Audience of competitors. Step-by-step instructions: how to do a competitor analysis? Segment based on data from external sources

15.04.2016 |

This material is a step-by-step guide to conducting online competitor analysis.

Depending on the goals and objectives of a particular study, you can limit yourself to individual objects (for example, study only the product range, only positioning) or conduct a comprehensive analysis of the competitive environment. Let's look at six basic steps that need to be followed when conducting such analytics.

Define the goals of competitor analysis

Of course, every company needs to monitor the competitive environment in which it operates. However, the purposes of monitoring are always different: determining pricing policy; development of positioning strategy, unique selling proposition (USP); selection of distribution channels; expansion of the product range, etc. For example, if the goal is to develop a USP, then you need to first study the USP and positioning of competitors, and not their advertising budgets (and vice versa).

Therefore, the first step is to determine a specific goal, so as not to overload yourself with unnecessary information in the future.

Identify competitors

Once the purpose of the analysis is formulated, it is necessary to select competitors based on different marketing characteristics. One of the most important is “target audience and its needs.” This characteristic is clarified based on the questions:

Are your products/services aimed at the same audience as this competitor's offerings?

Do the competitor's products/services solve the same needs that you solve?

Do members of your audience encounter the product/service of the competitor in question when searching for ways to satisfy their needs?

If the answer to all questions is “yes,” then the company is your competitor. It is important to know that products may be different from each other but solve similar needs, so you need to be careful at this stage.

Other criteria are also important (price/quality ratio, market share, product range, etc.), and there is nothing wrong if you analyze a competitor who is far ahead of you in all respects (that is, you choose not quite close). Such an audit will give you a lot useful information. The main thing is not to study those who are significantly behind you.

How to find competitors? Possible sources are listed below.

1. Internet search. You can enter the role of a consumer and search for products using thematic queries in the Yandex/Google search engines, as well as in Yandex.Direct and Google Adwords. Search several queries, select those competitors that appear repeatedly, and make a list.
2. Survey of sales managers. Ask managers what competitors they have heard of or encountered. Add the names of these companies to the list.
3. Interview with several representatives target audience. If possible, interview consumers who fit your target audience profile.
4. Industry ratings. Monitor the ratings, find market leaders, add them to the list.
5. Online services. The most convenient ones are similarweb.com, serpstat.com and spywords.ru. All services are paid, but free versions also allow you to identify similar competitors.

How to identify the strongest competitors?

As soon as you are ready full list companies, study their websites to identify those most worthy of analysis. After the initial selection, compare them using similarweb.comwith your site to determine how similar you are to each other and which of you is stronger.

Then analyze semantic core, visibility and traffic from each competitor's search. Just enter his domain into the service and study the summary report.

The Visibility parameter determines how strong the competitor is. That is, how many pages of his website (products) are in Google/Yandex. How more pages The site is in the top search engines, the higher the visibility. Be sure to thoroughly research the sites with the most visibility in your niche.

Don’t forget to download your competitor’s key phrases for which they rank in search and get customers to complement the semantics of your site.

Leave the TOP 5 - 10 competitors for analysis.

Define competitor analysis criteria

When a list of competitors has already been compiled, you need to determine the analysis criteria. We repeat: The criteria depend on the objectives of the study.

There are 2 types of criteria:

• conditionally quantitative,
• qualitative (we'll look at it in more detail later).

Start analysis (filling out tables)

Start analyzing each competitor based on each criterion. Add all information to the table “in real time”.

On at this stage You should end up with a table something like this:

1. Conditionally quantitative criteria/indicators. Here are the criteria that lend themselves to quantification(for example, on a 10-point scale). Such parameters may be: ease of ordering call back on the website, reflection of the company's positioning on home page , quality of service description etc. Fill out the table for all the criteria and give ratings (it is recommended to determine the significance of the criteria in advance), after which you will receive a rating that will show in what parameters the company lags behind its competitors, what needs to be improved and what qualities need to be emphasized.

