How to conduct competitive research [Free Template]

Competitive research is a crucial component of any successful business strategy. It involves gathering and analyzing information about your competitors, their products or services, and their marketing tactics. By conducting competitive research, businesses can gain valuable insights into the market landscape and make informed decisions to stay ahead of the competition.

Why is it always important to keep tabs on your competitors?

One of the key reasons why competitive research is crucial for businesses is that it helps you identify potential threats and opportunities in the market. By analyzing your competitors’ strategies and performance, you can uncover gaps in the market that your business can fill. For example, if you notice that one of your competitors is not effectively targeting a specific customer segment, you can tailor your marketing efforts to capture that segment.

Furthermore, competitive research enables businesses to benchmark themselves against their competitors. By comparing your own performance with that of your competitors, you can identify areas where you are falling behind or excelling. This information allows you to make strategic decisions on how to improve your products or services and gain a competitive edge.

Another benefit of conducting competitive research is that it helps businesses stay up-to-date with industry trends and changes. By monitoring your competitors’ activities, such as new product launches or marketing campaigns, you can adapt your own strategies accordingly. This ensures that you are always aware of what is happening in the market and can respond quickly to changes.

Comprehending the competitive landscape is a crucial aspect of any business. Central to this is the identification of competitors, which, despite appearing intuitive, can be complex due to the multifaceted nature of business competition, encompassing direct, indirect, potential, or even perceived rivals. To navigate this, it is advisable to adopt a combination of digital and community-centric strategies.

To begin with, leverage the power of Google Search. Initiate a simple query of your product or service to determine who has similar offerings. This preliminary search should be based on broad industry keywords, gradually refining to specific terms related to your product or service. Depending on the scope of your business, you may need to concentrate on local competitors using geographically tailored keywords or expand your search on a global scale. Enhance this strategy by establishing Google Alerts for your brand, products, and core industry terms. This proactive approach ensures that you are informed about emerging market players or significant news.

• Start with a basic search: Input your product or service on Google to identify similar providers.
• Keyword Strategy: Start with generic industry keywords and refine to specific product or service terms.
• Geographic Focus: Depending on your business’s scale, focus either on local competitors using location-centric keywords or broaden your scope globally.
• Stay Informed with Google Alerts: Monitor brand, product, and industry terms to keep abreast of emerging competitors and relevant news.

Directories and Platforms

Parallelly, tap into the trove of online directories and platforms. Platforms like G2 offer user reviews, which, when filtered by your industry or product category, can spotlight the frontrunners. With tools like Semrush, inputting your domain not only surfaces your main organic competitors based on overlapping keywords but also offers a lens into their advertising maneuvers. Crunchbase, meanwhile, acts as a directory compass, guiding you to competitors ranging from agile startups to established behemoths, all searchable by attributes like industry, location, or funding.

Engage the community

Yet, in this digital age, never underestimate the power of human touchpoints. Immerse yourself in the community. Actively participate in industry events, be it conferences, seminars, or webinars, and tune into the names that resonate in discussions. Digital communities, like industry-tailored forums on LinkedIn or Reddit, can also be insightful, often revealing competitors that might not yet be on the mainstream radar. Furthermore, consider seeking direct feedback. Surveys targeting your clientele can unveil other services or products they’ve weighed or adopted.

Lastly, don’t neglect traditional avenues. Annual industry reports shed light on trends, dominant players, and market share dynamics. Trade shows, a timeless networking hub, offer a spectrum of competitors, from industry titans to budding innovators. And, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, engage with your competitor’s clientele. Their choices and feedback can offer invaluable insights, painting a clearer picture of the competitive landscape you navigate.

Other Methods

• Industry Reports: Many organizations publish annual reports about industry trends and major players. These can be invaluable for identifying competitors and understanding their market share.
• Trade Shows: Even in the digital age, trade shows remain a hub for industry networking and discovery. Walking the floor can introduce you to a range of competitors, from established giants to innovative startups.
• Competitor’s Customers: Engage with or survey customers of your competitors. They can provide insights into why they chose that particular competitor over others.

