First Step To Developing a Marketing Plan: Marketing Competitor Analysis
As you develop your marketing plan, it’s important to spend some time analyzing your competition. The Market Analysis will give you a better understanding of the playing field and help you develop strategies that will provide you with an advantage.
Use a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis to develop a marketing plan. The primary objective of a SWOT analysis is to help you develop a full awareness of all the factors involved in making a business decision and a great tool that will help you develop a solid market strategy.
There are a few key things to look at when you’re conducting a competitive analysis:
- Products and services: What do your competitors offer? How is it similar to or different from what you offer? This will help you develop your unique value proposition.
- Pricing: How do your prices compare to your competitor’s prices?
- Marketing: What marketing tactics are your competitors using? Are they effective?
- Strengths and weaknesses: What are your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses? How can you capitalize on their weaknesses and avoid their strengths?
By taking the time to understand your competition, you will be in a better position to develop effective marketing strategies that will help you achieve your business goals.
To get started with your competition analysis, consider these steps:
- Initiate an online search by using Google, Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo for the services and products you provide. Make a shortlist of your competitors on the front page of the SERP.
- Use this shortlist to check their Social Media accounts. Look closely at their websites to identify the products and services they offer and the prices they charge for those products and services.
- Read reviews of your competitor’s products or services to learn what their customers think about them. Pay close attention to feedback on pricing and customer service.
- Utilize tools such as SpyFu.com to gain insight into your competition’s SEO strengths and weaknesses, paid advertising, and their website’s top pages being visited. The top pages visited will give you insight into what visitors are looking for.
- List the backlinks of your competitor’s websites and other marketing channels.
By conducting a thorough competitive analysis of your competition and using the insights you gather, you can better develop your marketing plan. You’ll be able to develop strategies that set you apart from the competition and give your business a real edge.
Marketing Plan Target Audience Analysis
When you’re starting a business, it’s essential to take the time to identify your target market. This process can help you determine who your ideal customers are, their needs and wants, and how to reach them effectively.
There are a few different ways to go about researching your target audience. One way is to look at demographic data such as the census. This can help you get an idea of the size and scope of your potential market. In addition, we use Trends at Google to review patterns and trends by season and whether or not trends are up or down.
Social media is another excellent way to see what people are talking about and what kinds of products or services they’re interested in. You will also want to look at Google AdWords to see the volume of searches related to your business.
Conclusion of Research
Once you’ve gathered all of this information, you can start developing a marketing plan that will effectively reach your target market. Remember that your target market may change over time, so it’s essential to regularly review your research to make sure you’re still on track.
