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Start » strategy, sizing up the competition: how to conduct competitive research.

Competitive research can reveal trends in the marketplace and gaps in your own business plan.

Competitive research is a crucial part of any good marketing plan. This term may elicit some negative images but competitive research has nothing to do with spying. It has everything to do with paying attention to your competition and what they are doing.

Many people will lose out on business to competitors they have never even heard of simply because they’ve never taken the time to do competitive research. Understanding what your competition is doing will help you position yourself, and your product or service, within the market.

What is competitive research?

Competitive research involves identifying your competitors, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of their products and services. By looking at your biggest competitors, you can see how your own products and services stack up and what kind of threat they pose to your business. It also helps you identify industry trends you may have been missing.

Four benefits to doing competitive research are:

• Understanding your market . Competitive research can reveal trends in the marketplace that might have otherwise been missed. The ability to identify and predict trends is a huge asset for any business, helping to improve value proposition for customers. This is an important component of competitive research that you should constantly be doing.
• Improving your marketing . Your customers care about how your product or service is going to make their lives better. If they are leaving to go to one of your competitors, it’s probably because that company does a better job of explaining the benefits to the customer base, or does in fact provide a better product or service. Competitive research helps you understand why customers choose to buy from you or your competitors and how your competition is marketing their products. Over time, this can help you improve your own marketing programs.
• Identifying market gaps . When you do competitive research, you’re analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. You’ll often find that, by looking at the data, there is a segment of the population that is being underserved. This could put your business in a unique position to reach those customers.
• Planning for the future . The most important byproduct of competitive research is that it will help you create a strategic plan for your business. This includes things like improving your product or service, using more strategic pricing strategies, and improving the promotion of your products.

Good competitive research could put your business in a unique position to reach customers who are being underserved.

6 steps to competitive research

It may sound obvious, but the first step is to simply identify who your top competitors are . There are two different types of competitors to identify: direct and indirect.

Direct competitors are targeting the same customer base you’re targeting. They are solving the same problem that you are trying to solve and sell a similar product or service.

Indirect competitors may sell something similar to your product or service but target a different audience, or they may target your same customer base but have a slightly different product or service.

It’s important to understand this segment of your market for two reasons: (1) it could provide you with growth opportunities for your own business, and (2) it could also highlight a threat to your business of which you would otherwise be unaware.

Here are six steps to getting started on competitive research:

Identify main competitors.

The most obvious way to do this is simply by searching your product or service category on the web and seeing what comes up. You can also check websites like Crunchbase or Product Hunt . You may find competitors that you might not have noticed before.

The goal is to cast a wide net and get an idea of who your main competitors are. Another good way to identify direct and indirect competitors is to ask your potential customers what services they are already using.

Analyze competitors' online presence

Once you’ve identified your main competitors, you want to look at their website, the type of content they are publishing, and their social media presence. Then, look for any blogs, white papers, and social media content being provided about their products and how to use them. Ask yourself these questions:

• What is the user experience like on their website?
• Is it easy to navigate?
• Do you clearly understand the products or services they offer?
• Is their website mobile-optimized?
• How often do they blog and most importantly, is the quality of their content good?
• What topics do they blog about most frequently?
• What social platforms are they actively using to talk about their products and services?
• Is this content engaging their target audience?

The answers to these questions show you opportunities where you can outperform your competitors. You will want to pay close attention to anything they are doing well that you aren’t doing. This will help give you a better understanding of where you should be focusing your attention and resources.

Gather information

The best way to gather information about your competitors is by acting like one of their customers. Sign up for their email list so you can get an idea of how they communicate.

Also, follow their blog and social media accounts and watch how they interact with their customers online. What kind of experience do customers have with your competitors?

You should consider shopping from them so you can see what their product looks like and what the experience is like from a customer perspective.

Track your findings

Make sure you track your competitors' findings on a spreadsheet; it will help with ongoing monitoring. This isn’t a complicated process, you just need to keep track of what they are doing over time so that you can see how they change everything from pricing to marketing and promotional activities.

You’ll start by dividing your competitors into direct and indirect customer columns. You’ll then track the following information:

• Company name
• Social media sites
• Unique features
• Pros and cons
• Screenshots and additional links

Check online reviews

Try to find as many reviews of your competitors as possible. Read their social media reviews, comments on their blogs, and case studies on their website. If they offer and present Google reviews, read them as well. It’s a good idea to understand not only the good things that your competitors may be doing, but the bad things as well. Include mentions with the Better Business Bureau about them in your research.

How customer-focused are they? This could be an opportunity for you to stand out. And, if they sell a product similar to yours, this will be a good way to find out if a lot of people are interested in it.

Any negative feedback will help you identify areas where you can improve your own product or service.

Identify areas for improvement

Now that you’ve taken note of some of the biggest differences between you and your competitors, it’s time to think about how you can use this information to improve your own business results.

Your competitive research should reveal at least one area your business can stand to improve in. This will help you learn how to engage better with your customers and online followers.

Keep in mind that competitive research is never a "one-and-done" event. Ongoing monitoring, such as observing how competitors evolve, is necessary to ensure that you are staying competitive in the marketplace.

Tools for competitive research

Software and technology now make it easier than ever to conduct competitive research. However, there are hundreds of competitive research tools on the market and narrowing down the right software can feel overwhelming.

This is why we’ve done the legwork and narrowed it down for you. Here are four tools you should consider using to conduct your competitive research:

SEMrush : This is one of the best competitive research tools on the market. It contains over 30 tools that can track things like SEO, PPC, keyword research, competitive research, and more. SEMrush will help you discover new competitors, find their best-used keywords, and analyze their ad copy. They have flexible pricing plans depending on your business needs.

SpyFu : This search analytics tool reveals the keywords websites buy on Google. So, once you’ve identified your biggest competitors, you can track every keyword they’ve bought. Plus, you can track every keyword they are ranking for and find the content and backlinks that helped them rank in the first place.

BuzzSumo : BuzzSumo lets you see how your content is matching up to your competitors’ content. You can see which content is shared more frequently on social media compared to others, and you can even schedule alerts on your competitors’ content which will make it easier to continue tracking them.

Owletter : Owletter tracks and analyzes emails sent from a website. This allows you to track your competitors’ email marketing and see what is and isn’t working for them. To get started, you’ll need to sign up to join your competitors’ email list. Then, every time you receive an email, Owletter will take a screenshot, analyze it, and alert you to any useful information.

Competitive research can seem daunting at first but it’s an essential part of running a successful business. When you incorporate the right tools into your research, you may find that it’s not as difficult as you imagined.

On some level, understanding your competitors is just as important as understanding your customers. Your competitors have valuable lessons to teach you and it’s important to regularly monitor their online activity. Doing so will strengthen your business and improve your own value for your customers.

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What is a Competitive Analysis — and How Do You Conduct One?

Published: November 10, 2022

When was the last time you ran a competitive analysis for your brand? And most importantly, do you know how to do one efficiently?

If you‘re unsure or if the last "analysis" you ran was a quick perusal of a competitor’s website, you're likely missing out on important intelligence that could help your brand grow.

In this detailed guide, you'll learn how to conduct a competitive analysis to give your business an advantage.

Table of Contents

What is a competitive analysis?

• Understanding Competitive Market Research

Competitive Analysis in Marketing

How to do a competitive analysis, competitive product analysis, competitive analysis example, competitive analysis templates, competitive analysis: faqs, what is a competitive market analysis.

A competitive analysis is a strategy that involves researching major competitors to gain insight into their products, sales, and marketing tactics. Implementing stronger business strategies, warding off competitors, and capturing market share are just a few benefits of conducting a competitive market analysis.

A competitive analysis can help you learn the ins and outs of how your competition works and identify potential opportunities where you can outperform them. It also enables you to stay atop of industry trends and ensure your product is consistently meeting — and exceeding — industry standards.

Let's dive into a few more benefits of conducting competitive analyses:

• Helps you identify your product's unique value proposition and what makes your product different from your competitors, which can inform future marketing efforts.
• Enables you to identify what your competitor is doing right. This information is critical for staying relevant and ensuring your product and marketing campaigns outperform industry standards.
• Tells you where your competitors are falling short — which helps you identify areas of opportunities in the marketplace and test out new, unique marketing strategies they haven't taken advantage of.
• Learn through customer reviews what‘s missing in a competitor’s product, and consider how you might add features to your own product to meet those needs.
• Provides you with a benchmark against which you can measure your growth.

Competitive analysis is a meticulous strategy that dives deep into the operations of your prime competitors.

It's not just about knowing what they offer. You need to understand their sales strategies, marketing tactics, and the ethos driving their brand.

10 Free Competitive Analysis Templates

Track and analyze your competitors with these ten free planning templates.

• SWOT Analysis
• Battle Cards
• Feature Comparison
• Strategic Overview

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

10 Competitive Analysis Templates

Fill out the form to access the templates., why is a competitive analysis important.

The ripple effects of a well-executed competitive analysis are manifold:

• Strategic business decisions. Anchoring your business strategies on solid, data-driven insights ensures you stay ahead in the game.
• Fortifying defenses. By knowing what your competitors are up to, you can better defend your market share and even capture new territories.
• Unearth golden opportunities. Delving into the intricacies of your competition’s operations can spotlight areas where you can shine brighter.

Beyond Just the Basics

While it's essential to understand how your competition operates, the real magic happens when you can:

• Spot your unique value. What sets you apart? How can you amplify that difference in your marketing efforts?
• Learn from their triumphs. Your competitors might just be doing something genius. Identifying their strengths ensures you're always at par, if not ahead.
• Discover their shortcomings. Every brand has its Achilles' heel. Find it. This knowledge can carve out opportunities and new strategies for your business.
• Tap into customer sentiments. Dive into customer reviews. What’s lacking in their product? Can you incorporate those missing features into your offerings?
• Benchmark your progress. Your journey is unique. However, setting a benchmark based on your competitors can offer valuable growth metrics.

What is competitive market research?

Competitive market research is a vital exercise that goes beyond merely comparing products or services.

It involves an in-depth analysis of the market metrics that distinguish your offerings from those of your competitors.

A thorough market research doesn't just highlight these differences but leverages them, laying a solid foundation for a sales and marketing strategy that truly differentiates your business in a bustling market.

In the next section, we’ll explore the nuts and bolts of conducting a detailed competitive analysis tailored to your brand.

Every brand can benefit from regular competitor analysis. By performing a competitor analysis, you'll be able to:

• Identify gaps in the market.
• Develop new products and services.
• Uncover market trends.
• Market and sell more effectively.

As you can see, learning any of these four components will lead your brand down the path of achievement.

Next, let's dive into some steps you can take to conduct a comprehensive competitive analysis.

• Determine who your competitors are.
• Determine what products your competitors offer.
• Research your competitors' sales tactics and results.
• Take a look at your competitors' pricing, as well as any perks they offer.
• Ensure you're meeting competitive shipping costs.
• Analyze how your competitors market their products.
• Take note of your competition's content strategy.
• Learn what technology stack your competitors use.
• Analyze the level of engagement on your competitors' content.
• Observe how they promote marketing content.
• Look at their social media presence, strategies, and go-to platforms.
• Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

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What is competitive analysis? Template, examples, and how-to

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll define what a competitive analysis is, describe the benefits product teams stand to gain from conducting one, and walk through the steps of how to do a competitive analysis.

Through the tutorial, we’ll refer to examples to demonstrate how each step of a competitive analysis works in practice. We’ll also provide a list of customizable, free competitive analysis templates for you to use when completing these steps on your own.

Complete guide to competitive analysis

Picture this: you just came up with the next disruptive, game changing, AI-powered e-commerce marketplace. The objective is to connect buyers with sellers to fulfill their tailored and customized product needs.

You’re confident your product will take on Etsy and other big players in the market. You did some market and user research and have a good idea of your ideal customer and their (underserved) needs. Based on this data, you believe your marketplace can reach product-market fit quickly.

It’s now time for you to dust off your copy of Sun Tzu’s  T he Art of War . Why is that, you ask?

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military textbook that, although dated somewhere between ~500–400 B.C., is one of the most influential management books out there to this day. It provides great strategic and tactical advice. Moreover, it provides guidance to help you assess yourself and your competition to gain an advantage.

Maintaining a competitive advantage is the goal. Even if you have the best product in the world and you know there is a market for it, if you don’t understand your competition, you‘re bound to fail. That’s why you need to perform a competitive analysis.

As the band Rage Against the Machine would say, know your enemy .

What is competitive analysis?

Competitive analysis (sometimes called a competitor analysis or competition analysis) is exactly what it sounds like: a structured approach to identifying and analyzing your competitors. More concretely, it’s an assessment of your competition’s offerings, strategy, strengths, and weaknesses.

A competitive analysis helps you answer questions such as:

• Which other companies are providing a solution similar to ours?
• What are the ideal customer’s minimum expectations?
• What are they currently not getting from our product with regard to those expectations?
• What barriers do competitors in the market fce?
• What should we avoid introducing in our product?
• What price are customers willing to pay for our product?
• What value do we need to provide to make our product stand out in the market?
• What trends are happening and how might they change the playing field?

When conducted thoroughly and regularly, a competitive analysis provides you with tons of information that can be used to improve and optimize your product. The end result is a holistic overview of your competitor landscape.

Why do a competitive analysis?

Competitive analysis is a fundamental product management instrument. It helps PMs learn what works and what doesn’t when trying to acquire market share, identify market trends, and locate gaps in their product offering.

Competitive analysis exists to help you avoid making mistakes and empower you to beat competitors to the punch in the pursuit of product growth and success.

Knowing your competition will bring you great rewards. Conducting a competitive analysis will help you more effectively:

• Create benchmarks
• Identify opportunities to better serve customers
• Make strategic decisions
• Determine your pricing strategy
• Identify market gaps
• Determine distribution and marketing strategies

Typically, the first time you create a competitor analysis is when doing your market research. This helps you get an idea of the product-market fit , which will evolve along your journey.

As a product manager, your role is not to analyze how well your competitors are able to showcase themselves. It is your job to make the product what the customer needs it to be. Understanding your competitor’s capabilities, pricing, and product positioning helps you in this.

Keep in mind that your competitors will likely showcase themselves to appear better than they probably are. You’ll be able to acquire tons of information about them, but you should take that information with a pinch of salt.

How to do a competitive analysis

There is no a single way to do a competitive analysis. In general, a competitive analysis is made up of three fundamental components:

• A shortlist of competitors
• A competitor deep dive
• A holistic overview and strategy

To demonstrate how to do a competitor analysis, we’ll refer back to the example outlined in the introduction.

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Remember, in our example, we’re looking to disrupt the market with an AI-powered e-commerce marketplace app that helps buyers and sellers connect to fulfill highly customized orders. Let’s call our innovative new product AGORA.

1. Create a shortlist of your competitors

There are three types of competitors:

• Direct — Competitors that offer the same product and target the same ideal customer; you are battling direct competitors heads-on
• Indirect — Competitors that either offer a somewhat similar product or target the same ideal customer
• Replacement — Competitors that offer a different product but target the same ideal customer

For a competitive analysis, you need to identify at least your direct and indirect competitors. So how do you do that? By looking inward and researching obsessively .

Look inward

To figure out who your direct and indirect competitors are, you need to look inward first to understand your product positioning: who are you servicing and what is the offering you are providing?

You can answer these questions by doing a self-assessment using the product canvas . Originally introduced by Roman Pichler, the product canvas has since tbeen tweaked and refined.

In its core, the product canvas covers:

• The name of the product
• Objectives and key metrics for success
• The ideal customer
• A high-level overview of what’s required to meet the customer’s needs
• Just enough product details about short-term goals

For our example product, the competitive analysis might look something like this:

Research obsessively

A simple Google search using keywords from your self-assessment can get you pretty far. Other resources that can help you identify your competitors include tools such as Crunchbase, Similarweb, Statista, etc.

As the old saying goes, the customer knows best. If you don’t have many customers yet, review sites such G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, and Google Reviews can help you.

If you do have customers, go ask them. Most customers try and evaluate several products before deciding on the right product to buy. Nothing is stopping you from asking them which other brands they considered and why they ultimately chose yours.

Once you have established who your competitors are, you might find yourself in a market with many direct and indirect competitors. If that is the case, select about seven of the most relevant competitors to include in your competitor deep dive.

2. Do a deep dive on each competitor

From your a shortlist of competitors, choose about seven of your most important and dig up all the relevant information on each one.

The research conducted during the previous step will help you capture the most relevant information about your competitors for the following categories:

Company profile

Ideal customer profile, product information, market approach, swot analysis.

Start by creating a company profile for each of your competitors to gain a better understanding of who they are. Include the following information:

• Name   —  What is the name of your competitor?
• Founding date  —  When was the company founded? How long has it been in the market?
• Company size  —  How many employees does the company have? Are they equipped to service the market and innovate?
• Market share  — The portion of the market controlled by the competitor’s product
• Revenue   —  The income the competitor generates from its product
• Reputation   —  What do customers think of your competitor’s product on a scale from one to five?

Let’s apply this framework to our AGORA competitive analysis example:

It’s important to understand who your competitors are serving and who is buying the product. This not only to reconfirm that the competitor is indeed a direct (or indirect) competitor, but also to understand what customers like and dislike about the competitor’s product.

The information you’re looking for includes:

• Ideal customer   —  Who is the competitor’s target customer and what defines them?
• Motivations   —  What does the customer enjoy about your competitor’s product?
• Frustrations   —  What does the customer hate about the product?
• Primary buyer  —  Who is the primary buyer of the product? Is it the as the ideal customer, or is it a different persona?

Let’s see what this would look like following our AGORA example. Below is an example ideal customer profile for Etsy. First, for the buyer:

And the ideal customer profile for Etsy sellers:

Not to be captain obvious, but you want to capture more details about the product your competitor is offering and its positioning.

The information we’re looking for at this step includes:

• The product   —  What is the tagline your competitor is using to market its product?
• Positioning   —  Based on the quality and price of the product, place the product into a one of several buckets. For example, Economy (low quality, low price), Skimming (low quality, high price), Penetration (high quality, low price), and Premium (high quality, high price)
• Product features   —  What are the key features being marketed and promoted?

Referring to our example AGORA app, the product information associated with Etsy on a competitor analysis might look as follows:

Next, seek to understand how your competitors are bringing the product to market .

List the following information:

• Pricing — What does the product costs? If there is a tiered pricing model, what does it look like?
• Distribution channels — Through which channels is your competitor selling the product?
• Marketing channels — Through which channels is the product being promoted?

In our AGORA competitor analysis example, this section would look something like:

With all the information you’ve collected, you’ll find yourself in a good place to do a SWOT analysis . This is one of the most common and popular competitive analysis frameworks.

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats:

• Strengths  —  What is going well for the competitor?
• Weaknesses   —  What is not going well? What obvious flaws are there?
• Opportunities   —  What could give your competitor an advantage?
• Threats  —  What might harm your competitor’s product?

For AGORA, our example competitive analysis might include a SWOT analysis that looks like this:

3. Develop a holistic overview and strategy

Now that you have a better view of your competitors, it’s time to determine how you want to approach them in the market: do you want to avoid your competitors or attack them?

Two extremely useful tools that can help you make this assessment are the competitive matrix and battle cards .

Competitive matrix

One way to operationalize the data you gathered during your competitive analysis is to plot out a four-quadrant competitive matrix.

Define key factors for the and x and y axes and plot yourself and your competition accordingly to see how you stack up. This approach is also known as perceptual mapping.

A competitive matrix for our example would look like this:

Battle cards

You can use the four-quadrant competitive matrix and competitor insights to create battle cards for each of your competitors.

Battle cards are a visual aid that help you compare your product against those of your competitors at a glance. It’s a quick and easy way to see how you stack up in key areas of performance and value. It’s also a neat way to help sales in their conversations with customers.

Here’s what you should include on each battle card:

• Company name — Name of your competitor
• Powers  —  What makes this competitor stand out from the rest?
• How we win   —  What should we do to gain a competitive advantage over this competitor?
• Why we lose   —  What is this competitor better at? What should we avoid so we don’t lose market share?
• Pricing   —  How much of a threat is the competitor’s product to our market share (low, medium, or high)?
• Strategy   — Should we attack or avoid this competitor?

A battle card for our example competitive analysis might look as follows:

Alternative competitive analysis frameworks

If you‘ve followed the framework described above, you should have solid insight into your competitors, your product opportunities, and the best strategy to attack or avoid your competitors in the market.

If you want to dig deeper, you can follow up your competitive analysis by producing a Five Forces analysis and/or customer journey map .

The Five Forces model

You still might want to consider gaining more insights into the competitive structure of the market you are in — in other words, gain a better understanding of how easy it is to either enter or be replaced by a competitor in the market.

A great framework to use for this type of competitor analysis is the Five Forces model , originally conceived by Michael Porter.

According to the Five Forces model, you can assess the market you are in by looking at:

• Intensity of competitive rivalry
• Negotiation power of new buyers
• Negotiation power of suppliers
• Threat of new entrants
• Threat of substitutes

Customer journey map

Instead of zooming out, you can also zoom in on the journey ideal customers make when interacting with the product itself, the distribution, or marketing channels.

On a journey map, your touchpoints are the customer, the activity performed, how the customer experiences the activities, and their expectations.

Free competitive analysis templates

A competitive analysis is a continuously updated document packed with information about your most important competitors to help you determine how to approach them in your target market.

The competitive analysis model described in this article consists of three steps that are designed to produce the insights you need to rule the market once and for all.

