The Importance of Competitive Analysis

Do you want to know all about -

• Competitive analysis in marketing
• Competitive analysis techniques
• Why competitor analysis is important

Yes? Thought so. Let us tell you all about it then.

What is Competitive Analysis?

Competitive analysis is the process of researching your competitors so that you can understand their sales and marketing approaches, their products, and the strengths and weaknesses of their business model.

It’s a strategy that means, once you’ve carried out this in-depth research, you will be better placed to understand where and how you fit into the market landscape, and what you can do to be better than your competition.

What goes into a Competitive Analysis?

A thorough business competitive analysis example will look at a number of factors. If you are looking to do a competitive analysis, you will need to cover the following -

1. Find out who your key competitors are

2. Analyse their content and compare it with your own

3. Check out their social media channels and analyse their engagement on the various channels

4. Take time to analyse their SEO

5. Figure out what could be improved

Competitive landscape analysis can take a fair bit of time and you’d be forgiven for thinking you should be using the time to focus on your own business. However, even though it may feel like your focus is veering in the wrong direction, this industry competitive analysis will stand your business in good stead once you’ve carried out your investigations.

Competitive Analysis Techniques

Before you start out on your competitive analysis journey, you need to understand what it is you’re actually trying to work out, and whether you have any theories behind why you think a business may be doing better than you. Once you’re clear on your motives for carrying out your analysis, you can pick the technique that’s right for you. Some of the most common competitive analysis techniques include -

Strategic Group Analysis

This technique involves organising your top competitors in relation to their marketing strategy, and seeing where your business fits in alongside them. When you’ve done this you’ll be able to see who your closest competitor is, and will then be able to use this knowledge to ramp up your marketing strategy, get the edge over your competitor and push forward with your business goals.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to give its name in full. This technique ensures you focus your time on working out what external and internal factors are affecting your business. Once you’ve taken a look at your own company, you can then use it to help you better understand how SWOT affects your main competitors.

BCG Matrix / Growth Share Matrix

BCG stands for Boston Consulting Group and this is a super-efficient planning tool that helps you see what your business should do more of, get rid of, or invest in. It’s an ideal long term planning tool that really helps you understand where your business’s strengths and weaknesses may lie.

Why Competitor Analysis is Important

When it comes to building a business, there are multiple competitive analysis advantages.  

It’s a process that you should absolutely consider doing if you haven’t done so already, and in actual fact, it makes sense to regularly schedule time in to do a competitive analysis. As the market is continuously changing, expanding, and customers’ needs develop too, so too should your business. Here are the top reasons why competitive analysis for marketing plan and business progress is advantageous -

Understand what your customers want

Customer reviews aren’t just helpful for potential customers, you can use them to understand what you’re doing right and what needs to be worked on. You can check out your competitors’ reviews as well as your own and spend time comparing recurring themes that come up within them.

Understand your USP

If you take time to analyse your competition, you should be able to figure out exactly where your USP lies. What do they do, that you don’t and vice versa? Where do you excel, where they fall flat? Understanding where you fit in the market will help you appreciate your USP and make sure it’s at the forefront of your business.

Understand changes in the market

When you spend time on a competitive landscape analysis, you’ll be able to appreciate current trends in the market and help identify possible future changes too. This is vital if your business is going to keep up with your customers’ needs and be a go-to brand for years to come.

Competitive analysis is an in-depth process that shouldn’t just be done once, but should, in fact, be done as part of your business’s growth plan. You need to keep a regular eye on your competitors if you are going to continue to place among them and maintain your relevance in the industry.

If you’d like the experts to take your competitive analysis to the next level, get in touch with Creative Ideaz today and find out how we can help your business to be bigger and better than ever.