do you want to stay ahead of your
competition are you tired of reacting to
changes in the market or customer needs
instead of being ahead of the curve you
can avoid all of that frustration by
doing regular competitor analysis let me
show you how
[Applause]
hi i'm morgan a digital marketing
professional with life marketing if you
haven't completed a competitor analysis
before you're in for a treat i'm going
to walk you through the process
including what i ask myself and use a
fake business so that you can see how it
would apply in a real situation let's
get started first off what is a
competitor analysis it's exactly what it
sounds like which you're probably not
surprised by you're looking at
everything that your competitor is doing
at least the stuff that you can see this
isn't really a corporate espionage
situation and you're considering how
your business compares now why should
you bother doing a competitor analysis
there are a lot of good reasons to
perform an analysis of your competitors
and it's a common step in creating a new
business or starting a marketing
strategy but i feel there's a bit of
confusion around what the purpose of a
competitor analysis is and how to
complete one you can look into any
aspect of the business that you want and
you can use a competitor analysis for a
lot of planning purposes but some of the
most important reasons to perform a
competitor analysis are as follows you
can identify the things that your
competitor is doing correctly this will
give you an idea of what you should be
doing too we're not talking copying
we're talking inspiration you can also
identify the things your competitor is
doing wrong or incorrectly this will
give you an idea of gaps in the market
and needs that you can fulfill you'll be
able to identify the ways that your
company product or service is different
from your competitors and establish your
value proposition that's what you bring
to the table that's unique from what
anyone else does it also gives you an
idea of what to expect for growth it
allows you to see what customers are
saying about them your competitors i
mean or what questions they're asking
the problems they have or solutions that
they want let's look at how often you
should perform a competitor analysis i'd
recommend doing an in-depth analysis at
least once a year but i like to put this
on my calendar to do every six months or
so that way i don't spend too much time
doing something that's outdated or
falling short of what my clients
competitors are doing so let's get into
how to perform an analysis and what i
ask myself and look for i'll show you
how to do this using a made up brand
we'll call it morgan's cafe very
creative i know i'm including
information on each step questions to
ask and examples when they apply and
some ideas so the first step will be to
find your competitors you need to know
who else is offering something that
could replace your product or your
service and these people should be in
your area and sometimes in your area
means in your digital space we call
these your direct competitors and they
should be your main focus if you don't
know where to start do what your
customers would do search online you can
search for your business type or search
keywords that you think your customers
would search when they're trying to find
you you can do this on social media or
on search engines and you'll see lots of
options pop up here's a search for
coffee shops near me showing all of the
competition that morgan's cafe has next
you'll outline what your competitors do
or provide now that you've found your
competitors take your time to browse
their website read their social media
watch your youtube videos and scour
their blog to find out what your
competitors provide you want to know
basic things like what their product or
services are what their shipping policy
is what their return policy is etc you
also want to look through any freebies
or offers that they have available to
get an idea of what's going on next
describe how your competitors sell and
doesn't work it's time to look at the
sales process i recommend walking
through the steps here like you're a
customer browse products look at the
product page add a product to your cart
and start the checkout process or buy an
item to see the process through from
start to finish including packaging and
shipping times look at their social
media feeds subscribe to their
newsletter and read through emails that
you receive abandon your cart to see if
you get a reminder search keywords
online and review any ads that show up
look at reviews and read comments for
customer feedback i'll go into each of
these a little bit more later basically
are people engaging with the posts are
customers leaving good reviews are there
common complaints that you see often can
you tell how many sales they've made
notice that i said to describe this
process i actually write it out full
sentences full paragraphs make it feel
fancy if you feel like it but actually
be able to describe this process as well
as you would be able to describe your
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analyze your competitor pricing and how
they structure the product you browse
through product pages and shopping
during the last step but now we get to
go for a deeper dive start with the
product page and pay attention to
pricing while you explore here's what i
look for specifically how many images or
videos they're using and the style of
those is it moody is it on a white
background how does it feel what is the
layout of the page generally where is
everything located what is the copy like
is it long short descriptive bullet
points do they use very romantic
language what product or service
information is included what other
elements are on the page like email
lists or links to blogs or other
articles are there suggested products
are there reviews how do i add the
product to the cart what is the price of
the product how does it compare to other
products or services that their
competitors are offering how much is
shipping next scour your competitor's
digital marketing strategy from paid to
organic here's a note you'll notice that
some of these steps are overlapping with
others you're completing a number of
these steps at the same time so don't
worry about keeping them strictly in the
order that i'm presenting them now a lot
of them happen all at once but you'll
spend some time on your competitor's
social media channels most businesses
will list their social profiles on their
website but you can also manually search
the most popular platforms for your
competitors here's what i would list out
i would list all of my competitors and
then the platforms that the company is
using i also mark down how often they're
posting and what type of content they're
posting for example carousels videos
reels or stories i'll find them on
search engines like google youtube and
pinterest to see what comes up and i'm
looking for paid and unpaid things here
i also like to pay attention to the time
of day that they post i'll note the
average number of comments and likes
i'll also make note if they respond to
comments and what the tone of those
responses are next i'll read customer
reviews comments questions and
complaints this is the time to read
through reviews and comments to see what
your competitors customers are saying
about them not only will you get to hear
accounts of their experience but you'll
have a front row seat to any customer
complaints or questions which can help
you when you're developing your strategy
or offerings for example let's say that
morgan's cafe competitors close at 3 pm
on weekends and customers have been
leaving comments asking them to stay
open later morgan's cafe can adjust
their hours and run an ad campaign
advertising longer weekend hours to pick
up some of those customers who may be
looking for an afternoon caffeine fix
next you'll perform a swot analysis the
swot analysis is what you do at the end
of all this legwork so that you can put
all the information that you've
collected combine it with specifics for
your business and make a plan for
developing new marketing strategies or
new products swat s-w-o-t stands for
strengths weaknesses opportunities and
threats and i did a full video on
performing a swot analysis that you
should check out after this links will
be in the description box it's easy to
focus on all the tasks that you need to
complete for your business or all the
ideas that you have for products or
creating content but you don't want to
get so focused on your own business that
you're not keeping an eye on your
competitors and adapting your plan so
that you can stay relevant and top of
mind i hope this walkthrough helped
thank you so much for watching leave any
questions that you have in the comments
and i'll see you next time happy
marketing
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