Below are free, customizable competitive analysis templates for each step of the process described in this article:

• Competitive analysis template
• Product canvas template
• Competitive matrix template
• Battle card template
• Customer journey map template

NOTE : To use and customize the competitive analysis templates above, after opening, select File > Make a copy from the main menu.

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How to Perform Competitive Research: A Comprehensive Guide

The business environment is constantly evolving. New players are emerging, technologies are advancing, and consumer preferences are changing in the blink of an eye. Staying one step forwards of your competitors is crucial to ensure your business thrives. Read more.

Shaurya Bedi

The business environment is constantly evolving. New players are emerging, technologies are advancing, and consumer preferences are changing in the blink of an eye. Staying one step forwards of your competitors is crucial to ensure your business thrives.

So, how do you "Stay ahead?"

Have you ever wondered why successful companies always seem to be one step ahead of the game?

Well, the secret lies in performing effective  competitive research and analysis !

Effective competitive research and analysis help businesses understand their market and leverage their strengths. Companies can uncover valuable insights about industry trends, customer preferences, and emerging opportunities by closely monitoring their competitors.

Effective analysis is also the key ingredient that turns research into action. By thoroughly examining the data, businesses can formulate winning strategies, refine their products/services, and stay ahead of the curve.

What is Competitive Research?

Competitive research gathers and analyzes information about your industry rivals to gain a competitive edge. It involves identifying who your competitors are and analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. This lets you understand what they're doing well and where they fall short. Learning from their strategies and mistakes is like peeking over their shoulders.

Competitive research helps you uncover market trends and customer preferences. Understanding what your target audience desires and how your competitors meet those needs helps you develop a USP that sets you apart.

Competitive research also enables you to spot new opportunities and potential threats. Keeping a close eye on your competitor helps identify gaps in the market or anticipate any challenges that may come your way.

What is a Competitive Market Analysis?

Competitive market analysis  is a valuable tool for businesses to evaluate their market position and gain a competitive edge. It involves analyzing key factors such as market trends, competitor strategies, pricing, and customer preferences. Studying the weaknesses and strengths of your competitors can help identify opportunities to distinguish yourself and better serve your target audience.

A competitive analysis report helps you understand the market dynamics and gives you insights into what your customers truly want. It also allows you to adapt and stay ahead by fine-tuning your marketing strategy and identifying potential threats.

Knowledge is power. Understanding your competition is the key to flourishing in today's fast-paced business environment. So, whether you're a small business or a large corporation, conducting a competitive market analysis is necessary. It helps you make informed decisions and sets you on the path to success.

How do you conduct a Competitive Analysis?

Now that you know what is a competitive analysis, here's how you can perform a comprehensive competitive analysis:

Identify competitors

To get started, it's important to distinguish your direct rivals who offer similar products or services from your indirect rivals who cater to the same target audience. Make a comprehensive list of all potential competitors, including industry leaders, emerging players, and startups. Use online research tools, social media channels, and trade publications to gather information.

Analyze market positioning

Next, analyze your competitors' market positioning. Understand their value proposition, target market, and unique selling points. Compare their products or services with yours, identifying gaps or areas where you can differentiate yourself. Research their pricing strategies, promotions, and customer relationships to gain insights into their competitive advantage.

Assess strengths and weaknesses

Evaluate your competitors' strengths and weaknesses. Identify aspects where they excel and what sets them apart from others. Simultaneously, identify any weaknesses or shortcomings that you can leverage. Consider product quality, customer service, marketing efforts, innovation, and customer loyalty programs.

Evaluate marketing strategies

Examine your competitors' marketing strategies, including digital marketing campaigns, advertising, social media presence, and search engine optimization. Assess their branding, messaging, and engagement with customers. Look for opportunities to improve your brand image or capitalize on unexplored marketing channels.

Importance of Competitive Research

Let's explore the importance of competitive research and discover how it can give you that competitive edge!

• Understanding the market landscape : Competitive research allows you to understand the current market landscape comprehensively. You can discover untapped opportunities and potential threats by analyzing your competitors' strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning. This information helps you make informed decisions and adjust your business strategies accordingly.
• Setting benchmarks : Competitive research also enables you to set criteria for your own business. By evaluating your rivals' successes and failures, you can establish attainable goals and strive to exceed them. Setting standards provides a clear direction and helps you track your progress concerning the competition.
• Innovating and differentiating : Staying stagnant in a rapidly evolving market is a recipe for disaster. Competitive research helps you identify gaps in the market that your competitors might be overlooking. You can innovate and differentiate your products or services by leveraging these opportunities. This attracts new customers and helps you retain existing ones by offering unique value propositions.
• Customer-centric approach : Understanding your competitors lets you gain insights into their customer base. You can make insightful decisions about your marketing strategies by identifying their target audience and analyzing customer feedback. You can tailor your messaging, branding, and customer experience to cater to your target market more effectively.
• Adaptability : Competitive research encourages adaptability and agility. You can swiftly respond to market trends and changes by monitoring your rivals' actions. This flexibility helps you stay competitive and maintain an edge over those who are slow to adapt.

Competitive Analysis Best Practices

Let's now explore some competitive analysis best practices that can give your business an edge.

• Gather information. Identify your competitors and evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, and strategies. Look into their product offerings, marketing tactics, customer feedback, and online presence. This will help you identify areas where you can differentiate yourself and target potential customers.
• Analyze the data collected. Compare your performance to theirs, considering factors like sales figures, market share, and customer satisfaction. Examine trends and patterns to identify your key competitive advantages and areas for improvement.
• Constantly monitor and track your competitors. Keep an eye on their new product launches, marketing campaigns, pricing changes, and any other moves they make. This will help you anticipate their next steps and stay one step ahead.
• Conduct a  SWOT analysis . Evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Then, do the same for your competitors. This will help you unravel potential gaps in the market to exploit and areas to strengthen your position.
• Compare your performance metrics with industry standards to understand your market standing. This will help you set realistic goals and targets for your business.

Virtual Assistants for Best Competitive Research 

If you are wondering how to find the time to do competitive research while managing your day-to-day tasks, the answer is Virtual Assistants.

Finding time for competitive research can be as elusive as the golden ticket in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. But fear not, because just as Oompa Loompas kept the factory running smoothly, virtual assistants are your golden ticket to managing day-to-day tasks and conducting competitive research with efficiency and precision.

Let's find out in detail:

• Conduct initial research to identify direct and indirect competitors.  Your VA will begin by recognizing your direct competitors. These are organizations that offer similar products or services within your target market. Once done, they will analyze indirect competitors, which include businesses that offer alternative solutions or serve a different target audience.
• Compile a comprehensive list of competitors in the industry.  From established giants to emerging startups, your VA will compile a list of competitors.
• Gather market intelligence through industry reports and market studies.  Your VA will collect and analyze data from various sources, extract valuable insights, and present them in comprehensive industry reports. The information includes industry trends, customer preferences, and market dynamics.
• Analyze competitors' websites for product/service offerings and positioning.  Your VA will analyze your competitors' websites for their product and service offerings and their positioning in the market. The information will help you identify your competitors' strengths and weaknesses. You can then improve your offerings and stay ahead in the market.
• Monitor competitors' social media channels for engagement and promotional strategies.  Your VA will start following your competitors' social media channels. Monitoring your competitors' channels for engagement and promotional strategies can provide valuable information to boost your brand.
• Review customer reviews on Yelp, Google, and industry-specific review sites.  Your VA will diligently review the customer reviews to identify improvement areas. A deeper understanding of customer feedback helps businesses refine their service offerings, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately secure a competitive edge in the market.
• Investigate competitors' marketing campaigns, content, and advertising efforts.  Investigating competitors' marketing campaigns helps to understand the tactics they employ. Analyzing competitors' content helps identify gaps and focus on areas where you can excel. Examining competitors' advertising efforts enables you to evaluate the effectiveness of different advertising channels.
• Compare product/service pricing among competitors.  Your VA will scour the market to gather data and compare product/service pricing across your industry. The detailed insights will help you make informed decisions on adjusting prices, positioning your business, and developing effective marketing strategies.
• Conduct each competitor's SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).  By examining your competitors' websites, social media presence, customer feedback, and industry reports, the VA accumulates insightful data for the SWOT analysis. This information can help your business refine its strategies, develop new products/services, and anticipate market challenges.
• Benchmark your business performance against key competitors.  Your VA will collect data from various sources, including market research reports, industry analyses, customer surveys, and competitive intelligence tools. They will then analyze this data, cross-referencing it with your business performance metrics, to provide a clear picture of how you measure up against your competitors.
• Provide insights into areas where your business can capitalize on competitors' weaknesses.  By examining your competitors' weaknesses, a VA can help you identify potential market gaps that you can fill. Through in-depth research, they can reveal untapped customer needs that competitors have failed to address adequately. With this knowledge, you can tailor your offerings or introduce new products or services, positioning your business as the go-to solution for these unmet demands.
• Offer recommendations for adapting and refining business strategies based on competitive insights.  A VA can recommend refining existing strategies and developing new ones based on competitive insights.
• Continuously monitor and update competitive landscape information.  By constantly monitoring the market, your VA can provide timely updates on industry trends, pricing strategies, customer preferences, and more.

Wishup: Your Ultimate Research Partner

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Competitive research is an essential part of any successful business strategy. It helps you scout out the competition, understand their strategies, and use this knowledge to position your own business for success.

Start by identifying your main competitors. Once you understand your competition, it's time to analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Identify areas where you can outshine them and capitalize on their shortcomings.

Keep up with ongoing research and analysis. The market is ever-changing, so staying ahead of the game is crucial.

Remember that competitive research isn't a one-time deal - it's an ongoing process.

Wishup can be an effective partner for you in conducting competitive research. Contact us to  schedule a free consultation . You may also drop us an email at  [email protected] .

FAQs: Competitive Research

How do you do competitive market research.

Start by identifying your main competitors and gathering information on their products, pricing, and marketing strategies. Analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and use this knowledge to improve your own offering. Don't forget to keep an eye on emerging trends and consumer behavior.

What are competitive examples?

Competitive examples are real-life situations or instances that demonstrate competitiveness in a particular industry or field. These examples showcase how different companies or individuals constantly strive to outperform each other and gain a competitive advantage. For instance, consider tech giants like Apple and Samsung battling it out in the smartphone market with innovative features and designs.

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The Past and the Future of Competitiveness Research: A Review in an Emerging Context of Innovation and EMNEs

• Published: 20 January 2020
• Volume 14 , pages 1–10, ( 2019 )

Cite this article

• Kirankumar S. Momaya   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7658-2006 1  

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Fields of strategy, competitiveness, and international business research are evolving steadily as more vexing challenges emerge and demand innovation. Key objective of this study is to longitudinally review literature on competitiveness and innovation to identify future sustainable directions. We adapt a systematic literature review approach to discern patterns in individual fields and at the intersection. This, complemented by review of patterns of trends in contributions by select countries and longitudinal experiential view of more than a quarter century of journey of author across select countries, provided new insights. We use the insights to evolve high-potential future topics for research, clustered by contexts, theory, and practices. This review—at the interfaces of theory and practice, and fields across disciplines—will help readers understand the gaps and explore opportunities for research projects in new directions. Synthesis of findings at the interface would facilitate pathways to further research and practice to enhance competitiveness across levels and sustainability.

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Introduction

Competitiveness shapes’ opportunities for youth, productivity of firms, and prosperity and sustainability of clusters, cities and regions, and international business (Porter 1990 ; Aiginger et al. 2013 ; Huggins and Izushi 2015 ; Huggins and Thompson 2017 ). Competitiveness has a long history (Fagerberg and Srholec 2017 ). Surge of interest in field of competitiveness has linkages with changes in the world economy, e.g., rapid increase in role of Japan (in the 1970s and the 1980s) and other industrializing countries in Asia (Hamel and Prahalad 1996 ). Popular use of the term by politicians, the media, business people, and its persistence (e.g., Aiginger and Vogel 2015 ) in different contexts does create opportunities, challenges, and the need for research. The utility and high potential of understanding, experimenting, and learning about competitiveness—having relevance and linkages across levels, from product, firm, industry to cluster, city or state—particularly in contexts of large emerging countries such as India does not need much debate if one considers vast opportunities for improvement. Longitudinal review of the trends in research in past is necessary to evolve directions of research for future, as has been demonstrated for select fields of international business (IB) research (e.g., Rialp et al. 2005 ; Keupp and Gassman 2009 ; Paul et al. 2017 ).

Pioneering work on competitiveness by Porter and associates provided major thrust to research and practice. With the “Competitive Advantage of Nations (CAON)” project and the publication, Porter ( 1990 ) opened up a whole new perspective on competitiveness that shaped research and practice. Through the project, they showed that traditional views on competitiveness could not account for differences in firm competitiveness (e.g., Sölvell 2015 ), they evolved fundamental questions and model such as Diamond model that continue to shape debates about competitiveness. However, several limitations of the model in practical contexts, e.g., of Asia as well as North America, indicates exciting opportunities for research at interfaces of competitiveness and international business (IB).

Several discontinues in two decades of the new century are demanding transitions and rethink on definitions, factors of competitiveness and measurement. The global financial crisis of 2008 that engulfed many countries shaped “crisis of competitiveness” in several industries beyond finance and prompted transitions. For instance, welfare, wealth, work project in Europe (WWW for Europe) aimed to analyse the preconditions necessary for a transition to a more socio-ecological European growth path and new perspectives on competitiveness (Aiginger and Vogel 2015 ). Near 10 trillion dollar injected by central banks, since 2008 is reaching limits. Two large countries—India and China—are likely to shape practices of competitiveness and patterns in their trends can help shape context.

Divergent patterns of country and firm competitiveness in India and China indicate some fertile arenas of research at interfaces of strategy, competitiveness, IB, and policy. India and China, both have been climbing quite well on select dimensions of country competitiveness. From the 50s and the 40s, to enter into the 30s in terms of country competitiveness ranks for India (e.g., Momaya 2011 ) can be considered a matter of significant progress for India, considering huge population and complexities. An effort to understand patterns at the firm level—the real level for international competitiveness—threw some surprising findings. For instance, in the sample of Global 500, while contribution from India, over the period 2005–2018, has stagnated at 8, China has leapfrogged 10× in terms of firms ahead. Such divergent patterns between country and firm competitiveness indicate major opportunities for research on competitiveness, particularly at interfaces of IB (assumed to have high overlap with strategy, so word strategy is used to include IB in this paper).

We need to review interfaces of competitiveness and related fields of strategy and IB. Since competitiveness has relevance across levels, insights from disciplines having higher relevance at micro to macro can be useful to address the vexing problems the world is facing. For instance, for firm-level competitiveness, interfaces with functional areas such as strategy, human resources, operations, finance, technology, and innovation management need to be appreciated to diagnose a firm’s problems related to international competitiveness and business. Competitiveness and innovation are important and significant fields with high-potential interfaces with strategy and IB, with high potential to contribute, as to best of our knowledge, no such longitudinal review balancing many aspects exist.

The aim of this paper is threefold: first to review the literature related to competitiveness quantitatively as well as qualitatively, particularly for potential linkages of firm competitiveness to IB. Second, we want to explore linkages among competitiveness, innovation, and EMNE internationalization in context of the vexing problems affecting sustainability, a glimpse of that was given above. Third, from the longitudinal review, we want to evolve high-potential topics for further research and practice. This desire to shape practice, is a unique dimension of contribution, as linkages between theory and practice seems to have vast opportunities for improvement in strategy, IB, and competitiveness.

Longitudinal Qualitative Literature Review

Competitiveness has quite exciting and practical research literature at the intersection of business, management, engineering, and economics. While macro-dimensions of competitiveness (e.g., at country or state or regional competitiveness) are also important, the focus of this study is on micro-dimensions related to strategy, IB, and innovation or technology management. In this context, theoretical linkages of competitiveness may be strong with IB strategy, technology, or innovation management and operations. We will get some quantitative facts to understand patterns, after we start from brief review of classical works clustered in sub-sections below.

Macro-dimensions of Competitiveness

With urge to understand dynamics of competitiveness, research, and experimentation got major boost in the 1990s. Michael Porter ( 1990 ) introduced an exciting framework for country competitiveness aimed at redefinition of the foundations of national wealth. Porter’s diamond model was extended to address some limitations. The double diamond model (Rugman and D’cruz 1993 ) tried to incorporate multinational activities. Efforts by Momaya to enhance utility and generalizability of competitiveness frameworks helped evolve competitiveness Assets–Processes–Performance framework (APP framework) that was tested in context of select industries in select countries (e.g., Canada, Japan and USA; Momaya 1998 ). The APP framework has also been used in a variety of industries and micro-contexts, such as firm level. Extension by human factors (e.g., Cho 1994 ) evolved into new comprehensive model that was tested to measure competitiveness of countries (e.g., Cho et al. 2016 ; Moon et al. 2015 ). Recognizing linkages among three levels of competitiveness, Banwet et al. ( 2003 ) and Bhawsar and Chattopadhyay ( 2015 ) reconfirm importance of firms as root or source of creation of economic value and competitiveness.

Connecting competitiveness with new developments in the theory of the firm, Aiginger and Vogel ( 2015 ) emphasize social investment, ecological ambitions, and the share of eco-industries as drivers as they redefine competitiveness as the “ability of a country (region, location) to deliver the beyond-GDP goals for its citizens”. They emphasize quality, sophisticated products and productivity as competitive advantages and on capabilities as drivers of competitiveness.

Micro-dimensions of Competitiveness

Why firms from a particular country are able to create and sustain competitive advantage in a particular industry has been a fundamental question of competitiveness since long (e.g., Porter 1990 ; Momaya 2001 ). The answers are of great significance to firms that have strategic intent and must compete in international or regional markets. Relevance of select constructs for competitiveness of firms started attracting research attention. Theories of strategy have provided many useful linkages to address sources of competitiveness. Views such as industry structure view (ISV) and complementary resource-based view [e.g., Penrose ( 1959 ), Barney ( 1986 ), Hamel and Prahlad ( 1990 )] were quite popular to address some issues. Teece et al. ( 1997 ) introduced a new approach called the dynamic-capability view (DCW) as an extension of the RBV. Dynamic capabilities are organizational processes embedded within the firm, are path-dependent and hence can help build deeper competitiveness. Relevance of aforementioned theories for competitiveness of firms is enormous. Still, these theories were less able to explain competitiveness of firms in emerging countries, where societal and governmental institutions are much stronger than market-based institutions. Institution-based view (e.g., Peng 2002 ; Peng et al. 2009 ) tries to address the limitations.

Learning from such profound contributions from strategy and other streams of management, alternate frameworks are evolving that can provide simpler and generalizable approaches to define and measure competitiveness. Research aimed at exploring competitiveness linkages across levels gave generic framework competitiveness Assets-Processes-Performance (APP, Momaya 2001 ) that is being tested across mature to emerging industries (e.g., software, Banwet et al. ( 2003 ), Ambastha and Momaya ( 2004 ), nanotech, Momaya 2011 ) and firms. Krishnan ( 2010 ) emphasized role of a critical mass of new, innovative, technology-driven firms (e.g., technology ventures that scale-up, Momaya and Bardeja 2005 ) for shift from ‘Jugaad to Systematic Innovation’.

Pioneering work on competitiveness by Moon ( 2016 ) and associates has high relevance for firms. While their contributions span across levels (e.g., NCR at country level), their findings based on decades of work on efficient catch-up by Korean firms and industrial houses are perhaps most insightful. After several extensions to diamond framework, Moon proposed the “ABCD” model based on four key factors: agility, benchmarking, convergence, and dedication. Productivity of the people who produce, exchange, and manage technological and other resources is very important for competitiveness of firms. In the above context, we are keen to pursue questions such as:

What topics at interfaces of competitiveness, innovation, strategy, and MNEs provide insights to generate impactful knowledge and practices?

What are future directions of impactful research related to competitiveness in terms of contexts, theory, and practice?

Methodology

For the unique context of this study, we explore an innovative synthesis of mixed methods. Potential of synergy from a more insightful combination of quantitative and qualitative studies with longitudinal horizons have been mentioned by Rialp et al. ( 2005 ). While analysis of quantitative and archival data is a major pillar, we adapt a taxonomy of mixed method proposed by Bryman and Bell ( 2011 ). They suggest the taxonomy based on priority and sequence between quantitative and qualitative research. Considering the complexity of levels and interfaces of competitiveness, qualitative research was given higher priority. Still, patterns that emerged from quantitative methods preceded qualitative research.

For quantitative research, we adapted the approach of systematic literature review (SLR) based on search methods on select databases to find patterns of contributions by sub-disciplines, regions (or countries) and specific centres or institutes. The first step in performing the review was to explore research questions. For keyword-based search approach, we selected the Scopus database for its advantages. After discussions with domain experts and iterative searches, ‘competitiveness’ and ‘innovation’ emerged to be two most important generic keywords to focus on in context of this study.

Two longitudinal independent searches on each keyword were supplemented by a search at intersection to find the patterns. We started with full period of half century from 1968 to 2018, but focused on recent snapshot of 5 years to discern patterns. Among major contributing subject areas, ‘Business, Management and Accounting’ emerged to be distinctly ahead of other areas, e.g., economics, engineering, and social sciences. This is quite commensurate with context and focus on strategy and IB in this study. Since select leading countries accounted for more than 50% contribution of all countries, focus in this study was on these countries.

Emerging Findings

Findings from quantitative review of literature.

