Is having competitors for your business a good thing?
Your first instinct may say otherwise, but history keeps proving one thing: By having to go down a road with others, you have to prove yourself even further. It may take more time, resources, and workforce, but in the end – There’s a 99% that without the competitiveness factor, you wouldn’t push yourself to your actual limits and potential.
Besides that ideal, competitors can be beneficial because they are a great source of understanding where you are standing, what needs to be done, and what you’re missing out on – And this principle hasn’t changed in digital marketing.
So, how can you broaden your business by using modern marketing tools? Here are some interesting directions.
The Data is Everywhere
In the far days of the 2000s and before, finding data was tedious at best and almost impossible in most cases. Today, one can find hundreds, thousands, and even millions of articles, items, posts, news, and more for each of your competitors, using one word inserted in Google’s search bar.
A good prediction is usually based on solid data. Having multiple sources that can reflect on various angles regarding every action done or announced to be in your market can help you find the bigger picture. After all, everyone shares more information (Or gets it leaked) than they want to – And that’s where you can shine.
Don’t hesitate to perform weekly and even daily searches regarding what the other players at your markets are up to and use it to your advantage.
Check their Ads
Once upon of time, you needed to invest money, time, and even luck to find where your competition is investing their marketing budget – In a magazine? On the radio? A TV commercial? Maybe a yellow pages ad, or a newspaper/magazine one?
It was hard to find back then, but when it comes to the digital scene – You only need 5 minutes of your free time, without even needing to leave your mobile phone or pc to do it.
Go to “Page Transparency” on Facebook to find their current ads on FB & IG, use Google Adview to find their search ads, “Ads” on Linkedin, and so on – So you can find what they offer now and create a counter of your own.
Learn New Things about your Audience
Your competitors earned that title because you compete with the same audience. So what does it mean besides feeling the need to prove that you’re the best in the business? It means that you can broaden your knowledge regarding what your audience likes, judges, and thinks.
Check the different engagements on your competitor’s digital assets. Do you see any patterns, popular topics, or approaches that you can use for your future campaigns?
You can, of course, check out the opposite – What are the posts and campaigns that got the worst results, and what caused it? Is it the graphic, the text, the subject, the CTA, or any other option?
Another excellent metric you can see is the time that has passed since the campaign was launched. If you see an ad that runs for 3 months, it means one of two possible outcomes:
- They’re too lazy/forgetful to turn off the ad
- It works pretty damn good
Assuming that case 2# is the more common one, here’s another aspect you can analyze for your gain – Remember: The more you invest into the matter, the higher the chance that you’re the only one in the market that goes for such a thorough search.
Digital Marketing Competitor Analysis Can be Done Alone – Or with an Experienced Team
As you can see, inspecting the competition can bring insightful ideas, conclusions, and many more bonuses that can further improve your performance and reach new directions that you could’ve missed.
At Synapse, we have vast experience regarding competitor and market research, and we’d be more than happy to help you find the best practices you can apply to your current digital strategy. Ready to begin?