What's a Competitive Analysis & How Do You Conduct One?

您上次对品牌进行竞争分析是什么时候？最重要的是，您知道如何有效地做一个吗？

如果您不确定，或者如果最后一次“分析”是对竞争对手的网站和社交媒体形象的快速细胞，那么您很可能会错过重要的智能，这可以帮助您的品牌成长。

在本详细指南中，您将学习如何进行竞争分析，从而使您的业务在市场上具有竞争优势。

竞争性分析可以帮助您了解竞争方式的来龙去脉，并确定您可以表现出来的潜在机会。

它还使您能够掌握行业趋势，并确保您的产品始终达到并超过行业标准。

Let's dive into a few more benefits of conducting competitive analyses:

• Helps you identify your product's uniquevalue propositionand what makes your product different from the competitors', which can inform future marketing efforts.
• Enables you to identify what your competitor is doing right. This information is critical for staying relevant and ensuring both your product and your marketing campaigns are outperforming industry standards.
• Tells you where your competitors are falling short — which helps you identify areas of opportunities in the marketplace, and test out new, unique marketing strategies they haven't taken advantage of.
• 通过客户评论学习竞争对手产品中缺少的内容，并考虑如何在自己的产品中添加功能以满足这些需求。
• Provides you with a benchmark against which you can measure your growth.

What is competitive market research?

竞争市场研究的重点是查找和比较关键市场指标，这些指标有助于确定您的产品和服务与竞争对手之间的差异。全面的市场研究有助于建立有效的销售和营销策略的基础，以帮助您的公司在人群中脱颖而出。bob全站app

接下来，让我们研究如何为自己的公司进行竞争分析。bob全站app

Competitive Analysis in Marketing

每个品牌都可以从常规的竞争对手分析中受益。通过执行竞争对手分析，您将能够：

• Identify gaps in the market
• 开发新产品和服务
• 发现市场趋势
• 销售和更有效地销售

As you can see, learning any of these four components will lead your brand down the path of achievement.

接下来，让我们研究一些步骤，以进行全面的竞争分析。

要进行完整有效的竞争分析，请使用这十个模板，这些模板的目的是从销售到营销到产品策略。

特色资源：10个竞争分析模板

现在下载

1. Determine who your competitors are.

首先，您需要弄清楚自己真正与谁竞争，以便可以准确比较数据。与您类似的业务中有效的方法可能对您的品牌不起作用。

那你怎么能做到这一点呢？

Divide your “competitors” into two categories: direct and indirect.

Direct competitors are businesses that offer a product or service that could pass as a similar substitute for yours, and that operate in your same geographic area.

另一方面，间接竞争对手提供的产品不一样，但可以满足客户的需求或解决相同的问题。

It seems simple enough on paper, but these two terms are often misused.

When comparing your brand, you should only focus on your direct competitors. This is something many brands get wrong.

让我们以一个示例：针脚修复和Fabletics都是基于订阅的服务，每月出售衣服并为类似的目标受众服务。

But as we look deeper, we can see that the actual product (clothes in this case) are not the same; one brand focuses on stylish everyday outfits while the other is workout-centric attire only.

是的，这些品牌满足了女性的需求（每个月都有时尚的衣服到家门口），但是他们以完全不同类型的衣服来做到这一点，使她们间接竞争对手。

这意味着凯特·哈德森（Kate Hudson）在Fabletics的团队不想花时间学习Stitch Fix，因为他们的观众可能有很大差异。即使只是略微，这种微小的变化也足以产生很大的不同。

Now, this doesn't mean you should toss your indirect competitors out the window completely.

将这些品牌放在您的雷达上，因为它们可以随时转移位置并越过直接竞争对手区域。使用我们的示例，Stitch Fix可以启动锻炼线，这肯定会改变Fabletics的内容。

这也是您需要定期运行竞争对手分析的原因之一。市场可以并且会随时发生变化，如果您不经常划分它，那么直到为时已晚，您才会意识到这些更改。

2.确定竞争对手提供的产品。

任何企业的核心是其产品或服务，这就是使这成为起点的好地方。

您将需要分析竞争对手的完整产品线以及所提供的产品或服务的质量。

You should also take note of their pricing and any discounts they're offering customers.

