Competitor Analysis Tactics That Help You Get Ahead of the Competition and Grown Your Business

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Are you investigating how to grow your business? If so, then you may want to consider using competitor analysis. By taking a close look at your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, you can come up with strategies that will help you stand out from the pack.

Introduction

Competitor analysis is an important tool for any business owner looking to grow their company. By studying your competition, you can learn what strategies and tactics are working well for them, and adapt them for your own business. Additionally, you can identify new opportunities to capitalise on, while also tracking your competitors’ weaknesses, so you can exploit them. In general, competitor analysis should be a key part of any business strategy. So, how do you go about doing it? Read on to find out.

Table of Contents

Competitor Analysis Tactics That Help You Get Ahead of the Competition and Grown Your Business

What is Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is the process of examining the strengths and weaknesses of a business’s competitors. This information can be used to help business decisions such as pricing, product development, and marketing campaigns.

There are several methods of conducting competitor analysis, but the most common is the use of market research. This can be done through surveys, interviews, focus groups, or secondary research.

A competitor analysis, commonly known as a “competitive analysis,” helps you understand your competitors’ methods and opens up new possibilities for your own company. The data you obtain may be used to influence your marketing strategy, develop new product lines, and choose useful business tools that set you apart from the competition.

The Purpose of a Competitor Analysis

The Purpose of a Competitor Analysis

A competitive analysis is a strategic method for identifying and analysing the competition. The goal of a competitor study is to determine the strengths and limitations of your product compared to those of the competition. From here, you can develop strategies on how you can get ahead of the competition Other objectives of competitive analysis include:

  • Understanding the current market scenery for your industry
  • Predicting and understanding the demand and supply
  • Create new business strategies
  • Forecast market trends and patterns
  • Identify new opportunities for your brand
  • Determine threats and how to counter them
  • Scientifically guess our competitor’s next move
  • Fine-tune your company objectives and goals
  • Who Can Benefit from a Competitive Analysis?

    Who Can Benefit from a Competitive Analysis

    Any business can benefit from a competitive analysis, but it is especially useful for businesses that are looking to expand their product offerings or enter new markets. By understanding the competition, you can better anticipate what strategies they may use to impact your business and develop countermeasures.

    A competitive analysis is also useful for businesses that are experiencing growth and want to make sure they stay ahead of the competition. By understanding your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, you can develop strategies to maintain your lead. What makes their products or services favoured in your industry? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

    However, what works for your competitors may not work for you. What doesn’t work for them does not necessarily mean that it will not be effective for you either? How you interpret your competitive analysis data is what determines the success of your planning.

    A thorough competitive analysis must go further than comparing your rivals’ social media and marketing strategies. Look into their history, who they consider their closest opponent, and where they’re succeeding and failing to sell their products or services. To guide you with the process, you can check and review the competitive analysis template of your competitors too. To have a copy of your Competitor Analysis report, contact our team.

    Compiling a competitive comparative analysis may provide you with a clearer picture of the competition, allowing you to attempt to copy their success while also avoiding their mistakes. They’re not always simple to create, so here are three reasons why it’s worthwhile doing so.

    Finally, competitive analysis is a valuable tool for businesses that want to stay ahead of the curve and anticipate changes in their industry. By understanding the competition, you can identify new opportunities for your business and stay ahead.

    Who Are Your Competitors?

    Who Are Your Competitors

    Perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly are the four forms of competition in market system. Many sellers provide varied items under monopolistic competition, with products that differ somewhat yet achieve comparable functions. You need to identify who your competitors are before you can create a comprehensive analysis that would be helpful for your brand.

    4 Types of Competitors

    Perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly are the four forms of competition found in a free market system.

    Monopolistic competition occurs when there are many businesses in a market that offer similar but not the same product or service. These firms, unlike a monopoly, have little ability to limit supply or raise prices to boost earnings.

    When firms sell similar products or services, there is no competition, market share has no impact on price, companies may enter or leave at will, buyers have complete or full information, and prices cannot be determined. This is the definition of what perfect competition is.

