The 4 Things Your Business Needs to Be Doing to Remain Competitive

One out of four businesses will lose its competitive ranking over the next three years due to lack of digital business competence, the technology market research firm Gartner predicts. The main pitfall? Viewing technology as falling under the exclusive domain of IT. Companies will get blindsided as their more visionary competitors adopt disruptive new technologies that enable them to meet the needs of today's mobile-oriented consumer. If you want to stay competitive in the coming years, start getting savvy about the technology your competition is using.

Business Analytics

Analytics are essential for any business seeking to stay competitive in today's data-driven marketplace. Bain & Company, a leading management consulting firm, conducted a study about companies using big data analytics and found that those using analytics well were twice as likely to be leaders in their industries and five times more likely to make decisions "much faster" than their competition.

An increasing number of specialized analytics tools are available today, but three basic ones any business can easily implement are Google Analytics, Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics.

Digital Marketing

Seventy-one percent of companies plan to increase their digital marketing budget this year, an Econsultancy survey found, a trend which Gartner projects will result in 10 percent more spending. These figures reflect the prevalence of smartphones and tablets and the growing need for businesses to reach mobile consumers.

Developing a marketing plan geared toward reaching your target audience with multimedia content is fundamental for catching up with your competition in the digital marketing arena. The marketing agency Image Perspective outlines a seven-step action plan for creating a competitive digital marketing strategy.

Sales Automation

InsideSales.com president Ken Krogue writes on Forbes that companies using CRM software to automate their sales have historically generated 17 percent more revenue than companies that do not. In addition, his latest figures show that companies that integrate sales automation with follow-up phone calls can accelerate their average closing time by 109 percent. Revenue results can get a boost from adopting sales acceleration strategies, including:

• Responding quickly by phone to leads generated over the Internet
• Using power dialers to make more calls in less time
• Using Web conferencing to save on travel
• Linking automated emails to CRM records

InsightSquared can help you combine such strategies with a sales pipeline management tool that gives you an at-a-glance view of sales opportunities that need attention. This dashboard view of the current state of sales can help you identify an opportunity's path and whether it's back on track.

Mobile Payment Processing

Mobile payments are reshaping the retail industry, with Forrester predicting that U.S. mobile spending will grow at an annual compound rate of 48 percent to reach $90 billion by 2017. To remain competitive, Chase Bank recommends merchants do the following:

• Offer multiple payment options
• Let customers pay with mobile wallets
• Provide contactless card readers for speedier checkout
• Invest in mobile processing equipment
• Adopting stronger security measures

TopTenReviews provides a comparison of current mobile credit card processing solutions and their respective pros and cons.