Competitive Intelligence

 Only Then Can You Beat ‘Em 

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 Competitive intelligence is very much about knowing what you’re up against . . . if one of your competitors is regularly beating you to the spoils then you need to know why. What are they doing differently to you? How come they’re getting the lions share of the market? If even after you’ve analyzed their website and products on offer you can’t figure out what they’re doing, then you need to analyze every single part of their company individually to “spot the differences”. Now that’s what I call competitive intelligence.

Once you know the strengths of your competitors, on the flip side you’ll also be able to pinpoint their weaknesses . . . then you will be in the position to exploit them and hopefully tip the scales in your favor.

The four things which you need to really check out are;

• site structure – okay, you’ve had a look at their website and it appears to be similar to yours, nothing really special . . . but you need to go deeper than that.
• Keyword research.
• Link building and backlinking – yes, you know they’ve got them, but so have you . . . dig deeper.
• Social media presence – does that really make such a difference? YES. Check out their presence and then refer back to your own.

Once you really organize your competitive intelligence and plan what you’re gonna’ analyze and how, you might be able to start answering some of your own questions! Remember, information is power but your competitive intelligence needs to be organized in order to be most effective.