1. Qualitative criteria/indicators. This part of the analysis is the most exciting. Here you need to study parameters that cannot be quantified, for example: brand packaging features, communication features, accentuated competitive advantages etc. IN in this case you will end up with a table something like this:

Compare the received data

After you have collected all the data and monitored your competitors according to the selected criteria, you need to correctly compare the received data. The more visual the infographic is, the easier it will be to make correct conclusions. The most common and convenient formats are presented below:

Radar chart

The first figure shows the frequency of mentioning a specific factor by competitors using a specific example (how many of the 8 competitors mention the characteristic in question).

A diagram like this is useful in at least two cases (for conditionally quantitative data):

1. to track the frequency of mention of certain properties by competitors,
2. to assess the severity of certain properties among competitors (comparison, second figure: here you can swap “properties” and “competitors” or add any other criteria).

Positioning map

Depending on the objectives of the study and the selected criteria, the map axes may differ. For example, you can build a map based on the price/quality ratio, competitors in terms of product cost and target audience (for adults and young people), as presented in the example of cosmetics, or based on other parameters. Such a visual form gives a clear idea of ​​the company’s position in the competitive environment.

Draw conclusions

Sometimes this is the most important stage analysis. Here, the data obtained is supported by knowledge in the field of classical marketing, experience, cases, general idea about the market situation. All this together makes it possible to correctly complete the analysis and achieve the goal.

After this, it remains to implement the already chosen strategy based on the conclusions from the analysis.

Related article:

Analyzing competitors is always useful, but most often in a comparative analysis I see a basic report on the age of the site, its TCI, the number of pages in the index, etc. There is little such information.

To optimize the pages of your site, it is not enough to simply write meta tags and headings; you need to analyze the TOPs. An analysis of competitors will tell you how you can improve your website and make it clear what your competitors have that keeps their websites in the TOP.
To conduct competitor analysis, you need to find them. How to do this, Evgeny Aralov wrote in his previous article: “”. Therefore, we will not repeat ourselves and will immediately move on to how to analyze competitors’ websites and why it is needed.

Basic competitor analysis

Typically this type of analysis includes:

• Checking the site registration date.
• Thematic Citation Index, also known as TCI.
• Number of pages in the index.

Basic analysis is convenient when you have little time to evaluate a site and need to quickly figure out which sites are currently in the TOP.

Based on the registration date, we find out the age of the sites in the TOP. If we have a young site, and in the TOP there are only “old people”, we will understand that the age of the site is not on our side. In such a situation, you need to carefully analyze your competitors in order to understand how to make your website better.

Based on the TCI, you can roughly determine the link profile of sites from the TOP: the higher the TCI, the better the link profile. However, now this figure is very approximate.

The number of pages will indicate the size of the site - in some topics, preference is given to large information resources.

Basic site analysis is ineffective, since the information obtained is very vague and approximate. It is only suitable for a quick inspection of competitors, but nothing more.

How to Conduct Basic Competitor Analysis

For basic analysis, you can use the free service CY-PR.com.

If there are many competing sites, you can use .

This service is convenient when you need to analyze large number sites. It is paid, the cost of checking is 0.025 rubles per site. As a result of the check, we get the following report:

Analysis of behavioral indicators

Most often, this type of analysis is needed when doubts arise about the behavioral indicators of your site.

It includes the following indicators:

• Total traffic for the month.
• Traffic per day.
• Time on site.
• Bounce rate.
• View depth.

By comparing the time on the site, we will see where visitors spend more time. If your competitors have a higher indicator, after analyzing them landing pages, we can understand how they retain users.

A large number of refusals may indicate that a person does not find necessary information and leaves. By analyzing competitors with low bounce rates, you can figure out how to improve your rate. It should be taken into account that the bounce rate is a very vague parameter and needs to be analyzed carefully. The best way to look at the long click rate is visitors who spent more than a minute on the site. Typically, there should be at least 10% of such visitors on the site. The site itself is also important, for example, a one-page site on Google will have a bounce rate of 100%. Therefore, if you see a high bounce rate on your website, do not panic, but start analyzing your competitors.

Browsing depth will show the number of pages that the user opened when visiting the site. If competitors have a higher indicator, perhaps they have better interlinking or blocks with links look more attractive, motivating the user to click on them.