    In an oligopolistic competition, there are only a few sellers and each has a big share of the market. Here, they can’t afford to ignore what others are doing, it’s a competitive scenario in which there are just a few sellers (of items that may be distinguished but not to an enormous extent).

    If there is a single seller in the market, this is defined as a monopoly. It is the opposite of perfect competition. Examples of monopolistic products or services include water, electricity, natural gas, and telecommunications.

    Steps on How to Identify Your Competitors

    Steps on How to Identify Your Competitors

    Now that you have an idea about the type of competitors in the market, the next step would be identifying which of these competitors are your direct competitors and indirect competitors.

    What is a Direct Competitor?
    A direct competitor is someone who sells or promotes the same goods as yours. Customers will frequently compare you and your direct rivals before making a purchasing decision or converting.

    They are a direct threat to your market share and can impact your bottom line. It’s important to track their performance and keep tabs on their latest offerings. This can help you stay ahead of the competition and maintain your lead.

    What is an Indirect Competitor?
    An indirect competitor is a business that offers a similar product or service, but not one that’s exactly the same. They may be able to attract some of your customers, but they’re not your direct competition.

    Indirect competitors are significant to track because they can impact your business in other ways. For example, if they’re doing well, it may mean that overall market demand is high. This could lead to increased prices and competition for resources. Alternatively, if they’re struggling, it could indicate an opportunity for you to steal market share.

    Effective Technique for Identifying Direct Competitors

    Effective Technique for Identifying Direct Competitors

    Market Research
    Pay close attention to the market for your product, and evaluate which other firms offer a product that would compete with yours. Talk to your sales staff to learn which competitors they see frequently throughout their sales process. From there, you’ll be able to examine those firms, their product, and marketing tactics, and develop methods to outpace them in greater detail.

    Customer Feedback
    The key to unlocking your direct competitors is your clients. You may ask them which other companies/products they were looking at after they’ve decided on you and your business. Customers frequently expose unforeseen rivals that aren’t on your list.

    You can also inquire about your potential consumers’ preferences during the sales process. If you don’t know which businesses or products your prospects are considering, your team will not be able to deliver the results that your target market gets from the brands that they prefer over your products or services.

    Online Communities and Social Media
    Customers will frequently go to social media sites like Facebook and Instagram and community forums, such as Quora or Reddit, to get advice and suggestions. You may discover your competition by looking at the discussions your clients have on these websites. This is particularly true for any marketers addressing a millennial audience.

    Effective Technique for Identifying Indirect Competitors

    Effective Technique for Identifying Indirect Competitors

    Keyword Research
    The key to identifying your indirect competition is to use keyword research. You can discover which companies or publishers are competing for SERPs by performing a competitive SEO research. After all, many of your customers are looking for your services and solutions by entering them into search engines. That means you’re in competition not just with your direct competitors, but also with every other website vying for hot keywords relevant to your field.

    Results of SERPs
    Many of your indirect competitors are producing content that is related to your value proposition. You may discover keywords that are critical to your product or service if you evaluate the value proposition of your company. Then, input the terms into Google and see who is competing with your content on search engines. Anyone producing material around your value proposition is an adversary directly competing with your business.

    From here, you can identify which of your brand money keywords are similar to that of your competitor and compare which one compels more audiences. You can, later on, create strategies, audit your content or invest in more paid ads or promotions for keywords that you want to be ahead of the competition.

    Paid Data
    Check out AdWords and look up the keywords that are crucial to your business. Is there a lot of competition for any of those keywords? Look into which businesses or websites are bidding on these terms if there is a lot of competition. If websites are paying for sponsored positions on Google’s search engine results page for a phrase, they’re competing with your content for space on Google.

    As you explore the paid data, you may discover that the websites selling advertising are new rivals you weren’t previously aware of. Those names might also be used to describe your indirect competition.

    Types of Competitor Analysis

    Types of Competitor Analysis

    There are several types of competitor analysis that can help you understand how your business compares to the competition.

