Understand your Competitor's market space

One of the greatest sources of intelligence for your growing business or growing your business is your competitors and truly seeing what they are doing.
Now, let me be clear from the outset. If your competitor is doing X, you don’t have to do X just because they are doing it. You just need to know what they are doing and then judge it against your own resources and whether or not you should do it.
I work with a lot of businesses that operate in the same industry. I either sit down and work with them on their VIP Communications Strategy or I write their copy. Either way, I see so many differences between businesses. These differences are what I try to help their owners understand and get excited about.
As individuals, we all see the world differently. The same is true for us as business owners – we see the world differently. Yes – there are commonalities like value and price sensitivity that some consumers or businesses all share – but more differences exist than you think.
And taping into that differentiation will help you progress your business, improve your marketing and also help build relationships which lead not only to the first sale but the second and repeat sales thereafter.
So understanding your competitor and their market space is important for you – to ensure that you can offer something different…not more of the same. And certainly not more of the same at a lower price.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself about your competition:
1. What are your competitors up to right now?
2. What did they do in the past three months that you can remember straight-away (without looking through your notes)
3. How are they positioning and branding themselves? What’s unique about them?
4. What kind of marketing strategy are they employing? (purely digital, traditional, mix of both)
5. In your honest opinion, is their strategy effective?
6. How can you differentiate from your competitors in a way that reinforces your brand message?
Once you know what your message is – then assessing what your competition is doing is just another task. Your core message shouldn’t change but it can be flexible to react.