Why you should get to know competitors

Keeping a close eye on your competitors is probably something you do naturally. You’ll come across their social media posts, have a look around their website every so often, and you may even mix in the same networking circles. But do you have a structured approach to competitor analysis? If not, you could be missing a trick.

Although the most important thing in marketing is to think about promoting your story and your unique selling points, competitor analysis still plays a vital role.

Having a good understanding of competitors’ brands can help you to: understand your positioning within the market; see how your price point differs from theirs; identify gaps in the market, and help you to recognise your unique selling points.

Start to introduce a formal competitor analysis process by choosing a regular date to spend some time looking at your key competitors and review the market for any new, emerging ones.

A great way to make this work for you is to time your reviews to fall in line with other strategy milestones. Create a document where you can compile your findings about your competitors. Include space for an analysis of their social media activity; a review of their website and content; a look at any mentions of their brand name in the press; a breakdown of how they appear in search engines; a summary of their online reviews – across social media, review sites and search engines, and any advertising that you spot (both online and offline).

Look for different ways to assess your competitors’ activity. For example, Facebook recently launched its Ad Library, which offers complete transparency over what ads are being run by which brands on Facebook. Search for your competitors’ brand names on www.facebook.com/ad/library and you will see their active ads and key page information. Search for the keywords you target via your SEO too. This can be a great way of finding new competitors and spotting any changes in who a business is targeting.

Once you have compiled your analysis, begin to create a SWOT analysis – listing each of your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Include a SWOT analysis of your brand and company too and make comparisons between them all.

Revisit your competitor analysis regularly and most importantly, use it to help inform your business and marketing decisions. By looking at the bigger picture, with your competitors included, you may just spot that gap in the market that you can fill.