It is essential to focus on companies in its market, direct and indirect competitors, and to analyze their actions. The day before competition allows to remain competitive and productive. What information is useful and where to collect the information?
Where can I find the information?
To find relevant information about your competition, it is important to know where to look. 2 types of research exist: internal and external. Let’s discover them together.
Internal research
First, an internal search will invite you to focus on:
- The company’s website
- Its audience (positioning, site audience / per page, etc.)
- Its tree structure and all technical support linked to the site
- Conduct a study of requests without follow-up / abandonment of baskets
Your internal watch must be rigorous and precise. Do not miss any information, it could be useful in your analysis.
External research
Secondly, do an external research to know about:
- Specialized presses according to the company’s business sector
- Business searches engines
- Domain names ( who.is )
- Blog directories (directory-blogs)
- RSS feeds from various professional blogs or specific themes
- The National Institute of Industrial Property ( INPI ) offers competitive intelligence services
- The social networks
What information is useful?
Once you know where to find your competitive intelligence information, you need to focus on the useful and relevant information to keep! So what are they?
The market
Discover the market in which your competitor is established. Who are its direct, indirect and new competitors? Has the company in question been the subject of an alliance? From a buyout?
Also write down all the information you will find on:
- New regulations,
- Customer type,
- Distribution channel,
- Geographical area.
Offers / services
Then learn to discover the offers and services of your competitor. The list below will help you focus on the relevant information:
- Novelty,
- Price,
- Promotions,
- Distribution times,
- Supplier prices,
- Patents.
Their modes of communication
The way your competitor communicates is also interesting for you. Discover its online and offline communication and observe how it works!
Financial data
Finally, get financial information about your competitor.
What tools to integrate into its competitive intelligence?
Many tools exist, free or paid, to help you in your competitive intelligence. Here are 5.
PAARLY
Paarly is a paid tool (145 € / month) which allows to know the price positioning of competitors in the market.
Mention
Mention is a paid tool ( $25 / month) which analyzes in real time all the quotes published on the web, mentioning the competitors.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a service that notifies you when a website matching the keywords you have selected appears in Google results. This tool is completely free!
Similarweb
SimilarWeb is a tool that gives you the information you need for effective competitive intelligence, with the ultimate goal of dominating your market.
A free version is offered to you alongside a paid “Business” version, where you will be invited to a client meeting to discuss your needs.
Feedly
Feedly is a paid online RSS feed aggregator ($ 8.25 / month on average) allowing you to subscribe to a service in order to receive new content from selected sites and read them as soon as they are published for competitive intelligence. most effective.
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