When you decide to start your own business, there are some things that cannot be avoided, and you have undoubtedly heard that there is a lot of competition when you thought of starting your own business in this field.
This is when you must realize that you need to build a new skill to make your startup a success.
One of the necessary skills for you to have is analyzing your competitor's marketing strategy, which is a very useful skill for any type of business you may be in;
You need to make sure that you look out the window and analyze what other people are doing, and recognize their strengths and weaknesses.
Businessnewsdaily published a report explaining guidelines on how to analyze your competitors' marketing strategy.
What is competitor marketing strategy analysis?
Competitive analysis - in simple words - means a systematic assessment of your business environment that includes the competitor, its offerings, and most importantly its marketing strategy.
It is an art to see how well other players are doing in that particular area of the market.
Most importantly, look for the spaces they are creating to take the opportunity to dive into them and make a better out of them by providing something more valuable.
What does this analysis include?
The analysis of the marketing strategy of competitors includes very important qualitative and quantitative data on which the goals and tasks of the company depend.
And most importantly, how will these objectives be achieved, i.e. what is the strategy to achieve these objectives effectively and efficiently, according to the data collected.
This analysis includes answers to various questions such as:
What are competitors good at?
Where are the competitors shortcomings?
How do you make sure they don't steal from your customers?
What are the benefits of analyzing a competitor's marketing strategy?
Analyzing the marketing strategy of competitors is important in many ways, such as:
Identify opportunities
How and why do you choose your brand?
This question plays an important role in distinguishing you from your competitors.
A good analysis of your competitor's marketing strategy gives you insight into what customers might find in you.
Therefore, they choose you over your competitors.
Analyzing a competitor's marketing strategy creates a great opportunity to identify gaps through data analysis.
Identify strengths and weaknesses
You have a great opportunity to find out where the competitors' shortcomings lie by analyzing the data collected.
Improve your product by taking advantage of competitor weaknesses that customers complain about.
And you must learn from their mistakes and make sure not to repeat them at any cost.
The focus should also be on continuous learning and simultaneous improvement.
Through this, you can easily create a distinct identity in the market.
Your company's long-term position
As your brand expands, so do your customers' expectations of you.
This opens up an opportunity for you to conceptualize your business in the long term.
By analyzing your competitors' marketing strategy, you get the chance to know all their weaknesses, which is an advantage for you over your competitors.
And you need to overcome all their mistakes that will help you improve your company's performance in the long run, by creating an image that inspires confidence in the minds of customers.
Detect market trends
You will get to know what is going on in the market, therefore, it helps you keep up with the pace of contemporary styles, and also helps you to detect market segments that are not fully served by competitors.
And you need to focus on that and work on the competitors' gaps, while eliminating the use of old and traditional marketing strategies.
Stimulus
By analyzing what your competitors are doing, you will learn about their position in the market.
The presence of competition in the market gives inspiration to work continuously, and an impetus to continue striving for the best.
In order to successfully implement the marketing analysis strategy for your competitors, the startuptalky website, which specializes in entrepreneurship, has published a report explaining the main steps to implement this, the most important of which are the following:
1. Identify competitors in your field
The first and most important step is to identify your competitors.
And you need to choose the right competitors who are promoting similar products or services targeting a similar class of customers.
For simplicity, divide your competitors into two categories: direct and indirect.
Direct competitors are those who offer a product or service similar to what you offer and who represent an alternative to your product in the same geographical area as you, while indirect competitors are those who offer different products that can be used as an alternative to your product in order to meet the customer's needs.
Realize that direct competitors should get more focused attention.
To identify direct competition, here are the steps to follow:
Search Engine Results Pages for similar product inquiries.
Take a look at the market share analysis.
Check who is buying products from the same suppliers (merchants), according to your plan.
Keep in note which brands serve your target buyers the most.
select what they offer;
The services offered or the product is where the heart of any business lies.
So, it's the best place to start.
An in-depth analysis of the competitor's full product line or services offered should be conducted.
Besides, you should pay attention to the attractive benefits that they offer along with the product, and the service that tends to attract their customers.
2. Analyze their tactics
Existing in this competitive market is very difficult as certain tactics are used by the market leaders to achieve rapid growth.
Therefore, the focus should be on the following questions:
What does the sale process look like?
What distribution channels do they use?
What methods will benefit them the most?
What are their CRM techniques?
What lucrative offers do they offer their customers?
How do they manage personal relationships?
This is some useful information that gives you an idea of the tactics your competitors are applying.
By knowing this, you can get an idea of how to go about forming your own strategies.
3. Analyzing the competitor's pricing strategy
The price or value that a customer pays for a product or service is the most important element.
Pricing must be done very carefully, as it depends on certain key factors.
Due care must be taken about how competitors deal with these factors and price offerings.
4. Determine the competitor's marketing strategy
Business productivity depends on the marketing strategy used.
There must be knowledge of the marketing strategies being applied by other players in the market.
With the advent of technology, most companies use the internet for marketing, as the internet world opens doors to meet a wide audience.
And you have to keep an eye on the competitor's website, content marketing method, social media marketing, etc.
5. Use spy tools to find out your competitors' strategies
Various online tools and methods are available to help you understand your competitors' strategies.
Spyware can help greatly in this matter, including AdSpyder, one of the most popular spyware tools that are allowed to be used.
This application will help you to spy on your competitors' advertising strategies on different platforms.
The list includes Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram as well as search engines such as Yahoo.