The Importance of Competitor Research

I'm going to nerd out for a second and tell you that I absolutely love competitor research. It gets my creative juices flowing and mental wheels turning. In fact, I love it so much that I kick off every single one of my business growth programs with a competitor assessment. 

Some of my most successful clients eye roll 🙄 at the idea of a competitor assessment and say to me "Jasz, we don't have any competitors." To that, I say, well done! If you think you don't have any competitors, that probably means that you have found a unique niche and serve an audience in a way that nobody else does. Huge win! 

...but you do have competitors.

You see, I split competitors up into three different categories:

1. True competitors - These are the companies that you'd traditionally think of as competitors. They do pretty much exactly what you do, they serve a similar audience, and are often a similar size. Wendy's and McDonald's are true competitors.
   
   
2. Digital competitors - These companies offer a different product or service but compete for the same eyeballs and attention spans. In marketing lingo, they optimize for the same SEO keywords as you and often create content around the same topics. For me, HubSpot is a digital competitor. While I do not compete with HubSpot for clients, they often push out similar marketing and sales tips to their audience. 
   
   
3. Industry giants - These companies are what you aspire to be. They are [sometimes] massive and do so many things that you hope to achieve one day. They have huge clients, put out amazing thought leadership content, and have thousands of LinkedIn followers. In reality, you're not competing with them for clients, but you do play in the same marketplace. 

Now that we have aligned on the fact that everyone has competitors, let's talk about what you should be doing with them.

Open up a new browser window right now and do four things:

• Sign up for their emails 
• Add their webinars to your calendar
• Connect with their founder on LinkedIn 
• Download every single offer on their website 

I want you to be an absolute creeper. You need every single piece of content they have in your inbox.

From there, block out some time every week to do competitor research. Don't worry, this doesn't need to cut into your precious work hours. Honestly, I don't even need you to be fully present while you do it.

Read their content while you brush your teeth, play their webinars in your AirPods while you clean the kitchen, scroll through their founder's posts while waiting in the school pick-up line.

The big goal is just to be informed and inspired. When you know what your competitors are doing, you have the power to create content that rivals theirs and positions you as the true and absolute winner of the marketplace. 

After you peek through your competitors' digital presence, reply to this email and let me know how it went!

Did you feel like a weird creeper? Did you find anything earth-shattering? Are you inspired to start your own email newsletter because theirs was so freakin' good?