Some questions to consider include:

• Are they a low-cost or high-cost provider?
• Are they working mainly on volume sales or one-off purchases?
• 他们的市场份额是多少？
• 他们理想客户的特征和需求是什么？
• 他们是否使用不同的定价策略进行在线购买与砖和砂浆？
• How does the company differentiate itself from its competitors?
• How do they distribute their products/services?

3.研究竞争对手的销售策略和结果。

Running a sales analysis of your competitors can be a bit tricky.

您需要跟踪以下问题的答案：

• 销售过程是什么样的？
• 他们正在销售哪些渠道？
• 他们有多个位置吗？这如何给他们带来优势？
• Are they expanding? Scaling down?
• Do they have partner reselling programs?
• What are their customers' reasons for not buying? For ending their relationship with the company?
• What are their revenues each year? What about total sales volume?
• 他们会定期打折他们的产品或服务吗？
• How involved is a salesperson in the process?

These helpful pieces of information will give you an idea of how competitive the sales process is, and what information you need to prepare your sales reps with to compete during the final buy stage.

For publicly held companies, you can find annual reports online, but you'll have to do some sleuthing to find this info from privately owned businesses.

You could find some of this information by searching through your CRM and reaching out to those customers who mentioned they were considering your competitor. Find out what made them choose your product or service over others out there.

To do this, run a report that shows all prospective deals where there was an identified competitor.

如果这些数据不是您当前录制的内容，请与市场营销和销售进行交谈，以实施一个系统，以使潜在客户质疑他们正在考虑的其他公司。

本质上，他们需要询问潜在客户（通过表单领域或一对一的销售对话）来确定他们当前的服务提供商是谁，过去使用过的人以及他们是谁是谁在购买过程中考虑。

确定竞争对手时，请询问为什么要考虑切换您的产品，让您的销售团队深入研究。如果您已经失去了交易，请务必跟进潜在客户，以确定为什么输给竞争对手。哪些服务或功能吸引了前景？是关于价格吗？前景对您的销售过程的印象是什么？如果他们已经进行了切换，请找出为什么他们做出决定。

通过询问开放式问题，您将获得诚实的反馈，内容涉及客户对您的品牌有什么吸引力以及可能会拒绝客户的内容。

回答这些问题后，您可以开始范围内范围内范围内的营销工作。

4. Take a look at your competitors' pricing, as well as any perks they offer.

There are a few major factors that go into correctly pricing your product — and one major one is understanding how much your competitors are charging for a similar product or service.

如果您认为与竞争对手相比，您的产品提供了优越的功能，则可以考虑使产品或服务比行业标准更昂贵。但是，如果这样做，您需要确保您的销售代表准备解​​释为什么您的产品值得付出额外的费用。

Alternatively, perhaps you feel there's a gap in your industry for affordable products. If that's the case, you might aim to charge less than competitors and appeal to prospects who aren't looking to break the bank for a high-quality product.

Of course, other factors go intocorrectly pricing a product，但至关重要的是，您至关重要的是，要确保您以对潜在客户来说合理的方式确保产品定价。

此外，请查看竞争对手的报价以及如何匹配这些特权以竞争的任何特权。例如，也许您的竞争对手提供主要的推荐折扣或长达一个月的免费试用版。这些特权可能是您失去客户的原因，因此，如果您的品牌感觉合理，请考虑您可以在哪里匹配这些特权，或者如果竞争对手不提供任何竞争者，则可以提供一些独特的特权。

5. Ensure you're meeting competitive shipping costs.

Did you know expensive shipping is thenumber one reason for cart abandonment？

如今，免费送货是一种主要的好处，可以吸引消费者选择一个品牌而不是另一个品牌。如果您在运输是一个主要因素（例如电子商务）的行业工作，您将希望查看竞争对手的运输成本，并确保您开会（如果不超过）这些价格。

如果大多数竞争对手提供免费送货，您将需要研究自己公司的选项。bob全站app如果免费送货不是您业务的实际选择，请考虑如何以其他方式区分（包括忠诚度计划，假期折扣或社交媒体上的赠品）。

6.分析您的竞争对手如何销售其产品。

Analyzing your competitor's website is the fastest way to gauge their marketing efforts. Take note of any of the following items and copy down the specific URL for future reference:

• 他们有博客吗？
• 他们是在创建白皮书还是电子书？
• Do they post videos or webinars?
• 他们有播客吗？
• 他们是否使用静态视觉内容，例如信息图表和漫画？
• 那滑梯呢？
• Do they have a FAQs section?
• Are there featured articles?
• 您看到新闻稿吗？
• 他们有媒体套件吗？
• What about case studies?
• 他们发布购买指南和数据表吗？
• What online and offline advertising campaigns are they running?