Time spent on a site, bounce rate, and browsing depth are closely related to each other, and improving one metric can lead to improving the other.

Case Study

At the beginning of last year on one information portal the failure rate was about 70%. After conducting a similar analysis, it was discovered that many competitors with a low bounce rate in their articles used “infinite scrolling” - when you scroll further after reading an article, the next article is loaded. By introducing such functionality on our website, we have significantly reduced the bounce rate, and also increased the time on the site and the depth of browsing.

When analyzing the above indicators from competitors, it is convenient to immediately look at their traffic - this is checked with one tool.

By comparing competitors' traffic, we will understand who has more of it. In cases where your traffic is lower than that of your competitors, you need to analyze where they get it from - from what requests. We'll look at how to do this below.

About how to work with behavioral factors, you can read in our articles:

How to check the behavioral indicators of competitors

For this I use the SimilarWeb service.

It shows the number of visits per month (Total Visits), time on the site (Avg. Visit Duration), viewing depth (Page per Visit) and bounce rate (Bounce Rate). In addition to these indicators, you can use it to learn about a lot of others, for example, look at your competitors’ traffic sources. Overall this is a good and free service.

To view daily traffic, I use the RDS API application.

Analysis of competitors' key phrases

This type of analysis includes finding competitors' queries for which they receive traffic. Knowing what queries your competitors are promoting for, you can expand your semantics. Also, the semantics of competitors can suggest new directions for promotion, for which it will be possible to create new pages.

I recommend reading about how to further expand the semantic core in our article “”.

How to check promoted queries from competitors

From pure free services there is, mentioned in the basic competitor analysis, CY-PR.com. He shows search phrases, by which the site is visible, but there are few of them.

Link analysis of competitors

Basic link analysis usually includes:

• Number of referring domains.
• Total number of links.
• Link anchors.

If you need to study competitors in detail, I recommend reading the instructions “”.

First of all, link analysis of competitors is needed when promoting a website under Google. In Yandex, the effect of links is not so noticeable.

By comparing the link profile of your site with your competitors, you will roughly understand how many links you need to increase. By analyzing the links and their anchors in more detail, you will find out which links your competitors take and you will be able to create rough plan on building up the link mass.

By downloading competitors' links, you can find sites for placing links to your site. To do this, you need to find domains that host several competitors. Most likely, you will also be able to link to your site on these domains.

How to conduct basic link analysis

The most popular service for this is Ahrefs.

This service allows you to analyze the link mass of a site in detail.

You can also see link anchors there:

Using the service, you can study in detail the link profile of competitors, link growth, etc. The main disadvantage is its price. Basic tariff costs $82 per month.

If you need a basic competitor link analysis, you can use free analogue MegaIndex.

It will show basic information about the number of links, their growth and anchors.

In addition, it allows you to see what kind of links they are and their anchors. There is a possibility of export.

Tracking competitors' positions

You need to track your competitors' positions in order to understand what is happening in the search results.

Sometimes there are situations when a site suddenly loses positions. In a panic, we may start making unnecessary edits to pages, which will only make things worse. In such situations, it is best to monitor the positions of competitors. It may well be that their sites are also down, which means this is shaking the entire search results. If the drawdown affected only your site and several competitors, analyze which pages sank for them and for you. Try to find something in common. This will help you quickly understand what’s wrong with the site and return it to the TOP.

How to track competitors' positions

Everything is simple here: many people use services to track the positions of their website, and you can also track your competitors there. In my work I use SEOlib. It contains separate tab for competitor sites in the project:

This is convenient because I don’t need to create separate projects for competitors and I always have the opportunity to compare sites’ positions.

Site loading speed analysis

Website loading speed is one of the indicators by which a search engine will evaluate it. Loading speed also affects the behavioral indicators of the site. In cases where you are sure that your site is better than competitors, but it is not in the TOP, you should pay attention to the loading speed. Perhaps competitors' sites are better technically optimized and their pages load faster. Therefore, you need to ensure that your site loads at least no longer than your competitors, and better yet, faster.

