Small Business - How to Track Competition
To keep profits accruing and business flowing, it is vital to track and monitor competition constantly. A lack of awareness of competitors’ activities can cause a small business to flounder and lose out to competition. It is vital that you track competition to ensure your firm evolves with changing trends, technologies and business models that alter the sector. As a small business you can have a cutting edge by always maintaining a clear understanding of what your competitors are doing. You should keep track of what new products and services they are offering, who their clients are and how much they are charging for their services and products. If you are aware of what they are doing you can adjust your own business strategies, marketing and prices accordingly so as to always stay ahead of the curve. Here’s how:
The easiest way to keep track of competitors is to check their websites and social media sites on a regular basis. Check what new offerings they are promoting and how they are using social media to draw in clients. If your small business’s website is not up to the same standard and your service offering is not as attractive or state of the art, you may need to adjust accordingly. There are plenty of sneaky online tools to monitor your competitors’ online activities without much legwork on your part.
Another really easy way to track your competitors is to check out the reviews on the web. There are lots of review sites where you can gain insight into how your competitors are managing their client relationships and business development. See what clients are saying about your competitors. If there are common complaints, make sure your small business is not falling prey to the same problems and one-up your rivals by offering the value added that they do not have. If your competitors are getting compliments on something that your small business does not have, it is time to add the same spice to your sauce.
A great way of checking you are using the right keywords to attract clients for your small business, and not losing out to more attuned competitors is to use savvy, secret little tools like SpyFu and Alexa. These will help you by revealing the keywords that your competitors are employing for paid and organic search. Once you know these keywords you too can use them to draw in customers, and you can also verify any keywords that you are missing by checking regularly to see whether your competitors’ targeting changes and evolves with new trends.
You should monitor your competition’s prices, adverts and deals constantly. It is vital that your small business track these figures so as to ensure that your company offers competitive pricing. If you do not adjust your own prices and deals you might not realize that you are losing customers due to being perceived as overpriced. Conversely, perhaps you can ask clients for a bit more if you find your small business offerings are underpriced!
Intelligent Office offers modern business solutions that can help your small business compete with larger enterprises. Contact us today.
