Competition analysis: The complete guide to successful strategy

The competition analysis is an integral part of the development of any business. In an era of intense competition, every company needs to know its competitors almost as well as it knows itself. By systematically studying your competitors' moves (products, services, pricing, marketing, etc.), you gain valuable insights to improve your own strategy. As experts point out, a company aiming to increase its profits must maintain a competitive advantage and at the same time know almost all as much as she knows about herself. In short, competitive analysis helps you learn from the successes and failures of others, find gaps in the marketplace, and position your product or service in a way that stands out.

Why competition analysis is important

Conducting a competitive analysis has many benefits for a business. According to studies, a proper competitive analysis helps you define your future strategy, understand your market position and identify opportunities for improvement. In particular, the RankTracker states that by studying competitors you can:

• Strategy definition: Lay the groundwork for your future business by learning what has worked in other cases.
• Market positioning: Define your position in the industry in relation to other players.
• Improving campaigns: Identify which areas of communication and marketing need strengthening by comparing campaigns and channels of competitors.
• Examination of market trends: Keep track of key industry trends, such as looking for products or services that may be increasing in demand.

Furthermore, by studying competitors carefully you are not trying to copy their strategy exactly (which often fails because every company is different), but to understand where they excel and where they fall short. In this way you have the opportunity to improve your own offering and strengthen your competitive advantage. As pointed out by Papaki, "competitive analysis is an integral part of any business development", as it helps you to adapt your strategy to the realities of the industry.

Step-by-step competition analysis guide

To perform the competition analysis correctly, follow the steps below methodically.

1. Preparation: Guide and Template

Before you start, organise a folder or file where you will collect all the information. You can use a ready-made competitive analysis template as a starting point. For example, SEMrush offers a free Google Doc template that guides this process. Such a Google Doc gives you an organized framework for your report (tab for each competitor, sections for marketing, products, SWOT, etc.). Alternatively, create your own spreadsheet, separating the fields (e.g. "Product/Service", "Strengths", "Weaknesses", "Pricing", "Communication Channels", etc.) to record comparative data.

2. Identification of competitors

The next step is to identify who are the competitors you - both direct and indirect. Start with the direct competitors, i.e. companies that offer similar products or services to the same audience as you. These competitors are usually the most instructive for comparison. You can find them:

• By searching keywords in Google that describe your products/services and seeing which sites appear in the first results.
• Looking at relevant directories and review sites for your category.
• Asking your sales team what other solutions customers or stakeholders prefer.
• Researching former customers (churned customers) to see who they turned to after you.
• Using tools like the Semrush Market Explorer or the organic research of SEMrush to identify competitive websites based on organic traffic.

Once you have identified a potential competitor, record its name and website and continue the process. We usually start with 2-3 key competitors so that we have a variety of data without being confused by a plethora of information. Later, if needed, you can include indirect competitors (different products/solutions that meet the same need).

3. Product/service analysis

After identifying them, study your competitors' products or services in depth. This will reveal gaps in the market and help you better position your own proposition. Start from the home page each competitor, looking for the core value proposition: what problem your competitor solves, how it communicates it and to whom it is addressed. Then read their product/service pages in detail and pay attention:

• Main features: What are the key features and innovations of their products/services? How do they meet customer needs?
• Pricing structure: How are they priced? Are there any packages, subscriptions or discounts? For example, if you're in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) space, consider how much each subscription level costs. If you're in products or services, do price comparisons of similar lines. Record whether the competing product is positioned in the premium, mid-market or budget segment.
• After-sales services: Check if they provide support, warranty, installation or training services.

Make a note of everything you notice in your model: features that are missing from your own offering, features you could add, but also weaknesses - e.g. outdated features, product descriptions that are unconvincing or not understandable. All of this will form the raw material for your SWOT analysis and differentiation at the end.

4. Discovering marketing and content channels

Investigate which media and channels your competitors are using to drive traffic and generate engagement. A powerful tool for this is traffic analytics of SEMrush: by typing a domain, you can see from which sources its traffic comes (direct, referral, social, paid, etc.). This way, you will understand, for example, if a large part of their traffic comes from referral links (possibly partnerships/affiliates), or if they rely a lot on organic search.

Also analyse their activity on social media and other forms of content. Is there a blog? Do they have a newsletter, podcast or YouTube channel? How active are they and what kind of content do they post? At this point, you can use specific tools: for example Facebook Ad Library allows you to see the active ads that competitors are running on Facebook and Instagram. Monitor their social media and subscribe to their mailing list if one exists - this way you'll receive direct updates on their campaigns and promotions. A detailed view of channels (e.g. Google Ads, email, social ads, SEO) will show you where your competitors are investing the most. This may also help you discover channels you hadn't considered, which may hold opportunities for you.

5. Examination of sales procedures

Competitive analysis doesn't stop at marketing: you need to see how your competitors sell in practice. According to SEMrush, sales processes involve four stages:
(α) Presentation of the offer: How do your competitors promote the value of the product to potential customers? (e.g. live presentations, webinars, demos).
(β) Follow-up: How do they communicate after the first contact? Do they use automated emails, phone calls or free trials?
(γ) Closing sales: What incentives do they offer to close the market? E.g. discounts, money-back guarantee, bundles.
(δ) Customer retention: How do they keep their customers? Do they offer a loyalty program, exclusive content or additional services.

To evaluate these stages, "put yourself in the shoes" of your competitor's customer: subscribe to their newsletter, attend a webinar, request a demo or sign up for a free trial. Observe the frequency and style of their messaging, what tools (e.g. CRM, auto-responder) they use, and what promotional tricks they employ. This hands-on research reveals what makes their sales strategy effective or not, and can give you ideas to differentiate yourself.

