Competitive intelligence (CI) is more than just gathering competitor data. It is a powerful way to uncover and use insights that will give you a competitive edge.
Focusing on high-quality information that can provide valuable insights is the key to effective competitive intelligence. This requires a clearly defined competitive intelligence strategy aligned with your business objectives.
1. Analyze Your Competitors
In order to better understand your competitors, you should conduct a competitive analysis. It can range from evaluating their product features and pricing to their marketing campaigns. Although every piece of information about your competitors can be valuable, you should focus on the data that is most relevant to your industry and goals.
If your competitor’s materials highlight their best features, then you can use this information to improve the quality of your own content and marketing messages. You can also use keywords or phrases that your competitors are using in their ads to increase your reach.
When you are conducting competitor research, choose a few of the most important competitors to focus your attention on. This will help you focus on the metrics which will have the biggest impact on your business and create a manageable intel. It may also be helpful to break down competitors into categories, such as direct (companies that target the same audience and offer a similar product) and indirect (companies that sell different products but still satisfy the needs of the audience).
Once you have selected the competitors you will analyze, begin collecting relevant data. Be careful about where you find this information. Some sources, like job postings or websites of competitors, may not provide the information you need. Limit your search to publicly available information and focus on the data that is most relevant to your business. Depending on your business goals, this might include social media profiles, websites, ads and whitepapers. Use a tool such as Semrush to identify your competitors and organize their results into a spreadsheet.
2. Identify Your Top Competitors
The first step in any competitor analysis is identifying your competitors. This includes both direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are businesses that offer a similar product or service in the same geographic market as you, while indirect competitors may provide products that are not identical but could solve a customer problem or fill a need that you do not address.
It’s time for you to analyze your top competitors. During this phase, you’ll look at the type of content they create, their marketing strategies, and how well their products or services are performing in the marketplace. You’ll want to assess their social media presence as well as SEO optimization.
In the end, you want to gather information that can improve your own competitiveness. This can be anything from a new set of keywords to target in your marketing to insight into how customers feel about a competitor’s product.
Prioritizing and organizing this information is important once you have gathered it. For example, while every piece of public-facing competition data is technically competition intelligence, not all of it will provide the insights you need to take action. It’s important to stay focused on your goals when conducting competitor analysis, and to focus on the information sources that support these goals.
As you conduct competitor analysis, ensure that your entire team understands the process. This will ensure your results are based upon accurate information, and it will help everyone understand their role in the success of your competitive Intelligence strategy. As a result, it will become more natural for your team to incorporate competitor research into their day-to-day activities and make better decisions as a result.
3. Conduct A Win/Loss Analysis
In the end, your competitive intelligence will only be as valuable as you can gather data. You have to be prepared for the collection, processing, and presentation of insights that can help your team perform.
One of the best ways to get a detailed understanding of what your buyers are thinking is to conduct win/loss analysis interviews. This is a key step in a successful CI programme and should be performed on a regular schedule. Interviewers use a standard set questions to ask buyers why they bought from your company, or your product, and what their purchasing journey was. This information is used to improve sales enablement and customer success programs.
When conducting interviews, try to connect with your customers as soon as possible after they’ve made a purchase. This will help ensure that their buying decision is still fresh, and that they are able to provide accurate information. Before beginning the interview, you should inform the buyer that the conversation will be recorded. Ask for their permission. Depending on how complex your interview is, you may want to prepare your buyers and give them some sample questions before they meet you.
You should also focus your research and only consider competitors who are relevant to your business. This will allow you to prioritize your research, and ensure that the most important information is being gathered. Once you’ve decided which competitors you want to keep an eye on, it’s now time to identify their strengths and weakness.
4. Conduct Market Research
Market research is a research method that is used to gain insight into customers and competitors. This information is used to inform product development and marketing campaigns. It can also be used to evaluate a company’s chances of success or failure. Market research is not as simple as it may appear. Competitive intelligence goes beyond the cliche of “know your opponent” and requires a deep dive to uncover the finer points in competitors’ business plans. This includes their customers and their marketplaces. It shows how a range of events can disrupt rival business, and how distributors, customers and other stakeholders might be affected. It shows how new technologies can quickly make assumptions obsolete.
There are two main categories of competitive intelligence – tactical and strategic. Tactical intelligence focuses on improving short-term decisions, such as pricing strategies and marketing campaigns, based on existing data. Strategic competitive intelligence is more comprehensive, and involves a deeper analysis of external factors that influence competitors’ strategic direction, such as industry trends, regulation changes, and disruptive technology.
Both types of competitive intelligence are vital for a business’s growth and success. CI allows companies to gain insights into their competitors as well as their strengths and weaknesses. This helps them create effective strategies which lead to sustainable business success.
When creating a competitive matrix, it is important to select a group of competitors that is small enough to be manageable. This group should include your direct competitors as well as other influential market players and high-potential new market entrants. Divide your matrix in sections to determine the level intelligence and monitoring that you require for each competitor. Then, set up a plan for how you will collect this information on an ongoing basis.
5. Develop A Competitive Matrix
A competitive intelligence strategy is a great way to demonstrate the value of your work. This type of research gives you insight into the products and sales strategies of your competitors, which can be used to create better marketing campaigns.
While the competitive analysis techniques you use will depend on your goals, some common sources of intelligence include social media monitoring, news sites, and industry publications. The more information you can gather, the more comprehensive your understanding of your competitor’s business will be. But it’s important to keep in mind that not all data are created equal. In fact, a lot of the data that your business collects about competitors is subject to bias and interpretation. Therefore, you should prioritize your sources and only consider those that are most likely to provide insights you can act on.
You should also identify indirect and aspirational rivals. These are companies that are leaders in your industry, but who don’t directly compete for customers with you. You can learn a lot from their business practices. By identifying your competition and analyzing their strengths, weaknesses and marketing strategies, you can create a more effective strategy to drive revenue growth.
Once you have a clear understanding of the five different types of competitive intelligence, it’s a good idea to find out who else in your organization collects or utilizes this type of information. This will help to ensure that you’re not duplicating effort and can find ways to leverage the knowledge of colleagues in other departments. For example, if someone in finance regularly collects competitor financial information, or if there’s another team that keeps a win/loss log containing key insights, it could be helpful to establish a formal collaboration and communication mechanism for this data.