How to Perform a Competitive Analysis for Social Media
Need help figuring out your marketing strategy? Run a competitive analysis on your competition. Here’s exactly how to do it.
Posted 2 years ago
Written by
Mackenzie TaylorPosted 2 years ago
When it comes to the olā internet, a lot of people, sadly, are selling the same product or service as you are. While that might seem like a horrific thing, it can actually be really good because you know that your product or service is in demand if youāve got competition! Now, a lot of people fear the word competition but itās all about knowing exactly what your competition is doing and how to figure out how to get out in front of them. š How do you stand out? What can you do to make people love you and have your name at the top of their minds when buying the product or service you make? Itās all about doing a competitive analysis to nail down your marketing strategy.
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What is a competitive analysis? āļø
A competitive analysis is a strategy or report where you research your major competition to view their products/services, sales, and how they market each and every one of them.
Knowing what is working for your competitors vs. what is not doing them so well will help you nail down your marketing strategy.
Other benefits of doing competitive analysis?
You can see exactly where your competition isnāt doing so hot, learn from their mistakes, and figure out holes in their marketing strategy that you can cover with your own.
Learn through reviews whatās missing in your competitionās product and how your product can meet their needs. You can determine exactly what your competition is doing correctly and how to add what they do right into your strategy.
What is competitive analysis in marketing?š¤
So how does a competitive analysis help you in the world of marketing? Because by seeing which areas your competitors are doing well in, figuring out any gaps in the market, and uncovering key marketing trends, it will help you and your brand build the perfect marketing strategy to blow your competition out of the water.
Determine who your competitors are š
First things first, who the heck is your competition? Who are you competing with in your market? Figuring out the exact right competition will be key to building out your analysis. Even though a brand or business is similar to yours, doesnāt mean that what theyāre doing is going to be exactly what you need to be doing.
So how can you figure out which is your competitor? Well, there are a couple different ways:
- What are they selling? Is it similar to your items? Do their items or services provide the same thing that youāre providing or is it slightly different?
- How do they market their item or service? Would it be the same as how youād market yours? For example, if youāre a subscription-based company, how do other subscription-based companies market their service? How are your services different from theirs?
Write down all of your possible competitors and figure out if they are direct competitor (someone who does the exact same thing as you) or an indirect competitor (someone who does something similar to you but whose product or service is different enough to not be an actual competitor).
Once you figure out who your direct vs. indirect competitors are, itās time to start analyzing each with a tooth comb.
Determine what products your competitors offer š
Okay, so youāve figured out your competition. Congrats! Now what?
Itās time to start analyzing their products, the quality of those products, and their pricing to see where you fit in!
Some questions to think about when analyzing their offers:
- How do they distribute their product or service?
- What are the demographics of their consumers?
- How do they differentiate themselves from others?
- What is something they highlight in their marketing materials?
- What are the needs of their consumers and how do they effectively market to those needs?
Research their sales and results š¤
So youāve figured out who your competition is and what they sell, itās time to start narrowing down how they sell, sell, sell.
- What channels do they sell through?
- What does the sales process look like?
- Are they expanding or are they scaling down?
- Do they work with any partners?
- Do they have discounts or sales consistently?
Take a look at their pricing š°
One of the best things to do when youāre working on releasing your product or service is to check the competitionās pricing.
When you check the competitorsā pricing, you might realize your pricing is a bit higher or lower than the industry standard.
You should also be checking out their perks or offers. Do they offer a free trial? Do they have a referral program? These should all be factors you think about when pricing your product and doing your competitive analysis.
Analyze how your competitors market their products š©āš»
Now for the fun part! Itās time to start looking at how they market their products or services. Letās do a little breakdown:
- Do they have a blog or website?
- Do they have social media?
- Do they have a podcast?
- Do they have a YouTube channel or other video service?
- Do they have any press releases?
- Do they have a media kit?
- Are they running any ad campaigns?
Figure out their content strategy š
After youāve figured out the exact outlets of these products, how do they roll out their marketing strategy on these platforms?
Start evaluating their content to figure out how often they are posting and pushing their content. Is the quality of their content good or are they just pushing anything out there to get eyes on their product?
When you go through their content strategy, answer these questions:
- How accurate is their content?
- Do they have any spelling errors?
- What tone do they use?
- How in-depth is their content?
- Who is writing their content? Do they have a big team, one person, or multiple contributors?
How does their content look? Is it something that you quickly scroll through or does something catch your attention and make you stop? What kind of images are they using when they have rolled out their content? Are they using certain graphics? Do they have a specific branded look?
Start building out a list to understand which part of their content strategy is actually working for them.
Analyze the engagement on your competitorās content š¤³
Once you have an idea of your competitionās content strategy, start figuring out how much engagement they actually get. Not sure how to analyze the engagement?
Here are some of our favorite ways:
- Check the comments. Are they more positive, negative, or neutral?
- Which topics are getting them the most traction?
- How are they asking their audience to engage? Are their CTAs working?
- Do they use certain hashtags when they promote their content?
How do they promote their content? šŗ
With the general idea of their engagement, how do they go about promoting their content? Things to look for when reviewing how your competitors promote their work:
- Different keywords theyāre focusing on
- Alt text in images
- Internal linking
- External linking
- Social media platforms theyāre focusing more on
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