5 ways to discover your business real competition online

It is an essential business strategy to identify your competition in business, analyze their strengths and weaknesses and then determine how your company measures up in comparison to them. However, many companies fall short in this first part of the strategy of identifying the right competition.

Experts from Best Seo Company In Dallas says that you could really hurt your business by spending a lot of money trying to beat out a business that isn’t even the good comparison to your business, so it's important to get the first step right before making any changes to your company to compete better. 

Here is a list of 5 ways suggested by Chicago SEO experts to determine your company’s true competition so that you can reduce the risk of failure later on in your marketing strategy.

#1. Understand competitors level and Where your company Fits in

Businesses generally fit into three categories regardless of what industry you are in. These categories are- direct, indirect, and substitute/alternative/new entrants. It’s important to understand the difference between the three and also exactly which category your competition fits into so you know where to target the majority of resources. 

Direct competitors are those who offer similar product or service as you. This is the area where you want to spend a lot of money and time researching. 

Indirect competitors offer products or service that differs substantially from your own. Yet you should not ignore them because an indirect competitor always has potential to turn into a direct competitor.

Alternative/Substitutive/New Entrants These type of businesses are those who offer the similar products as yours but in an alternate industry or different geographical location. They might not sell the same thing as you but offer same benefits.

#2. Is your competition public or private?

Companies that are publicly traded have to make their records public. For example, records or financial data. A simple online search will turn up this information if it’s available.

However, if your competitors are private companies, things can be little more difficult. You can still search online for their websites to gain valuable information, and while you are on the web look for any media coverage, industry publications, or marketing materials that might give you some insight into their successes and failures.

#3. Don’t forget about social media

This is an extremely rare for a company Not to use social media for marketing purposes. Whether its Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ or any other increasingly popular social media platform. So, chances are good that your competitor is out there, so use this advantage to get some key facts about those with whom you are competing. 

Determine which social platform they use and then monitor their activity consistently. Read their reviews and testimonials, receive their newsletter and even consider subscribing to their emails.

This ensures that you don't miss any major development that can potentially impact your business. 

#4. Take the advantage of Technology

There are websites available which provide you all the information, news, and updates about the topics in trend online. 

For example,Google Alerts is a website you can use to monitor the Internet for new content. Just type in the topic you’re interested in, create an alert, and you will be notified whenever something new pops up! As per your customized settings. For the business owners, you can set an alert for products similar to yours so you can stay up to date on what’s happening in the industry. 

Google Trends is a place you can go to see what topics, searches, and videos are trending online. You can see if your customers are searching for your business or someone else’s, thus you can identify your competitors. 

#5. When Nothing seems to work, simply ask your customers

If you are still not sure who are your competitors and not great with technology, simply ask your customers who else they buy products from. This is an extremely cheap way to obtain new information and if you are using it improve your business chances are there that your customers will be grateful and willing to provide the information. Make sure you make it known that you are interested so that you can enhance the potential of your company and improve customer experiences, not so that you can tear down someone else’s business.