    SWOT Analysis
    SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This type of analysis is used to evaluate your business and the competition. You’ll identify your company’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats that exist in the market.

    The information that you derive from a SWOT analysis can help you make informed decisions about how to compete in the market. It is good to take note that a SWOT analysis is also part of business planning. Reevaluate your business’s SWOT analysis before you started the business and today. From here, you can easily identify areas that you have improved and opportunities that you can now avail yourself.

    Porter’s Five Forces
    Porter’s five forces are a framework for understanding competitive dynamics in a market. It assesses how competitive forces are affecting a business. The five forces are:

  • Threat of new entrants
  • Threat of substitutes
  • Bargaining power of buyers
  • Bargaining power of suppliers
  • Intensity of rivalry
  • By understanding these forces, you can develop strategies to address them and improve your competitive position.

    Competitive Analysis Matrix
    A competitive analysis matrix is a tool that helps you compare your company against the competition. It identifies where your company excels and where you need to improve. This information can help you focus your efforts and resources on the areas that will have the biggest impact on your business.

    Competitor Analysis Template
    A Competitor Analysis Template is a tool that helps you track and compare the performance of your company against the competition. It can be used to track financial data, customer satisfaction, or any other metric that you deem important.

    Benchmarking
    Benchmarking is the process of comparing your company’s performance against the best in the industry. This can help you identify areas where you need to improve and set goals for your business.

    Competitive benchmarking is the practice of examining competitors and industry leaders to discover methods, techniques, and services that can assist you in establishing comparisons and baselines for performance. This is a method of changing with the times as well as preventing market share from slipping away. It’s also a significant part of the competitive evaluation.

    If most of your competitors are doing it and are successfully attracting consumers because of these methods, then maybe you should be doing and applying it to your brand as well.

    Comparative Market Analysis
    A comparative market analysis is a tool that helps you understand how your products or services compare to the competition. This information can help you price your products or services competitively and make informed decisions about your marketing and sales strategies.

    Primary Research
    Primary research is data that you collect yourself. This can be done through surveys, interviews, or focus groups. This type of research can be invaluable in understanding your target market and what they want from your products or services.

    Secondary Research
    Secondary research is data that someone else has collected. This can be found in industry reports, news articles, or other published sources. This type of research can help you understand the competitive landscape and make informed decisions about your business strategy.

    Gap Analysis
    A gap analysis is a process of identifying the differences between where your company is now and where you want it to be. This information can help you develop strategies to close the gaps and improve your business.

    Competitive Intelligence
    Competitive intelligence is the process of gathering and analysing information about your competition. This can include their marketing strategies, or any other information that can help you gain insights into their business.

    By understanding your competition, you can develop strategies and competitive advantage against your competitors to stay ahead of them and grow your business.

    Steps in Performing a Competitor Analysis

    Steps in Performing a Competitor Analysis

    Identify your competition
    The first step in performing a competitor analysis is to identify your competition. This can be done by doing a search for your product or service in Google and reviewing the websites that come up in the results. You can also ask your customers who they are buying from, or look at your industry’s trade associations to get a list of competitors.

    Assess your competition’s strengths and weaknesses
    Once you have identified your competition, you need to assess their strengths and weaknesses. This can be done by studying their website, reading reviews, and interviewing customers. You can also use tools like a competitive analysis matrix or a Competitor Analysis Template to track this information.

    Develop strategies to address your competition’s strengths
    Once you have assessed your competition’s strengths, you need to develop strategies to address them. This can include things like improving your product or service, pricing your products competitively, or developing better marketing and sales strategies.

    Monitor your competition’s activities
    The final step in performing a competitor analysis is to monitor your competition’s activities. This can be done by tracking their financial data, marketing strategies, and any other information that can help you stay ahead of them. By understanding your competition, you can develop strategies to stay ahead of them and grow your business.