Efforts at systematic literature review (SLR) provided some interesting insights about patterns of contributions from different countries. For competitiveness field, the subject area ‘Business, Management and Accounting (BMA)’ emerged to be the largest contributor with 32.6%. The contribution of BMA was found to be even higher for the field of innovation and intersection of ‘innovation and competitiveness’. The percentage contribution increased when we focused on recent period (of 5 years, 2013–18) for each field. In fact, it increased to 49.22% and 51.75% for intersection set of 1363 and 576 papers for total and recent (Table  1 ). For instance, for the intersection sub-sample in recent period (total 1113), BMA (576) was far ahead of the other fields ‘Economics, Econometrics and Finance’(270), Social Sciences (243) and Engineering (231), indicating high interest among researchers of business to contribute at micro level.

Analysis of innovation field and intersection to find synergy with competitiveness provided rich insights and some surprises. As an important field with higher maturity and bigger numbers of journals (including one in related fields such as technology management and R&D), contributions for innovation (93,634) were significant multiples of competitiveness (9702) and again BMA contributed 32% overall (about 36% in recent period). While the USA, Britain and China contribute most (more than 33%), more recent results indicate that Germany, France, The Netherlands, and Switzerland are major drivers of innovation, including practices. Sample in intersection set is bit smaller (2769, of which BMA contributed 1363 or 49%), but provides exciting inferences about interface. In terms of relatively higher contribution as compared to individual samples, China and Italy have better contribution at the intersection, whereas India lags.

Findings from an Analysis of Practical Reality

Analysis of patterns of reality of competitiveness, particularly at the firm level provides some useful insights to enhance contribution of this study to competitiveness practice. We have been watching patterns of contributions of select countries to competitiveness through longitudinal samples. While samples such as Global 2000 are more informative, they face issues such as shorter horizons and volatility. Let us review trends contributions of India and select countries (Table  2 ). India increased contribution from 48 in 2008 to 58 in 2018, a significant jump of 10 firms. Still, this increase is very marginal in context of jump of 157 for Asia that was driven by more than 15× jump of China. In percentage terms of the sample, jump to 2.9% (in 2018) from 2.4% (2008) is too low for an entrepreneurial country of the size of India. In terms of revenue share (1.8%) and profit share (1.5%), India has much worse performance as compared to China and USA. Scenario for India is much worse if one reviews samples such as Global 500 (e.g., Momaya 2015 ) that has better longitudinal views and stability. Worries that comparatively no Indian consumer goods company comes closer to kind of capabilities and global brand recognition of MNEs from Asian peers and that global competition is entrenched in India (e.g., Thompson et al. 2013 ) should not be wished away, particularly by leaders of firms of Indian origin (FIOs).

More insights on competitiveness challenges for firms of Indian origin emerge when we consider qualitative dimensions. For instance, a majority of the FIOs in the 2018 sample (e.g., about 21 out of 58) are from banking and financial services industry (BFSI). They are often classified as ‘Regional banks’ (by international media) and not ‘Major banks’; China has 3 in ‘Top 10’; and India has none in even top 100 in Global 2000. Competitiveness, particularly international, of many of the FIOs from that industry may not be considered high enough to address a fundamental question of international competitiveness—what determines the international competitiveness and success of firms. Even in computer services—one of the most internationally competitive industry of India—there are only three firms, and at ranks beyond 300, e.g., TCS (404), Infosys (643), and Wipro (857). While these firms have high degree of internationalization—both exports as well as FDI (e.g., Parthasarathy et al. 2017 ), big challenges that were diagnosed long ago (Ambastha and Momaya 2004 ; Umamaheswari and Momaya 2008 ) remain less addressed on their journey up the value curve.

Sustained efforts by the author in cooperation with capable professionals and brilliant students at Indian Institutes of Technology (popularly called IITs) provide interesting insights. Many professionals cannot easily see bigger picture of competitiveness at higher levels. It takes a lot of efforts to dispel deeply entrenched myths such as “competitiveness and competition are same”, particularly in India. A key reason may be hyper-competitive environments that prevail in India; one remain trapped in over-competitive mind-set, missing options to cooperate. Many firms fail to think holistically about ‘International competitiveness’ and ultimately face survival crisis, as they lose competitiveness in not only vast domestic market in India, but even regions of India. Many business groups in India have lost massive market shares due to neglect of international competitiveness.

Maturity of competitiveness and its linkages across levels, disciplines seems to be evolving quite well in some countries in Europe and Asia. For instance, in research related to competitiveness, contributions from select countries in Asia and Europe are increasing significantly. A recent dip-stick review found that Italy, Korea, Germany, France, The Netherlands, and Switzerland driving the research (e.g., Momaya 2018 ). More importantly, maturity of translating such research into practice, including at higher levels of city, cluster or nation, seems high or improving fast in the countries, including select countries in Eastern Europe. Slow improvements in countries such as India (with vast gaps) indicate a huge untapped opportunity for research and pilots. While gaps in linkages between firm and higher levels are there, gaps in research on competitiveness at interfaces of functional areas of management is perhaps most promising for strategy, competitiveness, and IB.

Quite popular approaches to competitiveness are needing major rethink. For instance, core competence thinking was a popular, a powerful and widely promoted approach to focus and mobilize an organization’s resources (e.g., Gallon et al. 1995 ), but executives often failed to define the core technical competencies of their companies. They defined a generic method to help organizations to put core competence thinking into practice, but results need to be reviewed. Similar challenges are being faced by several other popular frameworks (e.g., diamond, DDD, and competitiveness APP) and provide major opportunities for research and tools to deploy them in varied contexts.

From theory development view, process nature of competitiveness is emerging to be promising. Whether pragmatic definitions across developed countries (e.g., OECD) or researchers (e.g., Fagerberg and Srholec 2017 ; Momaya 2001 ) focus on abilities is emerging as a core construct of productivity and competitiveness. Actor focus adapted by the World Economic Forum (WEF, e.g., institutions and policies) may be more relevant at macro-level, process-based approach proposed by Momaya (e.g., 2001, where competitiveness processes are made a core pillar) remains important for the context.

Pragmatically, the vexing problems such as “Pre-mature stagnation in capabilities for FIOs” provide enormous opportunities for research and practice. FIOs neither match in strengths with Asian counterparts in assets or innovation capabilities (e.g., intellectual property). Other choice for FIOs is to scale-up mass or muscle or capabilities quickly towards an ideal situation when a company has size, scale, reach or intangible assets such as brands, proprietary knowledge, or innovation capability (Thompson et al. 2013 ).

Transition to a sustainable business model and economic model provides exciting opportunities for competitiveness practice and research. At macro-level, there are no inherent trade-offs between business growth, social, and environmental factors if an organization can adapt a holistic approach to competitiveness. Few progressive firms and countries seem to be already pursuing such approaches and sustainable pathways. Research to evolve linkages among relevant asset and process factors of competitiveness APP framework with international, environmental, and financial factors provide an exciting opportunity for research.

Competitiveness indices are proposed as much needed economic compass (e.g., Klaus 2019 , Global Competitiveness Research {GCR}), but can have some limitations (e.g., gaps in macro or micro-foundations of the model, not grouping similar countries, too many criteria, and interpretation). Hence, there is scope for further research and next section provides some directions.

Directions for Future Research

Since most firms, industries, and countries are quite far from their relevant competitiveness frontiers, there is an enormous scope for further research and practice. Unique methodology of this study based on systematic literature review and longitudinal study provides rich patterns and perspectives. We logically cluster the directions for future research that are emerging under three sections.

Future Directions: Contexts

Since competitiveness has relevance across levels, contexts at different levels can be quite different. For instance, for country competitiveness, economic, political, institutional, international relations, and other contexts become quite important.

Let us highlight contexts of high relevance for firm level. Innovation capabilities were identified to play vital role for sustained success in exporting (e.g., Paul et al. 2017 ). Which innovation capability (e.g., process or product or technology) can be more useful for what market characteristics (e.g., developing or advanced) in what industry context provides an exciting context for research.

Factors related to origin of firm (e.g., region of origin, Paul et al. 2017 ), founders, and industry of origin can shape the strategy and pace of internationalization (e.g., staged approach vs. born global). Which antecedents are of higher relevance for accelerated export performance in context of large domestic market such as in India, provides an exciting research context.

Future Directions: Theory

Competitiveness—having relevance across levels—links with theories across disciplines. Competitiveness research should aim at insightful and innovative studies that break new ground. Studies should address real-world phenomenon or vexing problems such as ‘inadequate opportunities for capable youth to shape their and other youth’s future through sustainable innovations’. Researchers can redirect or initiate a line of inquiry, integrate across disciplines and levels. For instance, for the above problem, sustainable technological innovation that can be competitive in front of vast architectural resources of incumbent firms and system need to draw from disciplines of engineering, management, economics, and entrepreneurship.

Focal firms—large or small—can be anchors of innovation-based productivity improvements within the firm, its supply chains and clusters. While information technology (IT, traditional, and emerging one such as cloud or IoT) promises productivity enhancements, but improvements are often marginal or short term, particularly in emerging countries. New theories of management of technology and innovation (MoT) are needed to guide on strategic choices about MoT and other functions of management for international competitiveness and IB. Maturity of International MNEs, e.g., European (Jha et al. 2018 ), to leverage resources from emerging country knowledge hubs for global innovation indicates opportunities for EMNEs to improve innovation capabilities for competitiveness through international networks. Track record of exports and other forms of IB is often an outcome of sustained capability building for international competitiveness. International business competencies (i.e., international orientation, innovativeness, marketing (Knight and Kim 2009 , and project management) are vital firm-specific advantages (FSAs, Rugman 1981 ). Reviewing the literature on exporting challenges for SMEs, Paul et al. ( 2017 ) suggested several areas for contemporary further research. Entrepreneurial and international orientation of SMEs that show sustained success as exporters was identified to be a promising topic for future study (e.g., Paul et al. 2017 ). More specifically, how to build innovation capabilities for scale-up in export market (e.g., depth vs. breadth, cost, or differentiation) is a high-potential topic.

Departing from theories and frameworks based on school of competition (e.g., competitive advantage, Porter 1990 ), new theories that build on contextual basis of cooperation, sharing economy, and ecological balances need to be tested, adapted, and refined. Competitiveness Assets–Processes–Performance (competitiveness APP) framework that strives for better balances among processes and performance (e.g., kind of means and ends approach) can help achieve more sustainable competitiveness. Proper attention to the finishing, strengthening of the means is what we need (Vivekananda 1993 ).

Future Directions: Practice

Since practices related to competitiveness are less understood, documented, discussed, and refined, they provide vast opportunities for innovation, particularly in contexts of large transition country such as India. Most organizations have activities related to specific management functions that can be mapped to specific process factors of the competitiveness APP framework (Momaya 2001 )—from strategic management, HRM, operations to supply chain management (SCM), and technology or innovation management (TIM). Diagnosing gaps on relevant performance factors (e.g., productivity, financial, and international) and their root causes in competitiveness assets or processes provides rich opportunities. The specific processes such as HRM can be diagnosed for maturity using frameworks such as people capability maturity model (P-CMM) (e.g., Ambastha 2013 ).

For firm-level competitiveness, practices related to quality and business excellence are becoming mature, but there is enormous potential to enhance practices related to IB, HRM, and technology or innovation management. For instance, Japanese practices related to quality in manufacturing and European practices related to business excellence are maturing and have spread to many countries, including India. Vast gaps in potential and actual international performance of FIOs (see Table  2 ), indicates opportunities to refine practices related to competitiveness, IB, and TIM.

Hidden potential of competitiveness has been hinted at by select veterans from competitiveness giant countries and provide rich opportunities for exploration. Human resources are one of the most important sources of competitiveness for Japanese corporations (e.g., Tomisaka 2008 ). While concerned about low ranks of Japan (e.g., 22 in world competitiveness report in 2008), Japan has consistently maintained top 5 ranks in factors such as ‘product competitiveness’ and regained ranks in Top 15 (as per WEF Global Competitiveness Report, rank was 5 th in 2019), despite aged human resources. Several veteran leaders, particularly, one is practice, believe in hidden potential as a key factor in competitiveness (e.g., Tomisaka 2008 ). Ventures play an important role for innovation; Mikiharu ( 2014 ) explored role of corporate venture capital (CVC) for innovation and competitiveness. Similarly, Simon ( 2016 ) gave examples of how German hidden champions have been competing internationally in so many segments or industries. Work like above indicate at enormous potential for research and learning.

Evolving practices in many countries provide rich contexts, phenomenon, and opportunities for research or experimentation. For instance, some best practices of business and competitiveness have been naturally evolving in India and have withstood competitive pressures for centuries. Still, they have survived. Some of them are best practices from sustainability and other perspectives, and have potential to become next practices (e.g., Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004 ) of productivity, competitiveness, and IB that can benefit many countries. For instance, learning from Gandhiji’s experiments ( 1982 ) continue to inspire more experimentation in “Laboratories of LIFE” and are benefitting masses. Team at the International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness (JGBC) has been building capabilities to evolve a knowledge platform to share best of your empirical research about such phenomenon, practices, and experiments.

Concluding Remarks

The practice, research, and literature on competitiveness are young, exciting and have enormous scope for improvements. It is just starting to make inroads into the leading journals. Considering findings in this study, the field of competitiveness has tremendous potential to push frontiers of knowledge and practice to open new vistas or opportunities of strategy and IB for capable youth, ventures, firms, and clusters. Considering the interdisciplinary and multi-level nature of the field of competitiveness, we need to consider different methodologies and approaches to analyse contexts, situations and data collection to draw inferences. Editors and reviewers should encourage authors to cooperate to study novel contexts and methods to examine so many exciting dimensions of competitiveness; only a glimpse of some dimensions in context of strategy, innovation, and IB could be given in this study.

Insights gained through this study indicate enormous potential of evolving research at interfaces that can shape practices not only in firms and industry, but also in other types of organizations, policy, and clusters. Pioneering work by Porter and colleagues across countries has demonstrated useful practices (e.g., in strategy and competitiveness) and tools (e.g., five forces and diamond) that emerge from research. Since, firms (not countries) compete in international arenas that are becoming more challenging, they need to be innovative to upgrade competitive advantage. We hope that contexts and findings highlighted in this article prompts novel ideas, so that we can have long-term competitiveness, sustainable enterprises, cities and clusters. Since enhancing competitiveness is still key to prosperity, let us think strategically about discontinuities and innovation to shape a sustainable future for our organizations and people.

Key Questions Reflecting Applicability in Real Life

In what way, can competitiveness thinking inspire values, strategic intent, and initiatives for actions at your level?

How competitiveness and interfaces with innovation or other functions can be measured?

How groups on competitiveness or related fields (e.g., strategy, operations, etc.) can be initiated and sustained? Which activities (e.g., Research, courses, MDP, workshops, CSR, etc.) can help initiate and grow the “Group on Competitiveness (GoC)”?

Which topics are more relevant in contexts in your organization?

How can learning or knowledge from your research and pilots be diffused widely to start creating awareness about competitiveness?

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Acknowledgements

I acknowledge constructive comments from reviewers. We thank participants of ‘Çompetitiveness Awareness Workshops’ at IIT Delhi and Glogift conferences for questions and comments. I thank Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay for the research infrastructure. I appreciate support from Pranusha Manthri and Sneha Bhat with data collection. Financial support from Wadhwani Foundation through Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre (IRCC), IITB for data collection part is acknowledged.

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Momaya, K.S. The Past and the Future of Competitiveness Research: A Review in an Emerging Context of Innovation and EMNEs. JGBC 14 , 1–10 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42943-019-00002-3

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Received : 28 July 2019

Accepted : 11 November 2019

Published : 20 January 2020

Issue Date : December 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s42943-019-00002-3

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The Ultimate Guide to Competitive Research for Small Businesses Are you interested in competitive research? Click here for the ultimate guide to competitive analysis for small businesses that you're sure to love.

By Jimmy Newson • Feb 1, 2022

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In this digital age, competition seems to be more rampant than ever. The attention of customers is scattered due to the many choices they enjoy. Proper competitive research is fundamental to shield and set your business apart.

The best way to stay ahead of your competition is to be aware of them. If you're interested in competitive research, keep reading. Here's the ultimate guide on how to use competitive analysis effectively.

What is competitive research?

Competitive research is the act of gathering and analyzing information about your industry. It helps you understand your competitors' strengths and weaknesses. Effective competitive research is thorough. It looks at your competitor's marketing strategies, competitive advantages and content strategy.

The primary goal of competitive research is to establish what your competitors are up to and the threat they pose to your business. That way you can create more informed marketing strategies and even reposition to overcome these threats.

It's crucial to conduct competitive research if you're serious about the sustainability of your business. Otherwise, your competitors may outshine you and chop your market share.

Here are the reasons you should think about competitive research.

Related: How to Better Strategize Your Marketing

Understand your market

Fifty percent of businesses fail within the first five years. And one of the primary reasons they fail is due to a lack of uniqueness and value. Building a robust audience without a unique value proposition or selling point is challenging.

Competitive analysis helps you discover the core strengths and strategies of your competitors. It also shows you what's lacking in your market. The ability to understand your competitor and figure out their weakness is the key to improving your USP to your customers.

Improve marketing processes

Your customers buy from you because your products fulfill their needs. If they prefer your competitors to you, it means your competitor's product, service, or marketing is better.

You need to understand shopping dynamics and the reasons customers buy your products . You're likely to get caught in price and convenience wars without competitor analysis.

Market research helps you look at the big marketing picture. You'll understand what drives customers to buy and why some choose rival products. Competitor information can inform your new marketing strategy.

Discover market gaps

A SWOT analysis of competitors partly focuses on competitor weaknesses and their opportunities. These two aspects can help you discover market gaps in your industry.

You're always in a battle to keep your market share and expand into new segments or areas. The best thing that can happen to you is to uncover and capitalize on competitor weaknesses.

Performing a SWOT analysis can also help you discover underserved audiences and unaddressed needs in your industry. You can maximize your research data to position your small business as unique and cater to the underserved niche.

Related: The Ins and Outs of SWOT Analysis for Marketing Growth

Informs your content strategy

Effective content marketing starts with market research and competitor analysis. You need to know what keywords and strategies your competitor uses before launching your content strategy.

One big part of content marketing is doing competitive content analysis. You need to understand the gaps and opportunities in your competitor's content marketing strategy.

Competitive content analysis will thus involve looking at your competitor's product strategies, quality of content, and SEO. After this analysis, you can create unique and more informed content to differentiate your business.

Keep reading below to learn how to conduct competitive research for your business.

Identify your competitors

The primary reason to do business research is to know who you're up against. And that is your competitors. They're inevitable, and you must know how to counter them to stand a chance in your market.

Your competitors can be physical or digital. Physical competitors compete with you for your market share often locally. Digital competitors are those businesses that compete against you through digital marketing.

The first step to finding your direct or physical competitor is to conduct market research. Talk to your current customers to see which products they've considered or liked. Look for those businesses selling a similar product or an alternative to your product.

Evaluate online forums and reviews to investigate your audience's interests. Look for the products or services that earn more recommendations and ratings in your industry.

Conduct an SEO analysis to identify your digital competitors. You can determine which businesses are likely to lure your audience by doing a competitive SEO analysis. These could be businesses using keywords like yours.

Your digital or indirect competitors create content that will likely attract your customer. Another way to find your digital competitors is to look at Google search engine results. Search on Google or a professional keyword research tool using your primary keywords and analyze the results.

Review competitor products

The next stage of competitive research is competitive product analysis. This is a thorough analysis of a competitor's products to find their strengths and weaknesses.

As a start-up business founder or small business owner, you need to know whether your product has what it takes to succeed. Product analysis offers you data that you can use to innovate your products. Product analysis helps you to understand whether existing products are helping customers. Customer feedback about competitor products can help you distinguish and set your product apart.

The easy way to conduct a competitive product analysis is to buy a competitor's products. You'll get into your customer's shoes which helps you understand their needs. Visit all product pages on your competitors' websites and review the description. Look at the details and benefits of their product. Establish the more likable features of their product and identify what their customer may not like.

Analyze competitor sales funnel

Analyzing your competitors' sales funnel can provide valuable insights into your customer's needs. A sales funnel shows all the stages competitor clients go through before buying.

You can establish what attracts people to their business and their challenges before buying. For example, you can establish users' experience with a competitor's website or content.

You want to understand your competitors' sales and marketing methods. Analyzing a sales funnel is the way to know how your competitors' sales processes look like.

If they're attracting many customers, you may want to know how they create high-quality lead magnets. You'll also want to learn more about their content market strategies.

A competitor's failures across their sales funnel can help you discover ways to boost your users' experience. Look at the causes of their bounce rates, abandoned carts and poor conversions.

The best way to analyze your competitor's sales funnel is to sign up for their email list, consume their content and audit their website. Find out how they approach customer engagements and user experience.

Review your competitors' marketing approach

A high-level competitive analysis looks at competitor marketing approaches. Your competitors are likely beating you because of their marketing skills and creativity.

Tracking your competitor's marketing strategy is the easiest way to identify their strengths and weaknesses. The first step in developing a successful marketing strategy is understanding your competitor's tactics.

Marketing strategies are also evolving fast. Your competitors can leave you behind if you're not keeping up with the times. Business research can show trends in marketing and highlight gaps in your strategy.

The best place to learn about your competitor's marketing approach is to check their website—review SEO aspects like titles, meta descriptions, keyword use and content style.

