Have you ever wondered how some companies keep their position in the market? It takes time and dedication to acquire the information needed to successfully navigate and make your mark on the competition. There are a few solutions to getting the information you need. One of the best ways to evaluate your competition is by conducting a competitive analysis. This helps learn how the competition does things and aids in identifying opportunities, keeping up with current trends, and positioning your products and services to surpass industry standards.
Pros of conducting a competitive analysis
There are benefits to conducting a competitive analysis that not only helps identify strengths and weaknesses to reinforcing your brand, content strategy, and more. Consider these:
Fine-tuning and developing your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
What makes your “why?” When you compare a competitor’s product description, partnerships, mission statements, and other things they do, it helps shed light on your brand to create distinction.
Improving the products and services you own
Focusing on customer expectations and needs is key. Analyze your customer reviews and the customer reviews of your competitors to gain insight on market gaps and what the competition is doing.
Create a brand benchmark
One of the best things you can do is have a gauge for measuring the growth of your brand. Reviewing your historical data can provide a deeper understanding of how you and your competitors are viewed in the marketplace. This helps show where you can improve your brand.
Identify gaps
You want to understand who your competitors are hiring. Study the job sites, job review sites, and press releases. Research and development also play a role in determining how your competitors move.
Uncover threats
A SWOT analysis of your brand and your competitors helps see what’s going on in the market. Check social media accounts and any other press going on with you and other brands.
Conducting a competitive analysis
It’s important to conduct a competitive analysis correctly. These steps will point you in the right direction:
1. Determine the competition.
Who are your competitors? There are two competitors: direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are those that are in the same business with products, services, and geographically. Indirect competitors provide products that are not the same but can solve the same problems.
2. Look at the products your competitors offer.
You must take inventory of the competition, their product line, and the quality of the products or services they offer. You should take note of their pricing and discounts as well.
3. Do research on the competitor’s sales tactics and results.
You should take note of your competitor’s sales process, their sales channels, whether they have multiple locations, revenues, expansion plans, and more.
4. Look at how the competition prices their offerings and any other incentives they offer to the customers.
The goal is to remain competitive in the marketplace. This may mean pricing your products higher or lower than the competition.
5. Make sure you meet the shipping costs of your competition.
Making sure your customers don’t abandon their carts is key. Free shipping is a great option to offer customers to keep them in your corner.
6. Analyze how the competition is marketing their products.
What tools are your competitors using to get to their audience? Do they use videos? A blog? FAQ section? Case studies?
7. Analyze the content strategy of the competition.
Look at the different content of the competition to determine what they are doing. Look for their spelling and grammar, tone of voice, how they frame their content and whether they use different writers for their content.
8. Analyze the technology the competition uses.
What types of customer service software does the competition use? What types of technology does the marketing team use?
9. Analyze how much engagement your competitors have.
Take a look at the social media engagement of your competitors. What about their comments? Their topics? Which ones get the most response?
10. Analyze how the competition promotes their marketing content.
What types of keywords does the competition use? What type of content do they link to? Is anyone linking back to their content?
11. Analyze how the competition uses their social media, their strategies, and the platforms they use the most.
Do your competitors use social media to engage with their audiences? Look at the platform, the number of followers, the frequency and consistency of when they post, and what goes viral. What kind of content do they post?
12. Conduct a SWOT analysis to learn the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the competition.
Take note of what the competition is really doing. What can they do better? What areas would this competitor as a threat? Are there additional opportunities in the market? Take a good look at their location, their equipment, and their facilities. Do they have trademarks? Copyrights? Patents? What about their profitability?
It’s no secret your competitors are hungry. That makes things more difficult as you’re navigating your brand. A competitive analysis takes planning, research, and a deep look into what you’re doing. You should continuously conduct a competitive analysis because the marketplace is always changing. As a brand, if you don’t have a good assessment of what’s out there, you will set your brand up to fail. Using these steps, you will be able to align yourself with goals and outcomes to rival your competition with a bulletproof marketing strategy.
Working with a partner like Diligant can make a difference in conducting a strong and clear Digital Marketing competitor analysis. For more information on how to correctly frame and successfully implement a competitive analysis that gets results, contact the team at Diligant today.