    Factors to Include in Your Competitor Analysis

    Factors to Include in Your Competitor Analysis

    When performing a competitor analysis, you should include information about your competition:

    Timing in Entering the Market
    Everything comes down to timing. Occasionally, a business is given the rare opportunity to monopolise a certain market, allowing them to become the sought-after product or service for a period of time. Consider this when you are reviewing your competition. Your brand falling behind your competition does not necessarily mean that you are failing. The timing wherein you enter the market may not be the best timing in the industry, thus making you lose money in the process. With a heavily changing market, you must include this factor to be able to create a more factual scenario in your competitor analysis.

    Market Penetration
    Market penetration is defined as the proportion of a market that has bought your goods or services. Market penetration refers to how effectively a product is sold once it hits the market. The following stage of competitor analysis is to study how the market responds to the product itself after studying a competitor’s go-to-market approach to learn from their timing mistakes and correct them. Outside of marketing and sales, there are several areas to consider, and to ensure that a new product is as strong as possible. Areas like commercial and pricing models, product-market fit, and the competition’s continuing marketing plan all play an essential part in ensuring that a new offering is as solid as it can be.

    The Uniqueness of Product or Service
    This point of difference doesn’t have to be so significant, but it does need to be something that truly set the offering apart from its competitors. A business owner must evaluate the competition and find the gaps in their rivals’ operations during this stage of the process. This may be achieved by reading all the available online material, checking out their social media reviews, or simply conducting surveys that ask these questions directly to existing consumers. Offering something better, even with the slightest improvement from what your competitors offers, can be enough edge to get you ahead in your industry.

    Converting Competitive Analysis Results to Improve Your Business

    Converting Competitive Analysis Results to Improve Your Business

    A competitive analysis is a way of gathering intelligence report of the competitive landscape a company must navigate to be successful. As such, it should always include an assessment of your firm’s assets and liabilities, as well as those of top competitors.

    Now that you have completed the analysis of your brand and your competitor’s strength and weaknesses, how can you use this information to your competitive advantage?

    However, to gain a competitive edge, you must first assess the strengths and limitations of your organisation in comparison to its rivals. Having consumers rate how satisfied they are with each critical need is the best approach to evaluate a company’s competitive strengths and weaknesses.

    To execute a “killer” competitive analysis, you may calculate the importance and satisfaction ratings from a statistically valid sample of target consumers (your customers and your rivals) to deliver “a killing” competitive analysis. This information allows you to see where you outperform your competitors in terms of meeting the target consumers’ most essential requirements. You’ll learn exactly where you offer better value, where rivals do, and what you must do to leapfrog them.

    Additionally, you’ll notice where your target consumers have unmet needs that no one else is addressing. These are potential sources of development through innovation. Applying this information and changes to your marketing strategy helps you get ahead of the competition.

    How Often Do You Do Competitive Analysis in Your Market

    How Often Do You Do Competitive Analysis in Your Market

    There is no set answer to this question, as the frequency of competitive analysis will depend on the specific industry and the competitiveness of the market.
    Still, being ahead of the competition with ample time to react, leverage your strengths, and exploit your rivals’ faults is generally preferable. On a quarterly basis, performing a current competitive analysis is highly recommended; monthly for optimum effects.

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    Making a Difference in a Crowded Ecommerce Market

    Making a Difference in a Crowded Ecommerce Market

    To make a difference in a crowded market, it is essential to understand your competition. A competitive analysis is a tool that can be used to identify and assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. This information can then be used to develop strategies for positioning your own business in the market.

    There are several methods that can be used to conduct a competitive analysis, but the most important thing is to ensure that the information you gather is accurate and up-to-date. The competitive landscape is constantly changing, so it is significant to keep your analysis current. Once you have a good understanding of your competition, you can start to develop strategies for differentiating your business in the marketplace.

    Get the edge that you need from the experienced digital marketing experts of the Sydney Website. We deliver insightful competitive analysis template to clients, giving them the competitive advantage they need to achieve their goals and to help them get ahead of the competition.

    YES! I Want to Get Ahead of my Competitors

    No! I would rather not Get Ahead of the Competition

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