Competitive Marketing Analysis (£)

A 4 Point Checklist for analysing your competitors

1. Review Your Competitions Websites

These days the importance of Websites has become fpused on the Brand image. It is the impression that your customers and clients rely on to connect and it is very important that you check and review your site and your competitors site every couple of months and on an on-going basis. There are some questions your organisation should consider and answer.
 
What is your view and have you research reports on your own and your client’s website layout, design and information? How much attention does your site attract and how does this compare with the opposition? 

How quickly, does your websites appear and load, and is it mobile enabled? Is there encouragement to share information and data and is it connected to social media sites and to which ones and how much use do they get? 

2. Build An Ideal Customer/Client Profile

Analyse where customers/client are for yourself and your competition. How often does your organisation visit customers/clients and can you analyse the purpose of those visits and what is the percentage of non-sales visits? How much time does your client/customer spend on-line and how often do they spend visiting your website? 

Collect and analyse as much data as you can on a continual basis about competition and clients/customers from the web. Sweep different sites for reports and analyse the competitive information that is available. Do you include social media connections on your site and are there ways encouraged to share data, information and relevant information-content?

One of the main components of a strategic business plan ought to be a market by market segment analysis. Separating your markets into different areas and sections will help to focus your markets and competition and also critical new areas and products and services that now affect your market.

Studying the market and competition is of course vital and needs to be done by the Directors and Senior Management, as well as the Sales and Marketing Departments. Comprehending how your competitors are successfully engaging with clients and customers will assist your understanding of the client’s buying system and process. The very Important data to is search engine rankings, web design and client engagement methods. 

Lay out the lines bordering your markets. The parameters will identify and depend on your specific product or service. For example, if your service or product is aimed at particular businesses, then you should section the industry market, the commercial size and the number of employees and location. If your business targets consumers, then segments by age or gender will be appropriate. In other examples, the price of your product or service will often determine a market segmentation. Based on pricing a review will identify the size of the customer’s business, the higher the price the higher the revenues that the customer will make.

3. Collect A Lot of Web Information 

The Internet holds an awful lot of data and information and it is important not to just use one Search Engine as each has a relatively small amount of the Wed that it monitors. And of course the Web is a constantly updated, current source of data. There is also a lot Reports that market research firms will have published that will be relevant to your research. Download annual reports and financial information directly from your competitor’s websites. Also to get second opinions use researchers and consider hiring a market research firm to assist the process and to give different perspectives on your research.

4. Review & Build A Customer Profile

After you have collected most of the Data and information you can review, consider, discuss and begin the process of building a customer profile, and competitor profile and the market segment analysis. 

This process will begin to make you more aware of the new and changing market spaces and the types of new competition that may well be coming into your established and new market-spaces. 

The Internet is changing the commercial model and it is very important that Senior Management and Directors stay on the new Digital Strategy which, is altering the commercial model considerably.