In business, information serves to develop effective strategies and generate novel concepts. To obtain the essential knowledge, you must conduct thorough market research, which helps you to better understand your target audience, address market gaps, manage your resources economically, and, most importantly, discover everything about your competition. Several market research approaches may assist you in gaining the knowledge you require to acquire a competitive advantage in your sector. The global market research industry is huge, with an established value of $82 billion in 2022 and projections to grow even more.
Implementing effective competitor market research techniques helps you assess the competitive landscape in order to identify how your company may prosper in the market. For instance, conducting a competitive analysis may assist a corporation in developing an effective overall business strategy as well as plans for product development, sales, and marketing. These assessments assist companies in understanding their competition and how to position themselves for future success.
So, to gain valuable data regarding your competition, you must employ the following four market research techniques.
Check their social media platforms
Social media market research may deliver real-time insights with surprising speed and accuracy, as well as an analytics report and the inside scoop on what’s going on in the industry right now. With effective social media market research, you may learn about your competitors’ short-term and long-term projects. Understanding your competitors’ content and advertising techniques, as well as how the market reacts to them, and being aware of your audience segmentation status will be extremely beneficial to your future company’s success.
Determine your competition and watch their social presence throughout their various social profiles. Tracking how your rivals are performing on social media requires checking each platform separately. If you work in a highly competitive industry, this process might take a long time. However, the more thorough you are, the better the outcomes will be.
For instance, if you choose Instagram as your starting point, you can use several free tools to ease your research. You can use an Instagram Story viewer tool to view public Stories and Highlights published by your competitors without leaving a trace. Also, you can download them anonymously and for free. You will need just the user name of the profile of the competitor you want to check. This data may be used to compare your strengths and weaknesses, find areas for progress, and influence marketing tactics to be implemented in your company.
Research your competitors’ sales methods
As part of your research, you might also look into your competitors’ sales methods. This information might be difficult to get, but even a small portion of knowledge can help you develop your sales approach. You might be able to uncover some useful information on the websites of your competitors, such as whether they offer a partner reselling scheme.
Companies’ online marketing and sales content and resources, such as blog posts, whitepapers, testimonials, and webinars, may also give significant insights. This can provide important competition information such as new product introductions, current offers, their target audience, strategic alliances, which marketing channels they use, and more. All of these will help you understand what your competitors normally focus on and how they position themselves in the market.
Check online reviews
Gather as many online reviews of your competitors as possible. On their website, you can read their clients’ testimonials, blog comments, and case studies. Also, read their Google reviews. It’s a good idea to research not just what your competitors do well but also what they do poorly.
Furthermore, if they sell a product comparable to yours, you can measure the amount of demand for it. Any constructive critique may give insights into areas where your product or service may be improved.
Learn about their SEO strategy
SEO is important, and there is no foolproof method to completely understand your competitors’ strategies. To determine what keywords and phrases your competitors are ranking for, use a keyword research tool. Discovering which keywords your competitors target and rank for allows you to gain insight into what works for them and find new ones you may have overlooked. Even better, you may discover terms that they aren’t targeting and locate underserved clients.
Final thoughts
Conducting competitive research can be intimidating initially. However, it plays a crucial role in running a thriving business. Once you utilize the resources for your analysis, you may discover that it’s not as challenging as you thought. In some ways, having an understanding of your competitors is just as vital as understanding your customers. Your competitors have significant things to teach you, so keep an eye on their plan of action. This will improve your company and increase its worth to customers.