Understanding your competitors is only half the battle. The real value of competitive research lies in how you use that information to inform your business decisions. Before diving into the data, it’s crucial to set clear goals for your research. Here’s how to approach this:

Defining the Problem

Every research initiative should start with a clear problem statement. What challenges is your business facing? What questions are you trying to answer? Here are some examples:

• Are our prices competitive in the current market?
• Why has there been a recent dip in our market share?
• What features are our competitors offering that we aren’t?
• How do our marketing strategies differ from our competitors?

By defining the problem, you ensure that your research remains focused and actionable.

Once you’ve defined the problem, the next step is to determine how you’ll go about finding the answers. This involves:

• Data Collection: Decide on the types of data you’ll need. This could be anything from website traffic statistics to customer reviews or product features.
• Tools and Resources: Based on the data you need, select the appropriate tools and resources. For instance, if you’re looking into SEO strategies, tools like Semrush or Ahrefs might be useful. For customer sentiment, platforms like G2 or Trustpilot can be invaluable.
• Timeline: Competitive research isn’t always a one-off task. Set a timeline for your research, considering both initial data collection and potential follow-ups.
• Team Involvement: Determine who in your organization should be involved. While the marketing team might spearhead the research, input from sales, product development, and even customer service can provide a holistic view.

With the problem defined and the approach outlined, it’s time to set clear objectives for your research. What do you hope to achieve by the end? Some potential objectives could be:

• Identify three main areas where our product lags behind competitors.
• Understand the primary marketing channels our competitors are leveraging.
• Pinpoint any pricing discrepancies between our offerings and those of our competitors.

By setting clear objectives, you ensure that your research has direction and purpose. It also makes it easier to measure the success of your efforts and determine the next steps.

Structured data collection is the backbone of informed decision-making. By systematically gathering and organizing data, you ensure that every insight, every metric, and every piece of feedback is easily accessible and actionable. This not only streamlines your analysis process but also ensures that you’re making decisions based on a comprehensive view of the market landscape.

Having all your data in one place allows for better visualization, quicker comparisons, and more effective strategy formulation. It eliminates the chaos of scattered information, ensuring that you’re not missing out on any crucial insights that could be the difference between leading the market or playing catch-up.

Design & User Experience (UX)

A competitor’s website design isn’t just about aesthetics. It paints a picture of their brand identity and the strategies they employ to engage users. For instance, tools such as Hotjar or CrazyEgg offer heatmaps, revealing areas where users are most active and engaged.

Content Quality

Content is the backbone of any website. Delve into the depth, relevance, and frequency of a competitor’s content. Are they leaning towards whitepapers, hosting webinars, or maintaining a vibrant blog? With BuzzSumo, you can pinpoint their most impactful and shared content, giving you a clearer picture of their content strategy.

Product Offerings

• Features & Benefits: By enumerating the features of a competitor’s products or services, you can spot potential gaps in your own offerings, paving the way for improvements.
• Pricing Strategy: Grasping their pricing model can be enlightening. Whether they opt for premium pricing or a cost-leadership approach, tools like Price2Spy can keep you updated on their pricing shifts.

Customer Reviews & Feedback

Platforms such as Trustpilot, G2, and Capterra are treasure troves of customer perceptions. These reviews can shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of a competitor’s product, offering a more holistic view of their offerings.

Social Media Presence

Social media is a window into a brand’s soul. Dive into metrics like engagement rates, content types, and posting frequency. Tools like SocialBakers and Brandwatch can offer insights into their social strategy, helping you gauge their online presence.

SEO & PPC Strategies

With tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, you can decode the SEO and PPC strategies of your competitors. From the keywords they target to their backlinking tactics and advertising budgets, these tools offer a comprehensive view of their online strategies.

