Running a business is not easy, but it sure is rewarding if you keep things in order, like knowledge about your competitors. Outperforming competitors requires business owners to take several steps to ensure they deliver better value, are more visible, and provide an excellent customer experience. But there is one problem. Overshadowed by the hassle of administrative work, tax reporting, and resupplying, thinking about competitors might be difficult, let alone studying and surpassing them.
Don’t worry. This easy guide will help you set priorities straight, focusing on things that will bring immediate results, leaving your rivals far behind.
4 steps to Becoming Better than your Business Competitors
Step #1 – Create a Detailed list of Your Main Brand Competitors
Apart from asking “Who are my competitors?”, you also want to answer, “What do I know about them?”. Researching online brands is extremely important, mainly if you’re an e-commerce store yourself. Take one step at a time when creating a list of your biggest competitors. Here are some of these steps:
- Begin with a Google search, using words corresponding to your business area. Upon doing that, proceed with industry-related pages, forums, and marketplaces. You can also use SEO analytic tools like Semrush, but ensure you check their guidelines to make the analysis efficient and insightful.
- Continue with an online study, searching for a business with a large following and/or significant engagement in your niche. Consider things that make them visible. Do they use high-quality business pictures by Depositphotos in their website blogs, invite experts to social media discussions, or anything else?
- Focus on organizing competitors by direct, indirect, and substitute categories. Use simple tools like Excel or Trello to update these sections, tracking companies’ key advantages, evolution in value proposition, prices, and other details that are crucial to you.
Once you have a sorted list of brands that vie for your target audience’s attention, finish by gathering customer feedback and reviews for further competitor comparison. You are encouraged to use several channels to find the balance between quantitative and qualitative data. For example, try email bulking with surveys and direct messaging for ongoing written communication.
Step #2 – Focus on Local Competitors if You Run a Brick-and-mortar Store
Having a physical store requires a modified approach. As a brick-and-mortar venue, your main goal is to be visible and more preferred than other brands. Likewise, you want to investigate local stores’ strengths and weaknesses through a comparative analysis, and these include the following aspects:
- Local advertising. Competition in local marketing is tight and must be approached earnestly. You must understand what steps other brands take that help them draw people’s attention. These can be social media ads, flyers, and other printed and distributed materials.
- Community ties. The role of community in local business must not be underestimated. Brands can have home-court advantages by being loyal to the community, featuring sponsorships, providing venues for special events, and organizing giveaways.
- Detailed customer profiling. Clients can differ in gender, age, occupation, and interests, but they often share something that makes them come to the store and purchase. Try creating an average customer profile and understanding what makes them tip the scales in favor of a particular brand.
- Store specifics. Visit stores to see what they look like. Capture and assess details like pricing tags, product range, interior design, lighting, and customer service. Also, don’t forget to scroll through their websites and reviews; most consumers read reviews and find them the most crucial point in their decision-making.
FAQ: How do you conduct a competitor analysis?
SWOT analysis is an efficient way to build a roadmap for addressing your brand’s downsides and doubling down on your strengths. Consider these aspects:
- Strengths. Compare your unique offerings, product pricing, services, and branding. Refer to customer reviews that showcase your edge;
- Weaknesses. Identify gaps in your offerings, e.g., poorly executed competitive marketing strategies and longer customer support turnaround;
- Opportunities. Look for market trends that competitors haven’t capitalized on. Explore untapped customer segments or other underused ways that you can leverage;
- Threats. Monitor rivals’ moves, such as immediate price drops, product launches, and aggressive advertising.
Step #3 – Create a Detailed Marketing Plan
There are multiple reasons why marketing is paramount in today’s business and why brands keep raising their marketing budgets. The most apparent is that it’s become significantly more affordable while generating higher returns.
Nowadays, marketing is everywhere, from traditional business brochures with product photos slipped under people’s doors to interactive social media ads. The downside, however, is that this omnipresence has raised the bar for competitive marketing, forcing companies to brainstorm and develop unique and catchy ads. Therefore, creating a full-fledged advertising plan is essential to keep your brand in the spotlight.
Before anything else, optimize your business website and social media profiles, filling them with visuals and crucial information. Promoting expert blogs, visually appealing infographics, and social media videos are efficient and low-effort marketing strategies to improve your industry competition.
Regarding the plan, ensure it capitalizes on staple channels and techniques, whether TikTok videos, Instagram reels, LinkedIn posts, or anything that works well for you. Let these efficient methods take up to 60 percent of your marketing plan, leaving 20 percent for new ways within the same platform and the remaining 20 for exploring new venues and methods. This will allow you to keep your marketing profitable while discovering platforms and formats for possible breakthroughs.
Step #4 – Develop a Long-term Vision
Short-term gains won’t keep your business afloat forever. A strategic, forward-thinking approach is key to your growth. Fortunately, progression plans can stretch from entering new locations and global markets to integrating promising technology. Whatever you gravitate toward more, think twice before including it in your long-term vision.
Don’t forget that any of these require gradual implementation, so reserve enough time for study, isolated testing, and complete acquisition. In the meantime, keep tracking your business performance, reviews, and employee satisfaction to make informed decisions.
Finally, remember to improve your resilience. One-third of surveyed businesses reported needing to be significantly more effective in staying resilient to potential threats, like economic downturns, unexpected market events, and negative brand impressions. Being adaptable without losing sight of your brand identity and core values is one of those stepping stones that can give you a strategic headstart over others.
Bottom Line
The four mentioned steps aren’t the only ways to surpass your brand competitors, but they can be a good place to start. Focusing on a long-lasting run where you invest time in studying and analyzing your rivals while also focusing on detailed marketing will give you enough knowledge to surpass others. Put a pin on these methods, and don’t shy away from discovering new, uncommon techniques. They can be your gateway to sustained growth and ultimate success.
