Think about some of the biggest brands across different industries.
In the shoe industry, Nike, Adidas, and Skechers compete for the top spot; in fast food, it’s McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and KFC aiming to be the best; even the nascent AI industry has multiple companies competing to be number one — namely, Jasper, Copy.ai, and ChatGPT.
No matter your product or the industry you’re in, you will have competitors — and that’s a good thing.
Your competitors can give you ideas for new marketing techniques, help you learn more about your audience, and inspire you to develop new products or feature expansions. To capitalize on these benefits, you need to conduct competitor research.
Read on to learn more about this type of analysis and snag a copy of our free research template.
What is competitor research?
Competitor research enables brands to learn more about their rivals’ tactics and market performance. It involves studying competing products or services, pricing, marketing and sales efforts, target audience, distribution channels, online presence, and overall business strategies.
The goal of this research is to find out what your competitors are doing well to determine if you’re missing out on any untapped opportunities. Specifically, it allows you to:
- Hone in on your unique selling point – By looking at what your competitors already do, you can identify your product or service’s differentiators and better communicate your unique selling point (USP).
- Find out what your customers want – Your competitors’ products or services may solve customer problems more efficiently. Look into those offerings to gain a better idea of what your users need. If they possess a feature that works particularly well, you may want to build something similar into your own product.
- Level up your marketing strategies – Analyze how your competitors talk to your shared target audience to help fine-tune your own marketing messages. Additionally, seeing how your target audience responds to your competitors versus your marketing messages can reveal how effective your strategies are.
- Identify market gaps – Pinpointing who your competitors currently serve also tells you who they ignore. You can then create products for that neglected segment of your target market and gain a greater market share.
The good news is, conducting competitor research isn’t difficult — especially if you have a template to help you.
How to conduct competitor research in 8 steps (plus template)
Now that you know the advantages of competitor research, let’s walk through how to run it. Get a copy of our free template to follow along.
1. Set a goal
Your objective will guide the information you collect about your competitors. For example, if your goal is to support product development, you’d look at the different aspects of your competitors’ products or offerings, like pricing schemes or notable features.
Your goal should encompass two elements:
- The overarching business goal you want to support (generate more sales, increase customer loyalty, etc.)
- The main pieces of information you want to collect
Some examples of clearly defined research objectives are:
- “Improve our product by looking into competitors’ weaknesses mentioned in customer reviews and complaints”
- “Uncover underserved market segments by looking into our competitors’ current target audiences”
- “Improve sales by setting a benchmark based on our competitors’ sales performances and current customer base”
Make sure your goal is specific, achievable, and actionable.
2. Identify your competitors & assign project owners
The next step is to identify your major competitors. There are five types of competitors:
- Direct competitors – Companies or organizations that offer the same products and services as you do, sell those offerings, and target the same types of audiences. In the fast fashion sector, for example, some direct competitors are Gap and H&M.
- Indirect competitors – Businesses in the same category as you but sell different products or services. As a fast fashion brand, one of your indirect competitors would be Nike; they also sell clothes, but it’s athletic wear instead of everyday garments.
- Replacement competitors – Businesses that offer a different product or service from you but solve the same problems you aim to solve. Your replacement competitors in fast fashion are companies like tentree, which sells more sustainable clothing options.
- Potential competitors – Competitors who currently have no distribution in your markets but offer a similar product and target the same audience. A footwear brand, for example, is a potential competitor, as they might soon venture into producing everyday wear too.
- Future competitors – Firms possessing business capabilities that would allow them to take market share quickly if they targeted your audience. For example, if Nike wanted to make everyday wear in addition to athletic attire, they could easily become a direct competitor.
Based on your goal, identify which competitor types are most relevant to you. If your goal is to strengthen your product, you wouldn’t look into future competitors. Instead, you’d research direct, indirect, replacement, and potential competitors to uncover what they’re doing right and how you can improve.
After you’ve identified which types of competitors to analyze, start researching a few companies that fit the categories. Then, assign importance based on how each competitor’s performance can affect your sales.
When you have your list, assign a team member to be in charge of the research.
3. Create a short company profile
Next, you need to become more familiar with your competitors to create a brief profile of their current online presence.
