Competitive Analysis: Study Others to Get Ahead

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Competitive analysis helps you gather useful data, beat your competitors, and attract new customers. Let's take a closer look at this tool and find out why it's worth conducting such research periodically.

What does competitor analysis mean?
Competitive analysis is a study of an organization's competitors. The subject of analysis can be different: from goods/services, pricing to advertising, social networks or loyalty programs.

If you do not periodically analyze the competitive environment, you can lose your advantage in the market. For example, if an organization does not know what promotions competitors are holding, it will not be able to offer a good discount to customers. Let's consider other reasons when this method will be useful.

Determine whether to start a new project
The study will show whether it is necessary to enter the market with a new product/service. For example, if it turns out that there are no competitors, then this is a social media marketing service reason to weigh the risks again and think about why others have not yet opened a similar business. If, on the contrary, there are too many competitors, then the market share that can be occupied will not be very large. Most likely, a lot of resources will be needed to interest people who have already chosen competitors' products and have repeatedly purchased them.

Formulate the benefits of your product
In order to stand out from other organizations, you need to know their corporate values ​​and advantages. This information will allow you to differentiate yourself - to create parameters by which you can emphasize the unique advantages of the product/service.

For example, if one educational organization helps to write a resume after completing a course, then another should stand out on the same parameter and offer a consultation with a recruiter.

Set the price of products
The price is set based on several factors, one of which is how much competitors sell the same product for. But you shouldn't set the exact same price as others, otherwise the cost will depend on their actions: if everyone gave a discount, then you should do the same, and vice versa.

Come up with a strategy for advertising promotion
Assessing competitive channels helps you make important decisions: which platforms to promote, which categories are best suited, and which format to choose to ensure that your audience likes it.


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For example, life hacks from online courses promoted by competitors bring a lot of feedback on social networks. You can take this idea or, on the contrary, make a different content presentation - create a guide on implementing methods/tools from the training material.

Find growth points
Research can show which areas are currently in demand. For example, a competitor's subscribers are constantly asking on social networks when they will record a new course on financial literacy. You can use this information, analyze the demand and record such a course before competitors, and thereby attract a new audience.

Competitive analysis should be conducted before launching marketing activities, opening a project or during the creation of a new promotion strategy in order to obtain information for thinking through the next step. Our free online course " Information Analysis " can help with this difficult task. You will learn how to evaluate new data and develop a decision-making cycle.