Knowing where your business sits within a market and how you compare to your competitors is a critical part of your marketing plan. A competitor analysis can provide you with the needed insights to help shape your business’s approach and give you a leg up on your competition. Below is an outline of the five steps you can take to conduct a competitor analysis for your business.
Step One: Compare your website
- What web pages do you and your competitors share? What pages don’t you share?
- What features do your competitors offer on their websites?
- How do your competitors make sales through their websites?
- How do your competitors use their websites? (Is it a landing page? Do they sell products on their site? Do they even have a website?)
Step Two: Compare your social media accounts
- How many social media accounts do you have compared to your competitors?
- How many followers do you have compared to your competitors? (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube)
- What type of content do your competitors share? (Videos, images, blog posts, quotes, tips, industry insights?)
- How often do your competitors post on their social media accounts? (Once a month? Once a week? Multiple times a day?)
You can use this information to base your social media campaign off.
Step Three: Compare your strengths/weaknesses
- What do you do well? What do your competitors do well? (Use this information to see where you can improve or where your strengths are).
- What do you not do well? What do your competitors not do well? (Use this information to understand where your business could improve. You can also use this information to understand opportunities where you could improve on what your competitors are doing).
Areas to focus on:
- Price
- Product/Service Range
- Product/Service Quality
- Convenience
- Longevity
- Brand Awareness
- Customer Service Standards
- Hours of Trade
- Turnaround Time
- Marketing Collateral
Step Four: Competitive advantages
- Review the factors that provide your business with a competitive advantage over your competitors.
- Establish whether this is a sustainable competitive advantage or one that could be easily replicated by your competitors.
- Review your competitor’s competitive advantages and do the same processes as above. What features, services, details or actions do your competitors have as an advantage over your business? How do they provide a superior service over your business?
Use this information to understand how your business could improve and whether you can replicate any of their advantages.
Step Five: Bring it all together
By the time you get to step five you should have a clear understanding of how your business stacks up against your competitors.
- You will know whether your website needs work or if you are providing features beyond what your competitors are.
- You will have an understanding of how your competitors are using social media and what you could do to improve or continue leading your social media campaigns.
- You will know what your strengths and weaknesses are and whether your competitors share any of these. You can use these strengths and weaknesses to refine your business and improve on areas you may be lacking in.
- You will have an understanding of how your competitive advantages compare to your competitors.
- You will also be able to judge if your advantages are sustainable for future growth or whether they can be easily replicated by your competitors.