Why is it Important to Research

Competitors?
The research you gather about your competitors is often referred to as: “Competitive
Research.”

It’s not a simple SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis or just knowing
who’s in the competition.

Competitive research is crucial to your success as a business because it arms you with the
ability to quickly identify industry trends and adapt to competitor campaigns or strategies in
order to maintain a foothold or out-compete them entirely.

To make sure you set your business up for success, you’ll need to do a deep dive on the current
competitive landscape.

How to Conduct Your Competitive Analysis

Although performing a competitive analysis isn’t rocket science, it does go beyond the few
simple Google searches needed to identify your competitors.

This short guide details a simple, easy-to-use process to help you complete a competitor
analysis that discovers and keep tabs on other competitors in your space. This section will delve
into the crucial steps of that process.

1. Identify your competitors.

Whether you want to admit it or not, your competitors are out there and they’re likely just as
hungry as you are.

Afterward, you’ll be able to:

• Capitalize on their weaknesses and strengths to help start your new business or
strengthen the existing business.
• Have a better understanding of the landscape and learn how to best position your
business for success, plus
• Identify, understand and keep tabs on your competition so you never have to worry
about them sneaking up behind you.
This process is known as competitive intelligence gathering.

Find Your Competitors

There are many ways to identify key competitors in your industry, but Google, Bing and other
search engines will likely be where you begin your research.

Start with a simple search for your business name, product ideas and overarching business idea.
From there, explore your competitor’s digital footprint by looking into:
• Content and social media,
• News mentions,
• Support threads and reviews, and
• Niche organizations and online communities.

Other resources you can use to dig up information on your competitors include Alexa, Keyword
Spy, Hoovers, and Ahrefs.

Your ultimate goal at this stage should be to cast a wide net and get a comprehensive view of
the competitive landscape.

When documenting your competitors begin by tracking the basics:

• Name of business,
• Location,
• Mission statement,
• Product offering,
• Strengths and weaknesses of their business, and
• Category of competition.

Examine your competitor’s website & customer experience.

Once you’ve identified your competitors, you’ll want to analyze their websites.

To start, take a close look at the following items:

• How solid is their product content/presentation/photography? How do they display
their products and help communicate details?
• How detailed are their product descriptions? What information do they include? What
information is missing?
• Where are their calls to action throughout the online experience? Are they obvious or
do they get lost due to a poor color scheme or positioning?
• Are they trying to build an email list with a newsletter sign-up prompt? How prominent
is it?
• Where are their social media icons positioned?
• Do they have a blog? How frequently do they post? What type of information do they
tackle?
• Is their site optimized for mobile?
• What methods for contact do they offer? Do they have limited hours for phone
support?
• How long does it take them to respond to email, live chat and contact form
submissions?
• What information is included in their marketing banners and callouts? This may help you
start uncovering their competitive positioning within the market.
• How frequently are they running promotions? What benefits do those promotions
provide to their customers and potential shoppers, as well as their business?

Again, these are just to get you started.

Each website will be different depending on the market they are trying to reach and the
products or services they are selling.

The goal here is to not only get a handle on their strengths and weaknesses (which can also be
done with a SWOT analysis), but to help you start thinking as a dynamic business owner.

3. Identify your competitor’s market positioning.

By identifying your competitor’s positioning strategy, you’ll start to get a feel for your market’s
demands and expectations.

Take a look at their website and marketing messaging and ask the following:
• What are customers really buying from them? Are they going for price? Experience?
• How are they differentiating their product from their competition? What features and
benefits do they highlight the most in their marketing copy?
• In their opinion, what makes their product or service unique?

These questions will help you understand to whom your competitors are speaking and how
they position themselves within the market, which will pay dividends as you work on how you’ll
position yourself against or alongside them.

To gather as much information as possible, be sure to:

• Sign up for their newsletter: Get an understanding of their business and examples of
communication, which say a lot about the competitive environment. If you’re interested in
looking at their emails without signing up for a newsletter, consider a competitive email
marketing monitor like MailCharts.
• Subscribe to and follow their blog: See what types of content they are covering and at
what cadence.
• Follow them on social media: Get a feel for how they speak to and serve their
customers.

