As Sun Tzu said in the 11th century,
“know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.”
He was talking about military strategy, but it can easily apply to marketing as well.
Although no business really likes to think about their competitors, it is a key aspect of a successful marketing campaign.
By knowing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses as well as your own, you will be able to identify your business’ USP, meaning marketing will be easier and competition will essentially be reduced.
Generally, at start-up, businesses will do a quick search of their competitors to see what they are up against and then never look again. However, it is important to do this regularly to keep track of a changing market.
Knowing your competitors well, however, is more than looking on their website and comparing their services and prices to your own.
To complete a full competitor analysis efficiently there are four steps to follow:
Step 1: Who are your competitors?
Identify who the competitors are. In science, technology and engineering this could mean global competitors in addition to local competition.
Step 2: What are your competitors’ strategies?
This is your chance to find out everything you can about how your competitors work, how they communicate with their customers, how they attract their clients, their services, and their costs. Where do they have a big presence? Do they attend seminars, exhibitions or conferences? What do they do or offer which is different to your business?
Step 3: Compare the competition.
Compare the businesses you have researched alongside your own to see if there are areas your business excels (or lags behind).
Step 4: SWOT comparison
Add a SWOT analysis to your comparison to see where your strengths and weaknesses lie in line with your competitors.
Strengths – What makes your business stand out?
Weaknesses – Where could your business improve?
Opportunities – Is there a gap in the market or an upcoming trend you could take advantage of?
Threats – Have you identified anything that could cause concern?
Once these four steps have been carried out, you will be able to clearly see what your business’ USP is and how that aligns with your business goals so it can be built into your marketing strategy.
If you would like help with identifying your competitors and building strong marketing strategy book a 15 minute chat directly with Su on her Calendly link or contact us on +44 (0)1235 606077 or info@priddeymarketing.co.uk