Taking steps to analyse your competition is an important part of running any type of business. It’s a good idea for an online business and thanks to technology, it’s something you can do quite easily.
We’re not talking corporate espionage here, but keeping your eye on the public image and public goings on with your biggest competitors will help you in many ways with your online business.
How often do you think Pepsi analyses Coke and vice versa? Constantly! Continuously keeping your eyes on your competition is a wise move in internet marketing.
Why Analyse Your Competition?
While you can’t peek in and figure out what they’re going to do before they do it, you can be well-aware of their moves as they happen. Analyse your competition closely, whether they’re a major player and you’re a small guy or if your businesses are a similar type and size. So, what can you learn from analysing your competition…
• See what they do right.
• See what they do wrong.
• Keep on top of industry news.
• See what’s coming.
You don’t have to ‘spy’ on your competition, really. There are plenty of tools to help you see what they’re putting out there. Doing so on an incognito basis, perhaps with a secondary account rather than as your brand, is probably a good idea – at least on social media sites.
• Follow them on Twitter.
• Subscribe to their newsletter.
• Check out their website statistics with tools that analyse sites that are not your own.
• Gather business intelligence through search engines and tools like Alexa.
• Subscribe to their blog.
• Set a Google alert for their name.
See what they do right so you know what you’re up against. See when they do things that could be improved on so you can set your own brand as head and shoulders above them. Figure out what keywords they’re focusing on for SEO and try to figure out how they’re approaching SEM and SEO so you can try to de-throne them if they’re in the top spot.
Knowing their weaknesses gives you an opportunity to build your own strengths. Pay attention to promotions, product launches, and new product developments as well.
Spending time to analyse your competition is an important part of both proactive and of reactive marketing and keeping your eye on competitors will help you dramatically. And…they’re probably doing this to you as well, so keep your eye on the prize because your competitors are very likely watching what you’re doing as well.
About Sean Rasmussen
I suppose the first step is trying to figure out who they are.
What if there are lots of them?
Hi Gee
Just pick a few of them to start with I suppose. Pick a few you consider direct competitors, and maybe some others that are industry leaders – even if they’re way out of your league. If they’re in the same market, then they’re competitors.
I remember Chris Howard saying he went to a Tony Robbins seminar… Had to wear a baseball cap and really look inconspicuous. Can’t remember if he got caught in the end. LOL, he was open about the story though.
Excellent thinking and advice.
My dad was very good at hillbilly logic and philosophy. He often talked about how much we could learn from the foolish things that people did. He was one who believed that no matter how splashy and interesting things seemed it was necessary to be based on truth and fact.
So I have found that anytime I see my colleagues do things that seems to me ill advised, I take note and make sure that I let them make my mistakes for me.
I am not nearly so much into imitation as I am to avoiding what I really find less than wonderful. I think that by too obviously imitating you can create a negative image of being a copycat rather than an original thinker. However, it certainly can be of great help to try to analyze what the very successful marketing ploys are trying to do and see if it is possible to head the same direction with my own imagination and creative powers.
I enjoy this topic very much and thank you for tapping at my creative juices and trying to get them to start flowing.
Dobbs
Your father has a sound philosophy and a simple and smart way to see how people really are.
It cuts through all the rubbish and you will be able to see if your ‘competition’ is really competition at all’
I have found in life that people who continually profess to be something or constantly talk about certain qualities they have, do it to hide the fact that they don’t but want others to think they do.
When they publicly embellish themselves watch out because they open themselves to scrutiny.
It doesn’t take long to see a charlaton. The glossy sparkly ones aren’t always the best so when we we do check up on our competition, we need to make sure that they actually are.
Hi Sean,
I analyze my competition all the time. I think it is wise to know what your competition is doing. I sign up for their newsletters so I can learn from them. I see who is linking to them.
I constantly assess what they’re doing better than me and where I can improve. I think it’s all about aspiring to be the best and there is no-one better to learn from than the leaders in your niche.
I think in any type of marketing it pays to analyse your competition.
I have had a website pop in one of my niches just recently that is very much like my little blog site so I have paid close attention to it’s overall progress.
Interestingly enough I have learnt a few great tips just from checking in to see how it has grown & what additional plugins he is using.
Taking steps to analyse your competition is an important & a lot of fun too!
Hi Sean,
I think it’s important to analyse the competition. How often should I check, I’m not sure. To not check the competition at all though, would be foolish.
I’m sure Pepsi has close tabs on Coca Cola and vice versa. These two companies are good examples that analysing the competition is a wise thing to do. They’ve been around for a long while so they must be doing something right.
There’s no set timeframe Jill, it’s just a good idea to be aware of what your competitors are up to periodically. You may want to look further into them if you find they are outranking you for example, look at what they are doing and go one better
Hi Sean
Oh so I can be a spy, how exciting!
To be honest, I still need to get my blog up to scratch and I have been too busy with this competition to do anything else.
I think what you have outlined here is an excellent source of information for checking out, and something I will be referring back to. Thank you Sean.
Hi Sean,
When doing the Tours we were always analysing our competition , I still have a heap of their brochures but now use to give me ideas but i have not being analysing my competition online so that is another thing i will have to pencil in for my morning Must do.
Analysis is one of my weak points. Yet, with a little time we can learn a lot about what to do to improve our own performance – so I am going to have to extrcat the proverbial digit and do it more consistently ….. getting keywords, their density etc my first task.
The more we analyse our competitors the more proficient we will become. I am sure that in a years time we will have a schedule and a marketing plan laid out which we adhere to and it will simplify everything.
The more tech savvy we can be with watching our competitors the better. We jsut need to work out who they are.
I just used Alexa and ‘related links’ – and there is no competition in the format that I use for the 3 sites I checked – yet I know there are some! Perhaps Google might be more reliable as it covers those who don’t have Alexa toolbars installed