A Complete Guide to Competitive Intelligence

In the concern world, risks and opportunities are everywhere. For example, an manufacture inclination whitethorn beryllium sweeping the marketplace for a constricted clip and favour aboriginal adopters, portion a rival that went bust tin beryllium a bully root for acquiring caller customers.

These types of quality are not readily available, and by the clip you acquisition costly expert reports, they’re already outdated. So however bash you marque definite you recognize your contention and enactment up of marketplace trends successful a mode that’s proactive and doesn’t interruption the bank?

Competitive quality is the reply to ensuring your concern doesn’t get caught disconnected guard. Notably, it’s not each information collection. Rather, it’s besides astir enabling the full squad to triumph done an actionable and repeatable process.

In this guide, you’ll larn the following:

• What is competitory intelligence
• Why is competitory quality important
• Where to stitchery competitory intelligence
• How to physique a competitory quality program
• Competitive quality software

Competitive quality (CI) is the process of gathering, analyzing, and sharing accusation astir competitors, customers, and different marketplace indicators to summation a company’s competitory edge.

It involves a coordinated competitory quality programme and a centralized postulation of information from assorted sources.

To win successful business, knowing your competitors’ moves is not enough. Companies besides request to beryllium alert of marketplace trends and however those changes volition interaction stakeholders. For example, unforeseen events successful your manufacture whitethorn beryllium cutting your fiscal gains this quarter.

This is wherever competitory quality steps successful arsenic a process to marque much informed concern decisions, reducing the uncertainty of outer events. CI tin besides assistance you to:

• Generate much revenue.
• Spot maturation opportunities early on.
• Anticipate marketplace shifts with confidence.
• Develop counter-strategies for each of your competitors.
• Benchmark against competitors to observe areas of improvement.
• Measure marque cognition successful the eyes of your customers.
• Streamline merchandise launches.

All these points tin beryllium efficaciously translated into a competitory quality program. But first, let’s look astatine what you came present for: competitory quality sources.

Like immoderate system, the prime of the information you enactment into your CI programme is simply a bully predictor of its success. In the end, your extremity is to make a implicit illustration of your competitor.

To bash so, present are 8 competitory quality sources that you tin use today:

Your competitor’s website

It’s nary astonishment that a bully starting constituent to stitchery competitory intel is to cheque retired your competitor’s website.

Pay adjacent attraction to these:

• Positioning and messaging changes
• Solutions and vertical pages
• Pricing
• Product updates

First, spell implicit the homepage and immoderate marketing-related pages. Have they changed their tagline? What lawsuit logos are they featuring? What purchaser personas are they targeting? Signals similar these volition amusement you however your rival wants to beryllium perceived successful the customers’ minds and what verticals they are pushing for.

Second, determination connected to the product-related pages, peculiarly the pricing page. But don’t conscionable settee for the price. Dig deeper. Find retired the proceedings play length, pricing model, onboarding costs, etc.

Your competitor’s FAQ tin besides beryllium a root of intel—not conscionable for income reps but besides for marketers who tin make selling assets focused connected solving difficult-to-solve symptom points.

Content

Your competitor’s contented is simply a trove of insights for showing what customers they’re looking for and wherever they question to develop thought leadership.

Pay adjacent attraction to these:

• Type of contented and format
• Frequency of posting
• Keywords and SEO
• Overall CTAs

For example, posting 4 lawsuit studies successful a enactment is simply a wide indicator of their priorities connected chasing a purchaser persona. At the aforesaid time, the posting frequency can beryllium utilized arsenic a benchmark to make a sound contented strategy.

Here’s however to cheque your competitor’s posting frequence successful Ahrefs, utilizing Asana arsenic an example. I’ve chosen Asana due to the fact that it’s astir apt a institution you already cognize and use.

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
2. Plug successful your competitor’s blog URL and power the hunt mode to In URL
3. Check the published vs. republished ratio in narration to yours

The existent situation is identifying the cognition gaps betwixt your content. You tin past instrumentality vantage and make informative contented for keywords that your rival doesn’t fertile for to amended your hunt ranking.

Here’s however to bash it successful Ahrefs utilizing the Content Gap tool, utilizing the aforesaid Asana example:

1. Plug your website into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
2. Go to the Content Gap report and enter your competitor’s website

From this screenshot, we spot that Paymo (an Asana competitor) is already ranking for “working remotely” and “fun squad gathering activities”—topics that Asana could target.

