Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is a strategic technique used to evaluate outside competitors.  

It is a competitive analysis is a critical part of a companies marketing plan. 

Competitor Analysis Evaluation

• Establish what makes product or service unique

• Determine what attributes you 'play-up' in order to attract target market

Review Competitor

• SAM, System for Award Management registration using https://www.sam.gov/

• D-U-N-S, Dun & Bradstreet - http://www.dnb.com/ 

• NAICS - North American Industry Classification System at the census bureau - http://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/

• Representations & Certifications

• Points of contact, corporate URL

• Small Business Programs

  • 8a

  • WOSB

  • HUBZone

  • VOSB

  • SDVOSB

• Are any changes you need to make to your SAM registration?

Small Business Search

• SBA - Dynamic Small Business Search

• A to Z Databases.com Search - iPhone/iPad app available

  • Small businesses: find sales leads and mailing lists to grow their business

  • Entrepreneurs: find similar businesses along with competitors

  • Students: research businesses by industry or segment and company size

  • Government agencies: employment statistics, mapping, and traffic modeling

  • People searching: locate friends and relatives

  • Guidance counselors: helping students learn about various careers and how to find jobs

  • Fundraising: find income and home in any neighborhood

Competition Website Review

• Determine their target markets and their perceived strengths. This is a good way to see their view of the industry's future. 

• Is their view different from the consensus? 

• Is their website current and fresh? 

• What do you like about it? 

• Can you improve your website?

Google Your Competitor

• How do they appear in the search results?

• Are they doing something new?

• Subscribe to Google Alerts

Check competitor's recent federal sales history

• Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation

• Use their D-U-N-S number because company names are often close in spelling. 

  • Sort by date signed.

• Who are they doing business with and how much? 

• Should you research an agency as a potential target?

Is your competitor on GSA Schedule? 

• Check for their name on www.gsaelibrary.gov

What's new since the last time you checked this competitor? 

Are you getting ahead or falling behind What changes do you need to make?

Tools

• Click Master - User Experience (UX) tool, Website Review, Social Statistics, Worth, SEO & Marketing Analysis 

• Fanpage Karma - Monitor Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest marketing

• Klear - Social analytics and influencer marketing

• LikeAlyzer - Facebook analysis

• Twitonomy - Twitter analytics

Articles / References

• How to Use a Competitor Dashboard to Destroy Your Competition

• 4 Free Tools to Analyze Your Social Media Competitors

• How to Easily Analyze the Social Activities of Your Competitors

• 10 Tips on How to Research Your Competition

  1. Go beyond a Google search

     • SpyFu

     • Google Trends

     • Google Alerts

  2. Do some reporting

     • Alexa - a suite analytics products that transforms data into meaningful insights for a competitive advantage 

     • Compete - monitor your online competition, benchmark your performance against your industry, and discover new business opportunities

     • Keyword Spy - spy on your competitors

     • Hoovers - a subsidiary of Dun and Bradstreet, an American business research company that provides information on companies and industries

     • ReferenceUSA - a provider of business and consumer research

  3. Tap the social network

  4. Ask your customers

  5. Attend conferences

  6. Check with suppliers

  7. Hire your competition

  8. Study the jobs the competition is hiring

  9. Conduct a survey

  10. Call them

• How to Conduct Qualitative Market Research

• George Griffin, SBTDC/PTAC Counselor at A&T State University

Also See

• Comparison Shopping

• Customer Experience (the)

• UX Research