7.注意您的比赛的内容策略。

Then, take a look at the quantity of these items. Do they have several hundred blog posts or a small handful? Are there five white papers and just one ebook?

Next, determine the frequency of these content assets. Are they publishing something new each week or once a month? How often does a new ebook or case study come out?

如果您遇到了一个强大的内容档案，您的竞争对手会定期发布。根据他们讨论的主题，此内容可能会帮助您磨练他们的铅生成策略。

From there, you should move on to evaluating the quality of their content. After all, if the quality is lacking, it won't matter how often they post since their target audience won't find much value in it.

选择少数样品进行审查，而不是解决每个部分以使过程更易于管理。

您的采样器应包括涵盖各种主题的内容文章，因此您将对竞争对手与目标受众的共同点进行相当完整的了解。

When analyzing your competitor's content, consider the following questions:

• 他们的内容有多准确？
• 拼写或语法错误?
• 他们的内容如何深入？（是在介绍性的层面上只是刮擦表面还是包括具有高级想法的更高级主题？）
• 他们使用什么音？
• 内容是否为可读性结构化？（他们是否使用子弹点，大胆的标题和编号列表？）
• Is their content free and available to anyone or do their readers need to opt-in?
• 谁在写他们的内容？（内部团队？一个人？多个贡献者？）
• 他们的文章中是否有可见的旁白或生物？

当您继续扫描内容时，请注意竞争对手正在使用的照片和图像。

Do you quickly scroll past generic stock photos or are you impressed by custom illustrations and images? If they're using stock photos, do they at least have overlays of text quotes or calls-to-action that are specific to their business?

如果他们的照片是习俗的，他们是从外部图形专业人士中采购的还是在内部完成的？

When you have a solid understanding of your competitor's content marketing strategy, it's time to find out if it's truly working for them.

8.了解您的竞争对手使用哪种技术。

Understanding what types of technology your competitors' use can be critical for helping your own company减少摩擦并增加动量within your organization.

例如，也许您已经看到有关竞争对手客户服务的积极评论 - 当您进行研究时，您了解客户使用强大的客户服务软件bob电竞官方下载您没有利用。这些信息应该武装您的机会超越竞争对手的流程。

要弄清竞争对手使用哪种软件，请将公司的Ubob电竞官方下载RL输入bob全站app建造, an effective tool for unveiling what technology your competitors' site runs on, along with third-party plugins ranging from analytics systems to CRMs.

Alternatively, you might consider looking at competitors' job listings, particularly for engineer or web developer roles. The job listing will likely mention which tools a candidate needs to be familiar with — a creative way to gain intel into the technology your competitors' use.

9. Analyze the level of engagement on your competitor's content.

为了衡量竞争对手的内容与读者的吸引力，您需要查看他们的目标受众如何应对他们的发布内容。

在竞争对手的内容上检查平均评论，分享和喜欢的评论数量，并找出是否：

• Certain topics resonate better than others
• 评论是消极的，正面的或混合的
• People are tweeting about specific topics more than others
• Readers respond better to Facebook updates about certain content
• 不要忘记注意您的竞争对手是否使用标签对其内容进行分类，并且他们是否有社交媒体跟随并共享每个内容上附加的按钮。

10.观察他们如何促进其营销内容。

从参与度开始，您将继续遵循竞争对手的内容促销策略。

• 副本本身中的关键字密度
• 图像alt文本标签
• Use of internal linking

以下问题还可以帮助您优先考虑并专注于注意什么：

• Which keywords are your competitors focusing on that you still haven't tapped into?
• 他们的内容高度共享并链接到什么内容？您的内容如何比较？
• 您的目标受众使用哪些社交媒体平台？
• What other sites are linking back to your competitor's site, but not yours?
• Who else is sharing what your competitors are publishing?
• Who is referring traffic to your competitor's site?
• 对于您要关注的关键字，难度级别是多少？有几种免费（和付费）工具，可以使您对竞争对手的搜索引擎优化进行全面评估。

11.查看他们的社交媒体存在，策略和首选平台

在营销方面，您要评估的最后一个领域是竞争对手的社交媒体存在和参与率。

How does your competition drive engagement with their brand through social media? Do you see social sharing buttons with each article? Does your competitor have links to their social media channels in the header, footer, or somewhere else? Are these clearly visible? Do they use calls-to-action with these buttons?

