Knowing what your competitors are up to is an important part of running a business. Not only do you need to know what your competitors are doing, but also you must be prepared to gain an edge over them. Thankfully, new software and technology make it easy to research your competitors and understand how your business stacks up.
I’m going to teach you how to do a competitive analysis in four simple steps. Let’s begin!
1. Identify Your Top Competitors
Define your top 10 competitors and what makes them different from you. If you’re not sure, talk to your sales and marketing teams to get a clearer picture. Every business has competitors that they don’t like – usually ones who are stealing ideas and taking potential customers away.
If you still need help identifying your competitors, do a quick Google search to find other companies that are offering products and services similar to yours.
2. Analyze and Compare Content
Once you have your list of competitors, it’s time to measure the effectiveness of their content marketing strategies. What type of content are they publishing? What topics are they discussing? How do their best pieces compare to yours?
The goal is to identify gaps in your competitors’ content strategies because these are opportunities for you. If there’s something that your competitors aren’t addressing, you can use this to create unique content for your brand. After all, you don’t want to write the same copy as your competitors.
It’s also important to analyze the quality of your competitors’ content strategies, as this indicates where more effort is needed in your own strategy. Do you need to post more frequently? Do you need to shake up your content with more visuals or new formats?
3. Analyze Their SEO Strategy
The next thing to look at is your competitors’ SEO structures. In other words, how are they using keywords in their content? Some of the places to analyze are titles, links, tags, image alt text and URL architecture.
Also, check out the keywords your competitors are utilizing. Many companies use long-tail keywords to help them rank better because these keywords have less competition. Even though their search volume is lower, they tend to capture niche audiences.
4. Assess Their Social Media Strategy
You can learn a lot about how your competitors interact with their customers by looking at their social media pages. What do their profiles look like? How often are they posting content? What is their content about?
Take a look at how each audience engages with your competitor as well. Are there certain posts that see more engagement? Are people asking questions that your competitor isn’t answering clearly? This could open up conversations for you and your audience.
Once you have a better understanding of who your competitors are and what they are doing differently, you can identify areas for improvement. Be sure to keep an eye on your competition so that your brand can maintain its edge.