How to check

The first service we need is WebPagetest.

In it you can see in detail how the site loads. This will help when finding errors.

It shows basic information about the site's loading speed.

You can also find options to improve loading speed here:

Website structure analysis

This analysis is needed to understand how to optimize a website, how to make it competitive, and what competitors have that you don’t.

For example, we have an online store and we don’t know whether to add text to product listing pages. In this case, you need to check the pages of competitors from the TOP. We checked, they don’t have the text. The question arises: how then to optimize the page to give it more relevance? Again, look at the pages from the TOP.

You need to compare absolutely everything that arouses interest on competitors’ pages: how their filter is structured, what anchors are used for product cards on listing pages, whether there are short descriptions; if this is an article - how it is formatted, etc. Then perhaps you will find a way to improve your site.

Example from practice. This is what part of the table looks like, according to which I compare the promoted site with competitors:

In the “Amount” field, I see how many competitors’ sites use the functionality I’m interested in; the last column is my site. This is only part of the table. Based on the results of this check, decisions were made to optimize pages, which bore fruit.

Therefore, try to compare everything as meticulously as possible.

How to check

You need to understand that all this is purely individual for each project. I check everything manually by making a table like this:

In the first column, I indicate the availability of the functionality I’m interested in, then I check whether competitors have it and see how it’s implemented in mine. The functionality of interest is selected individually for each site.

Results

Analysis of competitors' websites is useful, thanks to it we can always find out how else we can improve our website and prepare a plan for its optimization.

To conduct basic competitor analysis, use CY-PR.com, and SEOlib is more convenient for working with lists. To analyze the behavioral indicators of competitors, the similarweb.com service is suitable. If you need to understand why competitors have more traffic, analyze them keywords via spywords.ru, Serpstat or at least free CY-PR.com.

To evaluate the link profile of competitors, I recommend using ahrefs.com, and for basic link analysis, the free megaindex.ru is suitable. To better understand what's happening in the search results, track your competitors' positions. For this I use SEOlib, you can use any position reading service that is convenient for you.

Check the loading speed of your site and your competitors' sites using webpagetest.org and PageSpeed ​​Insights. Remember, the faster your site loads, the better.

When you need to make a decision on optimizing website pages, their design, and improving the website as a whole, do not be lazy to do a structured analysis of competitors in as much detail as possible.

If you are confused and don’t know how to develop your website, contact us. We will audit your website, compare it with competitors and prepare recommendations for its improvement.

Segment creation algorithm

2) Click the button to create a segment:

3) Select the data you want to use:

4) Fill in required fields in the dialog box - more on this later;

5) The service processes the request in 1.5-3 hours.

To customize the display of an ad in Direct, add an audience selection condition when creating or editing it. Select “Audience Segment” and a specific segment:

The purpose of advertisements is additional or repeat sales to loyal customers, special offers and discounts for those who have not purchased for a long time or have not completed their order on the site.

Use this option if you have target audience contacts (email, phone numbers or device IDs). They can be downloaded from CRM, email sender, etc.

Since Yandex does not check sources and even skips “left” databases, you can take data for parsing from anywhere.

Prepare the list in csv or txt format.

The file contains at least 1,000 records!

Please note that the old phone and email based segments are still available, but soon they will no longer be editable!

Fill in the name, add a file and agree to the rules:

When everything is ready, press the yellow button.

How do Audiences increase their reach significantly?

These are the same users from your file, only in different browsers, devices, mobile applications. Let's say you logged into Yandex from a tablet and a desktop. The service records 2 contacts.

You can expand your reach to include users with the same interests and online behavior as a separate segment of your target audience.

Use this button next to it:

Or follow the standard path:

In our test segment of 15,962 elements, the service collected a coverage of 600,000.

Tip: When selecting, choose accuracy over coverage. This way, the audience size is smaller, but there is a higher probability that these users are converted into clients.

By default, the distribution by city and device type is preserved. For example, if half of the users are Nokia owners, the rest are LG owners, the same will happen in the new segment.

