Competitor analysis is an essential Online Marketing part of a good online marketing plan . If we don’t want to miss the mark completely, we must keep in mind who our competitors are and what they are doing to win over our potential customers.
The good news is that it’s very easy to do an online competitor analysis these days , since all the information you need is at your fingertips. Let’s see why, how, and with what tools you can analyze your competition… and along the way, get to know yourself a little better.
Why you need a good competitor analysis in online marketing
Because you will get ideas to define your own communication strategy : tone, frequency of publication, content…
Because competitor analysis helps you get to know your customers better . If you know which acquisition strategies and sales arguments work, you will have very valuable information.
Because it is a source of inspiration . You are sure to discover things that would never have occurred to you. And although copying is bad, you can always give them a twist…
Because it allows you to analyze your own strategy, comparing and contrasting the commonalities and the things you do differently.
Because you will avoid unpleasant albania consumer mobile number list surprises . If you know how your competition moves, you will be able to anticipate their developments and plan a good defense.
How to do a competitor analysis step by step
1) Correctly identify your competitors
First lesson in analyzing the competition: not all competitors are the same. In general, we will distinguish between three types:
Direct or first-degree competition : these are brands that work with very similar products and distribution channels, in the same market and aim to win over the same customers. The typical example: Pepsi would be a direct competitor of Coca-Cola.
Indirect or second-degree competition : in this case, the distribution channels, the market and the customer profile the role of emojis in text messages are very similar, but the product has some important differences. Following the previous example, we could think of brands such as Kas or 7Up.
Substitute or third-degree competition : these are products that continue to satisfy the same main need, but their main attributes are different. In this case, this means any drink that can quench thirst.
Once we have this clear, we can move cmo email list on to narrowing down our analysis. Ideally, we should cover all three groups, but if this is too ambitious, we should prioritize direct competitors. In general, it is recommended to analyze between 5 and 10 competing brands.