A Guide On How To Conduct A Competitor Analysis

A Guide On How To Conduct A Competitor Analysis
Published

01 Jun 2020

Content

Tiffany Palmer

Did you know that 50% of small businesses don’t have a marketing strategy?

This scares us. But we get it; marketing projects have a way of becoming more complicated than business owners would like. But they don’t have to be. 

Conducting a competitive analysis can be written off by businesses. But it’s such a valuable tool that can be done easily with clear action items.

Here’s our guide to conducting the best competitor analysis ever! 

Know Who Your Competitors Actually Are

Sometimes we can start something with such a strong vision that it makes it challenging for us to see it any other way. We see this frequently with founders. 

If your marketing strategy is checking all the boxes but lacking in return, it could be because you’re not targeting the right audience. Knowing who your competitors actually are is dependent on knowing your audience. 

There are a lot of tools and resources out there. For example, Alexa and SEMRush will show you who your competitors are in terms of search. If there’s a disconnect, it’s time to do some audiences research. 

Key Factors for Conducting a Competitor Analysis

Once you know for certain that your audience is accurate and are able to identify who your true competitors are you’re ready to conduct a competitor analysis. You’ll want to analyze 5 to 10 of your top competitors. 

Here’s a simple cheat sheet to use:

  • Include the competitor’s name, website and social media networks at the top of the page
  • List their price points
  • Identify the target audience and buyer personas they are marketing to 
  • Add what their core messaging is 
  • Where are they lacking? 
  • Where are they winning?
  • What are some strategies your business could use? 

Once you run through this template with each competitor, analyze the similarities and differences between them. The key here is to develop some actionable takeaways and to clearly see how your business stands-out. 

  • Create a diagram that shows the similarities and differences between your competitors 
  • Establish the dominant theme each marketing strategy seems to have. Look at the attitudes, colors, branding and ways they communicate
  • Pinpoint where your competitors are weak and how you can use this information to stand out
  • Brainstorm a list of ideas you can implement in your marketing strategy 
  • Make a plan

Why You Need to Do a Competitive Analysis 

We don’t think it’s good to get obsessive about what your competitors are doing. You can waste a lot of valuable time and energy that could be better spent on building your brand-up. 

But, checking-in with your competitors yearly or to source ideas for a new campaign is honestly something everything type of business could benefit from. Following this simple template can help you see shortcomings in your own strategies and generate ideas you might not have considered otherwise. 

Conducting a competitor analysis can also help keep your brand in check. If you get too disconnected you run the risk of missing important audience and market trends.

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Tiffany

Tiffany comes with a unique creative ability. She is one of the quickest learners of new tools and methodology. She leads the atomic design principles within our UI & UX team that has helped us to deliver high-quality design faster.

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