10 Tips on How to Research Your Competition
Keeping tabs on your competition is a great strategy for growing your business. Follow these tips, from fellow small business owners, on which tools are best and how to get started.
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Competitors. Whether you want to admit it or not, they're out there and they're hungry for your customers. While it might seem unfair given everything else you need to keep on top of in building up your business, you might want to consider devoting the time and energy into keeping tabs on your competition. "By monitoring competitors on an on-going basis you get to know their behavior and so can start to anticipate what they will be likely to do next," says Arthur Weiss, managing director of UK-based Aware, which helps businesses gain competitive intelligence. "You can then plan your own strategies so that you keep your customers and win (not steal) customers away from competitors." In other words, keeping tabs on your competition is a great strategy for growing your business.
The good news is that while hiring someone like Weiss can save you or your employees from spending the time to conduct research on your competitors, you can also employ several techniques to get the job done virtually for free. Here are 10 tips from entrepreneurs and small business owners on how you can start gathering information on your competitors.
1. Go beyond a google search. There's no doubt that any research project these days should begin with a simple Google search or visiting your competitor's web page. But there are also a variety of tools either supplied by Google or that relate to Google's search results and AdWords campaigns that might give you interesting insights into your competition. For example, Sheel Mohnot of FeeFighters, a comparison shopping website for credit card processing, says he uses the following tools to keep an eye on his competition:
- SpyFu: "A great resource to research what keywords and Adwords our competitors are buying," says Mohnot.
- Google Trends: For Mohnot, it's helpful when he wants "to stay on top of the latest in [his] industry, comparing [his company] to others, and seeing where people who come to [his] site go."
- Google Alerts: "We keep alerts for ourselves but also for all of our competitors to know what they are up to," says Mohnot. (P.S. Don't forget to set up an alert on your own company to see if anyone else is talking about you.)
Dig Deeper: 6 Ways to Track Competitors Online
2. Do some reporting. There are great and inexpensive resources for checking up on your competitors online and offline. "I recommend routinely tracking what the industry analyst firms like Gartner are reporting about your industry, as well as trade associations and advocacy groups," says Becky Sheetz-Runkle, author of Sun Tzu for Women: The Art of War for Winning in Business. "These organizations are doing research and studies that evaluate the people who are and should be your competitors. What are they telling you about where the industry is trending? Where are the unmet market needs that you can fill?"
Other resources you can use to dig up information on your competitors include: Alexa, Compete, Keyword Spy, Hoovers, and ReferenceUSA.
3. Tap the social network. Of course, given how companies are increasingly using social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as marketing outlets these days, you might be able to pick up interesting facts about your competition—and maybe even your own company—just by tuning in. "We find that monitoring tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, and other new media mentions of our competition is an easy, cost-effective way to stay in tune with and in the know about the public's sentiment about our competitors," says Michael Meschures, the president of Spaphile.com, a weekly deals site that shares high-end spa and beauty offers. "In a similar vein, we track our competition by keeping a very close eye on review sites, such as Yelp and Citysearch. We scour through reviews to find mentions of our competitors' deals, and then target that particular Yelper or Citysearcher's other favorite businesses so we're always one step ahead of the competition." Even if your competition isn't social media savvy, it's a good bet that they produce newsletters—either e-mail or print varieties—that you can sign up for to get the latest and greatest news and updates on things like new products or services they are introducing and what events they might be attending.
Dig Deeper: How to Conduct Qualitative Market Research
4. Ask your customers. When it comes to identifying sources of information about your competition, don't skip over the obvious ones—like your customers. "Speaking to customers is one of the best (and cheapest) ways of gathering real information on competitors," says Weiss. "Whenever you win a new customer, find out who they used before, and why they switched to you (i.e. The reason they were dissatisfied with their previous supplier). Do the same when you lose a customer—identify what they preferred about your competitor. If you gather enough of these stories you'll get a very clear idea on what competitors are offering that customers view as preferable. You can then adjust your own offering to beat that of the competitor."
5. Attend a conference. Attending industry trade shows and conferences—as well as joining industry associations—can be a great way to learn about who your competitors are and what they're offering, says Amy Lewandowski, who heads up marketing at online retailer, PepWear. "We attend these conventions anyway so we make sure to visit competitors' booths while we are there and observe their interactions with customers, pick up literature, and check out the quality of their products," she says. "I am always shocked that most of them never visit our booth."
Dig Deeper: How to Get the Most Out of a Conference
