Gathering competitor intelligence is just one step in the journey to becoming a smarter, more data-driven organisation. Studies show only 12% of data collected by organisations is being analysed.
But even then, that doesn’t provide a true indication of what’s being used within organisations to make smarter strategic and operational decisions. To make the most of your competitor intelligence activity, you need to get it into the hands of the people who need it – and fast.
In this article, we take a closer look at competitor analysis reports and the 8 steps to ensure they are right for your organisation.
What Is Competitor Analysis?
Competitor analysis is the process of evaluating and analysing the strengths and weaknesses of your business competitors using competitor intelligence. It involves identifying the direct and indirect competitors in your market, and then gathering and analysing their strategies, products, services, pricing, and marketing activities.
Competitor analysis is a critical aspect of business planning and helps organisations understand their competitive landscape and make informed decisions.
What Are Competitor Analysis Reports?
Competitor analysis reports are documents that summarise the findings of competitor analysis. They are produced periodically or on-demand depending on your needs as an organisation and the nature of the criteria you’re analysing.
The reports can also include an analysis of industry trends and insights that can help organisations refine their marketing and sales strategies.
Why Do Organisations Need Them?
Organisations use competitor analysis reports for several reasons. Firstly, they help companies identify their market position and understand how to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Secondly, the reports can help organisations identify potential opportunities and threats in the marketplace. By analysing their competitors, businesses can identify gaps in the market, new product or service ideas, and emerging trends.
How Are Competitor Analysis Reports Created?
Competitor analysis reports are outputs from competitor intelligence. In this section, we look at the steps needed to get from considering competitor analysis to using it to make smarter decisions faster.
1) Identify a business need for competitor analysis
Before starting the process of competitor analysis, it’s important to identify why your business needs it. Some common reasons businesses engage in competitor analysis include:
Understanding market positioning – Competitor analysis can help businesses understand where they stand in the market and how they compare to their competitors. This information can be used to develop better marketing and sales strategies, identify gaps in the market, and find opportunities to differentiate from competitors.
Staying ahead of the competition – By monitoring competitors, businesses can stay informed of their actions and strategies. This allows them to anticipate potential threats and react quickly to new developments in the market.
Improving product development – Competitor analysis can help businesses identify areas for improvement in their products or services. By comparing their offerings to those of their competitors, businesses can gain insights into what customers value and where they might be falling short.
2) Identify competitors and criteria to monitor
Once you’ve identified your business need for competitor analysis, the next step is to determine which competitors to monitor and what criteria to track. This can include factors like:
Product offerings – What products or services do your competitors offer, and how do they compare to your own?
Pricing – How do your competitors price their products or services? Are they more expensive or less expensive than yours?
Marketing strategies – How do your competitors market their products or services? What channels do they use to reach customers?
Industry trends – What are the latest trends in your industry, and how are your competitors responding to them?
Who and what you track will be determined by your reasons for undertaking competitor analysis.
3) Identify the stakeholders who need to see and use the reports
Competitor analysis reports are only valuable if they’re seen and used by the right people. It’s important to identify the stakeholders within your organisation who need access to the reports and how they will use the information. This can include:
– Marketing teams: Who can use competitor analysis reports to refine marketing strategies.
– Sales teams: Who may be competing head to head with rival businesses and want to identify the best way to pitch their offering.
– Product development teams: Who can use competitor analysis reports to identify areas for improvement in their products or services.
– Executive leadership: Who can use competitor analysis reports to make strategic decisions about the direction of the company.
4) Choose and configure your competitor intelligence platform
Your competitor analysis report will be produced by your competitor intelligence platform. There are several platforms on the market that offer automated tracking, customisation, competitor intelligence alerts, human analysis and more. Do your research and identify the one best suited to your unique challenges.
Once chosen, the team behind the platform should take the legwork out of the set-up, asking a few questions and configuring your dashboard and reports.
5) Start generating competitor analysis reports
Once you have identified the competitors and criteria to monitor, and configured your dashboard, it’s time to start generating competitor analysis reports. These reports should be generated regularly and should include relevant data and insights.
They can be produced manually or automatically, depending on your organisation’s needs and resources.
6) Identify and communicate an internal process for how competitor analysis reports should be used
Competitor analysis reports are fairly valueless unless they’re embraced by the people they’re built for. Increasing internal buy-in for competitor intelligence may mean presenting a business case, highlighting the cost of losing out to your rivals or repeatedly demonstrating the impact that intelligence-driven decisions are having on your revenue and other targets.
Mobilising your organisation to use competitor analysis is also about providing clear and easy-to-follow processes for how to access, review and use intelligence to make smarter decisions.
7) Supplement competitor analysis reports with real-time alerts
Generating regular competitor analysis reports is a great start, but they don’t provide the immediacy of a real-time alert. As such, we recommend combining your competitor analysis reports with alerts. This is usually done through integrations between your competitor intelligence platform and your existing third-party communication channels, such as Outlook, Slack or MS Teams.
The benefit of these integrations is that it makes accessing and reviewing intelligence effortless. Data flows into your organisation on a daily basis, increasing its usefulness and the likelihood of intelligence being embraced by the various stakeholders.
8) Share your competitor analysis reports
Back to your reports, you’ll need to ensure that the right stakeholders have access to your competitor analysis reports. This includes not only the executive team and marketing department but also sales, product, and customer support teams.
Sharing your competitor analysis reports can help your organisation stay aligned and informed on your competitors’ activities, helping to identify opportunities for growth and areas to improve your products and services.
By following this guide to competitor analysis reports, you can become a smarter, more competitive organisation.
Make Smarter Decisions Faster With WatchMyCompetitor
Unlike other intelligence solutions that serve up hard-to-mine unfiltered data, or which collate insights into periodic reports that lack immediacy, WatchMyCompetitor is the complete competitor intelligence platform.
We use AI to track your competitors’ global digital footprint in real time, so you don’t miss anything important. While our market experts analyse and curate the most relevant competitive insights on your behalf.
That means no more sifting through unmanageable volumes of data. You get fast access to relevant, timely intelligence to optimise strategies, outsmart the competition and protect and grow your revenue.
Don’t let your competitors gain an advantage. Book a demo today.
