In today’s modern, pandemic world of content, competitive analysis is more crucial than ever. It’s a common assumption by brands that the exercise of building a proper competitive analysis is a lengthy, expensive and complicated process, but that’s just not the way it should be anymore.
At Summer Friday, we understand the value of competitive analysis in a digital landscape where the consumer is often confused and brands are fighting to stand out. Everyone is trying to “break through the clutter,” and in that climate you can’t afford to not do some version of this regularly.
Here are 7 tips for competitive analysis that can inform your content marketing plans this year:
Listen to the audience feedback.
Where are there customer needs that no brand is directly addressing, or that prospective customers have low awareness of?
Evaluate the core audience of each competitor.
This can unveil missed opportunities for your brand, and the marketplace overall.
Be honest about what your brand is doing better (and worse) than the competition.
These are opportunities to make improvements and fill gaps, like becoming more mobile-friendly or improving your SEO.
Assess content volume and the user journey of your competitors.
70% of consumers prefer to learn about a product or service through content and articles rather than ads.
Understand which content strategies are working for your competition.
This can be a helpful gauge when deciding where to invest your marketing budget.
Evaluate which types of content your competitors are using.
And assess what platforms are most effective at driving engagement with the brand. Check out whether your brand could benefit from a boost in video content, more visual whitepapers, or infographics. Maybe all three!
Assess how competitors position their brand in the industry.
How does their tone, style, and messaging help define their offerings and speak to their audience? Are competitors adopting similar brand positioning, and is there an opportunity to differentiate your brand in the market?
At Summer Friday, we’ve made it really easy for you. Not only can our team and research tools help you determine the answers to these questions, but our in-house content studio can solve for whatever needs those insights provide.
Reach out and we’d love to talk about what Summer Friday can do to help level the competitive landscape for your brand.
