In order to stand out from the crowd, it is essential to know who your competitors are and what they’re offering. You can then offer additional services that none of your competitors are offering. Also, it will help you set your prices competitively and to become the go-to source for the products or services you offer.
Once you have the information about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, you can easily create marketing strategies to overtake your competitors’ business and increase your revenue. Let’s have a look at how to know who your competitors are and how to take advantage of the information you have about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
How to know who your competitors are?
No matter the business you’re in, each and every business face competition. Even if you’re the only fashion retailer in the town, you must compete with online fashion agencies who’re delivering apparel and other fashion accessories in your area. There are two types of competitors: direct and indirect.
Direct competitors are those who sell similar products and services as yours while indirect competitors are those who offer similar products and services as yours but their end goals are different.
In order to know who your competitors are, have a look at:
- Local business directories
- Check out companies that are using services like reportingaccounts.com
- Your local chamber of commerce
- Paid ads
- Press reports
- Exhibitions and trade fairs
- Questionnaires
- Search about similar products and services on the internet with location
- With the information from your loyal customers
- Search for existing patented products that are similar to yours
Things you should be knowing about your competitors
Revenue and Threat Level: In order to get a rough estimate about how much revenue your competitors are making, multiply the number of employees by $150,000. It will help you analyze the size and number of clients your competition has. This way you can assess the threat level to your business. If they’re too big then your company, focus on small clients whereas if they’re smaller than your company, focus on bigger clients.
Understand your competitors’ pricing: The primary reason to understand your competitors’ pricing is to keep your pricing in line with what your target audience is willing to pay. This way you can easily determine the right pricing strategy for your business and can retain customers with those prices.
Your competitor’s strength: Knowing your competitors’ strengths is one of the best ways to beat them. Understand what their customers like about them. Offering something additional from what they’re offering might help you win customers. However, it is not possible to offer everything your competitors offer but knowing their strengths will help you know where you stand.
Your competitors’ weaknesses: Apart from knowing your competitors’ strengths, it is important to know the areas where they lack. You can then use the information to your advantage and offer services that they don’t. It will also help you analyze your strengths. This way you will be able to win more customers and increase your profit.
Other things you need to know about your competitors:
- The way they market their products or services to their customers
- The way they distribute and deliver their products or services
- The devices they use to enhance customer loyalty
- Their brand and design values
- The way the leverage the power of technology
- Their media activities
- The type of customers they’re targeting
- What new products they’re developing
- Their financial resources
What to do with the information you have on your competitors?
Analyzing the competitor’s information will help you figure out gaps in the market that you can exploit. It will also help you figure out areas with less competition where you can dominate the market.
It’s better to divide the information into four categories:
- What to learn from them in order to improve your business?
- What they’re doing worse than you?
- What they’re doing the same as you?
- What their customers like the most about them?
Instead of copying, try to learn from them and innovate new ideas to add more value to your business. It could be anything from updating your products list to improving customer experience.
Conclusion
Understanding your competitors will not only help you increase your total revenue but it will also help you build your brand image. Make sure you collect all the essential information about your competitors such as their pricing strategy, strengths, and weaknesses. You can then use the information to innovate and add value to your business.