Important! Look-alike technology can only be applied to segments that you create yourself.

A prerequisite is guest access to edit the counter.

You can create segments based on any parameters from Metrica: average bill, period of use of the product, target action.

Specify the name, counter and audience parameters:

Minimum coverage - 1,000 identifiers.

For users mobile application use the AppMetrica counter:

Segment based on geolocation

You can select users who:

• Are in a certain area now;
• Happen regularly;
• There were so many days during the last week, 1 or 3 months.

How to set up hyperlocal targeting? There are 2 options:

1) Circles

Choose how to add a location:

Attention! When you add a list, keep in mind that any previously added locations will be deleted.

You can increase the coverage radius to take into account the surrounding area:

Please note the frequency of visits:

Important! In the first option, the segment is determined based on data for the last 45 days.

For the third condition: several visits per day is one visit.

Limitation - no more than 1,000 seats per segment (for the “N days per period” condition - no more than 100).

It is not possible to configure multiple radii and visit settings for one segment.

2) Polygons

Polygon - new option settings for segments by geolocation. On the map you can select an area with any configuration, not just a circle.

To set it, mark at least 3 points. Each one forms a straight line with the previous one. To delete a point, double-click on it. To complete the construction, click on any point and click “Finish”.

Attention! The sides do not intersect. The maximum area is 10 km 2.

You can add no more than 10 polygons to a segment.

Available settings options:

• Regularly visits, lives or works;
• There were N days in the period.

The pixel code allows you to track who has seen your media banner on the Yandex network. I didn’t click, I just saw! It is enough to add it to this banner, and for the placement site to allow it.

Segment based on provider data (DMP - Data Management Platforms)

At your choice - data from world databases by age, gender, interests, etc. at different prices (CPM - cost per thousand impressions) and with different coverage. Some are free.

Detailed information about segments can be requested from providers.

For a segment of this type, you cannot view statistics, create a similar one, or give access to other users.

If the provider revokes access to the segment, you will see an "Error" status.

Examples of using Yandex.Audience

Segment based on downloaded data

Or even from VKontakte. Using a parser (for example, Target Hunter) you can collect phone numbers/emails of subscribers from a certain segment. For example, mothers of children under 3 years old to sell children's clothing.

Keep in mind that the data from VK will contain a significant amount of “garbage”. In the phone/email fields, netizens often write abracadabra or false numbers. However, it's worth a try.

The more specific your product, the more likely it is that people with similar interests will be interested in it.

Segment based on Metrics data

You can target users who have made purchases with large checks in the past, but have not visited an online store or launched an application for a long time.

Example: a reminder about the expiration of compulsory motor insurance for motorists or about maintenance for customers of dealership centers.

Segment based on geolocation

What is important to the audience? The closer, the better. This applies to hairdressers, cafes, fitness clubs, food delivery services, car washes, phone repair shops, etc.

Therefore, write this in your ad: we are nearby, just a few minutes away from you.

• Indicate the location in the title and text of the ad;
• Use geotargeting bid adjustments in search;
• Segment advertising campaigns by range;
• Combine neighboring addresses into one radius;
• Don't use radii that are too small;
• Separate mobile and desktop traffic.

More details about all the possibilities hyperlocal targeting- we told you how to set it up in Yandex, Google, VKontakte and Facebook.

Segment based on Yandex.Audience pixel

What to do with this audience?

1) Adjust search bids.

2) Launch retargeting - “catch up” in YAN with those who saw banners on the media network.

The resulting segment can be combined with others for more precise retargeting. Let's say we highlight users who have seen a media banner and often visit a certain area. Or they relate to a similar audience based on a specific characteristic (lifestyle, interests, profession).

The main thing is not to go too far: too narrow targeting does not bring tangible results.

Segment based on data from external sources

Where can you get data about your target audience if you have an offline business? Option 2:

• Private Yandex.Audience databases. The service has selections for any B2B topic.

Attention! Do not repeat this with your competitor base, as this, at a minimum, will not bring loyal responses, and at most, it will be illegal.

