When you decide to start your own business, there are some things that cannot be avoided, and you have no doubt heard that there is a lot of competition when you thought of starting your own business in this field. This is the time when you must realize that you need to build a new skill to bring your startup to success.
One of the necessary skills for you is to analyze your competitor’s marketing strategy which is a very useful skill for any type of business you may be entering into. On the other hand, analyzing your competitor’s marketing strategy is a critical step that if analyzed once, it will lead you to the halfway point of success.
You need to make sure that you look out the window and analyze what other people are doing and get to know their strengths and weaknesses.
Entrepreneurship website startuptalky has published a report explaining guidelines on how to analyze your competitors’ marketing strategy.
What is the competitor marketing strategy analysis?
Competitive analysis in simple words means a structured assessment of your business environment that includes the competing company, its offerings, and most importantly its marketing strategy. It is the art of knowing how well other players in that specific market area are doing. Most importantly, research the spaces they create so you can better sink in and out of them by providing something more valuable.
What does this analysis include?
The analysis of the marketing strategy of competitors includes very important qualitative and quantitative data on which the goals and tasks of the company depend. And most importantly, how will these goals be achieved, i.e. what is the strategy to achieve these goals effectively and efficiently according to the data collected. This analysis includes answers to various questions such as:
What are the competitors good at?
Where is the shortage of competitors?
How do you make sure they don’t steal your customers?
Benefits of Competitor Marketing Strategy Analysis
Analyzing a competitor’s marketing strategy is a critical step for all businesses large and small. This should be done with caution, as it is about collecting the most important data on which the company’s strategies are based. And if done appropriately, it gives a lot of qualitative and quantitative data that will help you in critical decisions.
Analyzing your competitors’ marketing strategy is important in many ways, such as:
identifying opportunities
How and why do you choose your brand? This question plays an important role in distinguishing you from your competitors. A good analysis of your competitor’s marketing strategy gives you insight into what customers might find in you. Therefore, they choose you over your competitors.
Analysis of the competitor’s marketing strategy creates a great opportunity to identify gaps through data analysis.
Know your strengths and weaknesses
You have a great opportunity to find out where the deficiency of your competitors lies by analyzing the data collected. Improve your product by taking advantage of competitor weaknesses that customers are complaining about. You must learn from their mistakes and make sure that they are not repeated at any cost. The focus should be on continuous learning and simultaneous improvement.A better way to do this is to understand your digital assets and current position through data valuation, Through this, you can easily come up with a distinct identity in the market.
Your company’s long-term position
As your brand expands, so do your customers’ expectations of you. This opens up an opportunity for you to conceptualize your business for the long term.
By analyzing your competitors’ marketing strategy, you get a chance to get to know all their weaknesses, which is your advantage over your competitors. And you need to overcome all their mistakes that will help you improve your company’s performance in the long run by creating an image of confidence in the minds of customers.
Detecting market trends
You will get to know what is going on in the market, therefore, it helps you keep up with the pace of contemporary methods, and it helps you to reveal which market segments are not fully served by competitors. You need to focus on that and work on competitor loopholes, while eliminating the use of old and traditional marketing strategies.
Stimulate
By analyzing what your competitors are doing, you will know where they stand in the market. The presence of competition in the market gives inspiration to work constantly, and an impetus to continue striving for the best.
What is the nature of the competitor marketing strategy analysis process?
This guide to Competitor Marketing Strategy Analysis works well for startup founders, entrepreneurs, business owners, marketers, etc. Including some tips on where to look for non-public data, this guide consists of a step-by-step process of how to Analyze your competitor’s marketing strategy.
Identify competitors in your industry
The first and most important step is to determine who your competitors are. And you need to choose the right competitors who are promoting similar products or services targeting a similar category of customers. For simplicity, divide your competitors into two categories: direct and indirect.
Direct competitors are those who offer a product or service similar to yours and who serve as an alternative to your product that operates in your same geographic area, while indirect competitors are those who offer different products that can be used as an alternative to meet the customer’s needs. You have to realize that direct competitors have to get more focused attention.
How do you define direct competition? Here are the steps to follow:
- Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for similar product queries.
- Take a look at the market share analysis.
- Check who is buying products from the same suppliers (merchants) according to your plan.
- Keep a note of which brands use your target buyers the most.
- Determine what they offer.
The services offered or the product is where the heart of any business lies. So, it is the best place to start. A deep analysis of the competitor’s complete product line or services offered should be done. Besides, you should pay attention to the attractive benefits that they offer along with the product and service that tend to attract their customers.
Analyze their tactics
Being in this competitive market is very difficult, as certain tactics are used by the market leaders to achieve rapid growth. Therefore, the focus should be on the following questions:
- What does the selling process look like?
- What distribution channels do they use?
- What methods bring them the most advantages?
- What are their CRM techniques?
- What profitable offers do they offer to their customers?
- How do they manage personal relationships?
This is some useful information that gives you an idea of the tactics competitors are applying. By knowing this, you can get an idea of how to start forming your own strategies.
Competitor pricing strategy analysis
The price or value that the customer pays for the product or service is the most important element. Pricing must be done very carefully as it depends on certain key factors. Due diligence must be exercised about how competitors handle these factors and the pricing of offers.
Determine the competitor’s marketing strategy
Business productivity depends on the marketing strategy used. There must be knowledge of marketing strategies that are being applied by other players in the market.
With the advent of technology, most companies use the Internet for marketing, as the Internet world opens doors to meet a wide audience. You have to keep an eye on the competitor’s website, content marketing method, social media marketing, etc.
Use spy tools to learn the strategies of your competitors
Various online tools and methods are available to help you understand the strategies of your competitors. Spy tools can help greatly in this matter, including AdSpyder, one of the most popular spying tools that are allowed to be used. This application will help you to spy on your competitors’ advertising strategies on different platforms. The list includes Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram as well as search engines such as Yahoo.
Conduct a SWOT analysis
SWAT analysis is a great tool for visualizing how to gain an advantage over competing companies. It means strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, so when you have an overview from all these perspectives, you are on the right path to success.
The main objective of this article is to pay attention to opportunities that competitors do not pay attention to. One must learn to take advantage of the competitor’s weaknesses through his own strengths, the market is very dynamic which requires a routine run of analysis of the competitor’s marketing strategy.
Competitor analysis is a multi-faceted process that, if executed well, can lead you towards productivity and success.