How To Use Competitor Analysis To Identify New Marketing Opportunities

Did you hit the plateau of customer acquisition? If you are nodding your head in anticipation, know you are not alone. 

Oftentimes, you see a handful of players dominating a particular industry despite having so many brands offering the same thing. This is because the top players have an edge in introducing newer add-ons to the customers before anyone else. 

They dedicate their time to study their competitors and outroot them by filling in the gaps. Here’s a secret that will keep your acquisition wheel moving too. 

With competitor analysis, you can fuel your customer acquisition speed by delivering them more than you promised with newer updates and strategies. Let’s see how exactly competitor analysis can give you that unfair advantage. 

What is competitor analysis?

In the simplest term, competitor analysis is researching and analyzing your competitors to gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses. By understanding what your competitors are doing well and where they’re struggling, you can identify opportunities to differentiate your business and offer your customers more value.

Once you know your top competitors, start analyzing what they’re doing well and where they’re struggling.

Let’s say you’re running a small coffee shop. You might have a few other coffee shops in your area that are your competitors. You could visit their shops, check out their menus, and see what kind of vibe they’re going for. You may notice that one of your competitors has a really cool outdoor seating area that customers love. Try to replicate or improve that at your shop.

You can also look for gaps in the market that your competitors need to address. For example, none of your competitors offer a vegan breakfast sandwich, but you know there are a lot of vegans in your area. That could be an opportunity to offer something unique your competitors don’t have.

Another thing to look at is your competitors’ marketing strategies. How are they getting the word out about their business? Are they using social media, billboards, or something else? If you notice that your competitors are all advertising on Instagram, that is a good place for you to focus your marketing efforts.

Ultimately, the goal of competitor analysis is to find ways to offer better value to your customers. By understanding what your competitors are doing well and where they’re falling short, you can change your business to help you stand out and attract more customers.

How to identify competitors in your industry?

Here’s a step-by-step guide to identifying your competitors in your industry:

1. The first step is the discovery phase where you define the industry you’re in clearly. This will help you narrow down your search for competitors. For example, if you’re in the fitness industry, you might define your industry as “boutique fitness studios” or “personal trainers.”

2. Use search engines and perform a backlink analysis together with social media to research businesses that offer similar products or services. Look for businesses located in your area or with a similar target audience. For example, if you’re a personal trainer, you might search for personal trainers who offer similar services.

3. Talk to your customers and colleagues to see if they know of businesses offering similar products or services. They can provide valuable insights you couldn’t find through online research.

4. Attend conferences, trade shows, and other industry events to network with other businesses in your industry. This can be a great way to learn about new competitors and stay up-to-date on industry trends.

Once you’ve identified your competitors, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses is important. This can help you identify opportunities to differentiate your business and offer more value to your customers. 

How should you analyze competitor products and services?

Once you are done with researching for top contenders, go ahead and make a list of their products and services. This could include anything from the types of products they offer to the services they provide.

Take a closer look at what your competitors are offering. Examine the features of their products or services, the quality of what they’re providing, and the price point they’re selling at. This can help you identify areas where you can differentiate yourself from your competitors. 

For example, if you’re a coffee shop, your competitor offers a variety of specialty drinks at a higher price point. Consider offering similar drinks at a lower price point to attract more customers.

Look at what makes your competitors unique. This could include anything from their branding to the customer experience they provide. By understanding how your competitors differentiate themselves, you can identify areas where you can improve your business. 

If you notice that your competitor has more modern and trendy branding, consider updating your branding to better appeal to your target audience.

Use your gathered information to identify areas to improve your products or services. This could include anything from offering a wider variety of products to improving the quality of what you’re providing. If your competitor offers a loyalty program that customers love, consider implementing a similar program at your business.

Remember, analyzing your competitor’s products and services is an ongoing process. Keep monitoring your competitors and making adjustments to your strategy as needed. By analyzing your competitors, you can identify opportunities to differentiate yourself and offer more value to your customers.

How should you evaluate your competitor’s branding strategy?

The best way to evaluate your competitor’s branding is by analyzing their social media marketing styles. Look at the types of ads your competitors are running. Are they using social media ads, print ads, or commercials? What messages are they promoting in their ads? Are they highlighting any specific features or benefits of their products or services?

Make sure you add the social media profiles of your competitors to a competitor analytics tool like Keyhole. Track their online presence. Are they posting regularly? What types of content are they sharing? Do they engage with their followers?