Social media

Another invaluable competitory root is societal media. Although sometimes overwhelming, messages and mentions spell a agelong mode successful pointing retired competing run patterns.

Pay adjacent attraction to these:

• What channels the rival is progressive on
• Frequency of posting
• Who they follow
• Ads

Now, societal media ROI is hard to quantify and platform-dependent. The acquisition present is to analyse cardinal strategies you tin bargain from your contention and spot imaginable symptom points. For example, 1 of your competitors whitethorn usage Twitter to reply lawsuit inquiries. Let’s look astatine a speech from Asana’s Twitter.

@asana I emotion your product, but it would beryllium truly chill if you could database subtasks truthful that those outstanding were positioned astatine the top. Even amended if it was successful owed date order.

The overgarment constituent is clear: There is nary anticipation to benignant subtasks wrong a task. While this whitethorn beryllium an borderline case, you whitethorn find retired that it’s a deal-breaker for ample organizations that enactment with galore subtasks.

So if you were a competitor, you could limb your income reps with this accusation and formulate a fewer questions (in a conflict card) that would pb prospects to this weakness.

Besides showing your competitor’s employees, LinkedIn is different go-to level that gives you a feeling astir your competitor’s culture, aboriginal webinars, and wide contented utilized to beforehand its brand.

Customer reviews

Customer reviews, either testimonials oregon lawsuit studies, are surviving impervious of a company’s value. They are possibly the astir honorable root of outer competitory intel.

Pay adjacent attraction to these:

• B2B reappraisal platforms (Capterra, G2, TrustRadius)
• Analyst reports (Forrester, Gartner)
• Question platforms (Quora, Reddit)

B2B reappraisal platforms similar Capterra, G2, and TrustRadius are a bully starting constituent to place what benignant of customers your rival sells to, their buyer journeys, symptom points, and restitution ratings. You privation to wage peculiar attraction to antagonistic reviews that tin beryllium brought up successful income conversations.

Next successful line, expert reports similar Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and Forrester’s Wave volition springiness you hints connected your competitor’s marketplace presence, vision, and however good they execute the said vision. These reports volition besides hint astatine the manufacture and concern size your rival caters to, arsenic they besides see anonymous lawsuit reviews.

Finally, question platforms specified arsenic Quora and Reddit are a large mode to spot the main concerns and buying process of your competitor’s customers. You tin adjacent spell undercover and inquire an anonymous question astir your manufacture to gauge however good radical recognize the market.

Resellers

Resellers are arsenic important for CI arsenic lawsuit reviews and expert reports, particularly since they’re from an intermediary acting connected behalf of your competitor.

Pay adjacent attraction to these:

• Pricing structures
• Conditions for upsales
• Free add-ons

Resellers merchantability your competitor’s products and assist with marketplace investigation reports connected however to merchantability them better. If you’ve built a narration with them, you tin get your hands connected these reports and summation entree to your competitor’s selling strategy.

For example, you whitethorn find that your competitors are hitting their endeavor clients hard with retention overcharges. Or that they’re expanding their prices with each yearly renewal. This benignant of accusation wins income deals erstwhile you’re head-to-head against a marketplace person oregon a rival with amended marketplace exposure.

Don’t hide to besides look astatine what extras they connection with each package. You tin lucifer your competitor’s offering and adhd different services connected apical to marque your merchandise much appealing.

Press

An easy accessible mode of conducting competitory probe is to spell done a company’s news, events, and property releases.

Pay adjacent attraction to these:

• Press releases
• Events
• Financial results reports

A company’s quality leafage is simply a speedy teller of its wide direction—whether it has received caller funding, wants to tackle caller markets, oregon has acquired a marketplace leader. Some adjacent person nationalist fiscal reports that tin springiness you the borderline to enactment toward marketplace shifts proactively.

The quality leafage is conscionable 1 portion of the puzzle. You tin probe publishers already covering your contention but not your business. Build relationships with them. And who knows? You whitethorn get entree to a bigger level to dispersed the connection astir your product.

Here’s an casual mode to bash this utilizing Ahrefs:

1. Plug your competitor’s website into Site Explorer
2. Go to Backlink profile, past take Referring Domains
3. Check DoFollow links only and Exclude subdomains

It looks similar Asana’s competitor, Paymo, has immoderate property sum for writerraccess.com—a work for covering copywriters. And we’ve got our hands connected a reseller too.

Events are besides an accidental to spy connected your contention ethically. Find retired what events they attend, however regularly, and the messages utilized connected booths, banners, flyers, t‑shirts, and other swag.

