No Business is an Island

Analyze what your competition is doing, then do better.  Better still, do something different.

No business is an island, particularly in the transparent Internet environment. Knowing what the competition is doing and how you measure against it is the key to driving your business forward.

Accessing detailed information on how the competition is using the Internet will help a business know and better understand its online environment.  Most importantly, it will help focus your strategy by gaining thorough understanding of yourself and your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.  A competitive analysis will help you achieve all these and more.

What should you know?

1.  Who your competitors are. Identify the most dangerous, not the ones you know best or are closer.

2.   What is their positioning?

3.   What is their service offering?

4.  What are their online marketing tactics? Consider everything from website features, blog, Social Media presence and interaction, partnerships, online directories and communities etc. Look at where they are and what they do.  Analyze in depth, and note the results of every action.

Once you know all the above for the competition, you should have a very critical close look at your own efforts. Where do you stand?

• Is your website an effective lean, sleek, lead generation machine?
• Are you present in all channels your audience is?
• Do you have a proper conversation with your audience? Do you listen? Do they speak to you?
• How do you compare to your competitors?

And now the most difficult part starts.  You know what you do; you know what others do, what works and what does not. But you have to find what works best for you, what sets you apart.  Be inspired and motivated by others, but find your own way.

A business must know its competitors. The shop around the corner knows the others in the neighborhood, knows the whats , the whos and hows of their competition.  Your favorite restaurant in town knows what the one across the road does.  Microsoft always keeps an eye on Apple.

In the Internet age where your competition could be anywhere in the world and taking advantage of the global market and global community, can you afford not to?

Knowledge is power. Know, and your business will prosper.