Keep track of your competitors by setting alerts on their brands. You can get updated whenever they're mentioned online or on Google. This way, you can also know when they share new content.

Related: 6 Insights You Can Gain From the Top Pages of Your Competitors

Look at their social media strategy

Social media is one of the most popular engagement tools. Seventy-three percent of businesses believe social media has been effective for their marketing efforts. And 54% of social browsers use social media to look for products.

A social media competitive analysis is crucial to figure out how to dominate and appeal to your audience. It's the secret to standing out on social media. You'll want to know which platforms your competitors are using and how they're using them. This way, you can choose the right targeting platforms and figure out the right content for your audience. It would help if you also looked at your competitors' social marketing strategy to build an informed and effective strategy. Look at your competitors' content style, content type and posting times.

Use analytics to measure your engagement rates and compare results to your competitors. A benchmark will help you know if your social marketing strategy needs improvements.

Identify areas for improvement

Competitive research reveals market gaps and arms you with data to improve your marketing strategy. It's a tool that helps show your current stand plus your potential in your industry.

You need to make the most of competitive analysis data to take your business to the next level. And for success, you have to normalize competitive research in your business.

Continue to track and observe how your competitors evolve. Keep your eyes on trends and the latest market practices to stay ahead of your competition. This way, you can maintain an up-to-date marketing strategy to boost your competitive edge.

Master how to conduct competitive research

As a small business or start-up founder, you can not risk without knowing what and who you're up against. Many proactive competitors are striving to control your industry. The way forward is to learn and master how to develop a foolproof competitive research strategy for your business.

Founder - Moving Forward Small Business | Jimmy Newson Consulting

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The Beginner's Guide to Competitor Research

How much time do you spend researching your competitors? Does your business have a research strategy in place? Do you know your strengths and weaknesses compared to your business rivals’? Unfortunately, for many businesses both big and small, competitor research is rarely given the attention it deserves, and that’s often detrimental to your company’s long-term growth. While there’s never been a better time to start and grow your business, there’s also never been more competition. With so many products, services, and pieces of content vying for our attention, it’s more important than ever to give you and your business the best chance to succeed — and that starts with knowing everything you can about your competition. Maybe your media company has been growing year after year and, all of a sudden, your growth stalls. Maybe you’ve recently discovered your most loyal customers are suddenly jumping ship. Or maybe you’ve just launched your ecommerce store and are looking for ways to get traction and increase exposure. Regardless of the stage your business is currently in or the challenges you face, competitor research can help you grow your brand, improve customer retention, and deliver the best product and service possible. In this post, you’ll learn the importance of competitor research, how to get started, the common mistakes to avoid, and how to use Quantcast to help you stay up to date.

The Benefits of Competitive Research

By now, it goes without saying — to stay relevant in your industry, you must constantly innovate. And innovation costs both time and resources. It also requires staying on top of the most effective industry trends, strategies, and tactics; ensuring your products improve; and meeting customer requests for new features. It can be overwhelming at best. But when competitor research is done properly, it’s a great resource that helps you understand and implement what’s working so you can focus on what you do best. With a well-executed competitor research plan, you can:

• Highlight your competition’s weak points so you can successfully position yourself as a better alternative
• Stay up to date with the latest macro trends in your industry so you can plan an effective long-term business strategy
• Learn the best practices for SEO, marketing, and social media
• Use your research to formulate, execute, and test new ideas, products, and services
• Determine common pain points of the customers and readers in your industry
• Help better define your target markets and opportunities for growth

Step 1 – The SWOT Analysis

The first step in competitive research is the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. Running a SWOT analysis gives you a foundation to base your competitor research on, helps you stay focused on the most essential parts of your business, and gives you a holistic view of where your company currently stands. You can run a SWOT analysis internally or externally. It’s incredibly useful for researching your competitors, and though you should perform SWOT analyses both internally and externally for maximum results, this blog focuses on the benefits of using it to analyze your specific business. To get a running start on your competitor analysis, set aside a few hours to answer the SWOT analysis questions below. Be as accurate and honest as possible so you can use this information to develop a realistic approach to your future strategy. You may also want to include other decision makers as well to get the most accurate possible view of your company.

SWOT Analysis

Internal – things you can control.

• What does your company do better than your competitors? For example, do you have better customer service, higher-quality products, services that get better results?
• What unique assets does your company have? Include things like your IP, technology, company culture, team, and overall reputation.
• What are some positive attributes your customers and clients would use to describe your company? Would they use words like trustworthy and reliable? Are they happy with your service?

Weaknesses:

• Where is your company lacking? Is it in financial capital, culture, teams, or efficiency?
• What do your competitors perform better at? Do they have more locations, faster turnaround times, or a big marketing budget?
• Which assets does your company lack that your competitors have? Do they have bigger networks, perhaps, or more reputable investors?
• Where do your customers and clients say you could improve? Are you constantly out of stock or slow to respond to mistakes within your business?

External – Things That Are Out of Your Control

Opportunities:

• How is your business uniquely positioned to succeed? Do you have a strong technology infrastructure or a strong team to scale and grow?
• What trends can you take advantage of today and in the future?
• Where can you capitalize on errors your competition has made?
• Do you have opportunities to improve your systems and processes based on future projections?
• Are the demographics of your customers and clients rapidly changing?
• Are there any current events affecting your ability to do business?
• Is the global market affecting your ability to sell and deliver value?
• Are there new laws or legislation impacting your business model?

Running your SWOT analysis helps put you and your company on the right track as you start researching your competition and shows you where your company stands. This will deepen the insights you gain as you continue to research. Of course, you can start your competitive research without doing a SWOT analysis, but we don’t recommend it. Its benefits increase as you research — and you can replicate it for some of your biggest competition, compare it to your SWOT analysis, then strategize.

Step 2 – List Your Competitors

Make a list of all your competitors. Include every competitor you can think of, and then do some online research, include others in your brainstorming, and see if you can discover any up-and-coming competitors or companies you haven’t heard of. Here are a few tips for creating your competitor list:

• Take your time and be thorough. The more time you invest in this process up front, the better your results and learnings will be.
• Don’t stop after the first three or four competitors spring to mind. Remember to include up-and-coming or lesser-known companies.
• When searching online for additional competitors, use the keywords, products, and services related to your industry and niche.
• Once your list includes five to 10 companies, you’re ready for more in-depth research.

Step 3 – Deepen Your Research

One of the biggest roadblocks holding businesses back from doing competitive research is a lack of direction. What metrics should you look for? Where should you spend your time and effort? Here’s where you should focus as you research your competition.

Take a hard look at your competitors’ SEO efforts to understand where they stand in the marketplace and to give your company a baseline for improvement. Look for the answers to these questions as you research:

• When you search on industry-specific terms, do your competitors rank on the front page of the search results?
• What can you learn from your competitors who have a strong SEO presence?
• Is their content marketing helping them increase their market share?
• Is their content typically in long form or shorter blog posts?
• How do they format their content?
• Do they publish a lot of guest posts?

These SEO tools can also help:

• Moz SEO tools

Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to drive sales, increase engagement, and develop brand awareness. Understanding your competitors’ content marketing strategy will give you insight on where you can improve or tweak your company’s current strategy. (If you don’t have a content marketing strategy, you definitely should.) Look for answers to these questions as you peruse your competitors’ content:

• What are your competitor’s most popular posts about?
• What do the least popular posts cover?
• What is the company’s content distribution strategy?
• Are readers engaged with the content? For example, are there reader comments posted at the ends of articles or posts? If so, which topics elicited the most commentary?

Here are some tools to get you started:

• Google Trends

Website traffic

When you understand your competitors’ web traffic, you’ll have a better overall view of their businesses health. While high web traffic doesn’t automatically mean a thriving business, it’s a good indicator of positive momentum. Look for answers to these questions in your research:

• If a competitor’s traffic numbers made a big jump, what educated guesses can you make about what might have caused the increase?
• Have their traffic numbers increased recently?
• Do they have a high number of email subscribers?
• Is their website professionally designed?
• Do the pages on their website load quickly?
• Do they consistently push content on their website and blog?
• Do they have a lot of high-quality back links?

These tools can also help:

• Google Analytics

Demographic data

Knowing your competitors’ demographics can show you how to boost your marketing efforts and grow your business. They can also help you better understand your competitors’ overall marketing plan, especially their content marketing strategy. Your research should answer the overall question, “Who consumes your competitors’ content, products, and services?” More specifically, you should discover:

• Is the audience primarily male or female? Of what age?
• What are their customers’ occupations and education levels?
• What are their interests and shopping habits?
• What are their political views?
• Where do they live?
• Is there an opportunity for you to take some of their market share by changing your marketing strategy?

Asking these questions will give you valuable insight into their overall brand strategy. These tools can also help:

• Quantcast Measure
• Website Informer

Step 4: Keep researching

Competitor research isn’t a one-time venture. To keep innovating and growing, you have to keep up the research. Here’s how.

Read your competitors’ content

It should be a company-wide habit to consume your competitor’s content on a regular basis. Not only will this keep you up to date with the latest in what’s working and what’s not, but it also gives you the opportunity to respond with high-quality content of your own based on the latest popular marketing trends. Check out their social media channels One of the best ways to keep track of your competitor’s social media content is to use a social media tool, such as Hootsuite . You’ll see your competitors’ latest posts so you can always have an eye on what they’re sharing. Sign up for competitors’ mailing lists If you are looking for free insight on what your competition is doing, sign up for their product mailing list or newsletter. This alone could provide numerous ways to improve your product or service.

Common competitor research mistakes

Make sure you don’t fall into these common pitfalls.

Copying your competitors

Stealing your competitor’s intellectual property and beyond is a surefire way to hurt your brand and potentially get you into legal trouble. While it might be tempting to just tweak some of your competitor’s most popular content or service and call it your own, it will quickly crack the foundation of trust your business has worked so hard to build. Instead, keep your brand unique. Let your competitors’ work inspire you to branch out, reach farther, and create something new.

Lack of commitment

Competitor research is a long-term strategy. You can’t just Google a few business rivals and call it a day, then expect lasting value. If possible, get buy-in on your competitor research project from your entire company or at least the key decision makers. Having the resources you need to effectively research your competitors will help you make the most out of your efforts. Think of competitor research as a never-ending process, and stay up to date with what your competitors are doing on a regular basis.

Tracking the wrong metrics

If you track the wrong metrics, you’ll lose time, and you could also put your company on the wrong path, costing significant capital in the long run. Tracking the wrong metrics and drawing the wrong conclusions about the data you discover go hand in hand, so stay focused on what’s truly important. To avoid researching irrelevant data and metrics, reference your findings from the SWOT analysis and refer to your KPIs regularly. Don’t get bogged down with details that aren’t relevant to your business goals. If one of your competitors is targeting a demographic you have no intention of marketing to, don’t spend time understanding that data set.

How to use Quantcast for competitive research

If all of this sounds overwhelming, consider letting Quantcast handle the legwork. While there are many tools you can choose for competitor research, Quantcast gives you all you need to understand your business rivals in simple formats. The work is done — all you have to do is put it to use. With Quantcast’s search feature, you can quickly get a glimpse at the important metrics for most of your biggest competitors and then adjust your overall business strategy accordingly.

[Quantcast search feature]

We provide analytics and metrics in easy-to-understand visual charts that show you exactly where you stand compared to your competition. For example, after researching your competitor on Quantcast Measure, you might discover interesting things about the devices its audience uses to view content. Using that knowledge, you can improve your mobile and desktop sites.

[Simple graphs from Quantcast Measure showing website metrics]

Weathering the competitive business landscape is a constant difficulty without the proper knowledge and tools. Let competitor research help you stay relevant in the eyes of your customers, readers, and partners. Now more than ever, it’s important to stay on the top of the latest industry trends. Learn more about how Quantcast Measure can lighten your workload.     Legal Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice nor a substitute for legal counsel. Please consult your legal advisor before doing competitor research and anytime you have questions with respect to intellectual property rights.

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Competitor Analysis: How to Know What Makes You Different in a Crowded Ecommerce Market

Brett Regan

Almost any product you can think of is already being sold by someone else. 

That’s both good and bad news. The good thing is that competition is a strong proxy for consumer demand. And where there’s demand, there’s potential for growth and on-going profits. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have the Pepsi versus Coca-Cola debate. 

Now, the wrinkle is that you’ll have to share the same customers and playing field (sales channels, marketing tools, etc.) with another online store. How do you stand out? What can you do to sway consumer decisions without being too different? 

A well-executed competitor analysis can provide you the insight you need. 

What is a Competitive Analysis?

Every market has more than one company pitching similar products or services to the same category of buyers. A competitive analysis helps to identify the main market players, determine what strategies they use to succeed and identify resources your company could use to dominate the market. 

In economics, there are two primary theories around businesses attaining a competitive advantage: 

The Market-Based View (MBV) strategic framework states that a company’s performance is solely determined by the structure and competitive dynamics of the industry. 

Coming out of that is the Porter’s five forces model , which shows five main forces that add competitive pressure to your industry. Analyzing these forces will give you a better understanding of the target markets and prepare for launch. 

Barriers to entry: High entry barriers mean lower inter-industry competition, but can also be a sign of a monopoly. An industry that’s hard to break into will likely have several established players, holding a large market share. 

Example in ecommerce: online furniture sales. The market is challenging to penetrate due to shipping costs. Big-chain players such as Ikea, West Elm, Wayfair hold the grounds. But it still has room for more entrants as DTC retailer Burrow proved . 

Supplier power: Top suppliers (merchants) can control prices, reduce the quality of products, and set benchmarks for other participants.

Example in ecommerce: Amazon popularized the concept of “free shipping” and “next-day delivery”, effectively forcing other players to follow suit. 

Buyer power: Vice versa, powerful buyer demographics can impact the markets by demanding better product quality, driving down prices or forcing the industry players to compete with one another.

Example in ecommerce: Sustainability has become a major issue among consumers. Some are boycotting companies using palm oil in foods. Or rally against cosmetic brands using synthetic fragrances. Such buyer groups spend money with brands that better align with their values. And prompt wider changes in the industry. 

Threat of substitution. Some products are at risk of becoming redundant or substituted with cheaper, more sustainable or trendier alternatives. 

Example in ecommerce: In 2016, Apple removed the headphone jack from new iPhone models, effectively launching the market for wireless headphones (that they also happened to produce ). This impacted headphone sellers, who previously targeted iPhone owners. 

The second popular theory of competition is the Resource-Based View (RBV) strategic framework. This paradigm focuses more on analyzing how internal resources may contribute to the company’s competitive advantage. 

When doing competitor research using RBV, your goal is to determine how each company uses its resources to secure/improve its market position. 

The two types of resources RBV analyzes are:

Tangible assets — all physical assets the company has such as equipment, capital, brick-and-mortar locations, ecommerce website , mobile application, etc. Physical assets provide a lower competitive advantage since any competitor can buy identical assets.

Intangible assets — all types of intellectual property, brand positioning, customer experience, work culture and other intangible assets the business has developed over the years. Intangible resources are harder (if not impossible) to replicate. Thus, they provide a long-term competitive advantage. 

Further, RBV breaks down the resources by types:

Heterogeneous resources — every business possesses a different set of skills, capabilities and core competencies. Even companies in the same niche start with a different mix of resources. Consequently, this allows businesses to differ from each other by pursuing competitive strategies based on their strengths. Per RBV, heterogeneous resources help businesses attain a competitive advantage even if they are selling similar products.

Here’s a quick competition analysis example to illustrate the point: 

Apple, Sony and SkullCandy sell headphones. But each company uses its tangible and intangible assets differently to secure a market share. Apple has strong brand equity and focuses on building long-term relationships with each customer through upselling different gadgets. Sony leverages its vast distribution network and economies of scale to sell an array of cheap and higher-end products across markets. SkullCandy is a niche player, focused on selling “statement” and limited edition accessories to music fans. 

Immobile resources — certain business resources cannot be easily transferred to another company in the short-term perspective. For example, you cannot “copy” Skullcandy’s brand and ecommerce experience and “paste” it on your store to get the same results. 

Most of the intangible business resources are immobile — internal knowledge, product development process, branding, etc. 

Therefore, you should evaluate how your intangible immobile resources can be leveraged to outperform the competition, rather than simply trying to copy what others are doing.

To sum up, competition analysis is a multi-facet process, aimed at exploring:

Who are the main movers and shakers on the market  

What external and internal forces shape the competitive landscape 

What types of resources different players have

How they use their assets to stand out 

Where are the gaps in competitors’ capabilities

Which resources you have (or need) to fill in those gaps.

Why is a Competitive Analysis Important for Ecommerce 

In 2020 the global ecommerce retail sales grew by 27.6% and reached $4.2 trillion, though the total worldwide retail sales dropped by 3%. 

Much of the ecommerce market growth was driven by a pandemic-prompted shift to online shopping among consumers, who prioritized brick-and-mortar sales before that. The above also prompted a lot of retailers to launch (or expand) their online presence. 

At the same time, some retailers were forced to declare bankruptcy, too. 

Source: Digital Commerce  

Many ecommerce-first businesses, though, have seen a major spike in sales. During the 2020 holiday season , businesses selling on Amazon surpassed $4.8 billion in worldwide sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, an increase of over 60% from last year. 

Here’s what that data tells us. The retail market underwent a major reshuffle with a good fraction of profits shifting online. It’s not yet certain how long-lasting this shift will be. But the market forecast so far states that the ecommerce market will decelerate compared to 2020 and only grow by 14.3% in 2021. 

Thus, knowing how to conduct competitor analysis becomes crucial for understanding how to effectively enter a growing but turbulent and increasingly competitive market:

Crystalize your market positioning in terms of value proposition and differentiators

Estimate the entry barrier into the target market/niche 

Identify baseline consumer expectations, set by others 

Find market gaps and opportunities for improvement

Uncover potential risks and weaknesses in your marketing plans   

How to Do a Competitor Analysis in 9 Steps 

The goal of a competitor analysis is to equip you with insights to inform your product development and marketing decisions. 

To dig out those “hidden-in-plain-sight” knowledge nuggets, complete the next nine steps. 

1. Identify your competitors.

To conquer a mountain, you’ll first need to decide which mountain you are going to climb. 

Hiking up a 1650’ hill with marked pathways isn’t the same as trekking up the Kilimanjaro. You’ll need different types of preparation, gear and guidance.

To estimate the difficulty of your “climb,” you’ll need to analyze three types of competitors:

Direct competition is an ecommerce business providing similar products to the same target market (both geographically and demographically) at a similar price point. Think 

Xbox vs Sony PlayStation.

Direct competition is the first contender you should analyze for your own brand. Why? Because doing so helps fulfill two purposes:

Evaluate product viability — this type of good is probably in demand if someone else sells it. 

Estimate entry barriers — direct competition sets the bar for entering a market. For example, a competitor’s product costs $10, you won’t be able to charge $25 for it, unless you add another twist to it.

Here’s how to identify direct competition:

Analyze search engine results (SERPs) for similar product queries 

Look at market share statistics using Statista or a similar source

See who’s sourcing products from the same suppliers/wholesalers as you plan to use

Note brands your target buyers use or mention the most during interviews

Direct competitors are easy to notice, but it can be easy to miss indirect competitors.

Indirect competition is an online seller offering products that differ in some way, but could also satisfy the same customer demand. 

However, indirect competitor research may be interesting for more established ecommerce brands, evaluating new product ideas and/or new markets. 

For example, if a skincare brand would want to launch a new CBD product line, they should analyze what other CBD businesses are doing to identify which intangible assets they could leverage to compete with them. 

Finally, there’s replacement competition — a business with the potential to replace your product with something different altogether. Such “disruptive” brands try to bite into the existing profits of more established competitors by offering a better product or experience. A couple of examples you’ll recognize:

Uber replaced standard taxis. 

Airbnb eroded the hotel market. 

Choosing to go the “replacement” route may be challenging, especially if you are up against bigger competitors. You also risk investing in your own product that no one else needs if you fail to validate your product viability. 

However, the higher risks are offset by higher rewards. Bumping a large competitor, especially one holding a monopoly on the market, can generate rapid growth for your own business. 

2. Perform a competitor SWOT analysis.

This is a great tool to visualize how you stack up against other businesses. Once you’ve lined up several direct competitors, analyze their business from the perspective of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Your analysis should cover the following areas:

Brand positioning

Ecommerce website

Customer experience 

Sales strategy

Pricing strategy

Marketing strategy

Content strategy 

Shipping strategy 

Discounts/Promo strategy

To get answers for each section, ask the following questions:

In which areas does this brand excel? 

Can you identify any intangible assets (e.g., memorable branding) that give them an advantage?

Which processes or experiences need improvements (i.e., in terms of online shopping experience)?

What areas do they neglect/miss (e.g., do they invest enough in search engine optimization to get organic traffic)?

What can your company do better, based on your resources (e.g., can you come up with better messaging for or new types of content for your website)?

Can this competitor substitute you? Can they threaten you in another way (e.g., by offering faster shipping)?

Contrast the competitors’ weaknesses against your strengths. Pay attention to the opportunities they are missing. Is there any way you could capitalize on them?

Strengths and threats, on the contrary, will help you better gauge the overall market conditions and entry barrier — and prepare you to conquer it. 

3. Examine your competitors’ websites and customer experiences.

Customer experience is one of the decisive factors in ecommerce. 59% of US consumers will abandon a brand after several bad experiences, 17% will tolerate only one “strike.” 

Treat competitor research as an opportunity to close the gaps on your ecommerce website design roadmap. 