4. Take a peek at pricing.

Your pricing strategy is going to be one of the most important aspects of your online business
— and potentially a competitive advantage.

There are several factors to consider when setting prices for your products.

The best place to start is to look at how your competitors have priced their products. You’ll
learn what your target market is willing to pay and get an understanding of what prices might
work well for your business.

Your prices don’t necessarily have to be less than your competition.

Look at the information you gathered on market positioning and figure out what it is you’re
actually selling to your customers. Your target market may be willing to pay more for peace of
mind, high quality service or product offering or just overall customer service experience.
You must maintain profitable margins in order to run your business. You cannot compromise in
this arena.

This might be available online or you might have to call the competitor directly and find out
about their prices.

5. Check Reviews

Take the time to find as many reviews of your competitors as possible, including everything
from product reviews on their website to business reviews on social media to comments left on
their blog.

Get a quality check from their audience as to how healthy and client-centric their business is
and decide if it’s a strength or weakness you can capitalize on.
You may see an opportunity to let your customer service shine above the other players in your
competitive environment.
If you find a lot of reviews on a product similar to one you’ll sell, it’s a good sign that people are
interested in buying it.

If the reviews are from customers who aren’t happy with the service provided, the condition in
which the product arrived, or the product quality, those could be ways to help differentiate
your business.

6. Review social media.

With social media on the rise, it’s essential your business capitalizes on the opportunity to
outshine your competitors on leading platforms — like Instagram and Facebook.
Looking at your competitors’ social media accounts has multiple benefits.
If they have many followers, and especially if they are actively engaged, it’s a good sign that
there is a market for your products.

Plus, you’ll get a good idea of how customers feel about their business, and see what works
well and what doesn’t for engaging with your own client base.

Of course, if a competitor does social really well, it also means that you’ll need to step up your
game and come up with a new way of engaging your market — or possibly choose a different
mix of customers all together.

If your competitors don’t have a decent following, it could indicate that the market is weak,
your target market doesn’t use social media, or simply that there is room for your business to
take the lead in engaging with customers.

Take a look at all of the social media channels you can think of — including Pinterest, Facebook,
Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit and Twitter — and ask:
• What is their social media presence like overall?
• Which social media channels do they use the most?
• How do they speak with their client base?
• How often do they interact with their following?
• How frequently do they post something new?
• Which social media channels are they missing? Is there opportunity for you there?
• What are they posting?
• What percentage of the posts are about their business?
• What percentage is solely meant to increase engagement or gain followers?

Last but not least, check out some alternative social channels as well.
While digital communities are thriving, offline touchpoints also serve as great indicators of the
engagement of a brand’s community. If one of your competitors is hosting a local event, attend
and see firsthand what customers value and support.

7. Use these bonus items and tools for competitive analysis.

• Get the gritty details: Want to know how long your competitors have been in business?
How about the date they registered their domain, their contact information, server statistics
and more? Check out WHOis.net.
• See if they’re hiring: Find out what positions they’re hiring for, if any. This can indicate
the health of the business, plus give you a feel for the company culture.
• Stay updated: Google Alerts will send you email updates based on keywords. Setting up
alerts for your competitors in addition to your own business will help you keep up with any
news you need to know. Also set up alerts for industry terms to monitor new market
developments that could affect your business.

Remember, regularly performing a competitive analysis doesn’t mean you need to watch your
competitors like a hawk or let them keep you up at night, but you should keep tabs on how
their businesses are changing and watch for new challengers in your space.

The goal for your business should be to always be one step ahead. These competitive analyses
will serve as a key factor when you’re creating strategies to dominate the market.
With all this information, you can put together a competitive strategy that highlights your
strengths — which generally align with weaknesses from your competition.

TASK - GET STARTED NOW

A Competitive Analysis Template spreadsheet will be provided for you so you can use to track
your competitors and stay organized as you do your competitive research. Please enter your
data in the spreadsheet, which your team can use for presentation. Feel free to add more
columns/data points to the template if you think it adds more value to your research and
presentation.