June 2, 2022

What Does It Mean to Have a Pulse on Your Competitors?

Is there really such a thing as friendly competition? In the world of digital marketing, we’re here to tell you the answer is, without a doubt, yes! It may come as a surprise to some, but skilled marketers understand there is plenty to go around if and when your marketing strategy is designed to meet the needs of your exact business and the audiences you serve. 

Read on to learn what a holistic approach to a competitor analysis looks like, how to find growth and learning opportunities among your competitors, and most importantly, how to stand out by keeping two steady fingers on the pulse of your competitors at all times.  

How To Do a Competitive Analysis in Digital Marketing

So, what is a competitive, or competitor, analysis anyway, and how  —and why — would you conduct one? MailChimp describes a competitor analysis as “ a scouting report for your business —a tool for designing a game plan that helps your company succeed.” Here at PHOS Creative, we add that a competitor analysis helps a company identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within their industry, which is a key aspect of developing a great strategic marketing plan. 

Conducting a competitive analysis is the first step to figuring out who your competition is, which will help you determine how to harness and pivot their strengths and weaknesses into wins for your company. A thorough competitive analysis helps determine where your brand can grow, what your brand can learn, and how your brand can shine. 

Growth Opportunities

Often, competitors pave the way for many growth opportunities. If you haven’t been viewing your competition in this light,  you’ve been letting valuable insight slip through your fingers! 

It’s common for companies to ask, “What is my biggest opportunity for growth?” Before asking this question, though, it’s likely that you or your team developed a set of business goals you hope to achieve over a certain period. Identifying your company’s growth opportunities by analyzing your competitors is one way to develop a roadmap of how to achieve your desired business objectives, especially objectives tied to overall growth.

Analyzing things that your competitors are doing well and seeing great results from help you pinpoint opportunities for growth with your audience and within your industry. A holistic way to do this is by comparing data points pulled from the competitive analysis, comparing keywords, measuring engagement, looking at ad placement, utilizing tools like SEM Rush, and so on, depending on the type of industry you are in.

Ask These Questions

Below is a list of questions to ask yourself to find where current opportunities may exist:

  1. Which organic keywords are working well for my competitors that we could utilize more in our website content, blogs, and ads?
  2. Which platforms do our competitors see the most engagement with (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.), and which type of content is working the best for them?
  3. How is my competition creating a seamless customer journey to increase conversion rates (think calls to action, online forms, chatbots, text options, and appointment setting plugins)?

Remember, one of your company’s strengths may be a competitor’s weakness, but don’t let that lead you to believe a competitor’s strength is automatically your company’s weakness. All the resources are there for you to figure out exactly how to do what they’re doing just as well, if not better!

Learning Opportunities

We’re going to call the flip side of the growth opportunities marketing coin learning opportunities. Just as we can evaluate what is working well for our competitors, we can learn from their mistakes and where their efforts fall flat. 

Ask These Questions

Below is a list of questions to ask yourself to figure out what you can learn from your competitor’s shortcomings: 

  1. Where can you better spend your time, energy, and resources to increase ROI? 
  2. Which segment of your audience is your competitor failing to target that you may be able to capture? 
  3. Which trends are leading your industry that your competitors are failing to capitalize on? 

Find the gaps and fill them with your awesome services and or products! Becoming an industry leader requires bravely walking into the uncharted, answering questions that haven’t been asked, and finding solutions to problems your audience may or may not even realize they have. 

Finding Your Company’s Unique Value Proposition

What is a value proposition? HubSpot defines it as “s a short statement that communicates why buyers should choose your products or services. It’s more than just a product or service description — it’s the specific solution that your business provides and the promise of value that a customer can expect you to deliver.” 

So, why are we talking about competitors and value propositions in the same breath? Because keeping a pulse on your competitors by performing a competitive analysis, for example, can help you pinpoint your company’s unique value proposition to help you stand out amongst your competition. 

Value propositions, when developed and executed, value propositions help strengthen brand authority, increase customer loyalty, and help companies successfully navigate and achieve their strategic objectives sustainably.  To narrow in on your company’s unique value proposition, it is imperative to have a pulse on your competitors and what you bring to the table that they don’t! 

PHOS Creative Can Help You Successfully Navigate the Competition

Our team at PHOS Creative utilizes the holistic marketing concept and understands the importance of staying in the know regarding market trends and industry competition. Allow PHOS to help your company discover opportunities, excel where others can’t, and be a light in your industry. 

For more on harnessing your company’s unique value proposition into a successful marketing strategy, read our blog, How to Develop a Customer-Centric Marketing Approach, or reach out to us today to schedule some time to connect! 

Emily Parada

As an Inbound Marketing Executive, Emily focuses on creating detailed, personalized, and data-driven strategies to help clients reach desired digital goals efficiently and effectively. She studied communications at the University of Florida with a specialization in public interest and is motivated to find new ways to articulate old or forgotten ideas. Emily loves to write, rollerblade, and watch 90’s movies in the evenings with her husband and three kids.“In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.” -Baba Dioum