Many businesses can’t get ahead of their competitor in the market as they don’t perform competitor research analysis.
Competitor research is a crucial part of digital marketing for small businesses as it can help to find gaps in your marketing strategy.
Additionally, it can also reveal the trends in your industry’s marketplace, i.e., what’s performing better.
As everything is being sold in the market, how can your product make a change in customers’ lives?
The answer to this question can only be given when you know where your competitors lack, but the concern is, how’ll you do so?
The answer is very simple and straightforward; follow the steps to perform competitor research analysis.
However, if you don’t want to do that on your own, you can consult the best Digital Marketing Agency in Bihar for help!
Steps to Perform Competitor Research Analysis
Competitor research analysis is a way to spy on competitors to find their marketing and sales tactics.
After doing so, you can implement a stronger strategy to capture the market or to make a better place in the market.
However, these are some of the top advantages of competitor research. So, to leverage these advantages, follow the steps discussed below:
#1. Identify Your Competitors
The first thing you should do is competitor identification. This is a crucial step that every business should perform before developing a market plan.
So, who can be your competitor, and how to define or identify them?
The businesses that offer the same product as yours (substitute of your products) can be the top competitors.
For instance, Nike is the top competitor of Puma as they both deals in sports accessories such as shoes, T-shirts, and more.
Similarly, identify your competitors (at least three) by looking at the marketplace.
If you run an online business, search your focus keyword on Google. The top results are your competitors.
This way, you can identify your competitors. Now, start with other essential strategies to perform competitor research.
#2. Perform SWOT Analysis
Assuming you’ve identified your competitors, it’s time to perform a SWOT analysis. It stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
It’s a competitor analysis framework used to evaluate a company’s competitive position, i.e., the potential of a company.
It also describes the brand positioning of your competitor, i.e., how your competitors are connected with the customers.
Below are some questions that you need to answer during SWOT analysis:
- What are the common problems their customers face?
- How does your company deal with the customers’ common problems?
- Which part of your business needs improvement?
- How is your product better than theirs?
- Are their products a substitute for yours?
Thus, these are the questions that need to be answered during the SWOT analysis. After that, make sure to use them to build a perfect marketing strategy for your business.
SWOT analysis is one of the essential steps that you should follow to perform competitor research properly.
#3. Look at Online Presence
Due to the technological revolution, customers’ behavior toward buying from and connecting with brands/businesses has changed.
That’s why most businesses use different online platforms to market their products or services.
So, looking at your competitors’ online presence can help you understand several things about their business and marketing strategies, including:
- Their website and social media platforms.
- What marketing strategy do they implement to attract new customers?
- Which products do they sell the most?
- What customers are they targeting?
- How are they showcasing their business to people?
Moreover, you can also understand several things about potential customers, like age, likes, dislikes, location, gender, and more.
Long answer short, after looking at your competitors, you’ll understand the marketplace and customers better.
#4. Analyze Their Content Marketing Strategy
Once you’ve looked at your competitors’ online presence, it’s time to analyze their content marketing strategy.
Content marketing is one of the most impactful marketing strategies that can boost a business’s authority, trust, and conversion.
Moreover, if you want to know more about the benefits of content marketing for small businesses, follow the link.
Now, coming to the main point! Analyzing competitors’ content marketing strategies can help you improve yours.
You just have to compare your content strategy to theirs and look at what’s performing better and what’s not.
Choose the best-performing content of your competitors and take reference from it for your next content.
Note: Just don’t copy the same pattern or anything. Make your unique and more appealing.
However, the content can be in any form, such as videos, blogs, infographics, images, and more.
So, properly analyze your competitor’s content marketing strategy, take references from it, and create a better piece.
Hence, these are the best tips you can follow to effectively perform competitor research analysis.
Conclusion
The first thing every business do is to perform competitor research analysis properly as it can help in several ways.
For instance, you’ll better understand not only the competitors but also the prospects or potential customers.
In addition, you can also understand the behavior of your industry’s marketplace, such as trends.
And most importantly, you’ll get help in making a perfect marketing strategy for your business.
Therefore, you must always perform competitor research analysis in the first place.
And if you need any help in doing so, you can take help from the best Digital Marketing Company in Patna.
