“Learn your industry and your competition before you start” – Carl Koop, Bijou Basin Ranch
In the modern world, overstuffed with all kinds of content and information noise, you have to stand out dramatically from the competition to be seen. While there are many ways to try, one of the easiest ways to perform better is to learn from your competitors. And doing it much better. If you’re doing the same thing as everyone else, how do you expect to stand out? Or worse, why should anyone buy from you if they’re already buying the same at other places.
This is why competitive analysis is so important.
Supporting evidence and practices
Understanding what is going on outside of your business is an essential part of strategic planning. There are some useful analytical tools available to help you know crucial factors in the business environment and competitive drivers in your industry as an initial step in undertaking competitor analysis. Besides, many businesses try to understand, in some detail, their competitors are doing.
There is an emerging market, which provides tools for online competitive analysis. You can find 15 of them in this article, which are useful with a basic understanding of digital marketing. Some of them offer free initial service but it is payable service if you want to have more features. Still, you can do a lot using these simple steps, provided by impactbnd.com blog.
- Identify five to ten competitors in your niche.
- Analyze and compare competitor’s web page content – see what they are doing
- Check their social media integration – what they are posting, how often, how many followers do they have?
- Identify areas where your online presence, products and services can be improved.
- Propose improvements
When you will have your improvements ready, use the growth hacking techniques. Sometimes, method can work for one and not for someone else.- so benchmark your important goals and see the difference.
If your business is starting to be local and not so digitised, try to identify the area in which you will sell your product or service. Then, you can practise some basic market research tricks, such as:
- Shop from your competitor’s store: Depending on which business you are, you can probably call them, visit their offices and maybe buy from them. Get a price list.
- Discuss with your competitor’s customers: What they like or dislike? Why and how do customers decide for them?
- When competitors are local, take a look at the phone book or other directory,and count the ads of the businesses they compete with. Analyze what other businesses say in their ads, which points they highlight. Also, check local newspapers, especially if you are in the business meant for general public (like installation of air conditions).
Still, without going online you will lose significant information of what your competition is doing.
Books
- Business and Competitive analysis – https://www.amazon.com/Business-Competitive-Analysis-Effective-Application/dp/0132161583
Additional resources and links
- https://hackernoon.com/9-reasons-nobody-pays-attention-to-your-content-you-need-to-hear-this-77bbcd01faa0
- https://awario.com/blog/5-reasons-to-keep-a-close-eye-on-your-competition-on-social-media/
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