By Ester Ribas , January 08
Competitor analyses are important when launching a new product or service on the market , to get an idea of the state of the market and what are the best strategies and actions to take to increase our sales and compete with other companies in the same market sector.
As a first objective or purpose, competition analyses serve to put you in context, that is, to give you a detailed vision of the market situation .
These competitive analyses must be exhaustive and in-depth, in order to draw conclusions that truly serve us when facing the market, the competition, but also consumers.
Step-by-step guide: How to do a competitor analysis
Identify your competition
Are you clear about who your competition is? Do you know which companies offer the same products and services as you?
Before starting to carry out a competitor analysis, it is important that you have clearly identified the companies related to your sector and that offer the same products or services as you .
If you are clear about your competition, you will have no problem starting your analysis, but if you are not sure, we recommend that you do some research. To do this, you can gmx email list do so taking into account the keywords. For example, do you sell software for the logistics sector? Then you might be interested in putting in Google: “Logistics software company”. All the entries that appear in the first positions will surely be your competition.
However, it is not enough to do just this, it is better to visit the websites of each company and check that they offer the same as you.
Once you have identified them, you do not need to analyze them all, but rather choose the 3 most powerful companies to have a broader view.
Financial statement of the company
How much they invoice, number of employees, profits, losses, investment made, years they have been in the market ... All of this is what you need to find out about your competition so that you can get an idea of what the sector is generating and the demand it is having from users.
Furthermore, by analysing your competitors' financial status, you can get an idea of the initial investment you will need to get your project off the ground.
SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis serves to know the weaknesses, threats, strengths and opportunities of a company .
In this case, you should identify your competitors' SWOT to see if it matches yours, as well as find out what opportunities you have compared to your competitors.
Let's see what each of these acronyms means exactly for a company.
Weaknesses
When we talk about a company's weaknesses, we are referring to critical points, or elements that fail within a company . These elements can be logistical, management, employee, environmental, etc., and could harm the correct functioning of the organization.
Threats
Threats are all elements, both internal and external, that may pose a conflict for the performance of the company's activity .
Strengths
Strengths are all the key points that make one company stand out from the other . Analyze your competition's strengths to find out what yours are.
Opportunities
A bit like what happened with strengths. Opportunities are all those points that a company has but has not yet exploited. It is time to find out your competition's opportunities in order to start exploiting them yourself before they do.
Keyword Analysis
Analyzing the keywords your competition uses is important so you can fight for the same positions on Google and appear in the first entries.
To do this, there are tools like SemRush that help you do a thorough analysis of the keywords used by your competition . This allows you to know: Common keywords, that is, the keywords that both you and your competition use and exclusive keywords, that is, the ones that you use but your competition does not.
Products and services
It is important to analyze your competitors' products and services, that is, what they offer that you do not offer and vice versa . This way, you will be able to know what you lack and whether or not you are interested in solving it by offering more products or services. It is important that you know what they sell and offer so that you can differentiate yourself from them.
Price of products
Knowing your competitors' prices is important, as they will serve as a guide for setting prices for your products or services . This way, you will be able to aim for competitive prices.
Points of sale
Do you invest in e-commerce? Do you only sell in physical stores? It may seem silly to pay attention to this detail, but it is a point that can make the difference between you and your competition .
Customer purchasing process
How do customers buy? It is important to draw up a purchasing scenario . From the moment the user arrives at the company until the purchase is made.
For us, in this process, different factors come into play.
Generate need
It is important to understand the needs of users and their interests so that they have the urge to purchase the product or service. To do this, what media are used? Internet, offline media, telemarketing, etc.
Initial consideration
Is your product or service listed as the most recommended? How is it positioned within the market?
Attraction
What attracts customers most to a product or service?
Interest
What has caught your attention and made you reach the end of the purchase process?
Decision
Why does the customer choose it? That is, why do they make the purchase decision?
Media and promotion
How does your competition make itself known? At this point you should analyze what media your competition uses; social networks, television, radio, press, specialized blogs, etc.
It is also important to look at what type of marketing they use. Digital Marketing, Inbound Marketing , Video Marketing , ABM ... this way, you can get an idea of what you should focus on.
Competitor analyses are ideal for knowing what you are up against and keeping track of companies that work in your same sector, so you can compete with them with your products and services.
