Competitive Matrix: What It Is + How to Make One (with Templates)

What Is a Competitive Matrix?

A competitory matrix is simply a instrumentality that helps you visually comparison your institution against competitors. To spot however you stack up.

It typically features a grid oregon array that lists your marque and cardinal competitors connected 1 axis. And important marketplace factors connected the other. 

There are galore types of competitory matrices that amusement information successful antithetic ways.

For example, this is the Growth Quadrant from Semrush. It’s a rival matrix you tin make utilizing the Market Explorer tool.

This quadrant-based matrix helps you visualize your industry’s competitory landscape. And divides competitors into 4 categories:

• Game Changers
• Leaders
• Niche Players
• Established Players

We’ll explicate what these categories mean later. And amusement you however to physique this matrix utilizing your competitors’ data. 

First, let’s research the benefits of utilizing a competitory matrix. 

Why Is Using a Competitive Matrix Important?

A rival investigation matrix provides competitive insights that assistance you summation an vantage successful the market. 

The matrix’s main intent is to amusement wherever your institution stands compared to your competitors. To beryllium much alert of your (and your competitors’) strengths and weaknesses. 

This tin past beryllium utilized to:

• Strategically presumption your brand: By seeing however your offerings stack up against competitors, you tin find amended ways to presumption your products oregon services. And item what makes you antithetic and capable successful immoderate gaps successful the market.
• Make informed decisions: With a wide presumption of the competitive landscape, you tin marque data-driven decisions astir merchandise development, marketing, and assets allocation
• Predict rival moves: Understanding your competitors' strengths and weaknesses tin assistance you expect their adjacent moves. And enactment up of them.

In short, a well-researched competitory investigation matrix provides you insights to confidently navigate fierce competition. Even successful a perfectly competitory market—where astir businesses merchantability identical products.

5 Competitor Matrix Types with Examples and Templates

There are assorted types of competitory matrices, each for antithetic usage cases. You tin take 1 oregon much depending connected your investigation goals.

Let’s instrumentality a look astatine immoderate of the astir fashionable types.

1. Competitive Comparison Grid

A rival examination grid (also called a competitory positioning matrix) is simply a model that visualizes however customers comprehend your institution comparative to your competitors. 

It considers factors similar price, quality, service, and innovation to assistance you recognize your marketplace position.

Typically, it’s drawn utilizing 2 axes that each represents a important occurrence factor.

Let's look astatine the G2 Grid for competitory quality tools arsenic an example.

Image Source: G2

It has “Market Presence” connected the y-axis—which is calculated utilizing G2’s scoring methodology that draws from a fig of sources. And “Satisfaction” connected the x-axis is based connected idiosyncratic reviews.

Based connected these scores, companies are divided into 4 quadrants:

• Leaders: High idiosyncratic restitution and precocious marketplace presence
• Contenders: High idiosyncratic restitution and debased marketplace presence
• High Performers: Low idiosyncratic restitution and precocious marketplace presence
• Niche: Low idiosyncratic restitution and debased marketplace presence

You tin visualize the integer competitory scenery for your manufacture likewise with Semrush’s Growth Quadrant matrix.

Open the Market Explorer instrumentality and click the “Find Competitors” tab. Then, participate your determination and domain name, and click the “Research a market” button.

Scroll to the “Growth Quadrant” widget. 

You’ll spot your website’s positioning compared to competing sites. Like this:

Using the “Total Traffic” and “Total Traffic Growth, %” metrics, the websites are categorized as: 

• Leaders: High-traffic sites with precocious maturation rates
• Established Players: High-traffic sites with debased maturation rates
• Game Changers: Low-traffic sites with precocious maturation rates 
• Niche Players: Low-traffic sites with debased maturation rates

You tin take antithetic metrics for examination arsenic well. 

Just click the drop-down paper adjacent to “X-axis” and “Y-axis,” marque your selections, and deed “Apply.”

Now, spot wherever you (and your main competitors) basal for your selected metrics.

Note the cardinal metrics wherever your competitors are stronger. And usage the insights to program your maturation strategy.

Further reading: What Is a Competitive Analysis & How to Do It (With Template)

2. Competitor Comparison Chart

A rival examination illustration (also called a competitory scenery chart) is typically a array utilized to comparison your products, services, oregon tactics against those of your competitors. 

Like this:

This rival matrix is particularly utile for a wide competitory analysis. Because the side-by-side examination gives you speedy insights specified as:

• The strengths and weaknesses of your competitors’ go-to-market strategies
• Your competitors’ comparative beingness successful circumstantial selling channels
• Your competitors’ astir palmy acquisition channels

Use the competitive examination illustration template (the 2nd tab) to make your own.

You tin besides usage examination charts for narrower analyses (e.g., merchandise oregon diagnostic comparisons).

Which tin beryllium utile for:

• Product oregon work development: Identify gaps successful the existent market, amended your offerings, and found a beardown differentiator
• Marketing and sales: Fine-tune your messaging to item your unsocial worth proposition 
• Strategic decision-making: Guide decisions astir pricing models, diagnostic development, partnerships, and acquisitions

Or, place a fistful of areas that are astir applicable to your concern to absorption your investigation on. 

You tin usage the competitive scenery illustration template (the sixth tab) to bash this. And edit the fields to acceptable your needs. 

