Discover Marketing Research part 2: Competiton

Have you ever thought about the absolute abundant time we live in? If you need anything, the market is ready to give you x10 times more. Do you need a spatula? Here, five varieties, one that is perfect for pancakes, another for vegetables, and a third with a super handy grip. The point is, nowadays, there are so many variants of fulfilling one’s need, that brands have to be very attentive.

Going back to the spatula example. You’ll probably choose the one, which made the most effort in standing out. Standing out in such disruptive times is, indeed, an ongoing task, but it all starts with knowing your competitors. They are the ones who keep you active and dynamic.

Competition. Basics

Just to set the tone, let’s go through the different types of competition and what each type has to offer to the market.

A classical definition of competition is the rivalry between companies selling similar products and services to achieve revenue, profit, and market share growth.

Here you see the 4 market structures. Based on the market type, there are some basic types of competitors.

Direct competitors

Those are the ones who produce the same product as you and often offer better value to gain customers.

Indirect competitors

They are from the same sector but offer a different product.

Phantom competitors

With these, you cannot compete because they are from a different sector and have no connection to your product. This phenomenon is observed when instead of buying your service or product, the customer chooses to purchase something else altogether. This type of competition involves business entities that do not exist in the typical frame of mind of customers. Tackling such competitors is very difficult because it is completely in the hand of the customers.

Why is competition actually awesome?

If done right everybody can win from the competition. For example, innovation is the result of competition. Learn from one another and collaborate to create something beautiful. Certainly, users are also in a winning situation. The bigger the variety the more options one has.

Besides, you can figure out what works and what doesn’t. Discover strategies and unserved market niches. Adapt successful practices, but please don’t just copy! If you start coping, well, you’re done.

How do we get the competition data?

Like any other data, you can buy it too. But let’s start simple. Literally, google it.

For example, you need to get your competitors list? Well, go on and google something like: “top 10/15/20 companies/brands in…(category, market, geo)”. Or type in “top 10/15/20 market leader”.

For a better localization use google translate and search with the target market language. Search for the product/service and look who is on the 1st page (both

organic and paid results), for instance, “buy PlayStation in Canada” ‒ you’ll find top retailers who have enough budget for SEO and ads.

Afterward, when you have your list ready, it’s time for deeper research. Check what comes 1st, when you enter the competitors’ names. What site? Do you see any articles? Make sure to check the social media pages. How many of them do they have and what they post? Details give you the best perception.

Tools for collecting competitor’s data

• Similarweb (Benchmark against your competitors and industry, you can use the limited version for free);
• Socialbakers (AI-Powered Social Media Marketing Suite, Audiences & Influencers, it has both paid and free option);
• jagajam (SMM report for any SM page);
• feedspy (Comparison of competitors’ pages);

Other SEO tools, who charge for the data:

• Semrush
• Serpstat
• Alexa
• Spyfu
• Ahrefs

Competitive analysis and why you need it

A competitive analysis will help you understand the ins and outs of how your competition works and find new ways to outperform one of them. Don’t underestimate the power of analysis, because by analyzing you can find new ways for brand growth. Update your value proposition and what makes your product different. Competitive analysis will also allow you to stay the best in your industry. Implementing the best practices, remember?

Here you’ll find a quick step-by-step guide for conducting an efficient competitive analysis. Moreover, with the competitors’ list, we’ve already started the process. Now that you know your main competitors and roughly their marketing strategies let’s proceed.

Analyze the level of engagement on your competitors’ content

You’ll need to see how their target audience reacts to what they share to measure how engaging the content of your competitor is to their readers.

Check the average number of comments, shares, and likes on your competitor’s content and find out if:

• Certain topics resonate better than others.
• The comments are negative, positive, or a mix.
• People tweet about specific topics more than others.
• Readers respond better to Facebook updates about certain content.
• Don’t forget to note if your competitor categorizes their content using tags, and if they have social media follow and share buttons attached to each piece of content.
• Both of these will affect engagement activity.

How do they promote their marketing content?

The following questions can also help you prioritize and focus on what to pay attention to:

• Which keywords are your competitors focusing on that you still haven’t tapped into?
• What content of theirs is highly shared and linked to? How does your content compare?
• Which social media platforms is your target audience using and the most active on?
• What other sites link back to your competitor’s site, but not yours?
• Who else shares what your competitors publish?
• Who refers traffic to your competitor’s site?
• For the keywords you want to focus on, what is the difficulty level? There are several free (and paid) tools that will give you a comprehensive evaluation of your competitor’s search engine optimization.

End it with a SWOT Analysis

This means that at every point you determine an overall score, you can take notice of the strengths, limitations, opportunities, and challenges of your competitor.

Summary

Hope that after rearranging this article you’ll start analyzing your competitors or maybe upgrade the methods you’ve been using. But remember that competitors shouldn’t be your priority! Customers, they are the first priority! Stay tuned for the next part, where you’ll find out the Brand and Product research tips.

Author: Daria Kushnir

Editor: Lilly Zaremska