Infuse Zeal

We conducted a series of workshops about marketing competitive analysis for a selected group of companies in Orange County, California, last year. These companies were interested in doing business both nationally and locally.

Questions we asked them are not new to marketing:

1. Who do you think your top competitors are? Are there any competitors you may be unfamiliar with?
2. How well are they doing online?
3. How do you create new business?
4. How can you package your services to create new marketing segments?
5. Why is your SEO team unable to improve search engine rankings?
6. Why is the traffic coming to your website not building your business?

As marketers, we struggle with these questions all the time.

Here’s what we concluded from our marketing competitive analysis:

1. Breaking down markets into segments is very effective.
2. Deciding how to best use your online content, which is the currency of the internet, is critical. Do you create videos for products promotion, or press releases? Do you use blogs to communicate with customers or FAQ’s on the website?
3. Have a clear blueprint in place before you set up a marketing campaign. This helps you begin with an accurate assessment of your situation, and enables you to measure progress.
4. Define short term and long term marketing objectives. Be realistic in your revenue projections. Competitive analysis will show you how to allocate your budget to meet these objectives, which determine your marketing strategy.

What kind of competitive analysis do you use in your marketing?