WHAT IS A COMPETITOR RESEARCH?
Competitive research is an important strategy especially in any marketing strategy to observe, analyse and anticipate changes in its target market.
Competitor analysis helps you find the strategic choices of other companies. It helps you understand the advantages and disadvantages of your competitor’s choices. Their working methods in content, products, recruitment, pricing, social media, marketing and more. It helps you effectively deal with your competitors and gain an edge over them?
Why should I conduct COMPETITIVE research?
Competitive research arms you with the ability to identify industry trends and adapt to competitor campaigns or strategies in order to maintain your ground or out-compete them entirely. A competitor analysis lets you uncover the weaknesses of those who stand in your way. Warning! Before analysing your competitors, think about what you are going to do with this information. Without a plan for implementing your product, website, or quality brand content, the information collected will not be useful to your business. Before you start your analysis, you need to understand your goals and meanings. Try to articulate what market it is that you serve. Who are the customers in this market and what problem, need, or wish are they experiencing? Which brands are currently satisfying these needs and how do these brands differ? If there are multiple products tailored to different market segments, try to define the ways in which these products can be grouped together or set apart. Make sure you have these clear before you undertake the 7 steps.
7 steps how to conduct YOUR competitor research
1. List YOUR COMPETITORS
Identify and list your direct and indirect competitors. As you’ve established some broad categories before starting you should now look at direct and indirect competitors to your products/services. These include any company that sells a similar or identical product or service as your company. If there are many competitors in your market, choose a handful of competitors that you believe are the largest threat to your business. Make sure to think about where the market is heading. Your goal is to understand the ins-and-outs of every business that poses a threat. Try to list at least 5 competitors (if possible) in each of these categories.
2. RESEARCH YOUR COMPETITORS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE & WEBSITE
Once you’ve found your main competitors, set your criteria, and chosen your competitive analysis framework, you can really begin running your competitive analysis. Analyse each competitor against your list of criteria, and answer all the questions relevant to refining your company processes. After collecting all the information about your competitors, put all the data together and see exactly where your company stands in comparison to your competitors.
Why is it important to track your competitors’ website, founding date, fundraising rounds and employee count? So you can use it as a benchmark against your own growth. If your company is five years old, how fast did your competitor grow when it was at your stage? How many customers did it have? How much revenue was your competitor generating? Once you’ve gathered your data, its best to organise the information in a table format.
3. COMPETITORS MARKET POSITIONING
Now that you’re done collecting company and website information about your competitors, it’s time to dive deep into their market positioning. Competitive positioning is about defining how you’ll “differentiate” your offering and create value for your market. It’s about carving out a spot in the competitive landscape, putting your stake in the ground, and winning mindshare in the marketplace. Being known for a certain “something.” You can provide the most comprehensive offering, the best offering, or the cheapest offering, but you can never provide all three. Keep it simple.
4. PRODUCTS & PRICING
After positioning your company it is important to analyse your competitors’ product and service offerings in terms of features and value gives you an idea of the decision-making process your customers go through. Also try to take a look at the competition’s pricing structure. Include detailed information such as warranty options and service fees. You can also make observations about their subscription services – do they have monthly or quarterly options or is it a lifetime fee? How does their pricing compare to yours? If you notice your pricing is drastically different than the rest of the market perhaps it’s time to reconsider your strategy.
5. EXTRA SERVICES & PROGRAMS
Check if your competitors have any other extra services or programs which are unique to the rest of the players in the market. Get inspired! While digital channels are key in today’s marketplace, you also need to pay attention to offline channels like events, meetups, conferences, and direct mail. This is where face-to-face interactions occur that are often the key to establishing connections and sealing deals. You can usually find out information about offline events by visiting the “Events” section of your competitors’ websites and also searching for their names in relation to conferences and events on the wider web.
6. ONLINE REVIEWS CHECK
Whilst still on your hunt for patterns that help you identify why your customers are choosing your competitors. Researching product reviews can help you get valuable voice-of-customer data. Including pains and problems that you can use to develop your own strategy.
Customer reviews are also a great place to find so-called “trigger events” that lead customers to look for a new product or service solution. For example: if a business opens a new location, it needs services that will help find a new office, set it up, and move furniture. Therefore, opening a new office can be a trigger for searching for a solution that helps companies assist in this process.
This is an important part of the buying process and customers are usually happy to share this information in their reviews.
7. SOCIAL MEDIA
You and your competitors are competing for the attention of potential customers. That’s why it’s useful to know how your competitors use social media channels to reach their target audience.
Example questions are:
- Where do your competitors advertise?
- What keywords do they buy on Adwords?
- Do they advertise on Youtube, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter or other social media platforms?
- Do your competitors focus on selling in specific verticals?
8. FIND YOUR OPPORTUNITIES
Now that you’ve discovered some of the biggest differences between you and your competitors, it’s time to find a way how you can use this information to improve your own business results. Your competitive research should reveal at least one area your business can improve on.
Keep in mind that competitive research is an ongoing event. Ongoing monitoring is necessary to ensure that you are staying competitive in the marketplace.
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THIS IS HOW WE WORK
Together with you and your team, Be A Legend will deep dive into the world of your competitors. Conducting surveys, personal interviews and online and offline research. Be A Legend will collect all insights and prepare a report including an overview of opportunities to beat your competitors.