Sales & Distribution Channels

Recognizing where and how your competitors sell their products can be a game-changer. Are they leaning towards third-party retailers, direct-to-consumer models, or a mix of both?

Email Marketing & Newsletters

Emails are a direct line to potential customers. By subscribing to competitor newsletters, you can analyze their email patterns, content types, and promotional strategies. Tools like MailCharts further offer insights into email performance metrics.

Customer Support & Service

Engaging with their support team can reveal their response time and the quality of support they offer. Additionally, identifying their preferred customer support channels can give you an edge in enhancing your own support system.

Promotions & Discounts

Keeping an eye on their promotional strategies can offer insights into their sales and customer acquisition tactics. From ongoing promotions to loyalty programs, understanding these strategies can be invaluable.

Partnerships & Collaborations

Recognizing their collaborators, be it businesses or influencers, can offer insights into their expansion strategies and target demographics. Additionally, staying updated on their participation in events and webinars can be revealing.

Technology & Tools

With tools like BuiltWith or Wappalyzer, you can discern the technologies your competitors employ. From their CMS to their marketing automation tools, understanding their tech stack can give you a competitive advantage.

Company Culture & Hiring

Their career pages can hint at their future strategies and focus areas. Moreover, understanding their company culture and values can provide insights into their market positioning.

In essence, a meticulous website analysis goes beyond mere observation. It’s about understanding, adapting, and strategizing to ensure your brand’s continued growth and success.

After collecting a wealth of data from various sources, the next challenge is to make sense of it all. Raw data, no matter how extensive, holds little value unless it’s analyzed, interpreted, and transformed into actionable insights. Here’s how to aggregate the information and draw meaningful conclusions:

Organizing Data

Before diving into analysis, it’s essential to have a well-organized dataset. This ensures clarity and aids in drawing accurate conclusions.

Categorization: Group similar data points together. For instance, all data related to pricing can be in one category, while marketing strategies can be in another.

Use of Tools: Consider using tools like Excel, Google Sheets, or specialized data analysis software to store and organize data. They offer functionalities like filtering, sorting, and visualization that can be invaluable.

Documentation: Ensure that all data sources are documented. This not only adds credibility to your research but also allows for easy reference in the future.

Analyzing the Information

With organized data at hand, the next step is analysis.

• Comparative Analysis: Compare your business metrics with those of your competitors. Look for patterns, similarities, and discrepancies.
• Trend Analysis: Identify trends over time. Are competitors shifting their marketing strategies? Is there a new feature that multiple competitors have started offering?
• Gap Analysis: Determine areas where your business might be lagging or where there’s an opportunity to lead.

The ultimate goal of competitive research is to inform business decisions.

• Strategic Planning: Use the insights gained to shape your business strategy. This could involve tweaking your marketing approach, re-evaluating pricing, or even considering new product features.
• Stakeholder Communication: Share the findings with key stakeholders in your organization. This ensures everyone is on the same page and can lead to collaborative decision-making.
• Continuous Monitoring: The business landscape is ever-evolving. Make it a practice to periodically revisit your competitive research, updating data and re-analyzing as necessary.

Aggregating and analyzing competitive data is a meticulous process, but the insights it yields can be transformative. By understanding the competitive landscape and your position within it, you can make informed decisions that propel your business forward, ensuring you not only keep up with competitors but often stay a step ahead.

Competitive research is more than just a business exercise; it’s a strategic imperative in today’s dynamic market landscape. By understanding competitors, their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses, businesses can carve out a unique position for themselves, capitalizing on opportunities and mitigating potential threats.

The process, from identifying competitors to drawing actionable insights, requires diligence, the right tools, and a clear objective. However, the rewards — in terms of market positioning, informed decision-making, and strategic advantage — are well worth the effort.

In an era where information is abundant, the real competitive edge comes from knowing what to do with that information. Competitive research, when done right, provides businesses with a roadmap, guiding them towards sustainable growth and success.