Some information to include in these profiles are:
- A link to your competitor’s website
- Your competitor’s mission
- Your competitor’s size or estimated number of employees
- Your competitor’s notable products, features, or services
- Your competitor’s estimated annual revenue
- Links to your competitor’s social profiles
Having information about each rival’s online presence in one document will make it easier for you to monitor their customer communications, new campaigns, and other future developments.
4. Analyze your competitors’ target audience
Your competitors’ target audiences are probably the same as or overlap with yours, so you need to find out what messages they respond to and what they love.
Those insights help you determine if you’re targeting the right people and communicating with them effectively. You might also discover missed opportunities in your engagement efforts and interactions with your chosen segment.
Create a typical social media follower profile
A social media follower profile is a list of insights about your competitors’ average followers on social media. It’s important to delve into their consumer base so you can:
- Find out if you have a similar pool of followers
- Unearth untapped potential if your followers are different
- Learn more about your target audience so you can craft more personalized messages
Similar to the ideal customer profile, some social media profiles come in the form of a table or graphic with information, while others are simply bulleted lists:
It’s up to you to figure out which format best fits your needs for the current research session.
To create a profile manually, go into your competitors’ social media profiles on various platforms. Then, find 10 to 15 of your competitors’ most engaged followers (i.e., those who regularly like, comment on, and share your competitors’ posts) and open their profiles.
For example, on Instagram, you’d look up a competitor and navigate to the profiles of followers who actively like or comment on your competitor’s posts.
Gather the following information about your competitors’ followers, if available:
- Their demographics (their general age, location, educational attainment, etc.)
- Their psychographics (i.e., who they identify with, their interests, their hobbies)
- Where they “hang out” online (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
- What they post about on their personal profiles
- Why they hang out on that specific platform
Then, determine if your competitors’ followers are also members of your targeted segment (or, if they should be).
If your competitors have several types of followers, create separate profiles for each kind — but avoid making them too specific.
If you don’t want to do this manually, consider adopting competitor research tools like BuzzSumo to automate the process for you.
Look at how your competitors communicate their USPs & how their followers react
Next, you need to find out how your competitors communicate their USPs and learn which messages resonate the most with their target audience. Analyze how they frame the specific and unique problems they solve and how they communicate their solution.
For example, instead of saying, “Best project management software,” one of your competitors might say, “Get time back by letting our software manage your projects.” By framing their software as “time-saving,” your competition positions their software not only as a solution for project managers but also a way to save time.
Look at the language they employ on their websites, landing pages, and social media posts to communicate their USPs and pay attention to how their followers react as well.
Hone in on insights like:
- What features your competitors highlight on their website, landing pages, and social media posts
- Which features your competitors’ target audiences seem to react to or love the most
- The language your competitors use to promote their USPs
Also, delve into which features are mentioned in reviews, paying particular attention to what your competitors’ followers consistently rave about and any shortcomings they complain of.
If you can, grab some relevant quotes from your competitors’ platforms to use as inspiration.
5. Research your competitor’s product offerings
Your products — and how they solve your customers’ problems — are your main selling point. So, it’s critical to look into what your competitors offer your shared target audience and what makes those consumers choose them over you.
Key information to gather includes:
- The specific products your competitors offer
- Their price points for each product
- Each product’s key features or differentiators
- Which of your products directly compares with your competitors’
If you discover a relevant product or feature in your competitor’s offering that you lack, it might be time to develop comparable products for your own customer base.
6. Learn more about your competition’s marketing strategies
Understanding competitors’ marketing strategies is a crucial part of maintaining an edge in your industry. Similar to when you looked into a rival’s target audience, reviewing their marketing strategies can tell you what you’ve done right, give you fresh ideas for new campaigns, and reveal opportunities you might have missed.
You can perform the entire process manually (outlined below) or collect data using tools like SimilarWeb or SpyFu.
Here’s how to analyze different aspects of your competitor’s marketing strategies:
1. Look at your competitor’s overall marketing strategy
Make a list of platforms your competitor uses to communicate with their target audience (social media, email, blog, website, etc.), taking note of which ones they’re most active on.
Also, identify the overarching goal of their marketing strategy by looking at the language they use on their home page, social media posts, etc.
