{"id":1897,"date":"2021-05-21T08:53:05","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T12:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogamigo.com\/?p=1897"},"modified":"2021-06-10T09:21:05","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T13:21:05","slug":"competitor-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogamigo.com\/competitor-research\/","title":{"rendered":"A Guide to Effective Competitor Research: Understand and Outsmart Your Competitors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Competitor research is a cornerstone of good marketing. Good competitor research can stop you from making bad marketing mistakes and can help you make better strategic decisions. It\u2019s a no-brainer, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you\u2019re designing a new product, launching a marketing campaign, or starting a blog, chances are your competitors have been there before. Savvy marketers can use this driving force to stay ahead of the game with valuable insights into how they do what they do and why they do it like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need to know who you’re up against. Competitor research is crucial if you want to get ahead in your business and stay ahead of rivals. This guide will explore all you need to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a competitor?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A competitor is any individual or company (especially within the same market) that offers a similar product or service. They may not be taking away your potential customers directly, but they could be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For new businesses, a competitor might be someone with an established industry presence (competitors they will face). For more established or innovative businesses, their competitors could be other new entrants who are stealing away their target customers through similar offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, it’s in your interest to know who your competitors are and how best to reach your potential customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is competitor research?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To be a confident and strategic marketer you need to know who your competitors are and what they’re doing. Competitor research (also known as competitor analysis<\/a>) is a process that will help you identify which competitors are targeting similar audiences and where they rank for different keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, it helps to discover how much traffic they get, how they promote themselves, and the strategies they use. Armed with this information, you’ll know the competitors you should be worried about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Competitor research for a business can be quite extensive and daunting. However, completing effective research will help you to better understand your competitor\u2019s strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and much more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This information is invaluable as it\u2019ll give you insight into your rivals. It will also give you a greater understanding of your own business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the purpose of competitor research?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of effective competitor research is to identify your competitors’ market strategies, grow your business, and devise strategies to beat your competitors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Competitor research is the most critical link in the entire marketing process. It is where your business\/brand starts to gather intelligence about your competitor’s market position and marketing activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though competitor research focuses primarily on a company’s direct competitors, there are plenty of reasons why it makes sense for you to broaden your scope and look at your competitors’ broader industry or marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, competitor research is critical because it allows you to assess how your products or services stack up against the competition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to perform effective competitor research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. Identify your competitors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"identify-your-competitor\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The market is saturated with both aspiring and established companies vying for attention. Identifying your competitors is the first step in discerning who to target when building your online following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses competing for a slice of the online pie need to know their competitors, particularly in an economy where online consumption grows every day. You may have identified some competitors already, but now you need to review all of your competitors, both known and unknown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Types of competitors<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There are two main types of competitors to recognize: direct and indirect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Direct competitors<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

All of your direct competitors<\/a> are businesses or brands that offer products or services similar to yours, for the same or a similar market, with almost the same solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of them are in direct competition with you and will be monitoring your progress and taking action to try and better their position relative to yours. If it’s not obvious, take time to map out who exactly your direct competitors are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indirect competitors<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Indirect competitors<\/a> are companies that offer products or services similar to what you do. They may not be in the same industry, but they can affect your company’s success. It is important to understand the indirect competitors of your business, as they will all impact your strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to identify your competitors<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There are multiple ways to do this, some of them are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Keyword research<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Keywords are the primary tool for effective competitor research. When doing competitor research, start by identifying what you want to research. For example, let’s say that you want to research “dog training”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could trigger searches for dog trainers, dog obedience schools, and many more keywords that represent your competitors or the services they offer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were trying to reach local customers then it would be logical to start your search around a city name such as “dog training Illinois”, “dog training Texas” etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trick is that you don’t want to just throw a bunch of keywords at the computer and hope it’s going to find some handy information. What you want to do is focus on a few strategic keywords and optimize your research around those words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For your keyword research, I recommend Adwords Keyword Tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more: Best keyword research tools<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Social media and forums<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

A real goldmine when researching competitors. Social media<\/a> is one of the best places to get a feel for what people are saying about your competitor’s products, or what they think about the company as a whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forums are another fantastic way to do competitor research. In forums, you will find that the people looking for advice are either new to the hobby (just like you) or sharing some experience with brands they are familiar with. The information you can get from forums is endless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Monitoring different platforms<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Competitors are lurking everywhere, you can never know what they are up to! You need to find out what they are up to! Monitoring different online platforms can help you uncover potential marketing opportunities as well as competitors. There are a couple of ways to gather this information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can do it yourself manually by visiting websites regularly, or you can use social media monitoring tools such as HootSuite, and Sprout Social that automate the process of gathering data from different platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: There is no point in researching if you aren’t sure who your competitors are. Identifying your competitors is not just about knowing their names and the types of businesses they operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s also about finding out what they do well and where they need to improve. It’s all about being insightful, so don’t just focus on what you see online – look at what others see online!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Look at competitor websites and reviews of user experiences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Competitor websites can be excellent sources for gaining information. Whether you’re building a service or selling a product, it’s essential to know what the user is experiencing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researching your competitor\u2019s website<\/a> will give you useful information on how users are engaging with the competitor’s site. The purpose of this review is to investigate the web content management systems, design and layout decisions, usability, and content structure they use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make comparisons of your product images to the competitor product images and their description text from other sources. Are the details in that description from a review? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What words or phrases are used in the given description? Is there any information about how their product performs? Compare to see if yours is similar, better, or if there are new aspects that would make your product stand out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, reading specific reviews about products or services will show more objectively what customers are thinking about the specific problem being solved by your startup. When you check the reviews, pay attention to the following;<\/p>\n\n\n\n