Your competitors have something to teach you. Yes! you may have a lot of differences in values, team, sales targets, etc. but one thing you have in common is the clients. You stand to gain a lot from paying attention to what they do and follow or avoid their lead to grow your business.
Simply put a competitor analysis is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. In digital marketing, you will need to look closely at what your competitors are doing when they are doing it and how they are doing it.
Why you need to do a Competitor Analysis
If you are new to digital marketing what your competitors do or don't do can guide your strategy into how you too can attract visitors turn them into leads and close your sales. For this, you will need to analyze competitors that are closely related to your brand particularly those with the largest market share.
You may also have hit a sales plateau, in the process of creating a comprehensive digital marketing strategy or worse sales are going down a look into your competitors may be just what you need to find new ways to up your game and start attracting leads again. You can do this by looking at competitors who seem to have the highest web traffics, social media following, and online positive mentions. What are they doing to get those results?
Before you embark on the journey to attract new customers or retain your current loyal fans you need to take a brand health test. Done right a brand health test will help you to maintain a fresh outlook on what your brand stands for. It will help you and your team revisit the problem you are trying to solve, whom you want to solve it for and why your solution is the best. You can access my free template for a brand health check used by my clients.
If you did not have your buyer person pin downed this will be the time to do so. Use this simple template to help you paint a clear picture of who exactly is the person you are selling to.
The simple analysis you can do today
Here are the simple steps you can take today to analyze your competitors and grow your business.
Find out what platforms your competitors are using. The simple analysis you can do today
Pay close attention to which platform they use the most and research why they might have made that choice. Understanding what attracted them to the platform could shed a light on some facts you have not been aware of.
Look at the demographic in the platform
Largest Age Group
Gender
Number of monthly active users
Largest users geographic location
User purchasing power/ economic situation
Understand how frequent your competitor uses this platform
Look for these indicators
The average number of posts (Per day and month)
Time/ hour which your competitor posts
Note the type of content shared, which of these are your competitors using the most
Videos
Memes
Images
Carousels
Texts/ Quotes
Analyze their engagement rates
So you know what they are posting and when, but what is the follower's reaction most of the time. Here is what you can look for first
Website visits
Likes
Comments
Shares (Repost, retweets, etc.)
HashTag response from followers.
When you understand what excites their followers you can create a similar or perfected strategy to grow your business. Most of these can be done manually and but for an in-depth platform analysis, you will need some tools.
Get Insights On Competitors’ Marketing Campaigns
Details to keep an eye on
What are they are offering?
How are they offering it? (The uniqueness of the campaign)
What's their end game (from a bird's eyes view what are they trying to achieve?)
How long is the campaign? (Time spent suggests it could be effective, they are milking it for all it's worth)
Whom are they working with (Influencers, Media houses, Bars, Saloons, etc.)
How to use this information
Now that you have this insight on your competitors act fast!
First, rethink your strategy and make changes where needed. Then, create/ recreate the most effective content you saw on your competitor's platforms. Take them for a ride and see how that works for you.
With insights on your competitor's wins and failures on their campaigns, create better target ads and reap the rewards. If it worked for them, it will work for you.
Don't be afraid of failure, instead, test out as many ideas as possible, enjoy the wins and learn from your mistakes. Have fun!
One more thing, be sure to enlist the help of a digital marketing consultant when you feel you need more help.
Book your first consultation (Zoom meeting) for free
Email: mbumita@gmail.com Phone: +255 752 769 976