For example, Trello’s home page says, “Trello brings all your tasks, teammates, and tools together.” From there, we can infer Trello’s strategy is to encourage teams to use their project management platform as a collaborative tool.
Search for patterns in their verbiage to uncover some of their goals and tactics.
2. Look at your competitors’ website strategy
Your competitors’ website strategy can reveal more about their online presence, the user experiences they provide, and the tactics they leverage to convert their audience into paying customers.
Go through your competitors’ websites and note the following:
- What their home page highlights
- The content and structure of their navigational or menu pages (e.g., do they have a pricing page or a contact page)
- Their calls to action (CTAs) or main buttons on their home page (e.g., “Get Started,” “Sign Up,” “Log In,” “Register Now,” “Buy Now”)
- If they have landing pages for specific products
- If they have a blog and, if so, what they write about
Use the information you gather to inform your own website strategy.
3. Look at your competitors’ social media, email, blog, and other content strategies
Your competitors’ content marketing strategy involves various types of content, including blog posts, social media posts, emails, and so on. Review the content your competitors produce to inspire your own creation efforts.
To find out more about your competition’s social media and email strategies, follow them on the platforms they’re active on and subscribe to their mailing lists. Keep an eye on posts that gain traction (i.e., receive lots of comments, likes, and shares) and any emails you felt compelled to respond to.
Then, take note of:
- How often your competitors post on social media or send emails — and when
- Which social media or email campaigns seem to perform well
- How often they engage with their audience
- The types of posts they usually publish or share
Check out their blog every so often as well to see what they deem new and interesting in your industry.
Continuously enrich your content by observing your competitors’ publications.
4. Look at your competitor’s SEO strategy
Keyword research and competitive analysis go hand in hand. The keywords your competitors rank for are most likely the ones you want to aim for as well. Further, the publications that feature your competitors can probably showcase your products as well and help you gain a wider reach, thus boosting your position in search results.
Research competitor keywords with tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Ubersuggest. You simply plug a competitor’s website into the search bar, and the tools will tell you which keywords they rank for.
Another part of competitor keyword research is backlinks (links to your content from reputable websites). The tools listed above can give you a comprehensive backlink profile, showing you which credible websites link to your competitors — but not to you.
When you’re ready, make a list of keywords your competitors rank for that you can target now, as well as later through new product features or launches.
7. Perform a SWOT analysis
The final step to complete your competitor research document is a SWOT analysis. The acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Performing a SWOT analysis on your competitors provides insights into what they do well and how you can outperform them.
Let’s go through each quadrant and how you can gather information for your analysis:
- Strengths – These are what your competitors do well (e.g., a strong brand reputation, a large social media following, a great product). Find out what their strengths are by looking at customer reviews and social media comments and highlighting what customers love.
- Weaknesses – These are the aspects where your competitors fall short (e.g., unsatisfactory customer service or poor website user experience). Customer reviews are also a rich source of competitor weaknesses, as are their web pages and social media profiles.
- Opportunities – These are external opportunities your competitors can take advantage of, such as growing demand for their product or change in consumer trends. You can identify this potential by looking at trends in the market using tools like Google Trends, Exploding Topics, or even Twitter’s trending topics.
- Threats – These are external risks that could harm your competitors, like new sellers entering the market, changes in government regulations, or an economic crisis. Apply the same tools used to identify opportunities to hone in on potential threats that are outside of your and your competitors’ control.
When you finish conducting your SWOT analysis, look at which pieces of data you can apply to your product. For example, you could check to see if the threats against your competitors also pose a risk to your company and if you can do anything to mitigate or prevent them.
8. Define your next steps
Your next steps should be to employ the data you gathered strategically. Use the information you collect to run a competitor analysis (click on the link to read more on how to perform this).
Learn more about your competition to get ahead
Competition is great because it pushes you to improve continuously, such as strengthening your marketing efforts, product offerings, or general company goals.
Whether you’re just starting out or feel stuck in a rut, take advantage of our competitive research template to learn more about your position in the market, what your competitive advantage is, and who your potential customers are.
P.S. If you haven’t already, pick up your copy of my competitor research template.