Business is filled with competition. That’s what makes the marketing and business world flourish. Believe it or not, having competitors can actually help your business to flourish. But to do that, you need to analyse and understand who you’re up against in the ring. You’ll learn how to adapt, thrive and survive if you’re conducting the right kind of research.
So get your boxing gloves on, we’re going to help you in identifying your competitors so you can take them out with a one-hit KO!
Customer Critique
There’s no one more knowledgeable on your competitors than your Customers. Talk to current Customers or ones who’ve recently come across your brand. Ask them if they were considering other brands, or which other businesses they came across in their search.
You can reach out via surveys or talking to Customers directly. You can chat about certain products these other brands had and why they specifically chose you over any other competitors. This insight is extremely valuable in recognising where you stand as a brand and perhaps highlight pain points of your Customers that you can capitalise on.
Market Research
Time to do some good ol’ research! Get your hands dirty and get down to the analysis of your competitors. Be a nosy neighbour. Check out their Websites, their Social Media pages. Suss out how their online stores run and calculate what you’re doing differently.
Identify the top competitors in your market and you could find some tips to improve what you’re doing or maybe even find a gap that you can take advantage of.
Make Use of Social Media
You’ve hopefully already had a little bit of a geeze at your competitors’ Social Media pages, so now you’re going to focus on what their Customers are saying.
Look out for platforms such as Reddit where Customers are giving opinions on certain brands, products and any views of how they perceive the brand values and how they connect with them.
Knockout Keywords
Those lovely keywords that you’ve been targeting to shoot up the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) can be used to hone in on competitors too! You are able to see which other businesses are using those same keywords to rank in the SERP, and are attempting to target the same audience as you.
Make Use of Social Media
That wonderful SERP will come in handy, don’t forget about it! Utilise the SERP and assess which businesses are appearing for specific keywords you use in the Search Engine. Consider them your enemies! (But not in an evil way).
As the business landscape constantly changes, as will your competitors. Always track and analyse them, and bookmark this list and come back to it when you need to reassess where you’re at as a brand.
There’s never an easy day as a business owner, and you need to do what you can to stay on top of your competitors.