Web scraping is an important tool to find and utilize relevant data and information as part of a business’s market research. Data extraction plays a key role in providing information for business use. A web scraper will collect relevant information from public sites and using predictive analysis, can help identify which users a business should send their marketing material to. As a result of the benefits it provides to the market research process as outlined below, web scraping can be a profitable process for businesses.
Lead Generation
It’s estimated that the Internet has doubled in size every year since 2012, resulting in a significant amount of data that can be used for marketing purposes. A lead can be defined as contact details that fit the specific profile you have identified as a target consumer for your business. For example, if you required the contact details of GP’s specialising in a certain area, a web scraper would explore the internet and compile this information for you. These leads can be further qualified using the scraper by filtering the criteria and data until you possess qualified leads to add to your customer base.
Market Research
A web scraper can extract the necessary data to gather information about possible direct and indirect competition, the potential customer base and opportunities available for your industry. It also ensures that your business is up to date on market trends and compiles pricing data to ensure that your prices and products or services remain competitive.
A web scraper can inform you whenever there is a change in competitors prices or in the market. This helps you gain actionable insight into your own pricing decisions based on any promotions your competitors may be running. To stay on top of direct competition, it can also extract relevant data including similar products and shipping times of key competitors. One of the main benefits of a web scraper is that is collects data from multiple sources in a single place, making it easier to analyze and extract beneficial information for your business.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Finding ways to boost traffic towards your website all revolve around SEO.
Web scraping can improve your SEO by extracting data from competitive websites that have ranked higher in search engine results. You can then see what keywords have been employed by these higher ranking sites.
An analysis of these sites using web scraping can give you insight into the links, titles, keywords and descriptions being used by competitors who have dominated the web traffic. As rankings change frequently, a web scraping technology can automatically review your search engine ranking, providing continuously updated and current data.
Reviews
Web scraping can be used to track your online presence, including product or service reviews relating to your business. Tracking the performance of a product or service using a web scraper is a critical tool for business analytics and development. Web scraping should also be employed when developing an Online Reputation Management (ORM) strategy.
The process is essential to helping you understand the areas of greatest vulnerability to your business through extracting negative reviews of other businesses, opinion leaders and trending topics related to your industry. Web scraping therefore helps you stay on top of your reputation and quickly identify any areas that are causing negative feedback from clients.
Financial Data
Insight into company health and financial data can be enormously valuable, particularly when choosing to invest. Using alternative data compiled by web scraping can help you make smarter investments by tracking market-moving data.
Web scraping is therefore a profitable process for businesses looking for new ways to keep their marketing strategies relevant and effective, therefore increasing profit. When employed correctly, web scraping can extract key data that will help you make better marketing and financial decisions.
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