How to Keep Tabs on the Competition: 10 Strategies for Effective Competitor Monitoring
As a business owner or marketer, you know you don‘t operate in a vacuum. No matter what industry you‘re in, you likely have at least a handful (and potentially dozens or even hundreds) of competitors vying for the same customers, keywords, and market share. To stay ahead in today‘s hyper-competitive business landscape, you need to have a finger on the pulse of what your rivals are doing.
Monitoring the competition closely allows you to:
- Benchmark your performance
- Spot emerging threats
- Identify untapped opportunities
- Anticipate shifts in the market
- Gain inspiration for your own marketing and product development
But with so many moving pieces, how do you effectively keep tabs on the competition? Here are 10 proven strategies, along with some tools and best practices, for monitoring your competitors like a pro.
- Track competitors‘ websites
Your competitors‘ websites are a treasure trove of intel. Make it a habit to regularly visit their sites and note any changes or new additions. Some key things to monitor:
- New products or services
- Changes in messaging or positioning
- Pricing updates
- New content like blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, etc.
- New features or functionality
- Design updates
Beyond manual checks, there are tools that can help automate website monitoring:
- Visualping: Monitors websites and alerts you to any visual changes, so you don‘t have to constantly check manually.
- Versionista: Tracks changes in website content over time.
- Wachete: Monitors entire websites or specific pages and notifies you of changes via Slack or email.
- Monitor social media activity
Social media is another window into your competitors‘ world. Follow their accounts and monitor their activity across key platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Pay attention to:
- Frequency and timing of posts
- Types of content being shared
- Engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares)
- Sentiment of comments
- Influencers and accounts they interact with
- New social features they adopt (like Instagram Reels)
Social media monitoring tools can help you track competitor activity more efficiently:
- Hootsuite: Monitor competitor profiles and keywords across platforms from a single dashboard.
- Sprout Social: Provides competitive analysis reports and benchmark against industry averages.
- BuzzSumo: Identify competitors‘ top performing content across social channels.
- Set up alerts
Instead of manually checking for new competitor content or press coverage, let Google Alerts do the work for you. Set up alerts for your competitors‘ brand names, key executives, and relevant keywords. Any time new content is indexed by Google containing those terms, you‘ll get an email notification.
You can also set up custom search engines in Google to search a specific set of competitor websites. Anytime you search a keyword in your CSE, it will return matching results only from those sites.
- Analyze digital advertising
Analyzing your competitors‘ digital ads can yield insights into their audiences, funnel, and go-to-market approach. Look at:
- Ad copy and messaging
- Visuals and creative
- Landing pages and offers
- Estimated spend and impressions
- Target keywords and placements
Tools for ad monitoring:
- SEMrush: Provides data on competitors‘ paid search and display ads.
- SpyFu: Allows you to download competitors‘ PPC ads and see which ones have been running the longest (implying strong performance).
- Facebook Ad Library: Shows you all the active ads a company is running across Facebook‘s properties.
- Track customer reviews
Reviews and customer feedback can tell you a lot about a competitor‘s strengths and weaknesses. Monitor sites relevant to your industry, such as:
- Google My Business
- Yelp
- G2 Crowd (for SaaS)
- Amazon (for ecommerce)
- TripAdvisor (for hospitality)
- Glassdoor (for employee reviews)
Look at the star ratings, but also read the actual text of reviews. Note common praises and complaints. Track the overall trends and how the company responds to feedback.
- Attend industry events
Tradeshows, conferences, and other industry events provide a chance to see your competitors in action. Attend sessions they lead, visit their booth, chat with their sales reps, and grab their collateral and swag. You‘ll get a sense of their key messaging, target audience, and overall market presence.
Most events publish lists of sponsors, exhibitors, and speakers in advance. Scan those to prioritize which competitors to focus on and plan your itinerary accordingly.
- Monitor job listings
Your competitors‘ job postings can reveal a lot about their internal priorities and plans. For example:
- Numerous engineering and product openings could signal a big product launch.
- A new executive role, like a Chief Customer Officer, may indicate a renewed focus on service and retention.
- Open sales positions in a new geography likely mean they are expanding to that market.
Beyond the job titles, read the actual descriptions. The responsibilities and qualifications can offer clues into their strategy, technology stack, and culture.
Set up job alerts on LinkedIn and Indeed for your competitors‘ companies. For smaller rivals, monitor their careers page manually or see if they have a separate job site.
- Purchase their products
There‘s no better way to assess the competition than to experience their products and services firsthand. Buy what they sell and put it through its paces. Evaluate:
- First impressions and unboxing experience
- User experience and ease of use
- Quality and durability
- Key features and functionality
- How it compares to your offering
If you can‘t afford to make a purchase, see if they offer a free trial or demo. Some companies have user manuals and product docs available for free on their site or help center.
- Conduct mystery shopping
Experiencing your competitors‘ products is one thing; assessing their sales process is another. To get a full picture of the customer experience, engage in some light mystery shopping. Pose as a potential customer and go through the buying journey, paying attention to:
- How quickly they respond to inquiries
- Types of questions they ask to qualify you
- Overall tone and approach (consultative vs. pushy)
- Quality and customize of the demo or sales pitch
- How long the sales cycle takes
- Whether they offer any incentives or discounts
Keep detailed notes and compare the experience across competitors. See how it stacks up against your own sales process. Share key takeaways with your sales and customer support teams.
