Like a lot of things, competitive research comes in different sizes and shapes. Here are 5 types of competitive research you might consider when thinking of ways to spy on your competition.
- Financial Research – One of the most basic types of competitive intelligence is looking at your competition’s financial information. Do they look like they are headed for financial disaster? Are they profitable? This type of research is easier for public companies.
- Market Studies – Market studies tell you how you compare against your competition in terms of market share and influence.
- SEO Research – This includes keyword research, but it also entails an analysis of search engine rankings and other key metrics for companies doing business online.
- Technology Research – What technology does your competition employ in the course of doing business? Is it proprietary or do they use off-the-shelf technology? In some industries, technology can be an influential factor in who is leading the pack.
- Customer Satisfaction - Are your competition’s customers happy with the service they are receiving? If not, why not? This can be a very important part of your competitive research. Too bad many companies forget about it.
These are not the only forms of competitive research available to you, but they are each important in their own way. One thing is clear, if you want to lead in your industry, competitive research is a necessity.
The first step to any good marketing is research. But that can entail any number of things. Usually, it means
And that’s just a start. Take a look at one of our case studies to see how a success start with market research ended with a well thought out plan that made our client successful.
While research is important, going through the steps to learn about the competition, the competitive landscape of the playing field, and your own keyword research will not necessarily guarantee success. You’ll also have to implement your plan.
There are a lot of moving parts to an effective Internet marketing strategy. There are content development initiatives to oversee, paid search initiatives, social media opportunities to exploit, and some additional research along the way to uncover unseen opportunities that might arise during the course of a campaign.
When there is so much at stake for the future of a company, you cannot afford to hand your Internet marketing over to amateurs. You need a professional to manage the process from beginning to end.
First, do your research. Then, take what you find and mold it into a plan. Execute your plan aggressively and monitor. Internet marketing success is not an accident.
Competitive intelligence is one of the most important aspects of doing business online. If you don’t know your competition then chances are you can’t beat them. You might win a few terminal successes along the way, but you won’t win the competitive rat race in the long run. You can’t be No. 1 in the marketplace unless you know the competition.
But how do you get there?
Competitive intelligence is a process. You’ve got to outline the process and work it strategically if you expect to excel. Here are five steps you can follow to better competitive intelligence in any industry.
- Decide which areas of market intelligence are most important to your strategic positioning.
- Make a list of companies in your industry that excel in those functions or that have an upper hand to your business – these should be companies that you want to know more about and/or that you want to study for the purpose of beating in the marketplace.
- Collect information on each company regarding those areas of market intelligence you identified in step 1; compile information from the SEC, press releases, trade journals, articles in the media, credit reports, clients, the companies themselves, trade associations, government offices and anywhere else you can get information on the companies that is legal and ethical.
- Start a file on each company and keep all compiled information on each company in their respective files.
- Rank the companies in order of most proficient for each market intelligence category you are tracking then rank your own company for each of those same tracking metrics to know where you stand against the competition.
The whole idea behind competitive intelligence is to know where you stand against the competition. If you are not No. 1 then you should target your efforts to overcome obstacles and challenges that prevent you from besting the competition. But it starts with knowing who you’re up against.
If you want quick, clear and concise competitive intelligence information then there are two online sources that are easy to use and very affordable. They’re free.
One of them you are likely familiar with. The other one you may not have heard of, but it’s still just as useful. In fact, the reliability of the information may actually be better than that of the first source. So what are these two sources of free competitive information?
- Wikipedia – Everyone knows about Wikipedia. That is, everyone who’s conducted a Google search. You’ve likely seen Wikipedia land at the top of the search results a time or two. While not all of the information to be found in Wikipedia is 100% reliable, you can usually pick up some good competitive information about the companies in your niche. But not always. If you are the creator of a new niche of business then you won’t have competitors, but you get my drift. You can find Wikipedia here.
- The Free Library – The Free Library is an article directory unlike any other article directory. Most of the articles are original content. And they’re also valuable pieces of information. You can search for articles on any topic by topic, author, title and keyword. It’s like a virtual library right at your fingertips. Find information on anyone or anything. You can visit The Free Library right here.
When it comes to competitive intelligence, don’t leave these two free online sources out of your research.
Competitive intelligence is just that – competitive (meaning you against them) and intelligent (what do you know?). The idea is to outsmart the competition and beat them at their own game. But how?
There are 4 steps to good competitive intelligence:
- Research
- Analysis
- Rallying
- Employment
You can remember these steps with a simple acronym – RARE.
Here’s a brief synopsis of the 4 RARE steps involved in competitive intelligence:
- Research – Just as the name implies. In this stage you are collecting information about your competition. But before you do that you need to have a good idea as to what you’re going to do with the information. Responding to market needs, however, cannot be done without a good grasp of what your competition is up to.
- Analysis – In this stage of the process you are attempting to answer the question, “What does it mean?” So your competition is up to X; great, what does that mean for you? For your customer? For the customer you’d like to win?
- Rallying – It’s time to get your team on the same page and start putting together your game plan. How will you respond to the information you gather in the research phase now that you know what that information means to you?
- Employment – So you’ve planned your actions, now it’s time to get them to working for you. The employment stage is the part of the process where you put your action plan to work. It’s time to test your competitive mettle and your intelligence.
Competitive intelligence is all about outmaneuvering the competition. Beat them to the playing field then knock their socks off. It starts with research and ends with work. Follow the RARE steps to competitive intelligence and be prepared to win.