To effectively assess your competitors’ UX and CX, use this 5-step UX research framework developed by Erin Sanders from the Research Learning Spiral:  

Set the objectives: What knowledge do I need to obtain? At the very basics, you should analyze the competitor’s navigation, product catalog, product listing, checkout experience, shipping policy, on-site marketing tools (such as discounts, coupons, upsells, etc.)

Create research hypotheses: Using your earlier knowledge about the competitor’s strengths or weaknesses, create a set of assumptions about their customers. For example: does competitor’s content help shoppers decide on the product? 

Select your research methods: These will depend on your resources. Use both quantitative (benchmarks, user testing data, performance metrics, etc) and qualitative methods ( surveys , focus group interviews, customer reviews, etc) for evaluating their UX/CX. 

Conduct the evaluation: Get as much data as you can during the set research timeframe. 

Synthesize the findings. Use the obtained information to fill in the knowledge gaps, challenge or confirm your hypotheses and evaluate alternative design opportunities.

4. Determine your competitors’ market positioning. 

Competitive positioning is your core “differentiator” from others. This information is easy to uncover when you evaluate indirect competition — their solution will be somewhat different than yours.

That difference stands for their unique value proposition — a factor that attracts new customers to them. Every brand needs one if they gear up for success. 

To map which position competitive brands hold on the market, do the following:

Identify the primary group of customer needs that you plan to address. 

Choose a geographic region you want to study.

Decide if you want to track the entire market for a product or only a specific segment. 

Select a price range you want to analyze (cheap/low-end products, mid-market, luxury).  

Identify what primary benefit the customer receives at different price point.

Organize competitors by product price and its level of primary benefit on the map.

Source: Alexa  

5. Look at your competitors’ pricing and current offers. 

Perceptual mapping helps identify how different competitors price their products and where you could fit in. This data gives you some baseline figures on how much people are willing to pay for different types of goods (from different brands).

Yet, it’s not just objective factors such as quality or feature range that impact consumers’ price sensitivity. 

For example:

43% of all consumers are ready to pay more for greater convenience such as faster shipping or low-hassle delivery. 

71% are ready to pay a premium for brands that provide full product traceability.

As you analyze the competitors’ prices, pay attention to such “add-ons”. Try to determine how they tie in extra value to their prices to avoid competing on dollar value alone.  

6. Learn about the technology your competitors are using. 

Technology may seem like a tangible asset any brand could acquire. But we often forget that technology is an enabler, so it’s less about the technology than how it’s being used.

Indeed, competing businesses can rely on the same ecommerce platform but configure and extend it to create a unique brand experience (intangible asset).

Thus, when doing your analysis pay attention to the following:

What type of ecommerce solution does the company use — open source, SaaS or headless commerce? 

Do they rely on any custom extensions/plugins?

What types of supporting systems do they use — e.g., payment processors, email marketing service providers, 3PL integrations, etc? 

Are they using any innovative technologies such as AI, chatbots, AR or VR to deliver an immersive shopping experience?

Is there any way you can offer a better online shopping experience by choosing another technology stack or implementing custom integrations?

An easy way to learn about the competitor’s tech stack is to analyze their website with BuiltWith . 

7. Ensure you are being competitive with shipping. 

Shipping is a determinant purchase driver for most consumers, according to Baymard Institute, shipping costs are one of the top reasons for cart abandonment.  

Determine what your competition is charging for:

Same/next day delivery

2-day shipping

Standard shipping

International shipping

Then analyze different logistics providers to estimate if you can offer similar rates. Typically, ecommerce brands can negotiate bulk discounts for shipping/long-term contracts. 

Alternatively, you can mark up the prices to offset some of the shopping costs for bulkier items. 

Lastly, if you have brick-and-mortar operations, consider BOPIS or curbside pickups. Both can help reduce fulfillment costs. 

8. Review social media feedback and performance. 

Social networks are a goldmine for the voice of customer (VOC) data you can leverage for product development and brand positioning.

 Here’s how to conduct a competitor analysis using social media:

Analyze how the company responds to support queries. 

Check how they respond to product questions.

Browse mentions and hashtags to evaluate overall conversations.

Facebook:  

Read the latest reviews. These could help identify weaknesses you could improve upon. 

Use the Pages to Watch feature to monitor how similar pages engage with their audiences.

You can also see what other brands your fans like by typing “pages liked by people who like [your page name]” in the Graph Search box.

Check the competitor aesthetics and content calendar. What types of visuals do they use? Are they leveraging new Instagram features such as Reels or Shoppable posts? 

Estimate their engagement levels per post. Is it authentic? What are their comments to like ratio? 

Are they partnering with influencers? Who are they working with? Why?

Popular brands with a cult following have dedicated subreddits to street interactions with their community. Check these out to get a better sense of the audience preferences, needs and missed opportunities. 

General subreddits (e.g., covering skincare or gaming) also have active and brutally honest discussions around different brands. Look for those threads to understand what fuels the competitor’s customer sentiment and drives purchasing decisions. 

If you have the budget, invest in social listening and/or sentiment analysis tools. Some good options are Brandwatch (premium), Social Searcher (free) and Critical Mention (premium).

9. Use tools and methods for staying aware of competitors.

The above sounds like a lot, right? 

To keep your competitor research structured and easy to re-visit in the future, use the following competitive analysis frameworks:

Porter’s five forces model.

Resource-Based View (RBV) framework

SWOT template 

Perceptual mapping template 

Also, to have an always up-to-date competitive intelligence monitor their:

Social media: using Pages to Watch features or by adding them to your social media analytics tool .

Search engine results (SERPs). Tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush are great for analyzing which keywords your competition ranks for and how they acquire backlinks to their website. 

Online coverage. You can set Google alerts for their brand name to learn when they get mentioned by the media/influencers and in what context. 

Traffic volume and sources. SimilarWeb provides free website traffic analytics, plus an overview of the main referrals.  

Free Template: Competitor Analysis

Finally, if you want to keep a neatly organized list of competitors for hot-key references, we made a simple competitor analysis template. 

It’s a good starting point for ecommerce brands who want to have a bird-eye view of direct competition:

[ Basic Competitive Analysis Template ]

Here’s what to include in a competitive analysis template:

Mission statement (positioning statement)

Main offering (flagship product(s))

Primary sales channels

Competition category.

The above data is a solid baseline for performing a deeper level of competition analysis for individual companies using the steps, mentioned above. 

You can then add an extra category like key findings where you summarize the extra points of your research and link up to supplementary materials. 

Wrapping Up 

Competitor analysis not only helps you learn about others, but also identify areas where your brand can excel. You have a set of intangible assets that is the basis of your differentiators. Personal expertise, market knowledge, domain expertise, marketing and branding skills all count! Keep those above when comparing yourself against the competition. 

To get the best outcomes from your competition research, select a host of baselines (parameters) for comparison such as:

Distribution channels 

Product range 

Product features/qualities 

Online shopping experience

Innovative tech features

Capture these insights in your template and then analyze where you can do as good or better than the others! 

Competitor Analysis FAQs

1. what is in a competitive analysis.

Competition analysis aims at identifying your brand’s main competitors and determining the best ways to surpass them. The purpose of competition analysis is to help you determine why your target audience chooses their brand and what type of unique value proposition could prompt them to buy from you instead.

2. Is SWOT a competitive analysis?

SWOT is one of the tools for performing competitive analysis. By using the SWOT framework, you can identify your competitor’s weak areas and missed opportunities to capitalize on them. Also, SWOTs help you estimate other brand’s strengths and potential operational risks.

3. What happens if I don’t do a competitor analysis?

If you skip competitor analysis several things may go wrong. First, you may underestimate the entry barrier to your primary target market and respectively — the startup capital you’ll need. Secondly, you risk launching a product that has no/low demand due to poor market fit, high pricing or no strong differentiators.

4. Does competitor analysis take a long time?

Depends on your target market size and the depth of the analysis you can partake. A preliminary competitor analysis, covering the direct competition, can be done in a couple of hours. However, if you plan to use more advanced research tools such as focus groups or customer interviews, plan a longer timeline — up to a month.

5. Do a competitor analysis even if I sell niche products?

Yes, you better do. When selling niche products, you risk aiming for a market that is too small to turn in a good profit, for example. Or pick a niche with irregular demand or low consumer spending power. Even small businesses can majorly benefit from competitive research.

6. What is the first step in a competitive analysis?

The first step of the competitive analysis is identifying your key direct competitors. A direct competitor is a business selling the same product to a target audience you are eying. Knowing their market positioning, pricing, marketing and sales strategy will help you work out a set of differentiators to carve out your position on the market.

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• How to create a competitive analysis (w ...

How to create a competitive analysis (with examples)

Competitive analysis involves identifying your direct and indirect competitors using research to reveal their strengths and weaknesses in relation to your own. In this guide, we’ll outline how to do a competitive analysis and explain how you can use this marketing strategy to improve your business.

Whether you’re running a business or playing in a football game, understanding your competition is crucial for success. While you may not be scoring touchdowns in the office, your goal is to score business deals with clients or win customers with your products. The method of preparation for athletes and business owners is similar—once you understand your strengths and weaknesses versus your competitors’, you can level up. 

What is a competitive analysis?

Competitive analysis involves identifying your direct and indirect competitors using research to reveal their strengths and weaknesses in relation to your own. 

Direct competitors market the same product to the same audience as you, while indirect competitors market the same product to a different audience. After identifying your competitors, you can use the information you gather to see where you stand in the market landscape. 

What to include in a competitive analysis

The purpose of this type of analysis is to get a competitive advantage in the market and improve your business strategy. Without a competitive analysis, it’s difficult to know what others are doing to win clients or customers in your target market. A competitive analysis report may include:

A description of your company’s target market

Details about your product or service versus the competitors’

Current and projected market share, sales, and revenues

Pricing comparison

Marketing and social media strategy analysis

Differences in customer ratings

You’ll compare each detail of your product or service versus the competition to assess strategy efficacy. By comparing success metrics across companies, you can make data-driven decisions.

How to do a competitive analysis

Follow these five steps to create your competitive analysis report and get a broad view of where you fit in the market. This process can help you analyze a handful of competitors at one time and better approach your target customers.

1. Create a competitor overview

In step one, select between five and 10 competitors to compare against your company. The competitors you choose should have similar product or service offerings and a similar business model to you. You should also choose a mix of both direct and indirect competitors so you can see how new markets might affect your company. Choosing both startup and seasoned competitors will further diversify your analysis.

Tip: To find competitors in your industry, use Google or Amazon to search for your product or service. The top results that emerge are likely your competitors. If you’re a startup or you serve a niche market, you may need to dive deeper into the rankings to find your direct competitors.

2. Conduct market research

Once you know the competitors you want to analyze, you’ll begin in-depth market research. This will be a mixture of primary and secondary research. Primary research comes directly from customers or the product itself, while secondary research is information that’s already compiled. Then, keep track of the data you collect in a user research template .

Primary market research may include: 

Purchasing competitors’ products or services

Interviewing customers

Conducting online surveys of customers 

Holding in-person focus groups

Secondary market research may include:

Examining competitors’ websites

Assessing the current economic situation

Identifying technological developments 

Reading company records

Tip: Search engine analysis tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can help you examine competitors’ websites and obtain crucial SEO information such as the keywords they’re targeting, the number of backlinks they have, and the overall health of their website. 

3. Compare product features

The next step in your analysis involves a comparison of your product to your competitors’ products. This comparison should break down the products feature by feature. While every product has its own unique features, most products will likely include:

Service offered

Age of audience served

Number of features

Style and design

Ease of use

Type and number of warranties

Customer support offered

Product quality

Tip: If your features table gets too long, abbreviate this step by listing the features you believe are of most importance to your analysis. Important features may include cost, product benefits, and ease of use.

4. Compare product marketing

The next step in your analysis will look similar to the one before, except you’ll compare the marketing efforts of your competitors instead of the product features. Unlike the product features matrix you created, you’ll need to go deeper to unveil each company’s marketing plan . 

Areas you’ll want to analyze include:

Social media

Website copy

Press releases

Product copy

As you analyze the above, ask questions to dig deeper into each company’s marketing strategies. The questions you should ask will vary by industry, but may include:

What story are they trying to tell?

What value do they bring to their customers?

What’s their company mission?

What’s their brand voice?

Tip: You can identify your competitors’ target demographic in this step by referencing their customer base, either from their website or from testimonials. This information can help you build customer personas. When you can picture who your competitor actively targets, you can better understand their marketing tactics. 

5. Use a SWOT analysis

Competitive intelligence will make up a significant part of your competitor analysis framework, but once you’ve gathered your information, you can turn the focus back to your company. A SWOT analysis helps you identify your company’s strengths and weaknesses. It also helps turn weaknesses into opportunities and assess threats you face based on your competition.

During a SWOT analysis, ask yourself:

What do we do well?

What could we improve?

Are there market gaps in our services?

What new market trends are on the horizon?

Tip: Your research from the previous steps in the competitive analysis will help you answer these questions and fill in your SWOT analysis. You can visually present your findings in a SWOT matrix, which is a four-box chart divided by category.

6. Identify your place in the market landscape

The last step in your competitive analysis is to understand where you stand in the market landscape. To do this, you’ll create a graph with an X and Y axis. The two axes should represent the most important factors for being competitive in your market. 

For example, the X-axis may represent customer satisfaction, while the Y-axis may represent presence in the market. You’ll then plot each competitor on the graph according to their (x,y) coordinates. You’ll also plot your company on this chart, which will give you an idea of where you stand in relation to your competitors. 

This graph is included for informational purposes and does not represent Asana’s market landscape or any specific industry’s market landscape. 

Tip: In this example, you’ll see three companies that have a greater market presence and greater customer satisfaction than yours, while two companies have a similar market presence but higher customer satisfaction. This data should jumpstart the problem-solving process because you now know which competitors are the biggest threats and you can see where you fall short. 

Competitive analysis example

Imagine you work at a marketing startup that provides SEO for dentists, which is a niche industry and only has a few competitors. You decide to conduct a market analysis for your business. To do so, you would:

Step 1: Use Google to compile a list of your competitors. 

Steps 2, 3, and 4: Use your competitors’ websites, as well as SEO analysis tools like Ahrefs, to deep-dive into the service offerings and marketing strategies of each company. 

Step 5: Focusing back on your own company, you conduct a SWOT analysis to assess your own strategic goals and get a visual of your strengths and weaknesses. 

Step 6: Finally, you create a graph of the market landscape and conclude that there are two companies beating your company in customer satisfaction and market presence. 

After compiling this information into a table like the one below, you consider a unique strategy. To beat out your competitors, you can use localization. Instead of marketing to dentists nationwide like your competitors are doing, you decide to focus your marketing strategy on one region, state, or city. Once you’ve become the known SEO company for dentists in that city, you’ll branch out. 

You won’t know what conclusions you can draw from your competitive analysis until you do the work and see the results. Whether you decide on a new pricing strategy, a way to level up your marketing, or a revamp of your product, understanding your competition can provide significant insight.

Drawbacks of competitive analysis

There are some drawbacks to competitive analysis you should consider before moving forward with your report. While these drawbacks are minor, understanding them can make you an even better manager or business owner. 

Don’t forget to take action

You don’t just want to gather the information from your competitive analysis—you also want to take action on that information. The data itself will only show you where you fit into the market landscape. The key to competitive analysis is using it to problem solve and improve your company’s strategic plan .

Be wary of confirmation bias

Confirmation bias means interpreting information based on the beliefs you already hold. This is bad because it can cause you to hold on to false beliefs. To avoid bias, you should rely on all the data available to back up your decisions. In the example above, the business owner may believe they’re the best in the SEO dental market at social media. Because of this belief, when they do market research for social media, they may only collect enough information to confirm their own bias—even if their competitors are statistically better at social media. However, if they were to rely on all the data available, they could eliminate this bias.

Update your analysis regularly

A competitive analysis report represents a snapshot of the market landscape as it currently stands. This report can help you gain enough information to make changes to your company, but you shouldn’t refer to the document again unless you update the information regularly. Market trends are always changing, and although it’s tedious to update your report, doing so will ensure you get accurate insight into your competitors at all times. 

Boost your marketing strategy with competitive analysis

Learning your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses will make you a better marketer. If you don’t know the competition you’re up against, you can’t beat them. Using competitive analysis can boost your marketing strategy and allow you to capture your target audience faster.

Competitive analysis must lead to action, which means following up on your findings with clear business goals and a strong business plan. Once you do your competitive analysis, you can use the templates below to put your plan into action.

Related resources

Unmanaged business goals don’t work. Here’s what does.

How Asana uses work management to drive product development

How Asana uses work management to streamline project intake processes

How Asana uses work management for smoother creative production

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Competitor Research: What it is + How to conduct one

Having the feeling that your company is falling behind the competition is frustrating, right? Competitor research is one efficient strategy for staying one step ahead of the game. You can learn about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, gain valuable insights into their strategies, and ultimately improve your own business through competitive analysis.

In this post, I’ll discuss competitor research in detail and give you actionable tips on how to conduct it effectively. So brace yourself to overcome the competition.

What is Competitor Research?

Competitor research is the process of identifying your competitors, finding out what their strengths and weaknesses are, and evaluating their products or services. It helps you understand the market and find ways to differentiate your business.

You may learn a lot about the target market and the competition by analyzing the products and services of your big competitors. It also assists in identifying previously unnoticed industry trends in the business world.

LEARN ABOUT:  Market Evaluation

Why is Competitor Research Important?

Competitor research is an important aspect of business strategy because it allows companies to learn about their competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Businesses can identify opportunities for improvement and areas where they can gain a competitive advantage by conducting a competitive analysis of their product or service, pricing, and marketing strategies.

Businesses may adapt their strategy to better serve their potential customers and position themselves to succeed in their industries by keeping up to date with what their competitors are doing. Following are some reasons for the importance of competitor analysis:

• To Understand the Market: Competitive market research helps to find market trends, consumer preferences, and other important elements that have an impact on their industry by researching their competitors.
• To Identify Opportunities: Businesses can identify market gaps where they can gain a competitive advantage by researching their competitors. For instance, they might identify market opportunities or brand-new customer groups to focus on.
• To Develop Better Strategies: By conducting a comprehensive competitive analysis, you can better understand why customers choose to buy from you vs. your competitors. Businesses may identify what works and what doesn’t by analyzing what their major competitors are doing and then modifying their marketing strategy accordingly.

LEARN ABOUT: market research trends

Is competitor research qualitative or quantitative?

Competitor research can use both qualitative and quantitative methods based on the particular research objective and the data that needs to be collected.

• Qualitative research collects non-numerical data and is frequently employed to better understand customer behavior, attitudes, and opinions. Conducting customer interviews, evaluating interactions on social media, and reviewing online reviews are examples of qualitative research methods.
• Quantitative research contains the collection of numerical data and is frequently used to measure market trends and the behavior of customers. Quantitative research approaches include conducting surveys or questionnaires, evaluating sales data, or making use of web analytics tools to measure website traffic

The appropriate strategy will depend on the goals of the research, the resources available, and the exact information you want to learn from the research.

Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. In many cases, a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods can offer a complete picture of the competitive market.

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Interview

What should be included in competitor research?

A comprehensive competitor analysis or research should include some key elements to provide a complete picture of the market environment. Here are a few important things to consider:

Identify competitors

Analyzing the online presence of competitors.

• Website Design and Layout: It covers your competitor’s website’s layout, design, user-friendliness, and mobile responsiveness.
• Content Quality: It involves the accuracy, relevancy, and audience-usefulness of the content on your competitor’s website.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): It analyzes the on-page and off-page SEO tactics used by your competitors, including how they make use of keywords, meta descriptions, headings, URL structures, domain authority, and link-building strategies.
• Traffic Analysis: Find out how much organic and sponsored traffic your competitor’s website gets, including their use of calls-to-action, landing pages, and forms.
• Social Media Integration: Check out how your competitors use social networking symbols and widgets on their websites.
• Lead Generation: Check your competitor’s website for pop-ups, lead magnets, and other lead collection methods.

Competitive analysis of Products or Services

• Identify the gaps: Product or service that your competitors provide but you do not.
• Differentiators: Product or service that you provide but not by your competitors.

Pricing research

Marketing audit.

• Sponsored Ad Campaigns
• Social media advertisements
• Newsletters

SWOT analysis

Gathering information and tracking your findings.

• Business name
• Social media
• Special features
• Pros and cons
• additional details

Improvements and conclusions

Competitive research is a continuous process. For you to remain competitive in the market, ongoing monitoring is required, such as watching how competitors change. Creating a competitor analysis template will make future market research easier for you.

LEARN ABOUT:  Market research industry

Dumpster Diving vs. Value Driving: Which would you pick?

Instead of spending all of our time and money figuring out what the competition is doing — shouldn’t we just give our customers what they want?

Yeah. It was getting ridiculous. That little sentence almost got me fired. But, I had honestly had enough.

I was the 1-woman competitive intelligence department for a large pharmaceutical packaging company who had suddenly had a reality check moment when they saw bits and pieces of their multi-million dollar business start vanishing before their eyes.

Suddenly, I realized that other companies were providing the same products, and they went from one extreme to the other.

Over the next year or so, I did phone interviews, customer interviews, and even some dumpster diving, all for competitor analysis and with the intent of trying to figure out what was going on.

This was all in the days before the internet, so there was a lot of hands-on, feet-on-the-ground, kind of competitor analysis that I did. And my conclusion-customer satisfaction was a way better investment of time and money. But that doesn’t mean that you should ignore the competition and not do competitor analysis; no way.

