To succeed in business, it’s important to stand out (in a good way that is). But in order to stand out, you need to know what your competitors are doing. Taking a good hard look at the competition can be a learning experience that can help you improve your own business.
For example, if you discover that you are doing something better or differently than your competitors, you will likely want to continue doing more of it or growing a certain area of your business. Let’s say you offer custom pallet sizes that your competitors don’t offer, why not add more custom sizes or seek out more customers for your customized products.
On the other hand, if you find out that your competitors are doing things differently or better than you, your business can still benefit from this knowledge. If your biggest competitor has a great website, for example, then you may want to redo your website as well, or if they’re offering employees more benefits than your company, then you may want to improve your employee benefits.
Also, be sure to look at your competitions’ rates for products and services to see whether they’re in line with what you charge. Also, determine whether they offer any special promotions or discounts for quantity that are helping them to attract more customers than you are, and ask whether it would make sense for you to do something similar or even better.
Of course, it may not be necessary or even good for your business to do everything your competitors are doing. But monitoring what they do can provide valuable insights to help you generate ideas and develop good strategies for your business. For example, if you look at the closest competitors in your area and notice that none of them sells mulch or wood chips, then you might want to consider investing in equipment for a new product line to convert your wood waste into these products.
Four Ways to Check Out the Competition
More than likely, you already know who your main competitors are and you’ve looked at their websites. If not, this is a good place to start. To dive a little deeper, here are four different methods you can use to check out your competitors and keep an eye on what they’re doing:
1. Set Up Google Alerts (https://www.google.com/alerts) – Using this handy notification tool from Google, you simply enter your competitor’s name as a term you want to track, and then when something is published on the Internet about them, you’ll get a notification to your Gmail account. If you don’t have a Gmail account, you can set up a personal account for free.
2. Read Your Competitors’ Customer Testimonials – Since customers now review everything online, you should be able to glean a lot of information about your competitors based on what their customers say about them, both the negative and the positive. Look for reviews on your competitors’ websites, Facebook pages and other social media outlets, and Google.
3. Listen to Your Own Customers – Don’t be shy about asking your own customers what they think of your competitors, especially if you have a good rapport with your customers. Find out what they like or don’t like about your competitors, whether they’ve ever used them in the past or considered using them recently and why or why not.
4. Use Competitor Analysis Tools – There are all kinds of helpful tools, free and paid, available on the Internet that can help you monitor what your competitors are doing, especially when it comes to digital marketing. SEMRush (https://www.semrush.com/) and iSpionage (https://www.ispionage.com/) are just two examples. SEMRush allows you to see what kind of organic or free web traffic competitors are getting on their websites compared to yours, while iSpionage lets you see how many leads your competitors are getting from Google Ads. To find more tools, simply do an Internet search using “competitor analysis tools.”
