These days, you’ve got to look beyond who ranks first or who shouts loudest. Smart competitor analysis shows you the rules of the category, the gaps nobody serves, and the language customers actually believe. Done well, it’ll sharpen up your tone of voice and tidy your brand messaging, both of which have a huge impact on your ROI.
How Do Your Competitors Speak?
Take a look at the different brands and the different pages on their site. Collect a small sample from their homepage, service page, pricing, whatever you think might be relevant, and figure out what their tone of voice is. Is it friendly? Formal? Punchy? Figure out what you do and don’t like, and decide where you stand on the tone of voice spectrum. Finding your identity in this way is a great way to create content that’s consistent and land a brand message that resonates.
What Do Customers Think?
This is a massive part of competitor analysis. Read public reviews for your brand as well as your competitors, and make a note of recurring phrases. Pinpoint exact problems, anxieties, and happy moments. Review mining helps to pull in real-world language that you can mirror in your copy, FAQs, and ads. It’s a fast route to higher relevance and conversion, and does wonders for your brand messaging.
Looking for a Competitor Analysis Health Check?
We’re a Hampshire marketing agency that’s on hand to help you figure out your tone of voice and brand messaging through in-depth competitor analysis. Get in touch to find out more.
Who Owns the Conversation?
What we mean by this is, where do your competitors and customers engage with each other? The answer is probably social media, but which platform? Is it one that you can outperform other businesses in, or do you think you can outflank them by shifting the discourse to a more engaging place that they’ve not clocked yet?
This helps you grab the share of voice that you deserve.
Share of voice is all about dominating the conversation in your market. If someone else is taking up all the bandwidth, then getting your brand messaging out there isn’t going to be easy. As we’ve mentioned, social media is huge here, but so is Pay Per Click, SEO, and a well-written website.
Run a Content Gap Analysis
This is where things get a little more techy. If you work with SEO experts, they can review your site to find out topics that your competitors rank for that you don’t. Armed with this info, you can prioritise gaps with buyer intent and realistic difficulty through focused pages that serve the searcher’s specific needs. As Sun Tzu (supposedly) said: fight the enemy where they are not.
Need Help Turning Your Insights Into Action?
Once your competitor analysis is complete, you need to be able to act on the findings. That’s where we can help. As a Hampshire-based marketing agency, our team at One2create can make sure you’re getting the exposure you deserve. We work with you to iron out the right tone of voice and amplify your brand messaging in a way that gives you a real ROI. Want to find out more? Get in touch with us today.
FAQs
Do I need expensive tools to get started?
Not really. Curiosity, a browser, and a notebook go a long way. Working with experts will give the best results, though.
What’s the quickest win from doing this?
There are loads, but number one is probably fresh ideas you’d never have thought of in your own bubble.
Can small businesses benefit as much as big brands?
Absolutely. The agility of a smaller business can actually make it way easier to put insights into action fast.
How do I know if I’m doing it right?
This can be tricky, and it’s why we advise getting in touch with us for bespoke advice.
Further Reading
How Killer Lead Generation Strategies Can Level Up Your Pipeline
Why Seeing is Believing in Multichannel Marketing
