The New Year is in sight so what a great time to revisit your competitors & set your business up for growth in 2024.

Let’s dig into what they’ve been up to & figure out what makes you stand out from the crowd.

With the right approach, you can differentiate your visual identity & messaging to uncover opportunities that allow you to outshine the competition while learning from their successes & where they’re falling short.

The best way to do this is to conduct a competitive analysis. And here’s how…

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🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Know your audience

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To start, the most important thing you need to know is who your target audience is.

They’re your guiding star & understanding their goals (also known as jobs-to-be-done), preferences & pain points is the first step to achieving marketing success.

Have a read of a blog we wrote recently on how you can start understanding your audience better.

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🥅 Define your direct & indirect competitors

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Direct competitors are those who are offering the same or similar product to you & going after the same audience.

An indirect competitor may offer a different product or service, but still satisfy the same audience goals or jobs-to-be-done.

Beware of an often overlooked space, the inertia of potential customers who are content with the status quo. Your audience who ‘do nothing’ is often the toughest because switching costs are so high & increasingly challenging.

Aim to have 5-10 competitors that you’ll review.

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👣 Explore their digital footprint

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Now it’s time to go digging. Visit their websites, browse their social media channels & carefully examine customer reviews scattered across the web.

Customer reviews can be found in various places, such as G2, Capterra & Trustpilot (if you’re an app, look at app store reviews too!). During this process, you should aim to pull out insights into their branding, messaging & customer experiences.

Top tip: We recommend Miro for this process. However, of course, feel free to use any tool that suits your preferences for mapping this out.  

Your primary objective is to uncover the unique selling points (USPs) they emphasise in their messaging & how they’re perceived by their customers. What is it about each that creates value for the audience?

Understanding how they attract customers is vital for positioning your brand & effectively showcasing your distinctive competitive advantages.

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💻 Uncover their marketing strategies

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Understanding how your competitors acquire & retain customers is crucial as well as getting a grasp on their campaign’s effectiveness.

Identify the marketing channels they use, both organic & paid. Check out if they use paid ads, this can uncover key information as it’s often the testing ground of all sorts of goodies, like messaging.

Top tip: It’s easier than ever to have a nosey at what ads your competitors are running.

• Facebook Instagram Ads
• LinkedIn Ads - go to their page, navigate to their posts then the ‘Ads’ tab. You’ll see every ad the brand is running.
• Google Ads
• Tiktok Ads

Now you have a sense of where they’re spending their money, you may feel inspired to finetune your marketing efforts & discover potential untapped areas.

But you should note that just because your competitor is doing something, it doesn't mean it’s the right approach for you.

Don’t waste money on performance channels just because they’re doing it. Before you throw money on paid, make sure it’s right for your brand at this time in your marketing journey.

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🗺️ Map out your insights

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Create a table, one for direct and another for indirect competitors & list out each competitor with these rows.

• Pull: why do customers choose them?
• Push: what are the shortcomings/ why don’t people like them?
• Pricing: compare their product or service pricing and feature
• Your company advantage: highlight what sets your company apart

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📊 Create your value curve

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A value curve is a visual representation of your position in the market.

Create a spreadsheet, list the key attributes associated with competitive products from your research & rank your competitors accordingly on a scale from 1 to 10.

Mapping yourself out vs. your competitors will help you identify potential areas of opportunity.

Check our detailed guide on creating an effective value curve.

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Key takeaways

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👉 Conducting a competitor analysis shouldn’t be done in isolation. Using user data from interviews & surveys will add more depth to your understanding.

👉 Competitor analysis is vital to fully understand what’s going on in your audience's mind when considering your solution.

👉 Learn from competitors’ best practices and pitfalls to fine-tune your marketing efforts and uncover untapped opportunities.

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