To grow your brand, you must do regular competitor analysis. You may not know how to do one or you might be doing the wrong ones. Let’s think about this for a moment. Not sure if you’ve done a competitive analysis recently? If so, did you use the right strategy and research? Probably not, which is why you’re missing out on important intelligence.
When your business is up against the tough competition, you need to do your homework. Competitive analysis can give you a leg up on their strategies and help you identify their weaknesses.
The competitive analysis enables you to stay on top of the trends in the industry and make sure your product is consistently meeting and exceeding expectations.
A few benefits:
Helps you find what sets your product apart from the competition! This strategy informs future marketing efforts.
This information is critical for staying relevant. How do you find out what your competitor is doing? By finding it out, you can identify what your competitor is doing right and stay on top of the game.
The good news is that good customer service online can help you find out where your competitors are falling short. That way, you can identify areas of opportunities in the marketplace and come up with unique marketing strategies that they haven’t thought of.
One excellent way to learn what your competitors are doing wrong is by reading customer reviews. They’ll tell you what’s missing in competitors’ products and hint at features you can offer your own customers.
Gives you a way to compare your progress to other companies in the same industry.
Marketing analysis for your competition
The key to success is understanding your competitors. Every company can benefit from regular analysis of their competition. It’s important to identify gaps in the market, develop new products and services, find trends, and market more effectively. By learning any of these functions, brands can become more successful.
1. Identify competitors
Businesses frequently find themselves doubting, “Who is my rival?” The answer is rather more complex than it appears. Brand owners must ask themselves what type of competitors they are up against: direct or indirect.
Competing businesses are those that offer a product or service that could be an alternative to yours. These are often your direct competitors, but not always. For example, an indirect competitor might provide different but still useful products to their customers, or they might just operate in the same geographic area.
Some brands incorrectly focus on the competition in their industry when comparing themselves to others. But you should only be concerned with your direct competitors when looking at differences and similarities.
It is important to not study your competitor too closely because you want to focus on your customers. Even if it’s only slightly, this tiny variation will make a big difference in which type of audience you’re catering to.
https://www.qualtrics.com/au/experience-management/brand/how-to-find-competitors/
2. Competitor analysis for products selection
What are the most important aspects of any business? The product or service! Knowing what your competitor offers, you’ll want to do some analysis on the quality of the products or services they offer.
The details of a company’s pricing can give you a lot of information about how to compete with them. For instance,
Some questions to consider include:
Are they mainly working on volume sales or do they have one-time purchases?
What is their market, or market share?
What is your ideal customer looking for in terms of features or in general?
Do they have different pricing strategies for online purchases versus brick-and-mortar?
https://www.dummies.com/business/sales/the-3-es-of-product-selection/
3. Sales tactics
Running a sales analysis can be tricky, but there are a few things you should know. Every business has their own sales process, so it’s important to learn what your competitors are doing.
You want to find out:
What channels they’re selling through, their locations, and any expansion plans they have.
Is there a partner reselling program?
What are their customers reasons for not buying?
Salespeople need to be prepared with the most up-to-date information about the sales process. That way, they know what stage of the process they’re in and can answer any questions potential customers might have.
https://www.salesforce.com/blog/sales-tactics/
4. Competitors pricing
Pricing is tricky. You have to consider how much your competition might charge for similar goods or services. There are a few factors that go into pricing, but understanding what prices are in the market are just as important.
If you have a product that is noticeably better than the competition, you might want to charge more for your product. Feel free to do this if you are confident in your sales team to explain why.
You may feel that your industry lacks affordable products, and that’s a great place to be. Simply charge less than competitors while still maintaining a high-quality product and you will appeal to the prospect who is not looking to break the bank.
Pricing products is not easy, but it’s critical to keep up with how the industry prices its product to make sure you’re pricing your own products at a reasonable level.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/competitive-pricing.asp
5. Shipping costs
Did you know that free shipping is the number one reason for cart abandonment? Not only is it a major perk, but it’s also essential for businesses in the e-commerce industry. Be sure to keep an eye on competitors’ shipping costs so you can offer customers free shipping without breaking the bank.
Competition is tough! If most of the other retailers in your industry offer free shipping, you’ll want to look into the option for your company. However, if free shipping isn’t a practical option for your business, consider how you can differentiate. Offer a loyalty program or holiday discounts. Invest in contests and giveaways on social media to excite and connect with customers.