Competitors, you know they’re out there, but all too often, you don’t really know who they are or what they’re doing. Does this sound familiar? Perhaps you don’t have the time to carry out formal competitor research, or maybe you don’t know where to begin. However, with a few tricks and useful bits of technology, researching your competitors doesn’t have to be a difficult task.
Google your competitors
There are many ways to identify your competitors. However, one of the quickest and easiest ways to discover who is out there is to Google them. There are several ways to do this effectively. Firstly, find out what keywords match your business. If for example, you’re an online florist, your keywords might be “online florist” or “flowers for delivery”. Simply typing these into Google will show a list of related businesses. Alternatively, you can Google your own business and then look at the “People also search for” function that appears on the right-hand side of the Google search results. If you wanted to get super in-depth, you can also Google whatever competitors you find and then use the “People also search for” function to find businesses related to them.
Find more keywords
To uncover even more competitors, once you’ve identified one or two related businesses, you can use sites like SEMRush and SpyFu to find out more keywords. You can then use those keywords to search for more businesses.
There’s also the more traditional route of simply asking colleagues, suppliers, partner organizations and clients about potential competitors. If you have a particularly good relationship with a client, asking them about other companies that they considered or approached before using your business can be a good way to find out about serious competitors. Otherwise, some colleagues may have joined your business with a competitor company. They can also be a great source of information about your competitor’s inner workings and potential pitfalls.
Find similar websites
SimilarWeb is a fantastic free tool that you can use to find websites that are similar to yours (hence the name!). Simply enter your website’s URL and it will display up to ten similar websites. You can then use these websites to find other related websites and so on until you’ve built up a solid list of potential competitors.
Look up review sites
If relevant for your industry, take a look at review websites like Yelp which can help you discover new competitors. Likewise, reading through your competitor’s reviews will help you work out how well they are performing and how satisfied their customers are.
Keep your research going to find more competitors
Competitor research isn’t something that you simply do once and then never bother to undertake again. Competitors pop up all the time, especially if you operate in a fast-growing industry. You should always monitor new arrivals into your industry.
It is also important that you don’t just do your competitor research and then leave it in a folder to gather dust. You need to use the information that you have uncovered. Constantly monitor the companies that you have identified. Setting up a Google Alert can be a quick and efficient way to keep up-to-date with your competitors. Likewise, regularly visit their websites and social media sites to discover their latest marketing efforts. There may be a blog post, keyword or social media campaign that you can repurpose for your own uses!
Knowing who your competitors are is simply good business. By identifying competitors, you can supercharge your marketing efforts, discover new strategies to use and monitor what they are doing. Competitor research isn’t time-consuming when using the right tools, and it certainly pays dividends in the long term. So, begin researching your competitors today. You may find it gives you the edge you need to become a leader in your industry.