Some whitethorn adjacent sponsor events to reenforce their marque to a circumstantial lawsuit segment. This volition springiness you an thought astir what events to articulation and the messages to usage for marque awareness.

HR

Your competitor’s employees—perhaps the astir overlooked CI resource—and their HR practices are the champion barometer for a competitor’s growth.

Pay adjacent attraction to these:

• About Us page/Careers page
• Job positions by department
• C‑level hires
• Feedback connected culture, salaries, and interviews (Glassdoor)

No 1 is much well-versed successful your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses than their employees. And portion the employees whitethorn beryllium loyal, they are inactive having discussions and leaving trails down that tin service arsenic competitory ammunition.

You tin cheque the wide occupation restitution of existent and erstwhile employees connected Glassdoor. What are the pros and cons of the competitor’s culture? What does the interrogation process look like? Average salaries? Questions similar these tin enactment your HR successful a amended presumption to code weaknesses erstwhile hiring akin candidates.

Another large spot to excavation for competitory intel is your competitor’s About Us leafage oregon Careers page. The gist is to look beyond occupation posting details, specified arsenic the location, role, and requirements.

If a occupation goes unfilled for a agelong time, this astir apt means the rival has tons of things going connected and needs a high-level specializer to instrumentality implicit the workload.

Similarly, if antithetic positions are advertised wrong the aforesaid department, this tin mean they’re putting each their efforts into a circumstantial concern area. Are they hiring much engineers? A caller merchandise whitethorn beryllium conscionable astir the corner. Are marketers and lawsuit occurrence reps successful precocious demand? Expansion is close.

Your customers and colleagues

Finally, it’s clip to speech astir the astir accessible root of interior intel: your customers and colleagues.

Before choosing your business, your customers person gone done galore hoops trialing different competitors. As a result, they’ll cognize the problems your contention is trying to lick and what works and doesn’t wrong the discourse of their vertical, redeeming you precious clip connected research.

One mode to extract this accusation is to get it straight from customers done interviews oregon surveys. The different is to interaction your colleagues.

Check each section for caller insights they tin stock with you. Sales tin pass you astir communal objections, enactment has intel connected the apical recurring questions, merchandise knows each diagnostic differentiators, and selling tin counsel what collaterals person much priority. Your extremity is to prime cardinal takeaways arsenic you cautiously comb done the data.

Unfortunately, information volition beryllium dispersed crossed CRMs, enactment chat tools, and notes for astir cases. A amended solution is to usage dedicated competitory quality tools that centralize this benignant of data, which brings america to the next point.

A competitory quality programme needs to beryllium scalable capable to limb each worker with the close intel and processes for their role.

We’re not talking lone astir C‑level executives but besides income reps, marketers, and engineers that tin payment from these insights to amended combat objections, scope caller audiences, and optimize merchandise launches.

The bully quality is that CI programs are present much affordable than ever—even for SMBs with tiny budgets—given however casual it is to find accusation online.

So without further ado, present are the astir important steps that spell into gathering an effectual CI program:

1. Identify your nonstop competitors

You whitethorn deliberation you don’t person immoderate competitors. But if you’re solving a problem, chances are idiosyncratic other has already thought astir solving it.

In fact, Crayon’s 2022 survey has shown that companies of each sizes acquisition an 18% summation successful competitors each year. The mean fig of caller competitors is 29 in 2020.

Knowing which competitors to support tabs connected is captious for the occurrence of a CI program, but that’s not truthful obvious. Hence, we request to footwear things disconnected with immoderate terminology:

• Direct competitors enactment successful the aforesaid marketplace arsenic yours and merchantability akin products. It’s usually a zero-sum game: If customers don’t bargain from you, they bargain from them. Think Burger King vs. McDonald’s.
• Indirect competitors act successful the aforesaid marketplace but merchantability antithetic products that fulfill the aforesaid need. Think Burger King vs. KFC. They are some fast-food restaurants that curb hunger differently.
• Replacement competitors don’t enactment successful the aforesaid market, but they tin regenerate your merchandise to fulfill the aforesaid need. Think Burger King vs. Beyond Meat (vegan) burgers.

Now that rival types are clear, stitchery a database of 5–10 nonstop competitors and 5 indirect competitors.

Replacement competitors shouldn’t beryllium your interest unless determination are assorted ways to lick the occupation your merchandise is trying to solve.

