Competitive Research: what is it and why is it so important?

Competitive research should be part of your marketing strategy. This is where you look into, monitor, and analyse what your competitors are doing.

You use competitive research to gain an in-depth understanding of what you are up against in your ideal market base, and what the openings are in this landscape. It highlights what you need to do to keep your services or products competitive and current. You do not want to go outdated or lose out on potential sales.

It is always beneficial to keep an eye on your competitors. Being consistent will help you keep on top of the changes and development in your industry. There are some key stages where you will definitely see more of a benefit. Thorough competitive research should be carried out when you are first setting up your business, this is so you have the best idea of where you will fit into the current market. Another key stage to complete the research is when you are launching a new product or service.

The Process

While the process you take to carry out your research may change, depending on what stage your business is in, the overall process is very similar.

Some key areas to focus on are:

• List of competitors.

• Who is their target market?

• What makes them, their products, or services unique?

• Price points

These will help give you a good base to start looking into what you need to do to stand out and where you need to jump in to give you and your business the best chance in getting into the ideal spot in the market that is most beneficial for not only you but your target market too.

You need to also conduct an analysis of your findings, some of your more in-depth analysis should include:

• Website features.

• Social media engagement and strategy.

• Content marketing.

• Email marketing.

• Promotions.

• Analysis of customer reviews.

• Position in search results.

• Checkout and shipping options

While these are not things you think about right off the bat when you start a business, they are details that can help you excel ahead of your competition and give you the upper hand.

The benefits

Competitive research can, and will, take up quite a lot of time but the research you gather can be invaluable. Keeping up the consistency can help you and your business on many different levels, especially keeping you ahead of your competitors.

Some of the benefits that you can reap include:

• A better overall understanding of the market and your customer base.

• Identify your business’ strengths and weaknesses when compared to its competitors and how you could improve on your weaknesses.

• Identify opportunities and threats in the marketplace and plan out how to make the most out of both.

• Knowledge of how your competitors are pricing their services to keep your prices competitive.

• Identify new and emerging trends in the market and make your plan on how to include these into your strategy.

• Inspire new ideas and brainstorm on how to implement them.

• Discover which competitor strategies are successful and which are not and if they will add to your own plan.

• Helps you to set yourself apart from your competition, giving you insight into what is currently out there in the market and where there is a space for you to fit into.

This is where you may realise you do not have the time you would like to invest into this invaluable marketing strategy, this could be where a virtual assistant could benefit you. It will give you the time to focus on setting up your business while you have someone researching how to get the most from your target market and how to do it.

Contact us for more information on how we can support you and your business.