• “Buy” traffic from related resources. These could be MFA (made-for-adsense) sites, the purpose of which is to obtain search traffic for monetization via advertising blocks YAN or AdSense, forums or required sections news portals. Ask owners to create an audience from the traffic you target, depending on the segment's reach. They only benefit from this, since this is additional income.

Other features of the service

1) Degree of similarity between users

A segment in Audiences can be built based on the level of similarity between users. How similarly they behave online, both in comparison with the original segment and with each other. The greater the similarity, the better the look-alike technology will work on it.

Recommendation: Use look-alike to build an audience with clearly defined interests. Let's say you organize webinars for marketers. This public differs in its interests from all Runet users. But plastic windows Anyone can order, and creating a similar audience from this segment is pointless.

2) Polygons in hyperlocal targeting

The new option allows you to select residents of a specific block, visitors shopping center or stadium, students and at the same time exclude irrelevant territory. For example, the nearest highway or railway. And vice versa: if this is your target audience, you can include a certain section of the road in the segment.

We described how to build a polygon in the “Geolocation-based segment” section.

3) Pixel Audiences

It allows you to track not only those who clicked on the banner, but also those who simply saw it.

4) Graphs “Interests” and “Categories”

You will see how the interests of the audience in your segment differ from the interests of the average Runet user. 100% is the same as the “hospital average”, and 140% indicates increased interest.

High conversions to you!

Shares a list of sites that will help you get a report on the position of competitors on the Internet (and not only). Search, compare – and win!

Today there are a huge number of sites on the Internet: companies and specialists, online stores, portals, the most various services etc. An important step in resource development is competitor analysis. You need to be one step ahead or at least keep up. There are several simple and free ways, which we also use to develop Nethouse.

1. Study of Yandex and Google search results: Site-Auditor

The positions of competitors’ websites in the search results and the dynamics (history) of changes are most conveniently tracked in full free program Site-Auditor. By specifying the address of the resource you are interested in, in one click you receive all the key data on the site from search engines, incl. positions according to the generated list of requests (independently or through Wordstat.yandex.ru).

With its help, you can also conduct an express audit of a competitor’s website: find out how many pages are indexed, see what statistics systems are installed, TCI, PR and much more. Site-Auditor can also be used to check the SEO promotion of your website and to regularly monitor the dynamics of changes in positions.

2. Analysis of competitors in Yandex and Google search: Spywords

You can find out how your competitors are promoting their website using services such as Spywords.ru, Advse.ru, Advodka.ru, Adtrends.ru. Their functionality is not very different, so we will consider in detail only one of them - spywords.ru - it provides the most information and has a limited free version.

Using the service you can find out:

Dynamics of various indicators (number of requests, context budget, etc.) over time;

When analyzing, be careful: do not take statistical figures as absolute and exact values, since these data are calculated using a specific algorithm and errors are possible.

3. Traffic comparison: Similarweb

The service will help you compare traffic with competitors and find opportunities that you are not yet using in your business.

Here's what you can find out thanks to the service:

Traffic to the site for last month and traffic dynamics over the past 6 months;

Behavioral factors on the site: bounce rate, average time on the site, viewing depth;

Sources of traffic for the last 3 months: ratio of direct, search, etc.;

4. Studying trends: Google.com/trends and Wordstat.yandex.ru

Using the Google and Yandex Trends services, you can view the dynamics and history of queries in each country or around the world.

You can find out if your competitors are growing in popularity. To do this, look at the trends by searching for their names in Russian and English. If the scale on the graph grows, then, accordingly, the popularity of this brand among Internet users also grows. You can check the trend using the names of competitors both in Russia and around the world.

Competitor market analysis- a mandatory and indispensable first step in developing any marketing campaign. This business planning framework

This includes both a general study of activities and detailed check various areas, including prices, assortment, and Internet activities, much more. The success of future business activities and chosen strategies depends on the correct assessment of the information received.

The final product or service will become as competitive as possible, low operational risks will not cause trouble, and correct channels and implementation of communication is the key to acquiring an extensive network of partners and a base of regular customers.