6. Feedback study (Feedback)

Get an insight into how customers view your competitors. Accumulate feedback from as many sources as possible:

• Review websites: See customer reviews of their products/services on sites such as Google Reviews, Trustpilot etc. Look for repeated references to positive and negative features. When multiple customers point out the same problem, this is a major weakness that you can exploit.
• Social media: Monitor posts, comments and discussions on platforms such as X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook or even Reddit for comments on your competitors. There are tools (e.g. Mention, Brand24) that automate this monitoring.
• News and blogs: Look in the credible media to see if anything was reported about your competitors (new launches, quality problems, etc.). Brand monitoring tools can alert you to such reports.

Record all these findings on your report form. A thorough record of customer reviews and comments will show you what market elements users really want and where competitors are failing to meet their needs.

7. Strengths and weaknesses analysis

Once you've collected data for marketing and feedback, draw a bigger picture: what practices your competitors are doing well and what they're not. Look for patterns in your data: you may find that everyone has a similar problem (e.g., a broken user experience in their product, or a shortcoming in a modern feature). Perhaps, by contrast, they all have impressive support or good graphics on their sites - elements that may be "tight" spots that you too should adopt or improve.

At this stage, systematically record the strengths of competitors (features, marketing strategies, partner network, etc.) and the weak points (absence of important features, inadequate after-sales services, unreliable brand, etc.). This information will form the substrate for your final strategy, especially for the SWOT analysis stage.

8. SWOT analysis and positioning (Positioning)

It is now time to evaluate your own business in the context of the findings. Create a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), using what you have learned about the market and competitors. Look at what you can do better: maybe you have a service that everyone is missing, or better pricing. Focus on what you have, what you have, what you don't have. your unique selling point (USP): this is the difference that will set you apart. It could be a feature that more effectively solves a persistent problem, a personalized customer onboarding experience or a more flexible pricing model.

At the same time, think about any demographic or sector groups that competitors are ignoring. If, for example, you've discovered a small (but potentially profitable) customer group that others aren't targeting, focus there. By answering these questions, you determine your company's position in the market and plan your next moves based on accurate data.

In the photo above, a group of business executives are studying graphs and data in a modern office environment. This image symbolizes the process of competitive analysis in action: exchanging ideas around graph prints, marketing tables and statistics. Marketing or data analysis teams meet to find opportunities to improve their strategy by studying their competitors.

Practical Example

Let's imagine you are starting a coffee subscription company. How would you do a competitive analysis? First, you would Google the terms "coffee subscription" or "coffee house", and study which sites come up first. Then you would enter a competitor site into tools like Semrush Market Explorer and Organic Research to find additional competitors. Let's say you identify 3 main competitors. Using Traffic Analytics, you see how much traffic they get daily and from which sources. Insight into their channels (e.g. organic, Facebook ads, referrals) helps you get insights. Then, you look at their products and prices: which coffee pots they offer, at what cost, with what subscriptions, etc. You check how they present their products online (videos, tutorials, blogs), study their customer reviews (e.g. "they wanted more than 5 coach stages" or "disappeared from the site over the weekend"). Finally, you analyze the strengths (e.g. coffee quality, variety) and weaknesses (e.g. poor e-shop UI) of competitors. From all of this, conclusions are drawn: perhaps you identify a demographic (e.g. coworking offices) that others don't serve, or develop a selling point such as a strong taste guarantee. This way, you better plan your strategy based on real data, rather than experimenting blindly.

Tools for competition analysis

There are dozens of digital tools to help you do competitive analysis more quickly and reliably. For example. SEMrush is considered a complete set of marketing tools: it facilitates the keyword research, the competitor survey, him site audit and the backlinks analysis. According to Grow Digital, SEMrush is a flexible tool that presents SERP data in real-time, allowing you to see what keywords competitors are targeting.

Other useful tools include:

• SimilarWeb: It compares estimated traffic and traffic channels for any website, giving you information on the main traffic sources of competitors.
• Google Analytics / Search Console: If you have access (or for your own websites), they display how visitors find and use your website, allowing you to indirectly compare trends with competitors.
• Facebook Ad Library: It allows you to see all the active ads that competitors are running on Facebook and Instagram. So you learn which products they are promoting, with what design and offers.
• Google Trends: It shows how the demand for specific keywords or topics changes over time and by region. You can compare the popularity of your own product with that of competitors.
• Mention / Brand24: Social media listening tools that capture mentions of names, products or other terms on the Internet. They help to automatically track comments and reviews.
• SWOT analysis: Although not software, it is a simple "tool" to organise your information and draw conclusions.
• Porter's Five Forces Model: A classic strategy framework that helps you assess the wider competitive environment (supplier/customer blackmail, threat of new entrances/substitutes, etc.), giving you a global view of opportunities and threats.

In any case, choose the tools that best suit your budget and needs. In combination with the analysis template, turn any information into actionable data: e.g. create product comparison tables, write SWOT reports, create trend charts, etc. As the experts at the company write Grow Digital, "there are many tools for competition analysis" and it is worth getting to know them in order to get a step ahead.

Conclusion

Competition analysis is not a one-off task, but a continuous process of updating and improvement. By taking the time to "spy" and methodically record what other businesses in your field are doing, you learn valuable lessons without having to start the wheel all over again. You understand your customers' needs in depth, find markets that are being overlooked, and adjust your offering accordingly.

Finally, remember that the targeting (targeting) and the adaptation of the marketing strategy must be made on the basis of this data. If you've built a competitive advantage (USP), stick to it - but go outside of it when you identify opportunities (e.g. new products, niche markets). In short, make competitive analysis a regular part of your planning. Only then will your business remain agile and competitive in an ever-changing business environment.

Sources: ranktracker.combusinessmentor.gr, https://www.semrush.com/blog/competitive-analysis/