What to Look for When Conducting a Competitive Analysis

The more you understand your competition, the better you can position your brand in the marketplace. For example, let's say you own an insurance brokerage and compete with three other brokerages in your area. A competitive analysis shows that none of them are active on social media. This new insight could allow you to use social media to attract new leads that your competition is overlooking.

Another benefit of competitive analysis is that it lets you prioritize efforts in areas you can make the most impact. Let’s face it; you can't outmaneuver your competitors on everything. What a competitive analysis does is give you a comparative data of your strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. This way, you understand which areas you can leverage to generate the highest return for your business.

To optimize your competitive analysis, you have to collect the right data. So what information do you have to study? We recommend starting with products, marketing strategies, and sales.

Assess your competitors

Quality: How do their products fare with yours? What do customers say about them?

Market share: How much of the market share do they own?

Pricing: Are they a low-cost or high-cost provider? Do they provide discounts, offer, or bundles?

Delivery & Customer Service: Do your competitors offer a personal and customer-friendly experience?

You can begin by studying your competitors’ website. A website tells you different things about the competition. It details competitors’ digital footprint. A Website shows you how a company presents itself to customers. It's also a gateway to other content: Blogs, ebooks, and podcasts.

• How much content do you competitors put out there?
• How relevant is the content being published?
• What is the quality of the content? 
• How are their customers receiving and reacting to their content?

Next, analyze your competitors’ social media channels. We can examine how other brands speak to their consumers. 

• Where are they? Are they on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat? Why do you think they are where they are?
• What is their purpose for being in social media? Are their posts promotional or is it community-driven?
• How active are they on social media? How many posts do they write? Do they answer consumers’ comments?
• How engaged is their audience? How many friends and followers do they have? How shareable are their posts?

Understanding your competitors’ sales process and performance requires groundwork. Create a tool (think survey, FGD, and interview) to ask consumers why they chose to do business with you or a competitor. You may be amazed at the insights you will find, ideas that you can’t discover by browsing the web.

• How do they interact with potential customers?
• How involved are they in the sales process?
• How do they move leads through the buyers’ journey?
• What sales tools do they have at their disposal?

Studying these factors will help you identify areas where you’re doing better and areas where you need to improve. A well-conducted competitive analysis will also help you pinpoint opportunities that you can take advantage of to stand out from the rest of the competition.