Competitor analysis is an invaluable tool for companies struggling to make it to the top of the food chain. It is so frustrating when a more established name or trendy newcomer starts negatively impacting sales and customer engagement. This might be a short-term blip or the result of a superior strategy. So, the more you know about that rival’s approach, the easier it is to beat them at their own game. You can dive deep into data streams and analytics to learn a lot about your competitors and make positive changes. Keep the following in mind for the best results.
What Do You Want To Know?
It isn’t enough to say that you want to know everything there is to know about a competitor and their strategy. That’s a given. You need a clearer and more definitive breakdown of what you hope to gain from the competitor analysis, the different factors you want to analyze and the reasons for targeting them. For example, you can’t just say you want to know why a rival’s online store is so popular. What is it about that store and the company website that makes it primed for converting visitors into buyers? What can you learn about their pricing structure and website navigation? What’s the plan once you see what works for them? Break it all down into smaller queries to get specific answers and actionable results.
Competitor analysis of website content means a chance to learn more about new updates, such as blog posts that promote new lines, as well as deeper SEO strategies with backlinking and keywords. At the same time, it helps to look at a brand’s customer retention rates from other angles. What are they doing to bring those consumers to the website in the first place? This means looking at their social media posts, online ads, and email marketing strategies. Beyond that, you can dive into customer reviews on third-party sites and even look to see what the brand is saying about you. The more factors you take into account, the better.
Get The Right Software
You might look at all those options for competitor monitoring and say that’s far too complex and not with the hassle. Firstly, competitor analysis is always worth the effort because of the growth potential. All it takes is one valuable insight into a strategy to see where you are going wrong. Several valuable insights become an effective plan, but more on that in a moment. Secondly, the complexity and effort aren’t a problem if you use the right software. The best competitor analysis template software can work through countless data streams from various sources, collect it all conveniently, and allow for clearer insights. You can get on with other priorities within product development, marketing, or different operations and let the system work in the background. You’ll get notifications on new marketing emails, website upgrades, and more.
Analyze All The Data
This high-end software will help you collect streams of valuable data from all those sources ready for in-depth analysis. The reports on the traffic trend, SEO ranking and more will highlight the key areas where your rival thrives. You can see how they got into that position and if there’s any way of replicating that within your own business.
Don’t forget that this is about more than finding out where your rival is going right. Your detailed analysis of the situation can also pinpoint where they might be going wrong or using questionable methods. For example, they might have great website content and an enviable online store with competitive prices. They may also have a high conversion rate, with most visitors buying something. But what about their traffic over six months and the engagement from social media posts? Are they missing out on extra clicks because their social media game is weak?
Make the Right Changes
Now you know where your rival is going right and going wrong, you can come up with a plan of action. There are sure to be plenty of lessons to learn from all this data. Your website developers and SEO team can rethink their approach to create something that takes the best ideas and molds them to your brand identity and vision. Your social media team can leap on any of the gaps missed by your rival to create engaging and visible posts lurking demographics over to your company. Whatever you do, you need to look at the data from all angles to create the best bespoke and comprehensive plan. Have the analysts work with designers, marketers, project leaders, and anyone else who can benefit from this insight.
Repeat!
There is one final step that turns a good competitor monitoring solution into a great one. It’s not enough to go through this process once and hope to close the gap on your rivals. You might see positive results from the insights gained and the shift in strategy. It might lead to a surge in visitors to your website and some improvement to your brand’s reputation. But how do you maintain that? Eventually, your rivals will do something new to get ahead and continue to show why they are a leading figure in your industry. So, you’ll need up-to-date analytics on their traffic, new pricing strategies, social media content, and anything else you can find.Regular analysis and adaptations to strategies should keep you in a better position when competing with those nearest rivals. You can also employ the same tools for data collection and analysis for other companies as they come and go. You might catch up with a long-standing top brand, but what about that interesting new start-up everyone suddenly raves about online? What are they doing that’s so special or different to you? Basically, it’s all about staying diligent and not leaning into complacency. Everyone wants to be at the top of the tree and stay there – and it’s not easy. So, get the best competitor analysis software, take advantage of the insights, and keep developing until you make it.