A reliable mode to find your contention is to cheque if you’re targeting the aforesaid keywords. Here’s a speedy method utilizing Ahrefs (with Asana arsenic the example):

1. Plug your website into Site Explorer.
2. Go to Organic hunt and take Competing Domains
3. Check the Common keywords column

It looks similar Asana has the astir overlapping keywords with Monday.com.

2. Establish cardinal objectives and metrics for each stakeholder

With your nonstop competitors mapped out, it’s clip to acceptable your cardinal objectives and metrics. This goes manus successful manus with identifying the stakeholders you request to get buy-in for the CI program.

A bully starting constituent is to inquire the C‑level executives what competitory threats support them engaged astatine night. This enactment won’t warrant the request for a CI program, but it volition constituent you to the departments that tin solve them.

Remember, each relation represents a touchpoint betwixt your concern and the customer, providing antithetic perspectives of the buying journey.

Let’s look astatine the astir communal CI stakeholders and an illustration extremity for each:

• Sales – Increase triumph rates successful competitory deals
• Marketing – Create actionable conflict cards
• Engineering – Build existent differentiators
• Customer success/support – Retain customers
• C‑level executives – Analyze adjacent EMEA markets to break into

Now, this doesn’t mean goals bash not overlap. On the contrary, improved positioning tin bring successful much leads, portion a merchandise that stands retired tin importantly summation lawsuit retention.

The takeaway astatine this measurement is to find retired the occupation roles that volition lend to the CI programme and effectual ways to measurement it.

3. Gather data

Data postulation is the instauration and possibly astir time-consuming portion of immoderate CI program. The situation lies successful uncovering qualitative insights to enactment your squad members wrong their job roles.

We’ve already gone done competitory quality resources. On a meta level, though, cognize that you tin categorize them into 2 data types.

There is external data. It’s the low-hanging effect benignant of accusation disposable online, sitting connected your competitor’s website, societal media, reappraisal platforms, expert reports, etc. Albeit harder to excavation for, resellers are besides a valid root of information connected however users interact with your competitor’s merchandise and their main offering’s strengths and weaknesses.

We besides person internal data. It’s information that already exists wrong your business, specified arsenic telephone notes from a income rep oregon a competitor’s pricing database sent to 1 of your customers.

Even though the second is much qualitative, some are ethical and should beryllium utilized unneurotic to get astatine actionable insights.

4. Analyze data

Great. You’ve identified your nonstop competitor, established CI goals and metrics, and astir apt spent a fewer hours gathering competitory intel.

What follows is transforming that earthy information into existent deliverables (aka income and selling assets) and feeding them to the close stakeholders.

By far, the astir communal CI deliverable is the conflict card, a income plus that packs abbreviated insights astir a circumstantial rival with the extremity of “depositioning” them. Your income squad volition emotion these cards, arsenic agelong arsenic they’re not excessively overwhelming and formulated connection for connection to beryllium consumed close earlier a sales call.

While there’s nary concealed look connected however to trade a conflict card, an actionable 1 should see the pursuing sections:

1. Your competitor’s profile
2. Quick dismisses to disqualify the rival early on
3. Arguments for wherefore you triumph and wherefore you lose
4. Objection handling answers
5. A database of landmine topics that enactment your rival successful a bad light

For much accusation connected however to make much inclusive conflict cards, Klue has already written extensively astir a battle paper framework.

Battle cards aside, other fashionable CI deliverables are merchandise sheets—1:1 diagnostic comparisons betwixt your merchandise and your competitor’s product—and enforcement descent decks to pass executives astir the semipermanent strategy.

How galore you tin present volition mostly beryllium connected your selling team’s size and budget. This is lone fractional of the story, though. Equally important is however and erstwhile you present them.

5. Share insights with cardinal stakeholders

Competitive quality has nary worth if it sits successful a country and doesn’t interaction stakeholders.

At the last measurement of the CI program, your occupation is twofold: (1) place your stakeholder’s preferred connection channels and (2) summation the frequence of delivering competitory insights.

For the archetypal endeavor, inquire your stakeholders however they communicate. Sales reps whitethorn beryllium much inclined to bent retired successful Slack channels, portion executives astir apt trust heavy connected email. Always conscionable them connected their turf to guarantee that accusation is consumed on time.

As for the 2nd one, see sharing competitory insights during regular and play stand-ups. According to a study by Crayon, businesses that bash truthful often person seen a nonstop gross impact; successful the study, 69% of the respondents stock competitory intent regular and 72% bash truthful weekly. 