The work consists of a number of stages, for which they are used various schemes and tools. An effective action plan is selected individually, taking into account the specifics of the enterprise, preferences and capabilities of the customer. It is important to clearly formulate a conscious goal, assess the boundaries of competition and select the optimal means to implement your plans. Only in this way will the result be high-quality, reliable and accurate.

When is competitor analysis necessary?

The modern market is characterized by oversupply in most industries. More and more organizations offer similar products and services. That is why it is important to stand out from similar analogues. Competitive analysis can become a powerful tool in the fight for the attention of the target audience. Based on the results, you can choose a scheme for future self-presentation and positioning yourself in the market. This is an excellent source of ideas and relevant information that will help you find strengths, weaknesses and original features. At the same time, this leads to a reduction in risks for the company. A unique selling proposition is always the result of comprehensive analysis and processing of collected data.

Competitive analysis can be carried out in detail or partially, in the case of solving short-term problems. Among the situations in which you should immediately contact specialists:

• Development marketing strategy, product promotion scheme.
• Development of product policy, creation of assortment.
• Development of a separate product, its key characteristics and properties.
• Forecasting plan.
• Formation of pricing policy.

Analysis results

Timely comparative analysis competitors allows you to constantly keep your finger on the pulse and have information. Of course, to cover such a voluminous information field on our own almost impossible. For this purpose there are specialized companies and corresponding software, adapted for specific tasks. Of course, each company can create its own analytics and marketing department, but in practice such a solution is feasible and available only to the largest market players. At other times it is better to use alternative methods and resources.

Among the main advantages that it provides competitor checking service:

• Relevance.

The reliability and timeliness of all data allows you to objectively assess the market situation, your position, prospects and predict material costs.

• Completeness.

A complete data package allows you to form not only an objective, but also a comprehensive picture that will cover all areas of competitors’ activities. You cannot neglect the little things, because further success may depend on them.

Competitive Analysis Framework

• Determination of growth rates and market volumes.
• Determining the profitability of the chosen niche and the ease of entry into it.
• Identification of leading enterprises.
• Identifying the main characteristics of leaders.
• Calculation of competitive prospects.

A separate aspect of the analysis is working with the target audience, its needs, requests and current trends. Based on the data obtained, a further strategy is planned and suitable tools promotion.

The last component is research into the Internet segment of the chosen area. This is an estimate virtual instruments competitors, their activity in social networks and on the Internet, viewing search engine results, compiling a list of the main promoted queries, studying the effectiveness of various advertising platforms.

The audit results include indicators of both the macro and micro environment of the company, due to which the practical usefulness of such information increases significantly.

Step by step analysis

Before carrying out any manipulations, it is worth understanding their essence. The stages that make up competitor market check, may vary depending on the specifics of a particular project. But understanding the basic steps will allow you to navigate and clearly imagine what procedures will need to be carried out.

1. Preparation

   Before starting a competitor analysis, these competitors need to be identified. For this purpose, the geography of the market is determined: city, regional, state, district or other, depending on the scale of the enterprise and the distribution of the target audience. Based on this data, you can create a list of competing businesses adjacent to the same location.

2. First step. Systematization.

   The resulting list must be systematized, identifying those companies that can really influence the success of a business by luring away customers. The so-called indirect competitors, whose field of activity is related, are considered separately.

Both lists collect basic information, which includes:

• The range and quality of goods or services.
• Location of the company and representative offices, contacts, management.
• Availability additional services, quality of service.
• Pricing.
• Advertising campaign.
• Potential and prospects.

If possible, it is better to immediately assess the quantitative level of sales of a competitor and other available nuances.

1. Second step. Intensity.

   Competition in any industry can be weak or intense. It depends on many factors and circumstances. A market with weak competition is quite static; it rarely undergoes changes and for a long time remains stable.

   Otherwise, the conditions of coexistence can change almost constantly, at any time. It is important to always receive on time up-to-date information and promptly respond to it by taking decisive action.

   It is necessary to clearly understand the number of competitors, the level of their activity, the frequency of changes, as well as the quantity and quality of advertising in all forms and manifestations.

