Start Competitive Analysis today with these easy stepsrnYou may feel that your market is getting more and more competitive. It’s the usual suspects. The startups and established brands thinking they can take a piece of your market. This article how to start Competitive Analysis today with these easy steps.
The speed of change in your market is getting faster and faster. Now more than ever, you have to differentiate yourself from the rest. You have to understand your competitive landscape.
1. Understand you must differentiaternNow more than ever, you must differentiate your value proposition. You and all your teams have to you know your competitive landscape. From who your key competitors are to how they compare with each other.
What is Competitive Analysis?rnCompetitive Analysis determines the attractiveness, customers, competitors and the dynamics of a particular market within a specific industry sector. Develops an understanding of the relationship between supply and demand, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for your product or service to enable you to make more informed decisions about potential marketing strategies.
Competitive Analysis helps you understand whom you’re competing against. And where each company stands, and how you compare to them.
2. Understand the basicsrnAnalysis needs to focus on each key competitor financial stability, growth and profitability. To understand if their performance is above or below expectations. The influence they have on the market. And their marketing value proposition and messaging.
Competitive Analysis can start with the basic and financial information. Start by answering the following questions:
When were they founded? Split the established players with mid-market and new start playersrnHow many people work for them?rnHow well funded are they? Where did they raise the funding?rnHow long have they traded?rnWhat’s their annual revenue?rnWhat are their profits?rnTheir revenue per employee?rnAnd many morernAnswers to these questions will provide you with a foundation to create the Analysis. At a minimum, it’s essential to differentiate between firmly established players and startups. Pay attention to which competitors are accumulating funding at high rates. The number of employees your competitors have is interesting. Their funding history and revenues can be important, but they will not give you the whole story.
4. Market positioning and messagingrnTake a look at how each competitor positions themselves in your market. Determine what their value proposition is. Understand what value the competitor brings to the market. And how your competitor articulates their position within your mutual target audience. Start by answering these questions:
How do they position themselves?rnWhat do they say to their prospective customers?rnWhat messages do they articulate to the market?rnDoes it make them unique?rnWhat makes them better than you?rnCompanies tend to keep their values for the long term. They may change their products, marketing and message, but their values tend to stay the same. Changes to values could indicate a systemic shift within the organisation. Understanding their values and messages will allow you to anticipate strategic change. It will also keep you on your toes, so your own message doesn’t become boring.
What is Competitive Analysis?
rnCompetitive Analysis determines the attractiveness, customers, competitors and the dynamics of a particular market within a specific industry sector. Develops an understanding of the relationship between supply and demand, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for your product or service to enable you to make more informed decisions about potential marketing strategies.rnCompetitive Analysis helps you understand whom you’re competing against. And where each company stands, and how you compare to them.rn5. Market reach and influencernNow see who’s attracted to them. An excellent place to start is to look at each competitor’s target audience. Answer the following questions. Remember to ask yourself what could I do to make myself more attractive than them:
How popular is their website?rnHow popular are they on social media?rnWhat are they saying on social media?rnHow many followers do they have? rnAnd how engaged are their followers?rnWhat are they trying to portray on social media?rnAre they seen as an industry authority? rnAre they controlling the conversation?rnHow does their social media presence compare to their website popularity?rnWhich platforms do they publish content on? rnHow many followers do they have on the platforms?rnWho is engaging with them by liking, sharing and commenting? What does the engagement tell you?rnUbersuggest (we are not affiliated) provides good data for a reasonable price. They are plenty more like Ahrefs and SemRush and many others who go into greater detail. But do you really need it? You are looking at their website for clues to beat them, not managing their website operations. But remember, the best insight you will find will be by looking yourself.
ConclusionrnStart Competitive Analysis today with these easy steps.rnYour market is getting more competitive. It’s not just the usual suspects. It’s the startups and established brands thinking they can steam roller over you. This article suggested how to start Competitive Analysis today with these easy steps. In our experience, we find that companies miss the basic stuff because it’s deemed as unimportant and a waste of time. But it’s the bedrock for the foothills of insight.
Do you know enough about your competitors?