- Ask your customers
Your current customers are a valuable source of competitive intelligence, especially if they‘ve used multiple solutions in your space. Consider sending a survey or scheduling interviews to ask questions like:
- How does our product compare to [Competitor X]?
- Why did you choose us over other options?
- In what areas do competitors outperform us?
- How likely are you to recommend us vs. a competitor?
You can also learn a lot from the customers you lose to competitors. In your exit survey or offboarding process, ask which competitor they‘re switching to and why. It may sting to hear, but it can highlight areas for improvement.
Establishing a competitive intelligence process
Competitive monitoring shouldn‘t be a one-off project. To get the most value, establish an ongoing process for gathering, analyzing, and acting on competitive insights:
- Identify top competitors to monitor
- Delegate monitoring tasks across team members
- Organize insights in a central repository
- Schedule regular meetings to review and discuss findings
- Distill insights into action items
- Adjust your strategy and tactics based on learnings
It‘s also important to benchmark your performance relative to competitors on key metrics like:
- Market share
- SOV (share of voice)
- Net Promoter Score
- CSAT (customer satisfaction) score
- Customer churn rate
- Employee turnover rate
Monitor these over time and note how you‘re trending relative to rivals. It will make the impact of your competitive intelligence work tangible.
Tools to streamline competitive monitoring
Many of the strategies above can be enhanced or automated using tools designed for competitor tracking and analysis. Some top picks:
- Crayon: Offers real-time alerts tracking over 100 types of competitive data points.
- Klue: Automated competitor monitoring and curated insights delivered in newsletters and battlecards.
- Kompyte: Tracks competitors across many digital channels with reporting and alerts.
- Rival IQ: Provides analysis and benchmarks of social media performance relative to competitors.
- Owler: Crowdsources competitive insights from a community of business professionals.
- Moz: Identify and track SEO keyword rankings and link profiles compared to competitors.
While these tools can save time, they don‘t replace human analysis and strategic thinking. Use them to enhance, not replace, your competitive intelligence work.
Going beyond direct competitors
Monitoring your head-to-head competitors is important. But today‘s most disruptive threats often come from outside of your industry. Think about:
- Substitute products and services that solve the same problem in a different way
- Potential market entrants from adjacent industries
- Startup disruptors targeting your customers with a new model
Set up alerts for key topics, trends, and themes relevant to your space to stay on top of emerging competitive forces. Note that these disruptive threats can also present opportunities for proactive partnerships.
SWOT analysis of the competitive landscape
Once you‘ve compiled competitive intelligence, a classic SWOT analysis is a useful way to process it strategically. Analyze:
- Strengths: What key advantages do you have compared to competitors? A superior product? Better customer service? Unique partnerships?
- Weaknesses: Where do you fall short compared to competitors? Higher prices? Lack of features? Limited geographic reach?
- Opportunities: What untapped openings exist in the competitive landscape? An underserved niche? An emerging channel? A struggling competitor ripe for conquest?
- Threats: What competitive risks do you face? A major competitor entering your market? A key rival lowering prices? New regulations that could disrupt your model?
Conduct a SWOT on your own company as well as each major competitor. Then compare the results side-by-side to spot areas of differentiation and vulnerability.
Converting competitive insights into action
Competitive intelligence is only useful if you act on it. Take the insights you gather and translate them into tangible strategies and tactics. For example:
- Insights from mystery shopping and customer research could inform improvements to your sales process and customer experience.
- An analysis of competitors‘ content marketing could highlight topics and formats to experiment with.
- Monitoring disruptive startups could inspire ideas for new features and product lines.
- Analyzing competitors‘ keyword strategy and ad creative could optimize your own search marketing campaigns.
To make your competitive monitoring work actionable:
- Share insights broadly with key teams and stakeholders
- Articulate clear takeaways and implications
- Brainstorm potential action items for each insight
- Prioritize actions based on feasibility and impact
- Assign clear owners and deadlines to each action
- Review progress regularly and adjust course as needed
Legal and ethics considerations
When conducting competitive research, be careful not to cross any lines. Some general guidelines:
- Never misrepresent yourself or your company to gain information
- Don‘t ask people with confidentiality obligations (like a competitor‘s employees) to violate them
- Only access publicly available information – don‘t hack or steal anything
- Comply with terms of service when using monitoring tools or mystery shopping
- Double check that any purchased competitive analysis was compiled legally
- Instruct employees, contractors, and vendors to follow ethical practices
- When in doubt, consult your legal counsel
Keeping tabs on industry peers can get intense. But don‘t let the competition become all-consuming. Obsessing over what others are doing can distract from your own priorities. And a combative, win-at-all-costs mentality rarely ends well. Focus on competing with yourself by continuously improving your own products, marketing, and customer experience. The ultimate goal is to differentiate your brand, not to crush others.
Your competitive advantage lies in something rivals can‘t easily copy: your unique blend of people, culture, expertise, and vision. Monitoring the competition should ultimately be in service of honing your own identity and carving out your place in the market.