The Truth About Your Competitors
This post is not like all the others.
Think of this post as some kind of manifesto.
A way for us to speak our truth - explain, highlight and share why we've created this blog in the first place.
Yes, it's about tracking your competitors, of course.
But why?
What should be your goal?
Shouldn't you just ignore them?
Ignore your competitors, not the market
For years, I've thought ignoring competition is best.
And, in a sense, it is: you shouldn't, in a day to day basis, react to every single thing your competitors are doing.
That's a recipe for failure: if you do so, you'll never have a strategic vision in place and you'll only lay down tactics that will probably fail... because after all, your competitors are not playing the same game as you do, and they might take bad decisions too.
And if you take your decisions based on the wrong decisions your competitors are making... Well, you're making extra-bad decisions.
However, here's the thing: you should understand your market.
You should know what's happening.
You should understand what's shaping your market, what your competitors might be seeing, and why they might react a certain way.
Here's one truth: this is a long term game.
Understanding what your competitors are doing is not a day's work.
It's weeks, months, years of seeing them evolving, trying different promotions, funnels, positioning, value propositions, etc.
If you track them over the long term, you'll know where they coming from, and then you might understand why they're reacting a certain way when the market's changing.
That will give you power.
Knowledge is Power
If you try to stay on top of everything, you won't understand anything.
Understand your competitors moves is one of the best strengths you can have, because you'll have:
• A better outlook of your market, understanding the decisions you should take, and you'll be able to better figure out which are the right decisions to make.
• An infinite pool of ideas on how to make your company better.
And that's un-valuable.
You're in a position to grow your company in many different ways, without being distracted by the market - but instead, being able to use every piece of information the market is sending you to go in the right direction.
That's why Knowledge is Power.
We live in a world of uncertainty.
Especially as marketers, we all have this sentiment:
Work's done. I've no clue if it's going to work. Let's see.
It's the life we chose :)
As marketers, our goal is trying to figure out ways to shape our market and lead our businesses in the right direction - without being to understand all parameters we're evolving in.
And that's ok.
But understanding your market, and having more marketing data about your competitors is a way to back your marketing decisions with more certainty.
How to do this correctly?
Consistency is key.
Don't try, every single quarter for instance, to spend a few hours to figure out "what they're up to".
That's not how it works.
You should set up a system to consistently collect market data, document your competitors' marketing moves, and gathering creative assets - so this will make your marketing life easier.
So, set up a system!
You can do so manually, or use a platform to help you do this.
Collect everything you can, every marketing piece: emails, ads, landing pages, SEO changes, website change, etc.
Don't try to read them all - just make sure you can collect this data at first.
After, you'll be able to reference them over time to see if you can spot any meaningful change, or trend.
My favourite?
Spotting a trend.
Seeing when a competitor is doubling down so hard on something... it means that's it's working for them, so it should be working for me too.
That's the absolute best way to track your competitors.
That's the truth.
The goal is not to know everything.
The goal is to be uniquely positioned to understand when a market trend is emerging, before all the other actors.