If your competitors are using a social network that you may not be on, it's worth learning more about how that platform may be able to help your business, too. To determine if a new social media platform is worth your time, check your competitor's engagement rates on those sites. First, visit the following sites to see if your competition has an account on these platforms:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Pinterest

Then, take note of the following quantitative items from each platform:

• Number of fans/followers
• Posting frequency and consistency
• 内容参与度（用户是发表评论还是分享他们的帖子？）
• 内容病毒性（他们的帖子有多少股，repins和转发？）

您用相同的关键眼睛来评估竞争对手的内容营销策略，以细齿梳子来分析其社交媒体策略。

他们发布什么样的内容？他们是否更专注于驱使人们登陆页面，从而产生新的潜在客户？还是他们发布视觉内容以促进参与和品牌知名度？

这些内容中有多少是原始的？他们是否共享其他来源的精选内容？这些来源是常规贡献者吗？内容的总体语气是什么？

How does your competition interact with its followers? How frequently do their followers interact with their content?

收集这些数据后，为竞争对手内容的质量生成了整体等级。这将帮助您使用类似的评分量表比较其余的竞争对手。

12. Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

当您评估竞争对手分析（业务，销售和市场营销）中的每个组件时，养成同时进行简化的SWOT分析的习惯。

这意味着您会注意到竞争对手的长处，劣势，机会和威胁，任何时候评估整体成绩。

有些问题可以使您入门：

• 您的竞争对手表现良好？（产品，内容营销，社交
• 您的竞争对手比您的品牌有优势？
• 您的竞争对手最薄弱的领域是什么？
• 您的品牌比竞争对手有优势？
• 他们会做得更好吗？
• In what areas would you consider this competitor a threat?
• Are there opportunities in the market that your competitor has identified?

You'll be able to compare their weaknesses against your strengths and vice versa. By doing this, you can better position your company, and you'll start to uncover areas for improvement within your own brand.

竞争产品分析

Product analysis drills down to discover key differences and similarities in products that share the same general market. This type of analysis if you have a competitor selling products in a similar market niche to your own - you want to make sure that wherever possible, you aren’t losing market share to the competition.

利用上面的示例，我们可以深入研究并发现产品产品中的一些主要区别者。

步骤1：评估您当前的产品定价。

The first step in any product analysis is to assess current pricing.

任天堂offers three models of its Switch console: The smaller lite version is priced at $199, the standard version is $299, and the new OLED version is $349.

Sony, meanwhile, offers two versions of its Playstation 5 console: The standard edition costs $499 and the digital version, which doesn’t include a disc drive, is $399.

Step 2: Compare key features

接下来是关键功能的比较。在我们的控制台示例的情况下，这意味着比较处理功率，内存和硬盘驱动器空间等功能。

Step 3: Pinpoint differentiators

With basic features compared, it’s time to dive deeper with differentiators. While a glance at the chart above seems to indicate that the PS5 is outperforming its competition, this data only tells part of the story.

原因如下：标准和OLED开关型号的大卖点是，它们可以作为手持台游戏机或与电视连接的基站进行播放。更重要的是，这种“切换”会无缝地发生，允许玩家在任何地方玩。

The Playstation offering, meanwhile, has leaned into market-exclusive games that are only available on its system to help differentiate them from their competitors.

步骤4：确定市场差距

竞争性产品分析的最后一步是在市场上寻找可以帮助您的公司取得成功的差距。bob全站app当涉及控制台市场时，获得一个潜在的机会是通过基于云的服务而不是物理硬件进行游戏的交付。Nvidia和Google等公司已经在这个领域中脱颖而出，如果他们能够克服带宽和延迟的问题，它可能会大规模改变市场。

Competitive Analysis Example

How do you stack up against the competition? Where are you similar, and what sets you apart? This is the goal of competitive analysis. By understanding where your brand and competitors overlap and diverge, you’re better positioned to make strategic decisions that can help grow your brand.

Of course, it’s one thing to understand the benefits of competitive analysis, and it’s another to actually carry out an analysis that yields actionable results. Don’t worry - we’ve got you covered with a quick example.

