Competitor Research

Before you launch your business, make sure you do your competitor research.

Running a business is like managing any successful team. Competitor research just means becoming more acquainted with the strategies of the opposition.

"Identifying your competitors and evaluating their strategies to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to those of your own product or service"

Source: Entrepreneur

Search Engine Research

Begin small. Google still serves as an ideal place to get started. We start all our competitor analysis with keyword research.

Competitors can be segmented into two categories. The direct competitors solve the same problem, with the same value proposition for the same target group.

The indirect competitors usually have similar value propositions, but for a different audience, or they target the same audience with different value propositions.

You should carefully consider who your competitors are. Then start by googling their names. See where they fit into searches for key terms. Are they ranking well for broad search terms? Or do they seem to be targeting niche / long-tail segments?

Organic v Paid Search

Remember to look for both organic results and paid (sponsored) results.

Organic search can show you which of your competitors is well regarded by Google. They probably have lots of compelling, relevant content. They are probably an authority on the topic.

Paid results give you a clearer indication of what the company is specifically targeting. This can be helpful for deciding where to position your own brand. It can also give you an idea of key words to target (and avoid) for your own PPC campaigns.

If you'd like to discuss how we use these techniques to plan your digital marketing campaign, get in touch.