Competition Analysis | Understanding Your Business Challenges

As with any business, a powerful and effective marketing strategy is the key to long-term success. Additionally, it is also important that a business understands its direct as well as indirect competition. Using the internet to research your competition is an effective marketing strategy and we can help you collect and make sense of this data.

A comprehensive competition analysis can help differentiate your website from the millions of others out there. It can help clarify your business goals, customize your approach and hone search engine optimizations(SEO) strategies that will set your website higher in Search Engine Result Page(SERP's) rankings. It is also a good idea to always check out features, quality and price range of your competitors. Being aware of the weaknesses and strength of you competition and comparing it with your own will give you the opportunity to put in place strategies that will allow you to effectively compete in your marketplace. End goal is to capitalize on your strong aspects and take advantage of your competitor's weakness. Remember your competition would be doing the same to you, so having a proactive strategy would work much better instead of reactive strategy.

In addition to your existing competition, you should also keep a close eye on your potential and future competition. Remember, new competitors will have to come up with better ideas to compete with established entities in their areas. You should visit blogs, forums and online article libraries that are related to your particular market segment to keep up with new trends, technologies and potential threats to your business. Having a very strong strategy and a loyal customer base will enable your online business to survive all these challenges.

So, how to you analyze your competition? According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), begin your analysis by finding your five closest direct and indirect competitors, and determine whether their businesses are growing, steady or declining. Then, identify their strengths and weaknesses and how their products or services differ from yours. For example, if all or most of your competitors offer free shipping, can you also afford to do so? Can you overcome their weaknesses with faster shipping or more product variety? Start by checking out 20 to 30 web sites in depth. Try putting yourself in your customers' shoes.

Our competition analysis report os one of the most comprehensive dataset that you can compile on your competition. Here are some of the key aspects pf our report:

• Extensive website review: This includes overall look and feel, colors, graphics, fonts and use of space. It also includes abstract information such as level of professional design, colors scheme in place, content presentation formats etc.
• Download speeds: Gathering and comparing website data delivery speeds against your own website. This should help you address user experience aspect of your website.
• Advertisements: Checking to see if visitors are bombarded with pop-ups and banner ads? Do they have free link exchange, free classifieds or paid advertising opportunities?
• Navigation: Website navigation is one of the most important aspect of web usability. We test and report how your website compares against your top competition in terms of ease of navigation and information architecture.
• Multimedia: We review and compile information whether your competition is using audio or video clips? How does rich media affect the overall performance and presentation of their site(s).
• Customer interaction: Do they have forums, e-newsletters or blogs? Can visitors find contact information and a real physical location (address, phone)? Do they have maps or driving directions?
• Industry knowledge: Do they provide tips, instructions, or industry resources?
• Products and pricing: How does their pricing compare to yours? Lower? Much higher? About the same? How many products do they offer? Do they have online coupons or specials? What specific brands are other sites selling?
• Merchant services: Ease of doing business online. Can you order easily online? How is shipping (quick, expensive, free with purchase)? What payment methods are available?
• Search engine optimization: How well do they rank in search engines? Which keywords do they use to optimize their sites?

While this listing is not exhaustive, this should provide you an overall feel for your competitors so that you can create a more unique, branded and engaging website. Identify the competitive strengths of each company in the analysis, including your own. When you create your marketing plans, you can easily refer back to your competitive analysis reporting for ideas and strategies.

Remember, no business exists in vacuum. If you ignore your competition, you will lose the opportunity to discover your own strengths and weaknesses. Effective competitive analysis gives you critical information to help you visualize your company as your customers and investors do, and to tune your marketing and business strategies for success.

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