Sony vs. Nintendo: Not all fun and games

Let’s take a look at popular gaming system companies Sony and Nintendo. Sony’s newest offering - the Playstation 5 - recently hit the market but has been plagued by supply shortages. Nintendo’s Switch console, meanwhile, has been around for several years but remains a consistent seller, especially among teens and children. This scenario is familiar for many companies on both sides of the coin; some have introduced new products designed to compete with established market leaders, while others are looking to ensure that reliable sales don’t fall.

使用上面列出的一些步骤，这是一个快速的竞争分析示例。

1. Determine who your competitors are.

In our example, it’s Sony vs Nintendo, but it’s also worth considering Microsoft’s Xbox, which occupies the same general market vertical. This is critical for effective analysis; even if you’re focused on specific competitors and how they compare, it’s worth considering other similar market offerings.

2.确定竞争对手提供的产品。

Playstation offers two PS5 versions, digital and standard, at different price points, while Nintendo offers three versions of its console. Both companies also sell peripherals - for example, Sony sells virtual reality (VR) add-ons while Nintendo sells gaming peripherals such as steering wheels, tennis rackets, and differing controller configurations.

3.研究竞争对手的销售策略和结果。

在销售策略和营销方面，索尼和任天堂的方法非常不同。

In part thanks to the recent semiconductor shortage, Sony has driven up demand via scarcity - very low volumes of PS5 consoles remain available. Nintendo, meanwhile, has adopted a broader approach by targeting families as their primary customer base. This effort is bolstered by the Switch Lite product line, which is smaller and less expensive, making it a popular choice for children.

数字讲述了这个故事: Through September 2021, Nintendo sold 14.3 million consoles, while Sony sold 7.8 million.

4. Take a look at your competitors' pricing, as well as any perks they offer.

索尼公司更高的价格点:他们标准的PS5 sells for $499, while Nintendo’s most expensive offering comes in at $349. Both offer robust digital marketplaces and the ability to easily download new games or services.

在这里，关键的区别是灵活性和忠诚。开关很灵活 - 用户可以用电视对接并像标准控制台一样播放它，或将其捡起并将其作为手持游戏系统带到任何地方。同时，PS5具有出色的图形硬件和处理能力，为希望获得最高忠诚体验的游戏玩家。

5.分析您的竞争对手如何销售其产品。

如果您比较任天堂和索尼的营销工作，那么差异就很明显了：索尼的广告具有现实的游戏内录像，并谈到了他们游戏头衔的独家性质；该公司已bob全站app设法与几家备受瞩目的游戏开发人员达成协议，以独家访问新的和现有的IPS。

与此同时，任天堂使用明亮的广告，显示快乐的家庭在旅行时一起玩耍或使用较小的开关。

6. Analyze the level of engagement on your competitor's content.

参与有助于推动销售并鼓励重复购买。尽管有几种衡量参与度的方法，但社交媒体是最直接的媒体之一：总的来说，更多的追随者等同于更多的参与度和更大的市场影响。

When it comes to our example, Sony enjoys a significant lead over Nintendo: While the officialPlayStation Facebook页面has 38 million followers,任天堂只有500万。

Competitive Analysis Templates

Competitive analysis is complex, especially when you’re assessing multiple companies and products simultaneously. To help streamline the process, we’ve created 10 free templates that make it possible to see how you stack up against the competition - and what you can do to increase market share.

Let’s break down our SWOT analysis template. Here’s what it looks like:

Download Free Templates

Strengths——确定your strengths. These may include specific pieces of intellectual property, products that are unique to the market, or a workforce that outperforms the competition.

弱点- Here, it’s worth considering potential issues around pricing, leadership, staff turnover, and new competitors in the market.

Opportunities- SWOT分析的这一部分可以集中在新的市场领域，不断发展的消费者偏好或您公司开发的新技术。bob全站app

Threats- 这些可能包括对现有产品的新税或法规，或在同一市场领域中越来越多的类似产品，可能会对您的整体份额产生负面影响。

How Does Your Business Stack Up?

Before you accurately compare your competition, you need to establish a baseline. This also helps when it comes time to perform a SWOT analysis.

通过您用来评估竞争的相同指标，请客观查看您的业务，销售和营销报告。

就像您与竞争对手一样记录此信息，并将其用作基准，以全面比较。

编者注：该帖子最初是在2018年7月之前发表的，但已更新以进行全面性。