How to begin the competitor research process

Figure out what do you want to know and why.

When I first started doing competitive intelligence, it was a knee-jerk reaction to seeing sales and profits dwindle.

• Where did the money go?
• Why aren’t they ordering the same number of parts as last year?
• Who took my business?

And ultimately, the most important questions underlying all of these were “WHY were our customers leaving us?” and “What are we going to do about it?”

This was a good place to start our competitive analysis and competitive intelligence journey. The first step is knowing that you have competitors (duh! EVERYONE has competitors) and then understanding exactly what was important to our customers that we weren’t fulfilling on and our competitors were.

What’s your competitive dilemma?

• Do you see a competitor getting more of your ideal customer than you are?
• Do you see customers spending more on your type of product or service with someone else?
• Do you see customers “doing it themselves” when you can do it better?

Get as specific as you can about exactly what you want to know and why.

What decisions are you going to make, and what information do you need to make them?

This is a sister question to the first and will often come only after you understand exactly what’s going on in your competitive landscape. But it’s a critical piece of information to have in your competitor’s research because it will drive your time, money, and resources for a good amount of time.

So, the clearer you are on what decisions you’re going to make and what information you need to make them, the faster the process will go and the more effective you’re going to be.

What is it about this “competitive situation” that have you stumped?

• Are you trying to launch a new product and not sure if customers would switch from a competitor to you?
• Are you considering getting into a new market and wondering how to position yourself against an entrenched competitor?
• How many customers would you need to be successful?

Imagine that competition was NOT an issue; what would you need to know to be successful? This will help you identify and focus on very specific questions that will move your story and strategy forward and keep you from getting mired in “nice to know” information.

Decide on who your actual competition is in your competitor research

You probably believe that your greatest competitor is the person who lives next door, lives across the country, or offers the same service as you do. Is that right? Your competitors are any other possibilities that your customer may have to get the result that you promise. That is how I would define it. Keep reading to find out.

Types of Competition

As you can see, there are three categories of competition:

Direct competitors

Indirect competitors, secondary competitors.

Take a moment to list some of your direct and indirect competitors, as well as secondary competitors, now. This will really help you get some context around your competitor research.

Here are some Cool Tools That Will Help You Track Your Competition . Meanwhile, you can use some of our product survey templates and find out where your competitive advantage lies.

What tools can I use to do competitor analysis?

Competitive analysis is now more accessible than ever because of developments in software and technology. With so many options available, choosing the best tool for conducting market research might be difficult.

Because of this, I’ve done the research and narrowed it down for you. Let’s take a look:

• Google Alerts: Set up a Google Alert to be notified whenever your competitor’s name, product, or brand name, or maybe even their management team, is mentioned.
• Social Media Tracking: Use HootSuite to keep an eye on your competitors. I like this platform because it’s free, and you can make separate tabs for whatever you’re doing. So, make a tab that searches for the most important hashtags in your industry. Then, make another tab that searches for your competitors’ names and brand names.
• Email Promotions: If your competitors use email marketing, SIGN UP to get their emails. Sure, they can take you off the list, but you’ll still get information in your inbox.
• BuzzSumo: I started using BuzzSumo to come up with ideas for blog posts, but I’ve since learned that it’s also a great tool for figuring out how your competitors are doing. Just look up the name or brand of a competitor and see how many social shares they have.
• HubSpot’s Marketing Grader: This was originally made as a way to get people to sign up for your email list and show you how to make your website better. But why not use it to rate the website of your competitor instead? It’s a simple way to see where they can’t reach customers (oh, and you can use it for your own site for the same thing).
• Market research, Academic research, capturing qualitative and quantitative insights, and social media sentiment analysis .
• Analyze pricing research data to determine market factors, including competition intelligence, purchase behavior, and pricing sensitivity.
• A/B testing across questions, segments, and ideas.

Competitor Analysis FAQ

Is competitor analysis the same as swot analysis, why do we do competitor analysis, what are the types of competitor analysis, what are the objectives of competitor research.

LEARN ABOUT:  Test Market Demand

Final Words

Competitor research can be difficult initially, but it’s crucial to successful business management. It might not be as difficult as you thought when using the appropriate research tools.

QuestionPro is a set of research tools that let researchers make surveys, polls, online focus groups, and even mobile surveys. The platform has an easy-to-use interface and advanced customization options that let researchers make their surveys fit their specific research needs while collecting accurate data.

QuestionPro also has powerful tools for analyzing data, such as data visualization and real-time reporting , which make it easy for researchers to understand and present their findings. The automation features of the platform also make it easy for researchers to collect and look at data.

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Competitive Research: Understanding the Who, What, Where, and When of Your Competition

T o gain a competitive edge, your business needs to conduct competitive research—and that entails much more than simplyascertaining who your competitors are. The most effective competitive research encompasses analyzing your business’stactics and results against those of your direct competitors as well as those of other organizations in your industry

y benchmarking against both competitors and the industry as a whole,” says Kate Kenner Archibald, Chief Marketing Officer of social media management platform Dash Hudson, “marketers are empowered to evaluate themselves against core metrics, determine their marketplace position, and ultimately double down on the tactics and strategies that will deliver the highest return on investment to ensure their brand maintains—and surpasses—its marketplace position.”

In fact, some would argue that you should even compare your business with those outside of your market. “There’s so much you can learn when looking outside your competitive set. Inside the competitive set, there’s much of the same,” says Nicole Bond, Associate Director of Marketing Strategy at marketing intelligence firm Comperemedia. If you’re, say, an insurance firm that markets largely via direct mail, your mailpieces are competing for attention not just with mailings from other insurance companies but also with supermarket flyers, clothing catalogs, nonprofit letters, and everything else they share space with in the mailbox.

And just as your audience members are receiving your direct mail, they are also receiving hundreds of other marketing messages daily from multiple different media channels. Ideally, then, you should conduct competitive research and analysis among multiple channels, not just the one you spend the most resources on or the one seeing the greatest decline in performance. “We tend to see brands testing on less expensive channels. Connecting those dots can give you the big picture [regarding competitors’ overall strategies],” Bond says.

Beyond helping you hone your strategies and tactics, competitive analysis can reveal new markets. Bond cites a client in the financial sector that was losing share of voice in the student market. “They knew it was going to a competitor, but not why,” she says. “So, we stacked up products and compared. What became very clear was that our client was speaking to students as if they were 10 years down the road—talking about credit scores, buying a car—whereas their competitor was focused on right now and things like how they could earn cash back now.”

The client could have used that information simply to overhaul their messaging so that they could better compete in the student market. But they decided to dig even deeper and see what age groups were being targeted by other competitors in the financial sector. “We were able to identify this white space of unmet customer needs of people over 55,” Bond recalls. “The client focused on them with discounts, creative, etc. and were able to get out ahead of their competitors.”

Diving into Direct Mail

Decades before the internet and AI, direct marketers maintained libraries of print catalogs, sales letters, and other direct mail pieces to keep an eye on the competition and seek inspiration. Who’s Mailing What! (WhosMailingWhat.com), an online database of direct mail, began as one such repository in 1978, but it now uses data technology to facilitate speedy comparisons and analyses of mailings going back several decades in nearly two dozen business categories.

“By comparing your competitors’ previous campaigns with their current solutions, you can identify what didn’t work for them before so that you don’t repeat their mistakes,” says Who’s Mailing What! (WMW) President Jill Corcoran. Similarly, by identifying mailpieces that competitors have used repeatedly—controls and grand controls, in WMW parlance—“you will save time and money by learning from their experience and replicating successful mailings for your own brand.”

First, though, you need to identify your competitors. Regardless of the medium—direct mail, social media, or over-the-top content (audio, video, and other media content delivered over the internet)—a common mistake is “relying on perceptions of who you’re competing with for consumer or donor attention,” Corcoran says. “Oftentimes companies have their eye on their top or primary competitors. Without doing a regular market analysis, they can miss emerging companies that are creating impact or presence within their space.”

When analyzing competitors’ direct mail, Corcoran advises homing in on the following:

• Copy — This includes both word count and tone. The latter can help you gauge the audiences your competitors are reaching out to. It’s not necessarily about “Is it working?” but also about “Why are they using this messaging? What does that tell us about their strategy?”
• Formats — Have some competitors switched from larger self-mailer catalogs to smaller physical sizes or formats with fewer pages? Perhaps your research has uncovered that your industry is using fewer postcards and more personalized, folded self-mailers. Keeping an eye on such changes can suggest which formats are trending and whether budget-friendly or more complex formats seem to be prevalent.
• Digital response tools — Tools such as QR codes and personalized URLs drive traffic and simplify effectiveness measurement. Seeing what competitors are doing can help you determine expectations among your audience and inspire your own efforts.
• Discounts and special offers — Direct mail’s ultimate goal is to engage the prospect and keep them involved, influencing them toward the desired action. Watching the offers that your competitors are making to their customers and which ones are used more frequently can reveal what consumers are engaging with.
• Personalization — Perhaps a competitor is using the same creative but tweaking the copy or the offer for different audiences, which is information you wouldn’t be able to garner by looking at just one individual sample of their mailpieces.

Including the above in your competitive research helps you address what Bond considers “the big basic data points: spend, volume, how long a piece has been in circulation, where competitors are marketing to, [and] where they are pulling away from.”

Studying Social

One of the most ubiquitous marketing channels is social media. Thanks to the very nature of social media, numerous free tools—including those offered by the social platforms themselves—provide a wealth of competitive information and data. Knowing what your competition is up to on social media helps you make more informed strategic marketing decisions and have a much better understanding of your own target market. Data points to look at include the following:

• Other brands or organizations your target audience follows
• Which social networks your audience and your competitors are most active on
• How often and when your competitors post
• Competitors’ engagement rates and the type of content that garners the most (and least) engagement
• Most popular hashtags among your audience and your competitors

A challenge of relying exclusively on free channel-specific tools for data analysis is that the more platforms your organization participates in, the more tools—each with their own specific dashboards and idiosyncrasies—you need to use, making it more difficult to put together the all-important big picture. “Historically, gleaning competitive insights and benchmarks has been manual and time-consuming, leading many brands to skip the step in the spirit of ‘getting it done,’” Archibald says. Platform-agnostic tools that use AI and machine learning can generate metrics and provide valuable context in a fraction of the time.

Another potential drawback to relying on free tools is that as social media algorithms and formats change, the tools may no longer be

capturing the data you need. “For example, in recent years, the social media landscape has shifted from traditional connection-based feeds to entertainment-driven formats, which has also shifted user behavior and preferences,” Archibald says. This led Dash Hudson to develop Entertainment Score, a tool that measures the entertainment value of TikTok and Instagram Reels. In a subsequent project with NielsenIQ, it examined how beauty brands were using TikTok to boost sales. “The study revealed that beauty brands with an Entertainment Score of more than five grew their sales by 51 percent on average, while brands with a lower score grew by just 17 percent,” Archibald continues. “The results of this study prove that the social media landscape has evolved beyond metrics such as likes and comments.”

Searching within SEO and Beyond

According to search engine optimization agency Safari Digital, fewer than 1 percent of all people who enter a term into a search engine look beyond the first page of results. If that doesn’t underscore the importance of conducting SEO comparative research so that your brand rises to the top, nothing will.

Fortunately, “the process for conducting SEO/SEM competitive analysis is similar to that of conducting competitive social analysis in that both look at what competitors are doing, analyze the content that is being produced, and determine where and how conversation is being generated,” Archibald says. “Where they differ, however, is how content is optimized to rank. While most marketers do not reoptimize their social media posts but rather refine their social strategy, SEO teams will regularly reoptimize website content based on competitive trends.”

Here are some data points to investigate when studying competitors’ search marketing efforts:

• This could help you identify brands you might not have considered competitors.
• Google uses the number and quality of links to a page to determine a site’s trustworthiness—and trustworthy pages rank higher.
• Which pages rank for the most keywords
• Technical issues, such as redirects, missing headings and tags, and broken links that would hurt rankings
• Types of content on high-ranking pages—such as blog content, user guides, and product reviews

As with social media, free SEO analysis tools can provide basic competitive research. Search algorithms and tactics change at least as frequently as those for social media; a page that ranked near the top of Google results for a search term yesterday could easily fall down several pages in the rankings just a few days later without your even noticing. For this reason, many businesses find it worthwhile to invest in specialists, agencies, or customizable tools.

Regardless of the channel or the medium in which you are conducting competitive research and analysis, you should “always consider the why, where, and how,” Bond says. It’s not enough to simply know metrics and KPIs; to improve your strategy, tactics, and results, you need to understand the reasons for those metrics.

Some experts suggest incorporating subjective resources, such as focus groups, into your competitive research. Others also consider it important to get input from experts outside of your organization or even business sector, helping you see the forest for the trees. “You want to be able to add context to things you’re not even seeing,” Bond says. And perhaps above all, you need to determine what your goals are and what your next steps should be once you’ve gleaned this competitive knowledge. If your goal is to improve return on ad spend, for instance, you will want to take very different actions than if your objective were to increase alumni giving.

“While metrics can improve insights, they should be analyzed within the context of the brand’s goals and objectives and the industry’s benchmarks,” Archibald notes. “Without context, metrics can be misleading and fail to drive action.” Conducting the competitive social media, website, or direct mail analysis is only the first step. The real value lies in being able to analyze your research and develop action plans based on the findings of your competitive research.

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Competitor Analysis: Core Principles and How to Conduct One

Written by Leigh McKenzie In collaboration with Semrush

In the fast-paced realm of digital marketing, understanding and outperforming your competitors is not just an advantage, it’s a necessity.

Competitor analysis, a critical skill for any marketer, provides insights that can be the difference between leading the market or lagging behind.

This guide, rooted in Backlinko’s expert approach to digital marketing strategies, delves into the nuts and bolts of effective competitor analysis.

From leveraging SEO tactics to understanding audience needs, we unpack the methods that will not only help you understand your rivals but also enable you to outmaneuver them strategically.

Get ready to transform your approach to competition, armed with tools and insights that put you ahead in the digital marketing game.

Let’s dive in.

Key Takeaways

• A competitor analysis involves collecting data about your competitors to identify their strengths and weaknesses and improve your marketing strategy.
• Any type of business can benefit from conducting a competitor analysis.
• Before you begin a competitor analysis, you need to be sure of who your target customer is.
• The next step of a competitor analysis involves identifying your organic and paid search competitors. You also need to determine if they’re classed as direct, indirect, or replacement competitors.
• Once you’ve identified your competitors, you need to analyze their content strategies , backlink profiles, technical SEO , and paid media strategies.

The Importance of Competitor Analysis in Marketing

Before we discuss how to carry out your competitor analysis, let’s take a look at exactly what it is and why it’s so beneficial.

What is Competitor Analysis?

A competitor analysis, commonly referred to as competitive analysis, is a strategic and systematic approach to identifying competitors within your industry and analyzing their strengths and weaknesses.

It involves assessing your competitors’ product offerings, pricing strategies, distribution channels, customer service, innovation, marketing strategies, and overall market positioning.

This in-depth analysis serves as a valuable benchmark. It helps you grasp not just the strategies and tactics your competitors employ but also allows you to pinpoint your own strengths and weaknesses relative to each competitor.

Armed with this well-rounded view, you can strategically position your business for success in the competitive arena.

A competitive analysis can be broad or specific. You can delve into every aspect of your competitors’ business or focus on just one area. For example, you might choose to concentrate solely on analyzing their marketing strategy.

However you decide to go about it, you need to ensure your approach is customized to align with the needs and goals of your business.

Who Can Benefit from an Analysis?

Simply put, anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of a market and the competitive landscape will benefit from a competitor analysis.

Business Owners and Executives

Competitive research helps business owners and executives:

• Identify opportunities and threats posed by competitors
• Make informed decisions
• Optimize resource allocation
• Stay ahead of industry trends
• Proactively respond to competitive challenges

As a result, these actions contribute to business growth and sustained success.

Product Marketing Teams

Conducting market research can greatly benefit product marketing teams by helping them:

• Identify unique features and benefits of their products
• Understand how competitors position and present their products
• Tailor their marketing messages to highlight distinct advantages of their products
• Recognize market gaps for potential product innovation
• Understand customer preferences
• Adapt strategies to differentiate products effectively in the market

Brand Marketing Teams

Gathering market competitor insights will help brand marketing teams:

• Understand how competitors position and present their brands
• Develop strategies to create a distinct and compelling brand image
• Identify unique selling points to differentiate the brand
• Adapt messaging to address customer perceptions and preferences

Content Marketing Teams

Content marketing teams will be able to use the insights gained from conducting competitor research to:

• Tailor content to address customer needs based on competitor insights
• Identify content gaps and opportunities in the market
• Adapt their messaging to differentiate content from competitors
• Learn from competitors’ successful content strategies
• Improve overall content effectiveness and relevance in the market

SEO Professionals

SEOs can use these competitive benchmarks to help them:

• Identify keywords competitors are ranking for
• Uncover link-building opportunities
• Discover content gaps to provide valuable and unique information
• Improving website structure and user experience based on their competitors’ successes

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Specialists

A competitive analysis can help PPC specialists:

• Identify effective strategies used by competitors in their ads
• Adjust bidding strategies based on competitors’ performance
• Improve ad creatives and messaging to stand out in the market

Social Media Teams

The insights gained from an analysis allows Social media teams to:

• Identify successful strategies used by competitors on social platforms. This includes analyzing content themes and engagement tactics that resonate with the target audience.
• Uncover the various social media platforms their competitors leverage
• Discover opportunities for unique and engaging social content
• Adapt posting schedules and frequency based on their competitors’ performance

Sales Teams

Competitor analysis data will help Sales teams:

• Determine their competitors’ strengths and weaknesses
• Identify their competitors’ unique selling points
• Anticipate customer objections, and stay informed about market trends

This helps them tailor their pitches, address customer concerns effectively, and position their products or services competitively. As a result, it can enhance sales outcomes.

Identifying Your Target Customer

Before delving into a competitor analysis, it’s crucial to clearly understand your target audience. Without this insight, you’re essentially navigating in the dark. To help clear things up, let’s dive into why it’s so important. Plus, we’ll cover the best ways to identify your target audience, but first, let’s discuss the difference between a target market and a target customer.

Target Market vs. Target Customer

A target market is a fairly broad group of customers you hope to sell your products or services to. For example, if you sell gym wear, your target market could be fitness enthusiasts.

A target customer is a more specific segment of your target market. So, your target customer within your target market could be a fitness enthusiast aged 25 to 35, who lives in Los Angeles.

The process begins by identifying your target market and then pinpointing more specific target customers within that market.

To pinpoint your target market, you must assess the key features and benefits of your products or services. Delve into understanding the problems they solve and the value they offer. Next, identify the broad groups of customers who are likely to find these qualities appealing.

By identifying your target customers, you can efficiently allocate resources to analyzing the competitors that engage with your specific audience.

How to Identify Your Target Customer

So, now you know why it’s important to identify your target customer before carrying out a competitor analysis, but how do you do it?

1. Start With Your Existing Customers

If you’re already selling products or services, you should have insights into your existing customer base, which can significantly inform your understanding of your target customer. Analyzing your current customer data, including demographics, preferences, and purchase behavior, provides a foundation for identifying and refining your target customer profile.

Additionally, gathering feedback directly from your current customers proves invaluable in gaining deeper insights.

A highly effective method to achieve this is by initiating surveys with your customer base. You can do this via email, text, or call to ask customers who have purchased to complete a survey. You can also add survey buttons and links to certain pages on your site or read customer reviews.

Furthermore, you should leverage social media platforms as an additional channel to connect with your current customers. You should create posts or direct messages inviting them to participate in surveys or share their thoughts and experiences.

2. Gather Demographics Data With Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

To collect demographic data on your target audience, you can utilize GA4 . This tool offers comprehensive insights, allowing you to get a deeper understanding of your audience.

After you log in, click “Reports”, “User attributes”, and then “Demographic details”. You’ll now see a graph representing the number of users who visited your site from different countries.

Scroll down, and you’ll see the total number of “Users” for each country, as well as the number of “New Users” (users who interacted with your site for the first time).

To view different types of demographic data, click the “Country” button in the table and you’ll get a dropdown.

For example, we chose “Interests”, and this is what the tool gave us.

In this case, the data provided above clearly indicates that a significant portion of our audience is located in the US and Canada, with a keen interest in technology, media, and entertainment.

By applying different filters, we can also see data about the audience’s:

3. Dig Into Your Social Media Analytics

Another way to identify your target customer is to explore your social media analytics. This helps you gain insights into the behaviors, preferences, and demographics of your audience.

Semrush’s Social Tracker tool allows you to analyze your followers, mentions, and engagement levels on multiple social media platforms.

This helps you identify the type of customer who interacts with your site via social media and also reveals the social media channels that generate the highest engagement and traffic for your site. You can then focus on these channels when analyzing your competitor’s social media strategy .

4. Create a Target Audience Profile

Once you’ve collected the data, it’s time to put it to use by creating a profile of your ideal target customer.

This should include information like:

• Level of education
• Platform usage

It’s essential to recognize that you may have various types of target customers. For example, an e-commerce store could have a distinct target customer for each product or service they offer.

The more data you can collect about your different types of target customers before you start a competitor analysis, the better.

How to Conduct a Competitor Market Analysis

After you identify who your target customer is, it’s time to begin your competitive research.