Make it a point to notice what types of content your competitors create to promote their products or services. Are they writing blog posts, creating videos, or hosting webinars? What topics are they covering? How are they positioning themselves as experts in their industry?

Find out where your competitors are focusing their marketing efforts. Are they targeting specific demographics or geographic regions? Are they using different channels to reach different segments of their target audience? 

By evaluating your competitor’s marketing strategies, you can identify what’s working well for them and what you can do differently to stand out in your industry. If your competitors are all using social media to market their products, consider investing more in search engine optimization (SEO) to improve your website’s visibility in search results.

3 Ways to identify competitor’s strengths and weaknesses

In order to assess your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, find out what makes your competitors unique. What are they offering that sets them apart from other businesses in your industry? This could include anything from their pricing to their customer service to the quality of their products or services.

Then, search for areas where your competitors are struggling or could improve. This could include anything from slow delivery times to poor customer service. You can position your business as a better alternative by identifying these weaknesses. 

For example, if you notice that your competitor’s customer service is slow to respond, you could focus on providing faster and more responsive customer service to differentiate yourself.

Here’s how you can do this:

1. SWOT analysis: A SWOT analysis is a framework used to evaluate a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This can help you identify your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses and determine how to differentiate yourself. 
2. Reviewing their website and social media: By reviewing your competitor’s website and social media, you can get an idea of their marketing strategies, the types of content they’re producing, and how they’re engaging with their customers. This can help you identify areas where your competitor is doing well and where they could improve.
3. Conducting customer surveys: By surveying your competitor’s customers, you can get an idea of their strengths and weaknesses from the customer’s perspective. This can help you identify areas where you can differentiate yourself and provide more value to potential customers.

Next up, dig deeper into whether your own business is doing well and where you’re struggling. Use your gathered information to develop a strategy to differentiate yourself from your competitors. This could include anything from offering better pricing to a better customer experience. 

For example, if you notice that your competitor’s products are high-quality but expensive, you could consider offering similar-quality products at a lower price to attract more customers.

How to use SEO for competitor analysis? 

The first and foremost indicator of a good business online is its website design and user experience. Pay heed to how easy it is to navigate their website, how quickly it loads, and how visually appealing it is. Check keywords of a website you are willing to outperform and improve your own SEO strategy by identifying which keywords your competitor is targeting.

For example, if your competitor’s website has a lot of clutter and is difficult to navigate, you could focus on creating a clean and simple website design that’s easy for users to navigate.

Next up is organic presence on search engines. Evaluate your competitors based on how well your competitors are ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). This will help you identify what keywords they’re targeting and how you can improve your own SEO strategy. Also, take a look at the Page Experience Report tips on making your website more user-friendly, which can boost your search engine performance.

For example, if your competitor ranks well for a specific keyword, you could focus on creating content that targets that keyword and optimizing your website to rank higher.

Spend some time spotting keywords your competitors target and how they use them on their websites. This will help you identify areas where you can improve your SEO strategy and target keywords your competitors may overlook.

How to use social media for competitor analysis? 

Rather than wasting time manually auditing your competitors on social media, use a competitor analysis tool like Keyhole to monitor their online activity. How what types of content they’re posting, how often they’re posting, and how engaged their audience is with sentiment analysis.

If your competitor is posting a lot of video content and getting a lot of engagement, you could focus on creating more video content to engage your own audience.

You can also leverage Keyhole to track your competitor’s social media metrics, such as engagement rate, follower growth, and reach. This can help you identify how your competitor’s social media performance compares to yours and where you can improve.

Moreover, you can head to QuickTrends to compare multiple competitors and their campaigns. Based on this, you can make a note of the bigger players and add those profiles as trackers for a detailed breakdown of their social media presence. 

Final words

In conclusion, competitor analysis is a crucial part of any marketing strategy. By analyzing your competitors, you can identify gaps in the market, improve your marketing strategies, differentiate yourself from your competitors, and stay ahead of industry trends. 

Keyhole is a powerful social media analytics tool that can help you conduct competitor analysis and identify marketing opportunities. With Keyhole’s free trial, you can experience the benefits of social media analytics firsthand and gain valuable insights into your competitors. 

Sign up for Keyhole’s free trial today and start identifying marketing opportunities that can help you grow your business!

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