Small-Business-Advice.org

Small Business News

You are here: Home / Archives for competition

competition

Find Faults with the Competition and Exploit Them

By Leave a Comment

Competitive analysis definition – entrepreneur.com

How to do competitive analysis in 5 steps

Don’t be mean simply analyze your competitors’ products and authority and be what they’re not! Or, be what they are, only better. You can stay in the white hat marketer category and still learn from the competition in several ways.

You’re not doing all you can for your business if you don’t use the competition to boost your online presence. There are some ways your competition can help. Gather intelligence first.

your competition is successful, you’ll be able to see what works and use the same techniques for your own success. It’s good to see failures, too because you won’t have to waste your time doing something that clearly doesn’t work.

For example, if they work hard on a big launch of a product you’ll be able to see by their success (or not) whether the product was the reason for the success or perhaps the launch day or time was off, resulting in a total flop.

It’s valuable information to have and use. Your competition helps you define yourself. When you know your competition and what they’re all about, you’ll know better what you identify with especially to your audience.

This information helps you discern how to compete in the niche you’ve chosen. For example, if your competition isn’t targeting a certain group in your niche, it becomes a perfect opportunity for you to become a leader for this area of competition.

Convert your competition’s customer base to yours. You won’t be taking them away from the competition (and even if you did, it’s not your fault you’re better at what you do), but only giving the audience a wider spectrum from which to learn information and choose products.

Online customers can tell you a lot about what’s working with the competition and what isn’t. For example, use the social media sites, forums and other sites to see what they’re interested or confused about and then offer solutions that nobody else is addressing.

Tout your expertise in the niche. You may have some advantages the competition doesn’t. Find out how their expertise compares to yours and then flaunt your own accomplishments and knowledge of the niche.

For example, if you’re a financial planner in the ‘outside’ world, tout your credentials if you’re in a niche which requires finances and planning. The best way to outfox those in your niche and soar to the top of the heap is to know your competition.

By watching what others are doing (or in some case, not doing), you learn much about what to do next in your own business. But, best of all you learn where the gaps are in your niche, or where others are failing your audience and you become the go to person for that topic.

You re Thinking About Competition All Wrong

By Leave a Comment

You’re Thinking About Competition All Wrong

If you shiver at the word competition, thanks to ridiculous marketers who advise you to steer clear of what they call saturated niches – think again. The more competition you have in your niche, the better it is for you in building your business and promoting your product.

When you see lots of competition in your niche, it means that many people are buying in that niche. Thatís not a bad thing for you. There are some reasons why you may need to change your thinking about competition.

It gets your adrenaline pumping. If youíre building a business and have several other marketers on your heels who are winning contests, promoting like crazy and who are challenging your sales quotients, itís a great way to get energized!

A good challenge never hurt anyone ñ and even if the competition is ahead for a moment, you can make a comeback by getting yourself motivated and keyed up to kick them to the curb.

Let them make the mistakes. By spying on your competition, you can find out what works ñ and what doesnít ñ for them. Itís a great way to adjust your own efforts so you donít have to spin your wheels on something thatís been tried and is obviously unsuccessful.

Or, perhaps a promotion or launch from the competition is unsuccessful, but you think you can make it better by tweaking and adding your own touches to the idea. Make sure you donít plagiarize. It doesnít matter that they got the idea first ñ if you can improve on it, so much the better ñ as long as your stuff is 100% unique.

Competition helps you work and spend smarter. By observing others, you can monitor your own business to see where time and dollars can be saved. Some of their improvements may be great and some better left alone.

The competition may have spent money over something that seemed like a good idea at the time, but falls flat in actual implementation. Better them than you. Keep an eye out for their transparent commentary online.

Competition helps you know your target market. By watching the competition, youíll be better able to zero in on your ideal customer rather than reaching far and wide to find an audience.

Youíll find ways to relate to an audience that your competition may have missed along the way and be able to better narrow down your customer base. When your time and efforts are more precise, you reap larger benefits.

Aside from the obvious learning from the competition what works and what doesnít, you can establish relationships with them that let you share the bounty. Joint ventures, interviews, product reviews and social media sites are great ways to establish working relationships with other marketers and give and take to both your advantages.