Your business may be living inside a bubble, which is not exactly a good thing. It means that you are ignoring the things around you—some of which may even inspire growth. The comfort zone is a good place to be in, but if you do not step out of it, you will never be able to find out the threats that may cause your business to stumble. You will not be able to figure out the moves and plans of your competitors. So now is the time to be proactive. You are supposed to take the initiative when it comes to the improvement of your business. One of the first things that you need to do is to analyze your competition.
Knowing what your competitors are up to will help you plan moves that will protect yourself or even propel you forward. Some businesspeople are not so keen on checking the competition, thinking it is just a waste of time and resources. But in reality, it should be part of your marketing strategy. There are actually some ways you can make this much easier. Be focused on the essentials, such as these:
Check out the prices
Pricing is one of the most important factors businesspeople should consider. This is the determining factor for most consumers; some often go for cheaper prices, and this is a real insight. So find out if the price points of your competitors are actually attracting customers. You can do this by having a mystery shopper shop at your competitor’s store. You can even do the trade check yourself. If you are doing online business, you may check out your competitor’s website.
Check the advertising and PR materials
You should check out the advertising and PR materials of your competitors to make sure that you are not sending the same marketing message. Remember, you have to differentiate yourself from your competitors, which is why you should always look at what they are releasing. You should do this every quarter.
Look at how they engage customers
Relationship building is an effort that all brands are doing, and you need to see if your competitors are actually faring well in this department. And this is something that you can do by going to their social media and checking at how their community managers respond to the queries, compliments, and complaints of their customers. Are they also implementing loyalty programs, promos, and similar activities?
Rely on technology
Manually checking on your competitors can be a lot of hard work. You will deploy people to the field to do some mystery shopping. Likewise, you will have to visit their websites and look at their social media materials. If you want things to be much more streamlined, you may consider using a competitor monitoring software program to aid your activities.
The world of business can be tough. It can be a dog-eat-dog world, meaning you will have to watch your back. Competitors will always be plotting to upset your place and lead in the industry. But before they can do that, they will have to go over your safety and security measures. You need to arm yourself with knowledge and a foolproof strategy.
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