One of the most important things in building a business is competitor analysis. You need to analyze your competitors, their activities, their strategies, etc, so you can apply some of the best techniques for your business.

Once you can do deep research for your competitors, you will be ready to provide the best offer for your customers. In this article, we will learn how to do competitor analysis thoroughly. There is some step by step instructions that you can follow for doing deep research about your competitors.

a. Identify your competitors

This is the first thing that you need to do before you can do a deep analysis of your competitors. You should determine some key competitors in your industry. Google and Amazon can be the best sources for finding some popular products, companies, and business ideas. There are some other tools that you can use for finding some potential competitors in your industry, for example, Ahrefs, Hoovers, Alexa, ReferenceUSA, etc.

You can categorize your competitors based on several categories, including primary competition, secondary competition, and tertiary competition.

• Primary competitors are your direct competitors. They usually target the same audience as your business because they have similar products as yours.
• Secondary competitors may offer low or high-end versions of your product. They may sell something similar to yours, but they will target a different audience.
• Tertiary competitors usually offer some products that are related to your products. When you are looking to expand your business, you may also target these products. For instance, if you are selling jewelry, your tertiary competitors may sell stones or gems.

When you compare some of your competitors, you should write down or document some important information about them, for example, location, store name, product offering, mission statement, competitor category, weakness, and strength, etc.

It is also a good idea for you to check your competitors, so you can check their complete product line. In this competitor analysis framework, you need to know about all products or services that they are offering to their customers. By knowing about their market share, you will be able to determine the right strategies for competing with them.

b. Examine their website content

This is another important strategy that you need to do, so you can have a deep research about your competitors. You need to pick up to 4 – 5 competitors. Then, you are going to check their websites. You will check some important things from their websites, for example, their product photography, product descriptions, call to actions, email newsletter, social media icons, blogs, mobile-optimized design, support system, live chat, marketing banners, callouts, promotions, offers, etc. By looking at these factors, you will be able to find out some important things about your competitors.

The main goal of doing this step is to have a SWOT analysis, so you can find your competitors' strengths and weaknesses. In this step, you are going to think as a dynamic business owner. You will find a lot of opportunities that are available for you in facing today's challenges. When you are planning to check your competitors' websites, you can also use any tools, such as Ahrefs. This type of tool is very useful to help you learn about how your competitors can target some specific keywords for getting organic traffic every day.

c. Analyze their promotion strategies

After you look at their websites, you can learn about how they promote their products and services. By analyzing their promotion strategies, you can copy, adjust, and do some changes to their strategies. In this step, you will be able to find some competitive offerings that are offered by your competitors. There are some interesting offers that they may have for attracting their customers, for example, huge discounts, free shipping options, bonuses, etc. You will be able to find out how they are going to attract a lot of customers for buying any of their products or services.

In this step, you also need to think about how you can apply those offers or promotion strategies to your business. You cannot copy everything from your competitors because it will hurt your reputation on the market. Don't forget to replace your promotion strategies frequently, so you can make your customers happy with your offers.

d. Analyze their marketing strategies

This is another important step that you need to do, especially if you want to have a successful competitor analysis procedure. You can check your competitors for analyzing their marketing strategies. There are some platforms that they can use for reaching their customers, for example, their websites, social media platforms, online marketplace sites, online forums, etc. Most of your competitors usually do deep research for finding some potential places for marketing their products.

This online competitor analysis step is very useful to check your competitors' online presence. Some useful tools can be used to help you in this step, for example, SEMrush, SpyFu, or Moz. Those tools can be used to provide analysis for how your competitors' websites perform well on the search engines. You can find out some keywords that they are going to target on their SEO campaign.

e. Identify Your Opportunities

In the end, you can do a deep competitor analysis for finding some weaknesses from your competitors. There are some examples of weaknesses, for example, low gross margin, non-existent sales team, low cash flow, low net profit margin, high price, poor website structure, non-mobile web design, complex interface, etc. All of these weaknesses can be your opportunities to grab their customers.

It is a good idea for you to meet with your team members, so you can prioritize some opportunities that you can pursue. Your customers will be happy when dealing with your business, especially if you know how to make them satisfied with your products or services. You will be able to replace your competitors' presence on the Internet quickly, especially if your business can work on any weaknesses from your competitors.

Those are some important things that should be included in competitor analysis. After you prepare everything carefully, you will be able to surpass your competitors. It is a good time for you to work on your business and start applying all of those tips above. Beat your competitors and achieve your great success today.