Successful marketing campaigns have one main thing in common: they’re managed by business-savvy industry professionals who don’t just do excellent research, they thrive on competitor analysis. No matter what business you’re in or how big your company is, it’s always important to know exactly who you’re dealing with—that includes your target audiences, your current customer base, and especially your competitors. To stay relevant in an ever-evolving business landscape, you need to stay one step ahead of your competitors at all times. Detailed and well-planned out competitor analysis is the key to maintaining the upper hand.
Do I Need to Analyze My Business Competitors?
Actually, the question isn’t if you need to analyze your business competitors. The real question is what methods you should use to do so.
Analyzing your business competitors is important to building strong customer relationships and remaining relevant in your industry. Knowing what your competitors are up to will help you stay ahead of all industry trends and anticipate their next moves. Industry disruptors don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel to be successful; they just need to understand proven ideas and find ways of improving upon them. Market research can help you identify which businesses are disrupting your industry and whether or not their ideas are actually warranted by market demands.
Steps for Performing Competitor Analysis
Performing competitor analysis can help you gain invaluable insight into your current industry standards. This type of knowledge makes it easier for you to create strong customer connections by truly paying attention to and understanding what consumers are looking for in certain products and services.
Here are some excellent tips to help you create an effective competitor analysis strategy.
Identify Your Target Audience
Bringing a product or service to market takes a great deal of preparation, financial support, and research. First and foremost, you need to guarantee that there’s actually a market or demand for the type of business you’re starting. Once you’ve ascertained that there is a market for your product or service, you then need to zero in on the exact size, growth potential, and characteristics of that market. Identifying and working to understand your target audience will help you fine-tune your business endeavors to better suit the needs and expectations of the audience you aim to serve and how to reach them more effectively at minimal risk.
Competitor analysis for advertising can help you gain valuable insight into where your prospective target audience lies and how they feel about your business specifically and the industry as a whole.
Anticipate the Growth of Current and Future Competitors
Thorough market research and competitor analysis stretch far beyond simply identifying your competitors and understanding their business plans. It also works to anticipate their current growth trajectories while also predicting the types of competitors that will develop in your industry in the future. This type of information will help you stay ten steps ahead of the game and prepare for any and all changes your business will encounter.
Businesses that remain stagnant are more likely to die off so it’s important to always roll with the punches and truly listen to what the market is telling you about your products and services.
Find Market Share Opportunities
What is market share? Market share accounts for the percentage of the market that’s dominated or owned by a specific business or entity. To grow your business, you need to find expansion opportunities that make sense, are financially feasible, and that effectively spread your brand messaging to the right people.
You also need to figure out what percentage of the market is already dominated by your competitors. Of course, not all businesses have the means to dedicate an entire marketing department to performing this type of research. But there are other more affordable methods you can implement such as reading news articles pertaining to your industry and paying special attention to marketing efforts made by your competitors.
Understand Competitor Strengths and Weaknesses
Thorough market research can unveil a lot about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. What are they doing right? What are they doing wrong? What’s working well for them and what is hindering their growth? How can you use these basic principles to help grow your own business within the same industry?
These are all important questions you should be asking yourself on a daily basis. Print advertising in Toronto has the potential to help you reach thousands of individuals in a short span of time as long as it’s properly executed. Take the time to learn about the readership of specific newspapers (both online and in print) so that you can gauge the path of least resistance using this medium.
Remember that no two businesses are exactly alike, however, even if they’re part of the same overall industry. You have certain niche characteristics that your competitors don’t necessarily possess and you need to use those to cater to your target audiences and existing customers.
Compile and Evaluate Data
There’s no greater advantage in business than having a wealth of knowledge and experience in any given field. The more information you can gather about your competitors, the better off you’ll be in the long run. That’s not to say that you should devote all of your valuable time to spying on them or trying to poach their customers. But you should certainly devote a considerable amount of time and resources to understanding what steps your competitors have taken to get to where they currently are. Learn from the failures and successes of those who came before you and apply those lessons to your unique business venture.
North American Media Inc. is here to help you grow your business in the digital age. We provide a variety of important services such as web development, copywriting, direct mail list rentals, graphic design, and full-service interactive consulting. Our full line of services includes print media advertising in newspapers & magazines, direct mail marketing, digital marketing, alternative media/inserts, radio & TV advertising, list brokerage, data solutions, list fulfillment, and list management. Contact us today at (475) 256-0303 to learn more about our services and how we can help you get proactive in the development of your business.
- Boost Your Cross-Channel Strategy with Direct Mail - April 19, 2024
- How Direct Mail Integrates with Digital Channels to Boost Omnichannel Engagement - March 15, 2024
- Maximizing the Impact of Direct Mail by Incorporating QR Codes - February 21, 2024