If you want to build a successful business, you must conduct thorough competitor research & market analysis. Identifying competitors will help you to develop useful strategies and ideas. By doing this, you will be able to identify your target market, goals, and aims. You can increase your market share by advertising, buying out competitors, or improving your product. Here are some tips to use when conducting competitor research & analysis.
In-depth market research & analysis
The first step in conducting in-depth competitor research and analysis is identifying your top competitors. Aim to analyse between five and ten competitors to obtain the most valuable data. Although it may seem like a lot, it is impractical to analyse all competitors at once. The following tips will help you identify which competitors you need to study more thoroughly. Once you’ve chosen the number of competitors you’d like to study, you can use user research templates to collect information. Similarly, you can use an SEO analysis tool to evaluate your competitors’ websites and reveal vital SEO information.
Identifying the Competitors with competitor research
A vital part of a Competitor analysis is knowing the SEO and market campaigns. It can also identify revenue streams, product development, and lead generation. A handy guide should be kept in your marketing library and include big competitors and small and medium-sized companies. You should also include start-up and indirect competitors. In the end, all will be easy to analyse and proceed with.
Now it’s time to map out your strategic plan. Include the new and old ones. For example, a new pizza chain could be a significant competitor of McDonald’s. In addition, newcomers may disrupt the industry with new ideas. The key to winning over these new competitors is to identify the loopholes in their strategies. Always try to focus on the goal.
The Primary Focus
In competitor research, the primary focus should be on direct competitors. While they may be your direct competitors, they don’t sell the same product. Indirect competitors may sell similar products, but not identical, but both target the same audience. Even if you aren’t directly competing with a specific competitor, you can still benefit from their research and analysis. Try to learn more about the competition by brainstorming the points.
Once you’ve decided on the type of competitors, you can start by exploring their products. You can see which products they specialise in and learn a few things from them. For example, eyeglasses and contact lenses are competitors, and contact lens manufacturers and eyeglass manufacturers are in direct competition. In addition to product offerings, competitors should offer similar target markets. The 80/20 rule applies here.
Competitive Matrix
Using a competitive matrix, a grid, or a table makes it easier to track trending trends. In a competitor matrix, you should create a row for each competitor and then categorise your conclusions of the findings. As you progress with your competitive analysis, you can add more categories as you go. Competitor research tools can also be used, such as SEMrush or SpyFu.
Competitor research and analysis is an ongoing process. Reviewing them in a timely manner will help you gain more insights into the competition. Competitive analysis can be the foundation of your strategy. You can identify new opportunities and market share for your business with it. You may even want to buy out your competitors to gain a higher percentage of the market.
Also, you can contact SEOBULL for more professional help.
More About Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis can reveal areas of opportunity that you otherwise would have missed. The strategy helps you to gain new clients easily. It also can help you see where you can improve your products or services. The results of the competitive analysis are useful in identifying market niches where you can expand your offerings to meet customer needs. It also helps you understand your company’s strengths and weaknesses. By knowing competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, you can develop a better strategy to serve your customers better.
Find social media pages or news articles for your competitors. Find out when they were founded, where they get their funding, and whether they’ve gone through any mergers or acquisitions. Then, start comparing your strengths to their weaknesses. This will help you determine which competitors will succeed and which ones will fail. Then, Finally, you’ll be able to create complete profiles for your competitors.
Building customer personas
One of the best ways to identify potential competitors is by creating detailed profiles of your customer base. Creating customer personas helps you identify and understand your target audience. This also helps you to create effective marketing campaigns. Building customer personas is an essential component of competitor research. It will help you understand your audience’s demands, and needs to develop a product that meets those needs.
To create buyer personas, you first need to collect as much data as possible. Gathering information about your audience is easy with tools such as Facebook Audience Insights and Google Analytics. You can also check competitor websites to learn more about the people who view them. In some cases, you can use questionnaires to learn more about your customers’ preferences and interests. By using these, you will determine which niches you should target with your product or service.
Understanding The Buyer Dynamics
Once you understand your customer base, you can create buyer personas that represent that group. You can also use this information to create more detailed buyer personas. For example, your B2-B buyer persona may show how HR professionals struggle with the same issues as your B2C counterpart. Meanwhile, your B2C persona might demonstrate how a music streaming service makes it easy to discover new music and share their favourites with friends.
Buyer personas can help you segment your audience and target your marketing efforts more effectively. They can also serve as a valuable source of competitive intelligence. By building a detailed profile of a specific type of buyer, you can target the right marketing strategies for that group and improve your ROI. It will also help you determine which products to develop and which ones are not.
User personas should be based on interviews and qualitative data. In addition to surveying your target audience, you can also use customer support tickets and talk to your team or product development team. As a result, you’ll likely need several different types of personas. Look for distinct characteristics and behavioural patterns in each group. For instance, if your product is a social fitness app, key user groups may include professional cyclists, casual riders, cycling vendors, and event managers.
What to do Next?
Once you’ve created buyer personas, you can then use them to create content tailored to meet the needs of these buyers. These personas can also help your customer care team understand the concerns better. You can develop personas for each of your target audiences, including their goals and values and their main points. In addition, you can also include their pain points and challenges to improve your customer care offerings.
Check out more about Competitor Research at Hubspot
By SEOBull