Before we begin, here’s a bit of advice.

• A competitor analysis can easily become overwhelming if you try to do everything at once.
• It’s always best to start fairly small and break it down into manageable chunks. Instead of analyzing 50 competitors, start with a small number (even one will do) and gradually increase the scope of your analysis over time.
• Identify what your goals are before you start your analysis. Ideally, your main objective should be conducting sufficient research to take actions that positively impact your business.
• Store your competitor insight data in a spreadsheet, which should be a living document that you return to periodically and update with new information.

OK, let’s get into how to conduct a competitor analysis.

1. Identifying Your Main Competitors

First things first, it’s time to figure out who your main competitors are.

When identifying your competitors, you need to break them down into three categories:

Direct Competitors

Direct competitors are businesses in your industry or local area that sell products or services very similar to the ones you offer. They also have the same target audience as you and are of a similar size and scope to your business.

McDonald’s and Burger King are direct competitors in the fast-food market. Both chains offer a range of fast-food items such as burgers, fries, and beverages. They target a similar customer base and compete for market share in the quick-service restaurant industry.

Indirect Competitors

Indirect competitors are businesses that offer different solutions to the same customer needs or cater to the same target audience. Unlike direct competitors, indirect competitors do not provide similar products or services but fulfill a similar customer need or serve the same overall market.

You and your competitor both run travel websites. However, you focus on offering luxurious beach vacations while they specialize in adventure vacations – like hiking trips. Even though you’re both trying to attract people looking for vacations, the key difference is that you provide different kinds of trips.

Replacement Competitors

Replacement competitors offer alternative or substitute products or services to what your business offers.

• Your business: Specializes in selling traditional incandescent lightbulbs.
• Replacement competitor: Specializes in selling energy-efficient LED bulbs.

The replacement competitor is considered as such because, although they offer a different type of product, their offerings serve as a substitute or replacement for the traditional incandescent lightbulbs sold by your business.

Customers looking for a solution to their lighting needs have the option to choose between your traditional bulbs and the energy-efficient LED bulbs offered by the replacement competitor.

The competition arises because both businesses are aiming to satisfy the same fundamental customer need, illumination, albeit through different types of products.

How to Identify Your Competitors

Whenever we need to identify our competitors, we primarily use Semrush, but there are other ways you can get an idea of who your industry competitors are. These include:

• Customer Feedback: Reach out to your existing customers and inquire about the other businesses they considered before choosing yours. Make sure to ask for their opinions on which other businesses they perceive as providing a similar service or product.
• Market research: Consult your sales department to understand the businesses they frequently encounter during research within your target market. Their on-the-ground insights can contribute valuable information.
• Google Search: Conduct a Google Search using your target keyword (e.g., “running shoes”) to identify competitors. Analyze the first page of the search results to pinpoint key players in your industry.

You’ll also want to gain a comprehensive understanding of your organic, paid, and local competitors.

Several features within the Semrush tool can help you.

Identify Your Organic Search Competitors

These are sites that compete with you in the SERPs for non-paid traffic. They use SEO strategies to rank as highly in the SERPs as possible.

The easiest way to identify your organic competitors is to use Semrush’s Organic Research tool .

Type in your domain, hit “Search”, then click “Competitors”.

You’ll see a chart representing your site and your main competitors who rank for the same organic keywords as you. The X-axis shows you how many keywords your competitors are ranking for, and the Y-axis shows you how much monthly traffic they receive.

Scroll down, and you’ll see a long list of competitors with several bits of data like competition level (how closely a site is competing with you for the same keywords) and common keywords (the number of keywords both you and your competitor are ranking for).

Now, just because these sites are competing with you for the same organic keywords doesn’t necessarily mean they’re direct competitors, they could be targeting a different audience to you.

Here’s an example to give you a better grasp:

Imagine there’s a website that writes a blog about advertising. They want to attract people interested in “online marketing strategies.”

Now, let’s say you have a blog about SEO, and you also want to attract people searching for “online marketing strategies.” Even though you’re both targeting the same keyword, you’re not necessarily in direct competition.

Here’s why: The first website is focused on advertising, so their audience is interested in learning about advertising. On the other hand, your blog is about SEO, and your audience is more interested in SEO topics.

So, even though you target the same keyword, the sites serve different interests and are not considered direct competitors.

The best way to determine whether the sites in your list are direct, indirect, or replacement competitors is to visit each site and analyze their offerings. Here, we clicked on “neilpatel.com”.

A brief review of the blog content indicates that it shares similarities with ours and is geared toward the same audience. This categorizes it as a direct competitor.

Find Your Paid Search Competitors

Paid search advertising, or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, involves businesses bidding on keywords. Ads from the highest bidders are then displayed in the SERPs when users search for these keywords.

To identify your paid search competitors, you can use Semrush’s Advertising Research tool . You’ll see the same graph you get in the Organic Research tool but with paid traffic and keywords instead.

Below, you’ll get a table of your paid competitors.

As with the Organic Traffic table, you can see the number of keywords you have in common with your competitors. This is a good indication of how closely you’ll be competing with them.

Remember, to split your competitors into different types, you’ll need to examine the site content, and their products or services to see what they offer. This may sound like a lot of work, but as we said earlier, you only need to start small.

Identifying Local Competitors

Your local competitors are the businesses in your area that offer a similar product or service. You may already have several local businesses in mind that you consider to be your competition. However, your local competitors might not be exactly what you expected when it comes to SEO.

Local SEO competitors are businesses that rank prominently in the SERPs for keywords related to your products or services within a specific geographical area. These businesses are your direct competition for visibility in local search results and aim to attract local customers searching for relevant products or services.

The most effective method to pinpoint these competitors is through Google. For example, if you operate a law office in Seattle, users searching for such services in your area will likely use long-tail keywords (three or more words) with location modifiers specific to the region, such as “lawyer in Seattle.”

Type this into Google and see which businesses appear in the local search results. One of the most important things to pay attention to is the Map Pack. This is a group of top-ranking local businesses that are displayed prominently in the SERPs.

2. Analyzing Your Competitor’s Content Strategy

Once you’ve identified your competitors, it’s time to analyze their content strategy .

The goal is to identify the components of their strategy that are performing well and those that are not. By doing so, you can replicate the successful elements and take advantage of the opportunities created by the shortcomings in the weaker aspects of their strategy.

The key things to analyze are:

Content Types and Formats

Identify the various kinds of content competitors create, like blog posts , videos , infographics , or podcasts .

Additionally, analyze the formats they employ to present information within these content types. For example, blog post formats may include how-to guides, listicles , or thought leadership articles.

This analysis will help you understand the diversity of their approach and allow you to tailor your content strategy to meet similar or unique audience preferences.

Content Quality and Relevance

Assess the overall quality of their content. Look at factors such as relevance, depth, and level of expertise. Evaluate how well their content meets the users’ search intent and addresses the needs and interests of their target audience.

The insights you gain will allow you to learn from your competitors’ successes or capitalize on their failures. By identifying what works well in their content, you can incorporate similar strategies into your own. Similarly, understanding where their content falls short provides an opportunity to avoid similar pitfalls and tailor your approach for better results.

Content Frequency

Analyze how often they publish new content and the consistency of their posting schedule. This can provide insights into their content production capabilities and audience engagement strategy.

By evaluating your competitors’ content frequency, you can learn from their success in maintaining a consistent posting schedule, potentially improving your own content planning . On the flip side, identifying gaps or irregularities in their posting schedule presents an opportunity to capitalize on potential shortcomings and enhance your own content consistency for better audience engagement.

Content Distribution Channels

This involves recognizing the platforms or mediums competitors use to promote and share their content , which may include social media, email newsletters , or external platforms.

This analysis will help you to learn from their success in reaching audiences through specific platforms. It also provides insights into potential gaps or missed opportunities. This offers you a chance to capitalize on alternative channels for broader content reach and engagement.

Analyzing the keywords your competitors prioritize provides insights into what their audience is actively searching for, allowing you to align your content with similar user intent . Identifying the keywords they are targeting will help you spot industry trends and topics that resonate with your shared audience.

You’ll also be able to identify content gaps that will help you tailor your strategy to address topics that may be underserved in your niche. Additionally, analyzing how your competitors utilize keywords in their meta titles, page headings, and main content can offer valuable insights. This analysis will guide you in optimizing your content effectively or seizing opportunities where your competitors may fall short.

Backlink Profile

By analyzing the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to their content, you will get insights into the authority and credibility of their content in the eyes of search engines.

3. Assessing Your Competitor’s Backlink Profile

A backlink is a hyperlink from a page on one site to a page on another site. Acquiring backlinks from high-authority sites that align with your niche is a great way of increasing the authority of your site.

When analyzing your competitor’s backlink profile, you need to assess the quality of their links rather than focusing solely on the quantity.

Analyzing your competitors’ backlink profiles is important because sites with robust and diverse link profiles are likely to rank highly in the SERPs. By analyzing their strategies, you can identify backlink opportunities for your site, and boost your rankings and traffic.

If you’d like to learn more about building links, check out our comprehensive guide on link-building strategies .

Here’s how to check up on your competitors’ backlinks.

You can use Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool .

On the “Overview” page, you will see:

Referring Domains: This is the total number of referring domains pointing to your competitor’s domain.

Backlinks: This is the total number of backlinks your competitor has earned.

As mentioned earlier, the quality of the backlinks is more important than the quantity. You’ll need to assess the quality of referring domains that are linking to your competitor’s pages. To do this, click on “Referring Domains”.

On the “Referring Domains” page, select:

• Set the AS score to 40-100
• Click on “Add filter” and select “Follow”

As you can see in the image above, there are over 3.5k high-authority referring domains linking to this competitor’s domain.

Now, if you want to check the actual backlinks pointing to your competitor’s pages, click on “Backlinks”.

Here you can see the source pages, their AScore, and the pages they are linking to on your competitor’s site.

4. Evaluating Your Competitor’s Technical SEO

Analyzing the technical aspects of your competitor’s site is crucial to understanding how well their site performs. You then compare this data to your site and identify areas where you’re outperforming them and where you need to improve.

Here’s why conducting a technical analysis of your competitors’ sites is essential:

• Identify Strengths and Weaknesses: Analyzing the technical aspects of your competitors’ sites can reveal their strengths and weaknesses in terms of website structure, page speed, mobile optimization, and other technical elements. Understanding these aspects helps you identify areas where you can surpass them.
• User Experience (UX): Technical SEO influences the user experience. By analyzing your competitors’ technical elements, you can gain insights into how user-friendly their websites are. This understanding can guide improvements to your site’s UX.
• Crawling and Indexing: Examining how well your competitors’ websites are crawled and indexed by search engines provides insights into their overall search engine visibility. This can reveal potential issues or opportunities for improvement on your site.

You can use the info you gather to avoid common mistakes, prioritize tasks, and replicate successful strategies. Ultimately, this can lead to better UX, increased traffic, and improved rankings.

5. Exploring Your Competitor’s Paid Media Strategy

Simply put, analyzing your competitor’s paid media strategy helps you:

• Learn what works in your industry
• Stay updated on market trends
• Benchmark your performance
• Discover new advertising channels
• Improve your creativity and messaging
• Adapt to changes
• Enhance your targeting strategies

All of this ensures your advertising efforts remain effective and competitive.

Here’s how to go about analyzing your competitors’ paid media strategies.

Keyword Research

You need to identify the keywords your competitors are bidding on. This will help you uncover gaps in your PPC keyword strategy.

Analyze Historical Performance

You should analyze your competitors’ click-through rates, ad spends, and conversion rates. This will help you determine if their tactics are worth replicating to improve your site’s PPC results.

Ad Placement Analysis

You need to identify where your competitors are placing their ads. Do they tend to favor specific sites, the SERPs, or social media platforms like Facebook? This provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of the different channels they use, their overall market presence, and their strategic focus. Armed with this knowledge you can optimize your advertising approach based on successful practices and focus on platforms that yield better results.

Ad Copy Analysis

A key part of any PPC competitor analysis involves assessing your competitors’ ad copy. You need to analyze the ways they position their product or service and how they promote their unique selling points (USPs).

When analyzing ad copy, it’s useful to ask questions like:

• What types of CTA do they use?
• How do they incorporate keywords into their ad copy?
• Do the color schemes in their ads align with those of their brand?
• Do they use graphics or videos to drive clicks?

Landing Page Analysis

Optimized landing pages are one of the most important elements of a successful PPC campaign. If they contain effective CTAs, enticing content, and are well laid out, they can greatly increase your conversion rates.

So, it’s important to dig into your competitors’ landing pages to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Key things to analyze include:

• Relevance: Does the landing page align with the ad copy that led users to it? To maintain user trust and increase conversions, there must be consistency between the content of a landing page and the ad that leads to it.
• Visuals: How do your competitors use images, graphics, and videos on their landing pages? Are they high-quality and relevant? Do they support the overall message of the page?
• Headline: Pay attention to how clear and compelling the headline on the landing page is, and if it quickly communicates the value proposition of the product or service to the user. The value proposition tells the user the benefits and value of a product or service. For example, “Save time and money with our user-friendly project management software designed for small businesses.”
• Social proof and trust indicators: Keep an eye out for social proof signals like reviews and user ratings, and trust signals like security badges, as these can enhance credibility and user trust.

Track Performance and Return On Investment (ROI)

Keeping tabs on your competitors’ performance and ROI helps you to set goals and KPIs for your site.

Semrush’s Advertising Research tool enables you to effortlessly monitor key performance and ROI metrics, such as CPC and average positions.

Paid Social Media Analysis

Analyzing your competitors’ paid social media strategies will help you identify the ad copy and promotions they use to attract customers within your target audience. The insights you gather will offer ideas that you can integrate into your own paid social media campaigns.

One way of doing this is to use the tools that are built into social media platforms, like Meta Ads Library. This allows you to see all of your competitor’s ads that are currently active on Facebook or Instagram. All you need to do is choose a location and the type of ads you want to see and then type in a keyword or a competitor’s domain.

Then, you’ll be taken to a page with the ads your competitor is running. For each ad, it tells you when it was launched and which Meta platforms it’s running on and you can view the ad itself.

However, this doesn’t provide insight into the success of competitor’s ads. To gauge their effectiveness, we need to uncover metrics such as ad spend, impressions, and share of voice. You can use Semrush’s AdClarity tool to gain these insights. The tool allows you to track your competitors’ ad performance metrics on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter).

Real-World Competitor Analysis Example

OK, you now know what information you need to uncover during your competitor analysis and how to conduct one. To make it even clearer, we’re going to walk you through a real-world example where we’ll carry out our own competitor analysis.

For this example, we’re going to identify a single competitor for “Backlinko.com”, and focus on them for the analysis.

As we already went into detail about how to identify your target customer, we’ll be skipping this step. We’ve already used the steps laid out above to determine that our target customer lives in the US, is aged between 18 to 34, and is interested in SEO but isn’t necessarily an SEO professional.

Step 1: Identify Your Competitor

Using Semrush’s Organic Research tool, we can pull up a list of the main competitors (we’ll be focusing on organic competitors in this example).

In the list above, you can see that Backlinko has 7.3K keywords in common with “wordstream.com” and 13% “Competition Level”. By quickly scanning the site, we can also see that we create similar types of content and target the same audience.

This makes “wordstream.com” a great choice for our competitor analysis.

Step 2: Content Analysis

During the next phase of competitor analysis, we’re going to dig into WordStream’s content strategy.

First, identify the types of content they publish. The easiest way to do this is to simply have a look at the WordStream site and make a note of all the different content formats.

You can also analyze WordStream’s meta titles to get an understanding of the content they create. For this, we’re going to use Screaming Frog SEO Spider.

This is a tool that crawls domains and gives you valuable info about them. The free version allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs, which is perfect for smaller websites.

By analyzing these meta titles, you can start to build a picture of the types of content WordStream is creating. We can see titles include phrases like “How to” and “25 ways”, which indicates WordStream is creating how-to guides and listicles.

When analyzing your competitor’s content strategy, you should identify how frequently they publish content. To do this, type site:your competitor’s domain into Google, click “Tools”, and click “Anytime”.

Next, choose a date range from the dropdown menu. We went with “Past month”.

This will give you an idea of the amount of content your competitor publishes a month.

Next, you should take a look at the pages driving the most traffic to your competitor’s site. To do this, you can use the “Organic Pages” report in Semrush’s Organic Research tool.

There are two things you can learn from this report.

• These insights will provide content ideas. Identify the topics most relevant to your site and start creating content for them.
• If you already have content covering these topics but the pages aren’t getting a lot of traffic, you need to optimize them to start drawing in higher levels of traffic.

Next, you need to assess the quality of the content your competitor is producing. You need to look at the depth of the content and its relevance. Is the information well researched and does the content match search intent?

Next, evaluate the levels of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) your competitor demonstrates within their content.

For example, do they demonstrate experience by including hands-on videos within their how-to guides?

Or do they communicate their expertise by including info about the authors of their articles?

Here’s a look at an article on Wordstream.

Step 3: Backlink Analysis

Next, we’re going to analyze WordStream’s backlink profile. There are many different elements of this we could analyze, but we’re going to focus on four main things during this competitor analysis:

• Number of backlinks: The total number of backlinks pointing to WordStream’s site.
• Quality of backlinks: The number of high-authority referring domains linking to WordStream.
• Top-linked pages: The number of pages that have the most backlinks pointing to them. This indicates the quality and popularity of their content.

Using Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool, we can see that WordStream has a total of 10.6M backlinks and 87K referring domains.

Now, let’s check out how many of those links are coming from high authority referring domains.

To do this, click on the number under “Referring Domains”.

You’ll only want to pay attention to the domains with the highest Authority Score (AS), so click “AS” at the top-left of the table to view the list in descending order. You can also view the number of backlinks your competitor receives from each domain.

Underneath the domain name, Semrush tells us what category the site falls into. By looking at this table, we can determine the diversity of sources for WordStream’s backlink profile, too.

Next, we want to analyze the pages receiving the most backlinks. Just click on the “Indexed Pages” to get the report:

If your site has pages covering the same topics as your competitors, you should compare the backlinks you’ve received with those of your competitor’s pages. This comparison provides insights into whether you’re outperforming them or falling short in terms of backlink performance.

If your site lacks pages covering these topics, prioritize the most relevant topics and create superior content.

Then, identify the referring domains linking to your competitor’s pages, and proactively reach out to the webmasters of these domains and ask for a link.

Step 4: Technical SEO Analysis

There are a huge number of technical SEO elements you can analyze during a competitor analysis. we’re going to focus on site performance, and analyze Wordstream’s Core Web Vitals, page load speeds, and check if their site is mobile-friendly.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that measure a site’s performance in terms of providing a positive UX. The Core Web Vitals metrics are:

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures how visually stable a page is by analyzing how much the content of the page shifts around as it loads.
• First Input Delay (FID): Measures the time it takes between a user first interacting with a page and the browser starting to process this interaction. FID will be replaced by a new metric called Interaction to Next Paint (INP) in March 2024.
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures how long it takes for the largest content element on a page to become visible to the user.

All of these metrics are important for providing a good UX, and they’re also included in Google’s ranking factors , which is why it’s worth analyzing them.

The quickest way to do this is by using Google’s Page Speed Insights .

First, you’ll see your competitor’s Core Web Vitals for the mobile version of their page.

Click on the “Desktop” tab to see the metrics for the desktop version.

Analyzing your competitor’s Core Web Vitals is useful as it can serve as a benchmark for the performance of your site.

When you analyze several of your competitors, you can build a picture of the average performance levels for sites within your niche, and ensure that your site performs to this level or above it. This will result in a better UX and could improve your rankings.

Page Load Speeds

Next, we’re going to use Page Speed Insights again to check up on WordStream’s page load speeds. The metric to pay close attention to is the “Speed Index”. This shows how long it takes for the visual elements on the page to be fully rendered.

Ideally, you want this to be 2-3 seconds or lower. So, this page is pretty slow.

The key takeaway here is that by analyzing your competitor’s page speed, you can compare it to yours. This indicates whether you’re outperforming them or if improvements are needed.

It’s important to note that the “Speed Index” metric is not representative of the entire site, it only pertains to the specific URL you paste in for analysis.

Mobile-Friendliness

Now, we need to check whether WordStream’s site is mobile-friendly or not. As Google has retired its Mobile-Friendly Test, we’re going to use Bing’s Mobile Friendliness Test Tool instead.

You can see that Wordstream’s page is mobile-friendly.

The primary reason for conducting this analysis is to benchmark your site against your competitors. For instance, if the pages on your site aren’t mobile-friendly, it signifies that you are lagging behind competitors. In the realm of online marketing, sometimes a single factor can determine whether you have an advantage over your competitors or vice versa.

Step 5: Paid Media Analysis

In the final stage of this competitive analysis, we’re going to take a look at WordStream’s paid media strategy.

PPC Keyword Research

The first thing we want to do is gain some insights into WordStream’s PPC keywords using Semrush’s Advertising Research tool . The tool allows you to view metrics such as:

• Position changes
• Search volume

This analysis will reveal the keywords your competitor is excelling in and those where they are struggling. Take note of their success with certain keywords and the areas where they are not performing well.

If you and your competitor are targeting the same keywords, compare your ad performance to theirs. This will enable you to identify areas where you are outperforming them or falling short.

By analyzing the keywords in which your competitor is finding success, you can attempt to replicate it by analyzing their ad copy. On the other hand, by analyzing the keywords they are not performing well for, you can optimize your ad copy and outperform them.

