How this free resource can help optimize your selling strategy

By Alex Yewdell

Regardless of the field you work in, it is always helpful to know what is going on in your industry. Whether that is new trends or practices, business news or important political updates—it pays off to be in the know. But I get it, you are busy with your day to day activities and it is hard to find time to stay up to date on the latest news. Let me introduce you to one of the best free resources out there—Google Alerts.

There’s a good chance that you may be familiar with this service already. Technically speaking, it has been around since 2003. We’ve even sung its praises on this blog before, as a tool to help you find new advertisers for your niche publication. Even if you haven’t used it before, it is never too late to discover a helpful resource or learn a new way to integrate it into your sales process. 

At its core, Google Alerts is a reminder and notification service. Once set up, it will email users when it finds new results—such as web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, or scientific research—that match the specified search term(s). You can set your alerts for any pertinent keywords in your industry—the more specific the keywords, the more selective the aggregated content will be. Google will then comb the internet for your keywords and deliver a list of articles/stories directly to your inbox as often as you’d like: as-it-happens, once a day or once a week.

Setting up alerts for key topics in your industry makes it easier than ever for you to stay informed on the news that matters most to your target audience. Beyond that, Google Alerts also allows you to keep track of what current or prospective marketing partners are up to—whether they are unveiling a new product, celebrating an achievement or announcing new leadership. This information can help you craft more relevant marketing program proposals or simply give you reason to drop them a line and say congratulations!

If you already use Google as an email service, setting up alerts is very easy: just follow the steps here. If you do not currently have a Google account, you can create one here for free and then simply turn on email forwarding to have your Google Alerts automatically sent directly to your primary email account. It is that easy!

With Google Alerts set up, you can now be more tapped-in to your industry, and up to date on the latest news by simply reading your email.

Want to learn more? Get in touch today.