Kulture Konnect Blog

Whatever industry you’re in, you’re not alone. 

Even within your direct niche, competitors are everywhere, siphoning off your target customer base and posing a threat to your company’s success in the market. Chances are, you’re probably thinking about your competition quite a bit. But just thinking about the competition isn’t enough.

While obsessing over the work of your competitors certainly isn’t a healthy business strategy, paying careful attention to the marketing strategies of competitors can offer valuable insight into how your own strategies compare and improvements that can be made. 

What Exactly Is a Website Competitor Analysis?

Before you get started on doing a competitor analysis, it’s important to understand what a competitor analysis even is. 

A competitor (or competitive) analysis is a method of determining competitors in your industry and the various marketing strategies they utilize to achieve success. Then, once the ground research has been completed, you can directly compare your business’s strategies with those of your competitor to determine weak and strong points. 

A high-level competitive analysis skims the surface of your specific niche industry to grasp general trends, while a detailed competitive analysis digs deeper into information and feedback.

Thorough competitive analyses will investigate both direct and indirect competitors—that is, competitors that offer identical products as your company versus competitors that can substitute for your product or services.

Why It’s Important To Do a Competitor Analysis Before a Website Redesign?

Before you even get started on a website redesign, conducting extensive research by completing a competitor analysis can provide you with important insight into what improvements need to be made. By comparing your own website’s performance with that of your competitors, it’s easy to directly see what areas need change. Using a competitor analysis makes spotting industry trends, setting growth benchmarks, understanding your niche market, and planning an enhanced business strategy far simpler to do. 

Don’t guess when developing your market strategy, instead, make sure to take marketing decisions based on proper competitor research. 

The Main Elements of Website Competitor Analysis

A competitor analysis relies on collecting and analyzing information about your main competitors, and the main goal with this is to understand what you’re up against. Experts argue about the main areas of a competitor analysis, but we like to summarize them to these four: competitor's company info, their customer/persona, their products and pricing and their approach to marketing.

8 Tips to Create an Effective Website Competitor Analysis

Now that you’ve got the basics down, these 8 tips can help ensure your company completes a successful competitor analysis!

1. Identify your competitors: tart your competitive analysis by determining who your competition is. Be sure to include both direct and indirect competitors in your analysis to gain the most insight.

2. Determine what information you’re looking for: Know what you’re looking for in a competitive analysis before starting. Some info to compare might include price, service, accessibility, branding, and company size, among others.

3. Conduct a SWOT Analysis: A SWOT analysis determines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your company. Knowing this can help your business refine its strategies and stay competitive in the market. Enhance your background on SWOT analysis here.

4. Find a good competitor website analysis tool: The right tool can make all the difference. Luckily there are countless different competitor analysis tools available, such as SEM Rush and AHREFS, that can turn the data into insights. These tools can delve deep into the data and save your time by making comparisons easier–plus, they’re a lot more effective at making a competitive analysis than just glancing over your competitor’s website or social media would be.

5. Identify competitor's persona: Having a clear image of a competitor's persona can make it easier for your company to target that company's customers and customize your own campaigns and strategies to reach that valuable group of people who are already directly interested in the services your business offers. Targeting them can not only boost your brand awareness, but also generate more leads further down the line.

6. Understand product and pricing: When competing with other companies, it’s essential to know how your company is different. What is unique about the product or service you offer? A great place to start is by comparing product/service specs and pricing details. After all, the right pricing can be one of the most powerful factors in a customer’s purchasing journey. Having a strong understanding of doing pricing analysis is essential for getting the most out of a competitor analysis.

7. Read customers reviews: Find out what your competitor’s customers love—or hate—and use that valuable insight in your own business strategy. After all, the best way to satisfy a customer is by giving them exactly the stuff they directly say they want!

8. Track social media channels: Regularly check competitors' social media to see what strategies they’re effectively using. To determine effectiveness, benchmark against key metrics, such as click-through rate, comments, likes, and other forms of engagement.

How often should I do a competitor analysis?

There isn’t a specific period of time that a competitor analysis should be completed—however, it’s definitely not a one-and-done deal. Don’t conduct an analysis only at the very beginning of building your website—completing an analysis annually can offer updated industry insights and stay competitive with other companies in your niche. The most important thing is that the analysis is completed periodically; whether that’s once every 3 months or once every year depends on your company and its specific needs.

Conclusion: 

A comprehensive website competitor analysis will give you a complete view of your market and it is crucial to make marketing decisions. The right data can help your business stay on top of current trends, discover more about your market, and perform better than your competitors. By following these 8 tips, completing a competitor analysis is easier—and more effective—than ever!

After you’ve done a careful analysis of your competitors, the next step is to determine what sets your company apart from the crowd, also known as your unique selling point. But we’ll be going over how to do that in far more detail next week!