Marketing Competitor Analysis: Audit Your Marketing Ecosystem

Consider Direct and Indirect Competitors

The first step in performing a marketing competitor analysis is to decide what companies to analyze. Of course, you should include some of your direct competition, which are companies that sell the same product.

However, it also helps to analyze indirect competitors. This includes companies who sell something a bit different but that can serve the same purpose as your product.

For example, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts are two direct competitors since both sell coffee. Starbucks and McDonald’s would be indirect competitors since they sell coffee, but McDonald’s also sells soda and other beverages.

Analyze Competitors Regularly

Once you determine what companies to include in your market competitor analysis, you should analyze them regularly. It may make sense to analyze your competition every quarter or every month.

Consider your industry and how fast things change. Then, you can stay on top of changes in the field, but you won’t have to spend time analyzing competitors when there are few or no changes to competitor marketing strategies.

The best frequency for a competitor analysis can change as well. You can start with a monthly review and switch to quarterly if you find the industry moves slowly.

If you have a lot of changes to make after a quarter, you might switch to a monthly review. Then, you can stay on top of things when developing your competitor analysis marketing strategy.

Use the Right Tools

When conducting a market analysis, you should use some good tools. One option is a marketing intelligence system, which can help you stand out from your competitors.

You can use the tool to learn what your competitors are doing well and where you can fill gaps. The tool may help you come up with new product ideas if no competitors are filling a need.

Another way to use a tool like this is to improve your brand voice for marketing. You may learn that your tone is too formal, so you change it up to be more conversational.

Review Benchmarks

As you conduct a marketing competitor analysis, you should set and review some key performance indicators (KPIs). Some KPIs to track include market positions, backlinks, and social media mentions.

It also helps to monitor the PPC advertising and organic strategies of your competitors. Then, you can figure out how your business is doing by comparison.

Choose three to five KPIs that you can track with each competitor analysis. You’ll be able to hone in on a few things to help improve your digital marketing strategy, and you can keep the analysis from taking all day.

Learn New Best PracticesFollow Industry Trends

When analyzing your competitors, you can figure out some new best practices for digital marketing. For example, you might learn that some of your competitors have been marketing on TikTok.

Before you start using the platform, you can see how it works for other brands. Then, you won’t have to spend time and money on something that may not bring in results.

As you track your competitors, you can compare their data from month to month. If there’s some growth after they add a new platform, you might choose to start marketing there as well to help grow your company.

On the other hand, you may learn that your competitors are doing things that don’t resonate with your customers. You may decide to try something different to stand out and figure out if it works for you.

Follow Industry Trends

Another part of a marketing competitor analysis is to review digital marketing trends in your industry. For example, businesses that sell Christmas items will see a huge spike in November and December.

However, any industry may experience ebbs and flows in marketing throughout the year. As you analyze your competition, you can determine when you should increase your marketing efforts.

Then, you can take advantage of seasons, such as summer or the winter holidays. You may be able to predict these trends, but you can use competitor analysis after the fact to compare your results to those of your competitors to decide what to do next year.

Inform Your Strategy

The best competitor analysis marketing professionals can do can help you create your strategy. You get to learn what does and doesn’t work for businesses in your industry or with your target audience.

However, you can implement the more successful tactics right now without having to experiment. That can save you a lot of time and money, so you may be able to get more results in less time.

Now, you may still need to test things out based on your specific audience. Still, having ideas of what works may help you figure out where to start with a strategy, and you can change things from there.

Adjust Your Goals

As you audit your marketing ecosystem and compare it to your competitors, you should look at your goals. You might learn that you aren’t focusing on the right strategies to reach your ideal customers.

Maybe one current goal is to post on Instagram three times a week. If you notice that all of your competitors share four posts a week, you can update your goal to that to stay competitive.

Once you complete a market competitor analysis, you need to do something with that information. Adjusting your goals can help you stay competitive so that you can get more sales.

Conducting a Marketing Competitor Analysis Is Easy

If you want to stand out from other brands in your industry, you should conduct a marketing competitor analysis. Doing so may sound difficult, but it’s easy if you know the right steps.

Be sure to use some helpful tools, set your KPIs, and schedule regular analyses. That way, you’ll be able to stay on top of industry trends to improve your digital marketing strategy.

Do you need the right system to analyze your competition? Learn how Scoretize works and get a free trial to get started.