How to Do Competitor Research

Many of us have heard about competitor research, but a few people know why it is so important and how to conduct such an analysis. Let’s dive deeper into this question so that you get an idea behind competitor research and the entire procedure.

Competitor Research: Specs & Features

To run a successful business, you need to know not only the advantages that your competitors have but also track their vulnerabilities. This is where competitor research will be of great service to you. Besides, competitive analysis is a good way to study market conditions in detail and find your perfect place there.

Why & How to Conduct Competitive Analysis

Competitor analysis helps to effectively promote a product on the market. Competitive analysis will help you find answers to the following questions:

• Who is your real competitor in your fight for the client?
• What strategy are your competitors using?
• What is the unique selling proposition of your competitors?
• In which direction you should develop to increase market coverage and profits?
• How to bypass your competitors and find your advantage?
• How to show the uniqueness of the product and attract an additional target audience in Nigeria and beyond its borders.

To get started with your competitor analysis, you need to make a list of competitors that you are going to analyse. After that, you should evaluate different aspects of their work: website, SEO, accounts on social networks, contextual advertising, email newsletters, content marketing, etc. Not to miss out on a single detail, we recommend that you follow our step-by-step guide.

Stage 1 — Conduct Market Analysis & Identify Competitors

First, prepare the list of the main players in your market niche and try to organize all the information. This will form the basis for the next steps in your research. Start searching for your competitors using Google advanced search or other search platforms. Use keywords that are relevant to your business goals. As a rule, most visitors come from organic search. Therefore, you should be interested in competitors who hit the top for basic search queries within a minimum period.

Then, see what competitors’ products are on the major marketplaces (if any). Another important channel is social media — Facebook and Instagram. Using the relevant hashtags, you can find your competitors who do not yet have their own website.

When you add your competitors to the report and break them down by segment. The most popular way is to categorize all into three groups:

• Direct competitors with the same product, audience, and business size;
• Companies that offer similar products but cover a different audience segment;
• Companies that are not your direct competitors but can become them if you decide to expand your product catalogue. They can also act as your affiliate advertising partners.

Step 2 — Analyse the Sites of Niche Leaders

Once your competitors are identified and classified, you can move on to the next step — studying them. To gather information about your competitors and get to know their business better, you need to analyse their sites from the point of view of the buyer and become their client yourself. Use relevant tools and instruments, such as Forex time, to measure the key business performance metrics and keep track of the current market condition. This will allow you to make the right business decisions in the future.

Step 3 — Explore the Details of Business Strategies

To create a more effective strategy and maintain the competitiveness of your online business at the proper level, analyse the technical aspects of your competitors. The basic questions you must answer are:

• When was the online business founded (the same refers to Forex trading)?
• What promotions are held?
• What position does their site take in the search results?
• What kind of contextual advertising do they use?
• What pricing strategy are they pursuing?
• What is their position in the current ranking?
• How are their pages and content ranked?
• What is the relevance of the keywords?

How to Use Competitive Analysis Data?

Competitor analysis helps companies, such as Forextime, to adequately assess their opportunities and risks. So take the time to find and properly categorize your competitors: analyse their market position, website solutions, social media activity, and pricing strategy. Conduct competitor SEO analysis, become a mystery shopper to check customer support, email marketing, and value-added services (like shipping).

Summarize your insights with a variety of data collection tools and explore the weaknesses of your competitors. Turn their disadvantages into your advantages and add new features to your strengths. Create your own effective digital marketing strategy that will help you reach real business heights.