2. Third step. Competitor profile.

   If all necessary information, you can proceed to creating a competitor profile. To do this, it is important to carefully study the product portfolio, services offered, key positions, price lists and other tricks that ensure a high share of sales.

3. Fourth step. Anchor products

   Anchor products or services are what the company relies on. They are the ones who receive increased attention, and often they become a characteristic, recognizable feature. The more such features an enterprise has, the higher its competitiveness characteristics.

4. Fifth step. Cost analytics.

Valuation allows you to identify a specific segment that the company occupies. Usually this is:

• Economy;
• Average;
• Average plus;
• High;
• Premium

This can help competitor website analysis, studying the range of representative offices and outlets, becoming familiar with other features.

1. Sixth step. Market positions.

It is important to see a competitor through the eyes of the consumer, which is where surveys, forums, reviews and opinions are a great help. It is worth paying attention to several points:

• Competitor's fame.
• The message he carries.
• Qualitative characteristics from the consumer.
• Price characteristics from the consumer.
• Reasons why a consumer turns to a competitor.
• Frequency of consumers turning to a competitor.

1. Seventh step. Advertising and promotion.

   It is necessary to clearly understand how exactly the competitor attracts customers, why it is carried out competitor advertising analysis. It is necessary to find out where and in what form the consumer receives an incentive to purchase, which becomes the decisive argument in favor of a particular product or service.

2. Eighth step. Consumer portrait.

   Based on information about the target audience, it is possible to create a consumer portrait that takes into account the main characteristics of the audience: age, gender, family presence and composition, profitability, field of activity, psychographic characteristics, product selection criteria. This will help determine demand in order to competently plan your own marketing campaign in the future.

3. Ninth step. Manufacturability.

   It is important to evaluate not only the position and success of a competitor, but also what resources it has, including turnover, funding reserves, working conditions for employees, and other indicators that can be determined.

4. Final analytics.

   All available results from the previous steps are summarized in a general report that describes all the features, advantages, disadvantages and characteristics of competitors. Based on such a report, specialists can give effective recommendations By further development business.

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Competitors website analysis

Given its importance and continued relevance, work on studying competitors' websites can be separated into a separate direction, requiring increased attention. Creating an effective and successful website does not have a universal scheme, but is calculated individually. To form an idea of ​​the characteristics of a particular industry within the Internet space, you can conduct comparative analytics, which involves a thorough study and evaluation of sites from the top search engine results. This will help track current trends, notice useful tricks and avoid typical mistakes. Qualified specialists can easily handle such work. In addition, you can use a professional competitor analysis service, which is useful tool to collect information.

The comparative analysis is also carried out in several stages.

1. Rating your site

   You need to make the most independent, objective and even meticulous assessment of your own website, making lists of advantages, disadvantages, tools used, available opportunities and other details, down to the smallest detail.

2. Selection of competitors

   First, sites from the search results search engine must be divided into commercial and non-commercial. This will allow you to immediately filter out articles reference materials, bulletin boards, review sites and other portals that do not have a specific focus. Of course, when planning the promotion of a non-profit website, the results are filtered out exactly the opposite.

   When promoting a specific company, it is better to limit the verification to a certain region within which the main activity will unfold. Separately, it is necessary to consider the portals of leading enterprises in large cities, for example the capital.

   Of course, it is better to choose competitor sites by high frequency queries. This will significantly expand the sample and allow for better coverage of the area.

3. Checking competitors' websites

   Analytics of competing sites is carried out according to the same scheme as working with your own resource. It is necessary to take into account all the little things and subtle nuances.

4. Coincidences

   All matching points between your site and competitors’ sites can be immediately discarded, leaving a clear and limited list differences and characteristic features.

5. Priorities

   The remaining list should be prioritized. For example, the more often a certain feature is found among competitors, the more important it is to implement it yourself. Among such features are a calculation calculator, a video about the company, a list of additional services, a platform for communicating with clients, detailed information about the company, placement of certificates and other regalia, and much more, depending on the field of activity and the assigned tasks.

A thorough analysis will help to obtain a clear sequence of actions for improvement and, as well as for further planning of the company's activities.