Another effective way to improve your PPC strategy is to identify the paid keywords your competitor is targeting but you aren’t.

To do this, we’re going to use Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool .

Here, we get a list of paid keywords that WordStream is targeting but our site isn’t.

This analysis will give you insights into their PPC strategy and their target audience.

Additionally, analyzing the CPC for the keywords they are targeting provides valuable insights into their ad budget. This understanding will help you determine the budget required to compete effectively with them.

Competitive Analysis Templates and Tools to Guide Your Research Journey

As you can see from this real-world example, Semrush has many features that can aid you in conducting an in-depth competitor analysis, but you need somewhere to store all of the info you gather.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. This free spreadsheet template , courtesy of Semrush, allows you to store your competitor analysis data in one easily accessible place.

Analyzing your competitors is vital for gaining insights into their digital marketing strategies, so you can learn from their success and enhance your own.

It also highlights areas where your competitors are not performing well, presenting opportunities for you to capitalize on their shortcomings and outperform them.

But remember, the key is to start small. Don’t overwhelm yourself by analyzing a ton of competitors at once.

The objective should be to gain insights that you can act on immediately to improve your marketing efforts and stay ahead of the competition.

If you found this guide useful, then check out our in-depth guide on SEO Competitor Analysis.

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The Pros and Cons of Competition Among Employees

• Anna Steinhage,
• Duncan Wardley

What managers need to know.

New research shows that the way in which leaders communicate about competition can make employees experience either anxiety or excitement, and those feelings influence whether they react positively or negatively. When employees feel excited, they’re more likely to come up with creative solutions. When they feel anxious, they’re more likely to cut corners or sabotage one another. Leaders can generate excitement by highlighting the potential positive consequences of competition (e.g., the recognition and rewards that await outstanding performers) rather than creating anxiety by singling out and highlighting low performers.

Competition between employees is an inescapable part of most people’s work lives. Whether overtly or otherwise, most companies create a dynamic in which employees compete against each other for recognition, bonuses, and promotions. After a close look at workplace policies across corporations, banks, law firms, and tech companies, the  New York Times  called grueling competition the defining feature of the upper-echelon workplace.

• Anna Steinhage is a researcher in organizational behavior and visiting researcher at the Global Insights Initiative (GINI) within the Development Research Group at the World Bank.
• Dan Cable  is professor of organizational behavior at London Business School. His newest book Exceptional helps you build a personal highlight reel to unlock your potential, and  Alive at Work  helps you understand the neuroscience of why people love what they do.
• DW Duncan Wardley is a Director in PwC’s New Business Consulting practice and a subject matter expert in behavioral and cultural change.

Partner Center

Research Laboratory Technician Sr./Inter./Assoc.

The Courtney Lab is seeking a full-time seeking a full-time Research Laboratory Technician within the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan Medical School. The ideal candidate will be highly motivated, organized, and capable of working independently in a competitive research laboratory setting. This position will provide an exciting opportunity for you as the selected candidate to train and work in the area of cancer immunology. You will be expected to learn and implement new approaches to assess T cell function using mouse and cell culture models. You will gain experience with mouse tumor models to assess the effects of T cell therapies on tumor outgrowth and anti-tumor immunity. Other duties will include laboratory & mouse colony maintenance.

Mission Statement

Michigan Medicine improves the health of patients, populations and communities through excellence in education, patient care, community service, research and technology development, and through leadership activities in Michigan, nationally and internationally.  Our mission is guided by our Strategic Principles and has three critical components; patient care, education and research that together enhance our contribution to society.

Responsibilities*

• Carrying out ex vivo T cell assays (proliferation, cytokine production, cell-mediated cytotoxicity)
• Assessing signaling pathways in T cells (e.g., protein phosphorylation)
• Data analysis and presentation
• Isolating primary immune cells from mice
• Culturing primary cells and cell lines for experiments
• Maintaining lab supplies and ordering
• Assisting with maintenance of a mouse colony
• Genotype and identify transgenic mice using PCR-based screens
• Maintaining a scientific notebook
• Maintain transgenic mouse colony
• Prepare shared lab reagents

Required Qualifications*

Associate level:

• Associate’s degree in Biology, Biochemistry, or a related discipline
• Exposure to a research laboratory setting

Intermediate level:

• A minimum of 1 year of laboratory research experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Experience working with mice (e.g., handling, isolating tissues etc)

Senior level:

• Bachelor’s degree in Biology, Biochemistry, or a related discipline
• A minimum of 2 years of laboratory research experience
• Experience working with mice and maintaining a mouse colony

All levels:

• Ability to analyze data and communicate findings
• Capacity to work independently, manage time proficiently, and motivation to learn new techniques

In order to be considered for this position the applicant must have met or will have met all the required qualifications prior to the start date of employment.

Desired Qualifications*

• Bachelor’s degree in a biomedically relevant field such as Immunology, Cellular & Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, or a related discipline is preferred
• Mammalian cell culture experience
• Experience with immunofluorescence or flow cytometry
• Experience with molecular / cellular approaches (e.g., DNA isolation, Western blot)

Underfill Statement

This position may be underfilled at a lower classification depending on the qualifications of the selected candidate.

Additional Information

NOTE:   Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

Background Screening

Michigan Medicine conducts background screening and pre-employment drug testing on job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent job offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background screenings.  Background screenings are performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Report Act. Pre-employment drug testing applies to all selected candidates, including new or additional faculty and staff appointments, as well as transfers from other U-M campuses.

Application Deadline

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days.  The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

News Center

Science Students Earn Competitive Honors & Research Opportunities

20 Hendrix students receive NSF and other fellowships, internships

CONWAY, Ark. (April 5, 2024) — Twenty Hendrix College science students recently received highly competitive fellowships, honors, internships, and research opportunities.

“Hendrix science majors are taking full advantage of their summer by immersing themselves in project-based research and experiential learning opportunities that allow them to explore professional paths they are interested in while developing deeper knowledge and skill,” said Professor of Chemistry Dr. Courtney Hatch, who serves as area chair for the natural sciences. A 2000 Hendrix alumna , Dr. Hatch holds the Nancy and Craig Wood Odyssey Professorship.

“These types of honors and competitive positions are often the seminal experience in a student’s career, paving the way to future lucrative opportunities, such as post-graduate education, medical and professional school, and permanent employment positions in technical professions upon graduation,” she added.  

Eight Hendrix students received National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduate (NSF REU) Awards:

• Zach Bernheimer ’24 , a chemical physics major, NSF REU in nanotechnology at University of Pennsylvania (complete in summer 2023).
• Andrew Clark ’25 , a biology major, NSF REU at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
• Erin DeWald ’25 , a chemistry major, NSF REU at the University of Arkansas.
• Harry Lance ’26 , a physics major, NSF REU in thermal engineering at Texas A&M.
• James Leone ’25 , a chemical physics major, NSF REU at Florida State University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
• August McQuiston ’26 , a chemistry major, NSF REU at the University of Cincinnati.
• Kathryn Youn ’25 , a biology major, NSF REU at the Hatfield Marine Science Center at Oregon State University.
• Demah Yousef ’26 , a chemistry and mathematics double major, NSF REU in chemistry at the University of Mississippi.

Four Hendrix students received Arkansas-INBRE 2024 Mentored Summer Research Fellowships:

• Ella Kelly ’26 , a biochemistry and molecular biology major
• Julie Schwartz ’26 , a physics major
• Emma Riordan ’25 , a biochemistry and molecular biology major
• Adam Andrews ’26 , a biochemistry and molecular biology and philosophy double major

Three Hendrix students have been accepted to the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology:

• Lillian Francis ’25 , a biochemistry and molecular biology major
• Agustin Kalinowski ’25 , a biology major
• Demah Yousef ’26 , a chemistry and mathematics double major

Several Hendrix students received individual honors and opportunities, including:

• Riley Centinaro ’25 , an environmental studies and biology double major, will be doing an internship at the Systematics Entomology Lab at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History alongside Hendrix alumnus Dr. Michael Gates ’92.
• Kate Jackson ’25 , a biochemistry and molecular biology and computer science double major, was accepted to the Amgen Scholars Program at Duke University.
• Isabel Jara ’26 , a chemical physics major and mathematics minor, was accepted to the Irish American Scholars Program and will spend next semester at Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland.
• Nina Niemotka ’26 , a physics major, has been accepted into a National Science Foundation IRES (International Research Experiences for Students) program, where she will be doing research at Nagoya University in Japan.
• Eliana Oden ’25 , a physics major, will was accepted into the FY24 Pathways Intern Program with the United States Environmental Protection Agency in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this summer.  
• Jada Shorter ’26 , a physics major, was accepted for a study abroad program at Oxford University for next year.

About Hendrix College

Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges and celebrated among the country’s leading liberal arts colleges for academic quality, engaged learning opportunities and career preparation, vibrant campus life, and value. The Hendrix College Warriors compete in 21 NCAA Division III sports. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. Learn more at www.hendrix.edu .  

“… Through engagement that links the classroom with the world, and a commitment to diversity, inclusion, justice, and sustainable living, the Hendrix community inspires students to lead lives of accomplishment, integrity, service, and joy.” —Hendrix College Statement of Purpose

Title: Examining the pathways to success: investigating the mediating role of green innovation in the relationship between green entrepreneurial orientation, green organisational culture, and competitive advantage in the hotel industry

Authors : R. Manigandan; J. Naga Venkata Raghuram

Addresses : VIT Business School, Vellore Institute of Technology (Deemed to be University), Vellore, Tamil Nadu – 632014, India ' VIT Business School, Vellore Institute of Technology (Deemed to be University), Vellore, Tamil Nadu – 632014, India

Abstract : The study aims to investigate the mediating effect of green innovation in the relationship between green entrepreneurial orientation, green organisational culture, and competitive advantage in the hotel industry in India. The study adopted the resource-based view theory; we proposed a conceptual framework. The data collection was done through a structured online survey. Data was collected from 252 hotel owners and managers sampled in the Tamil Nadu region. The study used a non-probability purposive sampling method. The data analysis through SPSS for descriptive is statistical analysis and hypothesis testing through structural equation modelling in Smart PLS 4.0 software. Further results demonstrate that green innovation positively mediates the relationship between green entrepreneurial orientation, green organisational culture, and competitive advantage. The study contributes to the literature by providing how green innovation, entrepreneurial orientation, and organisational culture can improve the competitive advantage in the hotel industry. This study has numerous theoretical, managerial, and practical implications and future directions.

Keywords : green innovation; green organisational culture; GOC; entrepreneurial orientation; competitive advantage; resource-based view; RBV.

DOI : 10.1504/IJWI.2024.137821

International Journal of Work Innovation, 2024 Vol.5 No.2, pp.99 - 121

Received: 10 Jul 2023 Accepted: 19 Jul 2023 Published online: 05 Apr 2024 *

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Press Release

ARPA-E Announces Innovation Agreement Outlining Vision for the Future of Electrified Airports at Technology Expo Hosted in San Antonio

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the City of San Antonio Aviation Department and City Public Service Board (CPS Energy), and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlining collective efforts to develop and promote technologies that include, but are not limited to, sustainable aviation, battery technologies and innovative battery storage solutions, enhanced electric vehicle (EV) charging, and power demand management technologies. This agreement marks the first time an international airport will work together with ARPA-E—DOE’s innovation arm—to accelerate the development and deployment of new energy technologies to decarbonize the aviation sector. ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, UTSA President Dr. Taylor Eighmy, and CPS Energy Vice President of Customer Value Karma Nilsson were all present for the signing hosted at Stinson Municipal Airport in San Antonio. “We are excited at this opportunity to collaborate and showcase innovative energy technologies that could transform the future of aviation,” said ARPA-E Director Evelyn N. Wang. “Today’s MOU signing is a step in the right direction to ensuring that these innovative technologies are developed, built, and integrated in America. Our hope is that this partnership will lay the groundwork to enable future electrified airports.” “We are proud to be a part of this innovative initiative that will ultimately benefit the San Antonio community,” said Rudy D. Garza, President and CEO of CPS Energy. “CPS Energy continues to look for ways to participate in electrification projects, especially for critical public infrastructure like the San Antonio International Airport. Projects like these furthers our commitment to finding new and sustainable technologies to enable our growing community and we are excited about the opportunity to work with our community partners to do so.” “This is an important agreement with the potential to shape the aviation industry of the future,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg.  “Researching the decarbonization of aviation and finding new sustainable energy models is important work, and I am proud San Antonio will be playing a leading role in this cutting-edge research.” “This is a unique partnership designed to promote transformative energy technologies and it propels the City of San Antonio’s Aviation Department to the center of innovation,” said Jesus Saenz, Director of Airports, City of San Antonio Aviation Department. “This is an exciting time to be part of the Aviation Team and planning for the future of aviation and our airports.” “This collaborative effort is an incredible opportunity for UTSA to partner with strategic industry leaders in evaluating electric aircraft, advanced energy storage and micro-grid systems to advance the adoption of sustainable multi-modal transportation technologies,” said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. “Together, this collective will accelerate discoveries that will positively impact the local and regional economies while advancing technologies that change the world.”

To mark this historic milestone, the following ARPA-E-funded project teams were also present to showcase their technologies and share how their innovations could be integrated into future electrified airports:

• Ampaire , who is setting new standards for sustainable air travel and eco-friendly transportation solutions, flew its cutting-edge hybrid electric EEL aircraft and  watch video of the aircraft here ;
• Imagen Energy showcased ultrafast, compact electric vehicle chargers delivering efficient and cost-effective power solutions;
• Natron Energy featured sodium-ion batteries that can safely store energy and efficiently deliver power on demand;
• AutoGrid discussed a distributed energy resource management system that can help grid operators manage energy supply and demand fluctuations; 
• Quidnet Energy brought a wellhead to illustrate a modular geomechanical pumped storage systems that can utilize existing natural resources to store renewable energy over long durations; and
• Texas A&M University Research Team  presented 3D-printed models of a motor and shared concepts for advancing efficiency in electric transportation. 

UTSA and CPS Energy also presented research to leverage a city-scale grid digital twin to evaluate operational efficacy, ensure seamless interoperability, fortify cybersecurity protocols, and assess performance metrics of electric/hybrid aircrafts.

The MOU signed today will enable collaboration to identify research, development, demonstration, and deployment opportunities that will promote sustainable aviation technologies.

# # # 

Press and General Inquiries: 202-287-5440 [email protected]

More From Forbes

5 high paying, entry-level remote jobs in 2024.

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Gen Z and Millennials are the generations feeling the brunt of the cost of living crisis the most, ... [+] which is leading many to forego their dream of being homeowners

More than 30% of Gen Zers are struggling to flee the nest, opting instead to stay at home with parents in a bid to slash and share costs, due to the cost of living crisis according to a Credit Karma study .

Approximately 25% of Gen Z and Millennial renters are forced to move in with family or friends because they cannot afford to pay their rent and 41% are sacrificing necessities to pay rent, the same study revealed. For those who are still living in their own rented accommodation, 25% and 31% respectively are depending on support from family to cover their housing costs.

Inflation is decreasing the spending power of Gen Z and Millennials, leading to a significant mismatch in their graduate salaries versus ongoing and one-time costs, such as paying off student debt, rent, utilities, technology, entertainment, and even greater financial decisions such as buying a house or car.

With the backdrop of these modern financial strains (which have soared significantly since the pandemic), a high-paying job is no longer a snob luxury. Without possessing high income, it's virtually impossible to maintain a comfortable and sustainable way of living, free from dependence on others.

This is why many graduate professionals, on the threshold of their careers, are looking for entry-level jobs that offer them the opportunity to earn a high-income, while working remotely.

At first glance, when seeing "high-paying" and "entry-level" together, one might assume these terms to be paradoxical. But thanks to increasing demand and growth within sectors such as technology, which has growth projections that are much faster than the average rate for other industries, boasting a median salary of $100,000, these two ideas can actually coexist.

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024.

Take a look at these five, high-paying, remote jobs that hire with no or little experience. Salaries listed are from Talent.com and Salary.com.

(Slight caveat here: You will almost always need to land these roles through the proper certification routes, or a degree in some cases, and a practical, hands-on project portfolio so you can sell yourself in a competitive job market. Even in cases where entry-level jobs that are advertized require two or three years of experience, you can still get around this roadblock through critically analyzing your experience, and including self-employment ventures that fit the role description, or any relevant internships and volunteer work at university.

Also, when applying for a junior or entry-level role, ensure that the employer offers a crystal-clear pathway to career progression and development, and that they already have this in place before you accept an offer.)

1. Remote IT Support Specialist

Google Career Certificates help you embark on your first role within IT, to become an IT support specialist, through the Google IT support certificate. many technology professionals Commence their career journey here then branch out in advance into more specialised and complex technical fields.

Average salary: $57,165, growing to $131,814 with experience and additional training

2. Remote Junior Business Analyst

As a junior business analyst, you would be working closely with, and supporting, project managers and a senior business analyst, to extract and interpret data, while ensuring that products meet the specifications and requirements of stakeholders and end users. You can then work your way up and obtain extra training to become a business analyst, and eventually a senior analyst.

Average salary: $63,688 increasing to $104,504 with experience and additional training.

High-growth sectors such as technology allow you to earn more than the average professional and ... [+] boost your salary potential, right after graduation

3. Remote Project Manager

Project managers are the backbone of virtually every business and industry that exists. They elicit requirements and specifications from stakeholders, create and draft detailed project plans, and coordinate and manage project teams, budgets, and actions. As a project manager, you would ensure that every aspect of the programme or project you are managing is delivered according to schedule and fulfils requirements, while being within budget.

You may find it easier to get into project management through landing a role as a project assistant or coordinator, project administrator, or associate.

Average salary: $94,545 for a junior project manager, going up to $126,876 for a project manager.

4. Remote Data Analyst

While business analysts are focused on collecting data, and applying their conclusions into business contexts, data analysts solely gather and analyze the data. Google Career Certificates offers a data analyst course to help you get your foot in the profession, which can be available for free via Coursera if you're tight on income after graduating.

Average salary: $68,386 for a junior analyst, progressing to $106,653 after a few years

5. Remote Web Developer

One would be amiss to list high-paying entry-level remote jobs and not make any mention of web development as a viable option for making significant money from the outset of one's career. A junior remote web developer in the U.S. has one of the highest web developer salaries offered globally, on average. This role involves optimizing website performance and developing sites for ease of navigation, including visual display for optimal user experience.

Average salary: $67,319 for a junior web developer, rising to $92,434 over time and continued training

Many of these roles can progress to six-figure salaries after a few years of ongoing training and ... [+] accumulated expertise

Can you imagine yourself working in any of these remote jobs? If nothing else, these roles prove that high-paying jobs are no longer reserved for seasoned professionals alone. If you're willing to seize opportunities, upskill yourself where necessary, and look in the direction of the fastest growing industries such as technology or project management, you'll be amazed at how many employers would welcome your skills and nurture your career.

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Austin Nursing Programs Increasingly Popular and Competitive

One year after its grand opening, Fairfield University’s Austin campus has maxed out its May 2024 undergraduate and graduate nursing cohorts.

Fairfield University’s nationally ranked Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies has filled its summer cohorts for two nursing programs in Austin, Texas. In May, the campus will welcome its third cohort of second degree nursing students and its first cohort of nurse anesthesia doctoral students. The popularity of the programs signals Fairfield’s growing reputation within the state and local community.

Fairfield expanded into Austin last year, hosting a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony in June. Now, ten months after welcoming its first students, the Austin campus has reached full capacity for its May 2024 nursing cohorts and assembled a waitlist of qualified applicants.

“We entered Fairfield’s geographic expansion to Texas knowing that a Fairfield nursing education would benefit the state,” said Dean Meredith Wallace Kazer, PhD, APRN, FAAN. “We researched, made plans and decisions, built relationships, and added a touch of prayer with confidence that if we built it, students would come. And come they did.”  

Fairfield Egan entered the Austin market with its Accelerated Second Degree Nursing (ASDNU) program, leading to a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree. The full-time 15-month program, which has been in existence for more than 20 years at Fairfield, provided the quickest means of widening the pipeline of BSN-prepared nurses in Texas, a state whose deficit of registered nurses is expected to top 57,000 within the next eight years.

The first cohort of ASDNU students in Austin began their nursing education last summer and are now in their third semester. After softly launching the program in May 2023, the program grew rapidly. “We enrolled 20 new second degree nursing students in Jan. 2024 and are thrilled to enter the summer semester with a third, full cohort of second degree nursing students,” said Dean Kazer. The program has gained so much momentum that the waitlist for summer is as large as the second cohort.

While simultaneously nurturing its ASDNU program to success, the Egan School also worked to gain approval to offer its doctor of nursing practice (DNP) in nurse anesthesia at the new campus. The program would be the first and only nurse anesthesia concentration in Central Texas. After nearly a year of effort, the program expansion was approved on Jan. 25 by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs (COA).

The first cohort of nurse anesthesia residents has been admitted and will start the program in May. Admission to the program in Texas was competitive: more than 120 applications were received for only 15 available spots.

The rapid growth and success of the Austin campus and its nursing programs will accelerate the community impact envisioned by Fairfield when it embarked upon its first geographical expansion. Dean Kazer awaits with confidence that impact: “We know our nursing students will graduate from our programs and contribute greatly to improving the health of the Texas population,” she said.

The Egan School is ranked #73 among graduate nursing schools in the nation by U.S. News and World Report . Its DNP in Nurse Anesthesia is ranked #51.

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