All is fair in love and digital warfare. Knowing what your competitor do or don't do can pave the way towards some innovative ideas and breakthroughs. Keeping one ear on the ground, constantly paying vigilance and observing what others do keeps you on your toes and your business in the lead. Getting ahead of your competitors requires hard work and luck. While you can maximise and define hard work, the lucky aspect is more of a collection of good tips&tricks. Gathering and weeding them out can be time-consuming labour, but luckily for you, we are here to help. The best moment to start competing is now!
1. The “Who?”
Defining who your competitors are, narrows down your research and lets you focus on more important targets. While every company competes for its customers, not everyone is your direct competitor. If you are a small or medium-sized company operating within one state or city, then a mega-corporation operating on a global scale is hardly your direct competition.
When you focus on what you can do, your branding strategy changes accordingly, because you can now better identify your market and the threats to your market share. When you see how local businesses position themselves, you can notice gaps in their promotion, niches that they neglect and thus, your opportunities. Thinking globally and acting locally always produces the best results!
2. The “What?”
What are your local competitors doing? What are their growth strategies, and where are they implementing them? What are your competitors doing that you are not, and how can you implement the same strategies for your business? Bench marketing analysis offers answers and guidelines to these questions. There is no shame in admitting that your competitors are doing something better that same admittance can cause you to rethink your entire strategy.
Successful businesses are in the top spot for a good reason, and it is your job to find out why. When you find the answers, nothing stops you from becoming even better or capitalising on your opponent's failure. No business is perfect, and there is always room for growth and improvement. Finding out your competitor's blunders with tactics can let you know how you can use your resources even better. When you know what they did, and what they did to cause failure or success, then you can replicate and improve your company.
3. The “Where?”
The next step is to identify the battlefield. In our modern world, that's always online. Now you know who your competitors are and what they are doing (Or not doing), so it remains to identify where you need to fight them. Your company's online presence is necessary to make a breakthrough, and there are loads of tools to help you out. If you are not on the first page of Google for your chosen field, then you can close the shop. Your future customers are doing all research and discovery online, so you need to get into their news feed and in the top results when they search for relevant topics.
Google Adds or a good SEO agency with proven results get you to the front and centre page. Outranking your competition comes in many ways, not just in profits. You can make all the right moves, and have the best product or service, and it won't matter if you are not visible online. Your competition can drown or divert customers to them by simply outranking you on searches. When you fix this bottleneck and combine it with outstanding service, you will be on the fast track to overcoming your competition.
4. Call in the SWOT
When all else fails, you have to take drastic actions. SWOT analysis (not the entire police team) comes in to show you an even better visual presentation of your current situation. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to your business, and you make them by directly comparing your business to your competitors. An objective SWOT analysis yields valuable answers for each area of your business and lets you know what your next steps should be.
Strengths represent exactly that. What is your company good at, what are you doing that no one else is, where is your strong point, etc.? Patting yourself on the back and giving a moral boost lets you know what your Weaknesses are because you are not capitalising enough on your Strengths. Leaving all good things in the dust or lying around, and not using them to your advantage are all Weaknesses. Weaknesses that should be gone yesterday from your strategy.
Opportunities lie in what your competitors miss, didn't do or maybe have failed in doing. Such open windows represent a chance for you to step up and grab the spotlight! Threats are what we've previously mentioned, and those are other companies that are your direct competitors.
5. Finding the niche
Sometimes all your business needs is that one breakthrough or the smallest of chances to get ahead. When you experiment and do diligent research on the market niches, rather than your competition, you can find those hidden gems. Your competitors might neglect a certain demographic or sector of the entire market, and that's exactly the chance you need to become a niche company. Finding out where this lie is required time and effort in market research. While you are not directly researching your competitors, you are finding gaps in their marketing. Each of those gaps represents your chance to shine and profit.
When many are competing for the same crowd and in the same market is often costly, slow and painfully slow. While both (or even more) competitors battle for each customer. When you try to find out where there is less noise, or what part of the market have all of you been collectively neglecting, that's where your gaze needs to divert. And fast, as there is a good chance your competitors are doing the same research as you are and opportunities on the market don't stay there for long. It's first to come – first serve, so make sure you are leading the charge!
6. Emerging trends and potentials
Being a visionary is the ultimate way of staying ahead of your competitors and making sure you have a strong lead. Your opponents may be stuck with tired and old ways of market approach or could have lulled themselves into torpor. By keeping your one ear on the ground and diligently watching the horizon, you can sport emerging trends that you can pioneer! People love brave and exciting new things, and being the first one to show and capitalise on secures your position on the market.
When you know that your opponents are not taking risks and try to play it safe, that's when you know you can grab all the new and emerging trends. In this example, you are again not directly analyzing your competition but rather the market and its trends. In a way, you are analysing what your competitors are missing out on. Such research may yield an answer as to why are they missing out. Sometimes it's worth knowing why your opponents are not taking some moves or ventures. Every company wishes to succeed and profit, whereas knowing how is half the battle. By choosing which battle you wish to fight and where your opponents will or will not strike, then you can better divert your resources and profit.
Modern cutthroat races towards profit are merciless. All gloves are off, anything goes, and companies will do anything to stay afloat. One must not delude himself and should strive for greater market share at all times while running a business. Ethical, quality and professional services will always stand out, and people respond positively to such business practices. All that remains is to gather intel and use it to your advantage, so your customers can see your company for all its greatness. In a way, competitors are there to make us better, as a little competition is always welcome and needed for progress. We wish you all the best!
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