How to do competitive analysis in marketing

.

competitor analysis – brand list

In order to effectively conduct competitive monitoring, you must first recognize the competition. If you have been operating in your industry for some time, you will more than likely already be familiar with most of the entities competing with your company. However, if you have been operating in the industry for a short time, or are just planning to enter the market and want to prepare for this in a solid way, this is the first and essential element you need to investigate.

The easiest way to get information on potential competitors is to use dedicated tools for this purpose. The most popular ones are: Senuto, Majestic, Semrush, Semstorm, Brand24, Tradewatch.

You can also use a free way, which is a search engine. The shortest way would be to type in a keyword related to your industry and see what competitors are showing up in paid search results. This will give you basic information about your industry’s competitiveness and potential competitors. You can also use the Google Ads keyword planner

Once you have organized the list of competitors you will be checking, you can move on to the next step, which is to analyze the current state and actions.

How to conduct a competitive analysis –social-media-presence

When I am faced with the task of analyzing the competitiveness of an industry, I always start by examining the website of each brand I have listed. However, I won’t write about this in the article, even though the construction of the website and its content is partly a marketing activity. That’s a topic for a separate article, though, so I’ll focus on other ways we can use it. So why do I start by mentioning the site? Usually available on them are links to social media where the brand has a presence.

This is the shortest way to get valuable information. By analyzing the content uploaded by the brand on Facebook or LinkedIn, it is possible to quickly diagnose the audience, the way the brand communicates with its audience and the potential needs of its target groups. It’s worth checking what language the profile leaders use, what creations they include in their posts, and what they try to differentiate the brand from the competition. Typically, brands run Facebook and LinkedIn, but depending on the industry, other channels may appear. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Pinterest are the most popular platforms, and a presence on each and the content contained there will provide different clues than the others.

A very useful tool that we can use for some social media is an ad library. For example, Facebook allows us to check the ads currently displayed by a profile and information about them. All you have to do is go to the page’s profile and then click “go to ad library.” We will be shown a page with the paid ads currently in use, their creatives and descriptions, as well as the start date of the promotion of a given post. Analysis from this angle can help us quickly gain useful information, such as what products the competition is advertising, or to whom they are targeting advertising messages.

How to conduct a competition analysis in marketing – competition potential

Once I have researched the organic and paid social media advertising activities, post upload frequency and communication methods, I usually move on to analyze the potential of a brand. I use the SEMRUSH tool for this. Admittedly, I use the paid version of the tool in my daily work, but the free version of SEMRUSH allows me to verify some information.

The tool is easy to use – just drop a link to the site of interest into the dialog box and after a second we can proceed to the analysis. The program will show us the organic and paid traffic that went to the site over the last few(teen) years. In this easy way, we can quickly get information about the average number of users visiting the site, and thus we can estimate the intensity of marketing efforts or even potential profits. We can also assess how effective the SEO and SEM activities carried out by a given entity are.

The tool also allows us to see what keywords attract the most users to the site. We are talking about both organic and paid phrases. The program provides information on the intent of the searcher who typed in a given phrase, the search engine position the site gets, the average number of users hitting the site with a given keyword and the overall search volume for that keyword. This allows us to determine, based on visibility, which phrases the competition cares about and which keywords may be most effective when running a campaign.

If you want to learn how to use such tools in an effective way, you can take advantage of Google Ads training

What goes into competitive analysis?”

The next activity I suggest you do is to compare product features. Try to look as closely as possible at the various characteristics of your products and those of your competitors, and those that differentiate them. Try to prepare a list of the features you will be comparing, and then put them together. The list should be as long as possible, and not end with price or availability. These may include, for example, product appearance (shape, size, color), ease of use, warranty and its length, product and post-purchase support (e.g., equipment service for one year after purchase), average product life, possibility of complaints, usability, etc.

Product features listed in this way necessarily juxtapose with consumer needs (if you don’t know them, you can conduct research on this aspect, called consumer insight). You may find that some feature convinces potential customers to choose product X. Another feature may cause the customer to be uninterested in product Y. It is also often the case that in a product or service, the user is looking for a specific feature, and all the rest is superfluous to him (for me, for example, it is the Internet bundled with TV in UPC).

Competition analysis – determine your position in the market

The final step that awaits you during a competitive analysis is to determine your brand’s position in the market. You can use available statistical data or market research. An analysis of market share trends can provide you with information on your brand’s position in comparison with your competitors. This will also give you information on the budgets your competitors are allocating to marketing activities. This will help you more precisely determine what advertising budget will be optimal for your efforts

Compare the brand’s offerings with those of its competitors in terms of product mix, unique features, added value for customers, etc. Try to identify the differences that differentiate your brand and contribute to its competitive advantage.

Try to identify the differences that differentiate your brand and contribute to its competitive advantage.

Analyze the opinions of your customers and competitors. Comments written by users on your Google business card, on Facebook or on Allegro can prove to be an invaluable source of information. You will find data on what makes customers happy and why they use a particular service provider. Some of the answers are sure to surprise you! Draw conclusions about customer impressions and compare positive and negative reviews for different brands.

Conclusions from competition analysis

With a properly conducted competitive analysis, you will come to conclusions and get tips that will help you develop your brand and build an effective strategy. Here are the conclusions you should come to if you want your analysis to deliver the results you want:

your vs. competitors’ strengths – identify the strengths and weaknesses of all brands. Consider what makes your competitors successful and what aspects you can incorporate or emulate in your strategy

competitors’ weaknesses – obtain information on areas where the brand has a chance to outperform the competition

loopholes in market offerings – explore areas where you can introduce innovative products or services that will meet customer needs better than the competition

marketing strategies – inspire your own marketing efforts and identify unique ways to communicate and reach customers

best practices – improve your own business processes, brand management, customer service, etc.

If you want to thoroughly carry out the activities of your competitors and make sure that you realize the potential of your business, you can use the services of Digital Agency The agency primarily deals with the planning and implementation of online marketing activities. These may consist of brand building, search engine advertising, public relations, creating marketing communications, optimizing online campaigns or data analytics. The agency’s marketing department will assess budget allocation, recommend solutions in ppc advertising and make any changes to the website.