As a small business owner, it's important to understand your place in the market. Conducting a competitive market analysis is one way to gain insights into your competition and help you hone your marketing strategy. In this blog post, we'll share how to do a competitive market analysis, what free tools you can use, and what insights you can gain from the process. Stay ahead of the competition by understanding your customers and what they want!

Define what a "competitive market analysis" is: 

A competitive market analysis (CMA) is an important tool for business owners to use in order to gain insight into the competition within their market. With a CMA, companies can identify how they stack up against competitors and see how different tactics can be used to enhance business operations, such as marketing campaigns, brand development and more. Through consistent research, local businesses can stay at the forefront of competition and keep a better understanding of their own market share compared to big brother competition. Taking advantage of an ongoing CMA will provide businesses with a valuable collection of data to help improve their growth potential and profitability.

Why you should do one for your business:

Running a business is more competitive than ever with more small businesses sprouting up every day. If you're wanting to expand and take over more of the market, it's more essential now than ever to do one for your business. Doing one can lead to more customers, more opportunities, and more money in the long run. With more money coming in, you'll be able to hire additional staff, add new services or products, and better take advantage of upcoming marketing opportunities – all of which can help you reach heights you never thought were possible.

How to use free online tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Google Trends to do your research:

Staying up to date with the latest trends and keyword research is essential for the success of any digital campaign, and luckily there are tools such as Spyfu, SEMrush and Moz that are available online to help. All of these tools have free trials but some require you to upgrade to paid plans in order to access all their features. Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Google Trends are two free online programs that can help with research needs. Not only do they feature basic analytics which can you provide valuable insight into customer preferences, but more complex insights such as audience size, keyword popularity and competitive analysis can also be accessed through these platforms. Cost-conscious business owners should take advantage of these free programs to create successful marketing campaigns without spending a fortune.

What other factors you should consider when analyzing your competition: 

When evaluating your competition, it is important to also consider their target market, monetization strategy, and core competencies. The target market of your competition will help you discern who they are positioning themselves to attract and how they are allocating their resources. Additionally, understanding their monetization strategy will aid in discerning how efficient their business model is and if it has potential for scaling in the future. Investigating what their core competencies are will provide insight on their progress and the advantages they can bring to the table. Knowing this information is invaluable when attempting to compete with a rival, as it helps create strategies that go beyond just pricing and product offerings.

How to use your findings to improve your own business strategy:

After conducting a thorough analysis of the market, it is important to take action in order to gain a competitive advantage. Using your findings, create an effective business strategy that accounts for your target market, goals and resources. Begin by defining what kind of business you are running and your long-term objectives. From there, you can tailor your operations for success by focusing on areas where you can outperform the competition or develop unique advantages or products. Furthermore, staying up-to-date on emerging trends in the industry and actively engaging with customers will help inform your decisions and refine strategy as needed. Taking responsibly for benchmarking performance metrics along the way will help ensure improvement is being made towards reaching the desired outcome.

Tips for keeping up with changes in the competitive landscape over time:

Staying on top of fast-paced changes in the competitive landscape requires proactive, consistent effort. Keeping up can be made easier by dedicating yourself to staying informed—make a proactive commitment to regularly read business news and industry reports. It’s also important to utilize networks, such as joining industry associations, attending conferences, and leveraging LinkedIn or other business networking sites when possible. Finally, it helps to track historical trends and take them into consideration so that you can properly anticipate what’s coming next. Being informed when it comes to changes in the competitive landscape takes focus and dedication, but it is well worth the effort.

Conclusion:

Now that you know how to conduct a competitive market analysis, you can use this information to improve your own business strategy. Remember to consider all of the factors we discussed and use free online tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Google Trends to do your research. With the right amount of focus and dedication, you can keep up with changes in the competitive landscape over time and make adjustments to your own business strategy as needed. These are services that we offer at DFM! If you want help conducting a competitive market analysis or making adjustments to your business strategy, we are here for you: info@dataforagemarketing.com