales intelligence can be used for prospecting and is often integrated with a market or competitive intelligence product.
To qualify for inclusion in the Market Intelligence category, a product must:
- Gather and organize market-focused data from a variety of sources
- Leverage collected data to analyze segmented market trends, or customer monitoring
- Ensure accuracy and quality of information
- Provide actionable insights or direction about markets or market share
