Competitor Analysis: How to Study Your Opponent in 5 Steps
We will tell you why your business needs competitive analysis and how to conduct it as efficiently as possible.
Knowing your opponents in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, strategies and approaches can be decisive in achieving success. Let's work with us to understand what competitive analysis is, what its purpose is, why it is necessary, and how to conduct it in order to stand out and become number one.
What is competitor analysis?
Competitor analysis is the study of competitors in the market, which helps to identify the main competitors and compare their business strategies with your own.
Conducting such an analysis helps you understand what your competitors are doing, what services they provide, what products they sell, and what marketing strategies they are using to stand out in the market and increase sales.
The goal of competitive analysis is to get key information about competitors and compare it to your business results. This will help to develop an effective strategy for achieving a competitive advantage and attracting more customers.
10 Reasons to Do Competitor Analysis
While competitor analysis does help you understand what your competitors are doing in the market in the first place, it has a lot of benefits for you and your business. Competitor analysis will help:
1. Assess your strengths and weaknesses
By understanding how your competitors are performing, you'll be able to identify where they're better than you and where you could improve your own performance.
2. Identify your potential
By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, you can understand which niches are worth entering and which are better to avoid.
3. Make informed decisions
By understanding your competitors' strategies and goals, you'll be able to anticipate their next steps and be ready to take action.
4. Identify trends and needs in your industry
By constantly evaluating your competitors, you can stay on top of new trends and target your product to solve your customers' current problems.
5. Develop and constantly improve your USP
Competitor analysis helps determine what makes your product unique. By studying market players, you can improve your own offer to attract and retain more customers.
6. Determine a competitive price
Studying the pricing policy of competitors will allow you to determine the optimal cost of the product. This will help not only to compete in the market based on price, but also to raise rates on time.
7. Discover new ways to communicate with customers
Analyzing the competitive landscape helps you find out what communication methods your competitors use to communicate with customers. Based on their experience, you can find new and effective ways to communicate with customers of your products, improve customer service, and increase customer satisfaction.
8. Learn how to better promote your products and services
Studying competitor marketing strategies and tactics will help you understand how to promote your business effectively. This will allow you to create unique and working marketing campaigns to attract new customers.
9. Take a vacant place in the market
You can discover niches or vacancies in the market that are not occupied by competitors. This will give you more opportunities for the growth and development of your business.
10. Avoid mistakes
Studying the mistakes made by competitors will help you avoid your own failures. You can learn from someone else's experience and make more informed decisions so as not to repeat the same mistakes as your competitors.
How to conduct a competitor analysis
Competitive analysis compares marketing approaches, products, prices, strengths and weaknesses of competitors, and other factors. It does have a lot of advantages, so let's figure out how to do this analysis.
1. Identify competitors
Before you start the analysis, you first need to determine who exactly you are playing with on the same field. Competitors can be:
Direct – those who offer the same or similar products and services as your company. They work in the same market and for the same target audience.
For example, if you are the owner of a coffee shop, your direct competitors will be all the nearby coffee shops. And if you have your own online clothing store, direct competitors are other online clothing stores that offer a similar product.
Indirect – those who sell other goods and offer other services, but work with your target audience. That is, your product may be different from that of a competitor, but still meet the same customer needs.
For example, you have a mobile fitness app. All other similar apps will be direct competitors. But indirect competitors are fitness clubs and gyms. You offer different services, but you cover the same need.
2. Examine the Competitors' Value Proposition
Now that you know who your competitors are, it's important to understand what they are and what they offer to their customers.
A value proposition is a concisely formulated benefit for the buyer. Usually, such an offer summarizes the benefits of the product or service and the reasons why the buyer will want to choose a particular company. This information is most often written in the "About the company" section, so feel free to look for it on competitors' sites.
When studying the value proposition of competitors, answer the following questions:
What are the key values they offer to customers?
What problems do their products or services solve?
What are the sore points of buyers that they put pressure on?
What needs does their product cover?
What results do customers get when using their product?
3. Study the pricing policy
Research competitors' pricing, including discounts and promotional offers. Answers to the following questions will help you do this:
What prices do competitors offer for their products or services? Are these prices low, high, or average in the market?
What pricing strategy do they use? Do they offer a fixed price, seasonal discounts, promotions, or do they have dynamic pricing?
What level of quality and service does the competitor offer?
What advantages or additional services do competitors provide for their price?
How do competitors' prices change?
What sales channels do they use?
By analyzing the answers to these questions, you can better understand how competitors form their pricing policy and how it differs from yours. This will help determine your competitiveness, make decisions about changing prices, creating new offers or improving quality and service.
You can do this quickly and efficiently with the help of freelancers who will analyze the information received and provide the results in a form convenient for you.
4. Study the marketing strategy
Evaluate how competitors position themselves in the market and how they promote their products or services:
What types of paid and free advertising does a competitor use?
Does he collaborate with influencers? Who are these opinion leaders?
Does the competitor use affiliate marketing? How does he apply it?
What marketing channels does the competitor use?
What type of content does it use to promote its products or services organically?
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