Competitor Analysis in a Business Plan

Are you familiar with the term competitor analysis? If yes, then you already know the advantages it beholds. If you are not, then it’s time to include competitor analysis in your marketing plan now.

What is the importance of competitor analysis to a business? When was the last time you did a competitive analysis check for you brand? Well, big organizations follow a routine of keeping a close watch on their competitors to stay ahead in the game of digital marketing. However, many small and medium enterprises do not consider competitor analysis as one of their primary tasks.

A competitive environment is necessary for the growth of any business. Hence knowing what all your competitors are doing is very important.

Ever wondered why an organization offering the same set of services/products is much more successful than your business? Here comes the need for competitor analysis. It helps your business stay ahead of the competition and helps measure the success of your business idea.

The primary task here is to identify the real competitors who belong to the same league or industry. In other words, look out for the brands that offer the same range of services and products and are at par with your business level. This makes you well aware of the outcome of strategies when they would be implemented. The ultimate aim for analyzing a competitor is to identify the right audience that could convert into your potential customers.

A well framed analytical strategy helps a business to know its faults as to why a particular idea is not working well for the business. Competitor analysis helps you understand how you can rule your competitor’s market.  

Here are the advantages of competitor analysis:

Identifying your audience

When you initiate marketing a brand, you are starting from the basic level where you hardly have any knowledge about the target audience. So to boost your business, you need to target customers who are in need of your products/services.

Analyzing your competitor’s strategy will enable you to target their audience, in the quest of obtaining them as your future potential clients. This will help you increase the customer base that you initially used to target.

Predict demand and supply

Once you thoroughly study a competitor’s strategy you are more likely to know what interests your readers the most. Looking at the analytics and market scenario will help you predict which product/service will have a huge demand in the near future. This is the opportunity that you need to utilize well, by providing your customers the best selling product/service.

SWOT analysis for marketing your business

Do a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threats) analysis for your business. This helps you understand better what your organization is lacking.

You as a business are able to uncover the trends in market that are extremely popular with the audience. Especially for the small business owners, you must know the advantages that competitor analysis beholds!

This also helps you understand the risk involved with any strategies that you may initiate. For a business that is yet to launch a new product, it is best if the business researches the market to know how your target audience will perceive the kind of product you are about to launch. It helps prevent the risks involved.    

Brand reach

Familiarize yourself will all aspects of your competitors target audience. Understand their likes, dislikes, demographics, area they belong to, etc. This will help you increase your brand reach once you understand how to target the right people, at the right place and right time.

Understand the competitor’s market

There are many tools that help you understand your competitors and their strategies. There are some organizations that have same range of products/services as your organization. This enables them to take over the same market as you are targeting.

You need to be concerned about what made your competitor excel. Understand the strategies they implemented that made their business go viral amidst the audience.

Know their strengths and weaknesses

If you know your competitor’s strength and weakness, it becomes much easier to cut their share in the market by increasing your contribution in the market. You need to dig deep into the business strategy of your competitor to know what it is that made the customers fall in love with their brand.

Get to know what idea got your competitor huge profits, you can stick to the original idea and evolve it according to your wish. And, if it works then you have probably nailed it accurately!   

To succeed, a business needs to keep its competitor’s strategy under the radar and have a watchful eye on its every action so that they are able to step up the level of marketing for their business.

We hope you now understand the purpose of competitor analysis and start adapting one for your business! If we missed out on anything, please let us know in the comments below.

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