Competitor Analysis: Don’t be Anxious! 11 Things You Need to Know to Win

Although most entrepreneurs dream of having a market all to themselves, it has been shown that you’re probably better off having some competition. With this said, you still need to know who your competitors are and what they are doing to succeed online. This is where a thorough Competitor Analysis is vital.

People usually think that the entire market for their product or service will be theirs with no competition. If nobody is competing in your space, it’s probably safe to say the market you are targeting is too small. However, entering a market that already has some competitors should not be overlooked. In my opinion, a market can never be too crowded, as long as your product or service is unique and is not just one of the same thing. The reality is competition is everywhere. No matter your business, you will benefit greatly from studying your competition. One of the most important aspects of running a successful business is knowing everything you can about your competition.

This includes everything from marketing tactics to branding and how well they treat their employees and run their businesses daily. The Competitive Analysis section of your Market Analysis is essential. Knowing your competition is as important as knowing your product and your customer. Market gaps tell you where to develop your product or service, and internal weaknesses tell you where you’re vulnerable to losing customers.

A solid Competitor Analysis shows that you know exactly where you stand among your fiercest competitors — and that you have a way to out-manoeuvre them. When gathering competitive intelligence in a digital marketplace, website traffic is a key metric to prioritise. Knowledge about competitors’ website traffic, digital marketing strategies driving traffic, and emerging trends can be game-changing assets for optimising your digital performance and accelerating growth.

Our Competitor Analysis Service will do the job of monitoring your competitors’ website traffic. Insights drawn from data about your competitors can help you outcompete them and earn more traffic. Study traffic to competitor websites and examine how those numbers have increased or decreased over time.

Now that you have chosen to take off the blindfolds and realise healthy competition in the business world is a good thing take a deep breath while we look at a few points on why it can only benefit you and your business in the long run.

#1. Competition provides ideas you can adapt for your products or services and validates your idea

Competition validates the market and the fact that there are most likely customers for your new product or service. You can learn from what your competitors have put in place to adjust your plan. You can also weigh the pros and cons of running their businesses, products and services.

#2. It identifies your strengths and weaknesses

Your competition might be the ones who point out your strengths and weaknesses. They may also help you focus and set your concentration on what you’re good at. Your weaknesses help you improve, while your strength drives you harder to achieve more. Every business owner should conduct a regular SWOT Analysis to assess the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to its competition. A SWOT analysis helps evaluate where a company stands in a competitive market and what steps need to be taken for further strategic planning, helping decision-makers draw a future roadmap for the company. 

#3. It’s also good for your employees

Your employees will always benefit from learning, for example, how to deal with situations when your competitors have more customers than you do.

#4. Competition helps you focus on what’s important

Without competition, it’s easy to lose focus on your core business and your more important customers and start expanding into areas that are not the best for your business. It reminds you now and then to focus on what’s important. Being competitive forces you and your business to figure out how to be different from your competition. The competition will help you build a better business.

#5. Consumers also benefit

Competition is not only good for your business, but it’s also good for consumers. When there is competition among brands, consumers get the opportunity to choose which business they can spend their time, money and attention on.

#6. The competition will help you work smarter

You must be up to speed and on the ball at all times! You can’t afford to backslide or work sluggishly when facing stiff competition. When there’s competition, you must always be on your toes and always on the go! Failing this will allow your competitors to push you out of the market.

#7. Don’t forget about customer service

Face it, there isn’t enough time to stop and evaluate every customer in a day, but you can still appreciate them and treat them right so that they won’t be tempted to go anywhere else when the competition comes along. Dealing with customers is part of every business owner’s life. Here’s some free advice for Dealing with Difficult Customers.

#8. The competition will help you step out of your comfort zone

Leaving your comfort zone will help you strive to beat your competitors’ records and be the best business in your target market. Strong competition can provide valuable market insight and keep your product or service strategies fresh.

#9. It will help you identify potential threats

You can learn from other competitors what works and what doesn’t. Then you will decipher what strategies would be detrimental to your business.

#10. Knowledge is power

When in competition, one of the ways to always come out on top is by continuously reading and researching your product or service and what the competition is up to.

#11. There is always room for development and improvement

While going through the exercise of keeping a closer eye on your competitors, you will most definitely gain more experience along the way, whether it be on how to market your brand better or how to keep that customer interested in coming back to you. There is always something you can do better! Also, remember not to focus too much on the competition because that can also be bad. It can stifle creativity and keep you from focusing on the more important things in your business.

So now, stop being paranoid and scared of the competition, but rather take advantage of things you will come to learn about not only yourself but also your product, service and business along the way!