Anyone who ever told you that practice makes perfect got it flat-out wrong. Practice makes permanent.
Think about it: if you started off doing something that was at best only moderately effective, you’ll likely get really, really good at doing it that way… to average results.
That’s why it can be important sometimes to take a step back and ask yourself if the way you’re operating could be improved with a fresh approach.
When it comes to your marketing, there’s certainly no reason you should be happy with ‘just okay’ results. Especially since social media makes it easier than ever for your brand to get its message out there, get involved in conversations, and build a buzz around its products and services.
Of course, this is also a double-edged sword, with every company under the sun trying it and creating an awful lot of marketing ‘white noise’ for consumers and B2B clients to wade through. On top of that, the fact that not all that many know how to it well – let alone in a way that’s consistent across their various channels – can leave a lot of would-be marketers trying things, getting nowhere, then scratching their heads about how to go about starting over.
That’s when a marketing and competitor analysis makes all the difference.
Here, we’ll explain what one is, what the different elements of it mean, and how we at One2create approach a marketing review and competitor marketing analysis for our clients.
Are a ‘marketing analysis’ and a ‘market analysis’ the same thing?
No – but we can see how it would be easy to mix them up!
For clarity, a market analysis is what a you would do if your brand wanted to fully understand the extend of an opportunity within your market for a product or service.
A marketing analysis on the other hand is where you step back from your day to day to take a long hard look at your current marketing approach and how well it’s working. It’s essentially a marketing review, designed to gauge the effectiveness of every touchpoint available to your customers and – arguably more importantly – your prospective customers.
How do you conduct a marketing review/marketing analysis?
There are a number of different aspects of a company’s marketing that should be looked at for a typical marketing analysis.
They are:
- Website
- Google Analytics
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Copy tone and layout
- Social media
- Paid social advertising
- Paid search advertising
- Press
- Online and offline marketing
- Newsletters and mailers.
Here at One2create, we take time to understand your business, what works, and where the areas for improvement lie.
Of course, it helps that our team has an extensive degree of specialist knowledge. For example, our design team are well versed in what makes a great website stand out from a badly put-together one, whether that be the flow of the design or the way the site is coded. Our SEO team can speak to how a brand could improve its visibility on search. And our paid search experts know full-well what to do when setting up an account to make the most of paid ads – and can soon spot if it’s not done to get optimum results.
Our copy team meanwhile will spend hours looking at every channel we can find –from your website to social pages to banner ads, flyers, catalogues and event stands – to understand the tone you use, the audience you’re aiming for, and the wording you select, before offering ways to make it all land the way you want it to.
What is a competitor analysis in marketing?
A competitor marketing analysis (sometimes called a ‘competitive market analysis’), functions a lot like marketing review mentioned above. The difference is, instead of looking inward at your own marketing approach, it shines the spotlight on some of your closest competitors.
The benefit of doing this is that you get to learn where your competitions are succeeding so you can take inspiration from it. And, often even more usefully, you get to learn what your competition isn’t doing so well so you can overtake them in whichever area poses the best opportunity. Indeed, an in-depth competitor marketing analysis can highlight where the gaps in the market are for a new touchpoint, campaign or messaging approach. Ideally, you’re looking for the understanding cleaned from your competitive market analysis to help you adopt your competitor’s strengths, while taking advantage of their weaknesses – and in doing so, allow you to find your own place alongside them in your specific marketplace.
How do you analyse competitors’ marketing?
If you’re stuck for how to conduct a competitor marketing analysis, this handy checklist from Hubspot can help you think about things from every angle:
- Decide who your most relevant competitors are
- Determine the products or services they offer
- Research your competitors’ sales approach and the results they’ve had
- Take note of their pricing, plus any perks they offer
- Consider their shipping costs and whether your operation is competitive with them
- Analyse your competitors’ marketing
- Study your competition’s content strategy.
- Discover what technology stack your competitors’ use
- Review how much engagement their content creates
- Observe how they promote marketing content
- Take time to understand their social media presence, strategies, and chosen platforms
- Perform a SWOT analysis to give you a greater insight into your competition’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Need help analysing yours and your competition’s marketing approach?
Putting together a deep-dive marketing review and competitor marketing analysis is a detailed and specialist piece of work. It requires insight from across the marketing and creative spectrum, and the final report can be a comprehensive document that often stretches to well past 10,000 words.
If you see the value in a marketing and competitor analysis for your brand but don’t feel equipped to perform one yourself, we can help.
Here at One2create we offer a combined competitor marketing analysis and brand marketing review entirely free of charge to prospective clients.
If you’d like to understand your market better and gain valuable insights into how you can make the most from your marketing mix, get in touch with us today.
Further Reading