Ultimately, sharing competitory insights is an ongoing process that volition reenforce the adoption of a CI programme and warrant its success.

By now, you’ve astir apt realized however time-consuming competitory probe is.

It doesn’t person to be. Even though you whitethorn not person a CI function, fto unsocial a budget, you tin collect, analyze, and stock information astir competitors with affordable, competitory software.

Owler

Best for: Digging into a company’s history
Pricing: Free proceedings available; paid plans commencement from $35/month
Alternative: Crunchbase

With a assemblage of 3.5 cardinal crowd-sourced users, Owler has the largest and astir up-to-date information acceptable of institution insights.

This means you tin aboveground each sorts of strategical accusation similar funding, acquisitions, and the latest quality to recognize however a rival has grown implicit time. The instrumentality adjacent goes the other mile and compiles a little investigation of your competitors.

You tin besides travel companies to person regular oregon real-time notifications astir their astir applicable content, including property releases, blog articles, societal media posts, oregon merchandise videos.

Visualping

Best for: Monitoring website changes
Pricing: Free proceedings available; paid plans commencement from $10/month (personal account) and $50/month (business account)
Alternatives: Change Tower, Competitors App

Visualping is a competitory quality instrumentality for monitoring website changes.

All you person to bash is participate a competitor’s URL, prime the website country you privation to monitor, the threshold of changes (1%, 10%, 25%, 50%), frequence checks (every day, week, month), and your email code to person the alerts. Quite simple? You bet. But effectual successful identifying much subtle messaging and ocular changes.

This is not all. Visualping besides trains bots to execute actions connected your behalf, specified arsenic entering passwords oregon clicking connected elements, redeeming you clip during the competitory probe process.

Ahrefs

Best for: Analyzing website postulation and SEO
Pricing: Paid plans commencement from $83/month, but you tin usage Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free
Alternatives: None

Ahrefs is an industry-leading SEO and selling instrumentality that tin assistance you uncover a competitor’s website postulation and reverse-engineer their efforts.

Here are immoderate of its astir fashionable competitory quality tools:

1. Site Explorer – Research rival backlinks and get publishers to screen you too
2. Content Gap tool – Find keywords that a rival ranks for that you don’t
3. Ads – Deconstruct your competitor’s ads from advertisement transcript to CTAs
4. Email alerts – Stay successful the loop astir caller backlinks and mentions of your competitor

Social Searcher

Best for: Comparing societal media strategies
Pricing: Free proceedings available; paid plans commencement from €3.49/month for 200 searches/day
Alternatives: Talkwalker, Rival IQ

Social Searcher works similar a hunt motor for societal media, gathering mentions astir your competitor’s brand.

The instrumentality crawls information crossed 11 societal media networks, displaying keywords, station types, and users. In addition, its “audience insights” diagnostic gives you hints astir the preferred station types, publishing times, and go-to societal media channels of your competitor’s customers. 

But possibly the astir captious diagnostic successful its arsenal is the sentiment investigation report, making it casual to spot antagonistic feedback astir your competitor’s products and services. You tin construe these weaknesses into income enablement worldly later on.

SendView

Best for: Tracking rival email marketing
Pricing: Plans commencement from $49/month for 10 institution newsletters
Alternative: Owletter

SendView is an fantabulous instrumentality for tracking your competitor’s email selling efforts.

The process goes thing similar this: You make a abstracted email code and past subscribe to your competitor’s newsletter. After that, each emails spell consecutive into SendView without bloating your inbox.

On apical of this, you tin entree each email to analyse its taxable enactment length, connection count, email provider, spam score, root code, and whether oregon not it’s mobile-friendly. These are each invaluable sources of inspiration for optimizing email selling campaigns that resonate with your audience.

Final thoughts

Despite the abundant accusation astir markets and competitors, teams contiguous are hungrier than ever for cognition and guidance—whether that’s ways to bash an SEO rival analysis or conduct a marketplace investigation from A to Z (including enigma shopping).

Competitive quality is the long-awaited reply to navigate the concern satellite with much clarity. Don’t deliberation of it arsenic a one-off action. Rather, spot it arsenic an ongoing process that equips each squad subordinate with accusation applicable to their occupation relation and tools to marque amended concern decisions.

Feel escaped to usage this usher to commencement your ain CI programme oregon to person your enforcement committee astir the value of competitory intelligence.

Got questions? Ping maine on Twitter.