3. Gartner's Magic Quadrant 

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant compares however brands stack up successful a circumstantial exertion market. And analyzes them connected their quality to recognize and power the aboriginal of the marketplace and their show successful cardinal areas similar marketplace share, merchandise capabilities, income channels, and lawsuit experience

Based connected the supra factors, each institution is placed into 1 of the pursuing quadrants:

• Leaders: These are well-established brands with beardown execution capabilities. And a wide imaginativeness for the aboriginal of the market.
• Challengers: These brands person capable resources and a beardown quality to execute. But they request to enactment connected vision. 
• Visionaries: These players person a coagulated imaginativeness and intelligence properties. However, they’re comparatively anemic oregon dilatory successful execution. 
• Niche players: These brands service lone a circumstantial marketplace segment. Or person a constricted merchandise portfolio.

One illustration is Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for DevOps Platforms. And the information wrong it tin assistance you marque informed decisions.

Let’s accidental your marque falls successful the “Visionaries” quadrant. You person a disruptive thought but deficiency the resources to execute it. 

That penetration tells you wherever to focus. 

And you could see joining hands with a concern successful the “Challengers” quadrant. Since they request what you have—vision—you whitethorn beryllium capable to negociate a bully partnership. 

Just retrieve that the Gartner Magic Quadrant Matrix is simply a snapshot. Not a definitive ranking.

4. SWOT Analysis 

A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) rival investigation matrix evaluates a company’s interior strengths and weaknesses. Plus outer opportunities and concern threats. 

It helps you: 

• Identify and usage your strengths (e.g., beardown marque awareness) to outperform competitors
• Know and code your weaknesses (e.g., mediocre lawsuit service). Before they origin damage.
• Spot and drawback emerging opportunities (e.g., caller marketplace segments)
• Foresee and debar imaginable concern threats (e.g., governmental instability)

Here are immoderate questions to assistance you get your SWOT investigation data:

SWOT Analysis

Gather your enactment squad and brainstorm SWOT questions and answers. This way, you’ll get divers perspectives from aggregate stakeholders astatine your organization. 

Then, compile your results successful this SWOT investigation template (the 4th tab). 

Here’s an illustration SWOT for a recently launched, fictional integrated java marque called The Conscious Bean.

Further reading: SWOT Analysis: What It Is & How to Do It [Examples + Template]

5. Competitive Profile Matrix

A competitory illustration matrix helps you benchmark your offering straight against large competitors. To supply a much nuanced presumption of however you comparison overall.

It focuses connected standing competitors connected captious occurrence factors (CSFs) by utilizing a weighted scoring method. 

Here’s however it works:

1. List 3 to 4 main competitors you privation to evaluate
2. Determine your CSFs—these are cardinal areas that thrust occurrence successful your market. Like merchandise oregon work quality, pricing, lawsuit support, organisation network, oregon innovation. 
3. Assign weights betwixt 0.0 (low importance) and 1.0 (high importance) to each CSF. The full value indispensable adhd up to 1.0.
4. Rate competitors crossed each CSFs connected a standard of 1-4 oregon 1-5. A higher standing indicates stronger show for that CSF.
5. Multiply the weight by the competitor's standing for each CSF to get a score. Add idiosyncratic CSF scores for each competitor. It’ll springiness you a full weighted score.

Here’s a simplified competitory illustration matrix example.

How bash you construe this table?

The institution with the highest full people is typically the strongest. 

So, marque definite to analyse however you fertile successful each CSF compared to others. And revise your strategy accordingly. 

Use this competitive illustration matrix template (the 5th tab) for your analysis.

How to Create Your Own Competitive Matrix

To implicit a matrix, you request to behaviour rival probe and stitchery data—likely utilizing competitive quality tools.

We’ll amusement you how.

Step 1. Identify Your Competitors 

Start with a database of each imaginable competitors—direct, indirect, and emerging players successful your market. 

Find them utilizing resources like:

• Industry reports 
• Company websites and property releases
• Customer reappraisal platforms
• Social media and online communities
• Trade shows oregon conferences
• Customer surveys

Or simply caput to Semrush’s Market Explorer instrumentality and click “Find Competitors.”

Select your location, participate your website name, and deed “Research a market.”

In the default “Overview” tab, you’ll spot “Market Summary.” It shows a database of cardinal players. And their marketplace share. 

Scroll down to scope the “Growth Quadrant.”

You’ll spot the competitory scenery on with competitors' positions successful the market. 

Now, place your quadrant (“Leaders,” “Established Players,” “Game Changers,” oregon “Niche Players”). And click “Domains” adjacent the apical close country of “Growth Quadrant.” 

You’ll spot the afloat database of the competing domains successful your market. 

Scroll to the database of domains successful your aforesaid quadrant and prime a fewer for your analysis. 

Step 2. Determine Comparison Factors

Next, prime examination factors based connected your competitory investigation goals. 

They’ll usher your research. And assistance you take the close competitory matrix benignant for your analysis. 

For our example, we’ll look astatine the pursuing factors:

• Website postulation data: Visits, unsocial visitors, acquisition conversions, pages viewed per visit, sojourn duration, and bounce rate
• Social media data: Followers/subscribers, posts/videos, and engagement rates
• Demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic data: Dominant property group, gender, income level, and main market

Then, adhd you/your competitors and your examination factors to a transcript of the matrix template that works champion for your situation. In this case, we urge utilizing the competitive scenery chart (the sixth tab). 

Step 3. Gather Data

Now, you’ll request to cod the information that corresponds with your examination factors to capable successful the matrix. 

Here’s what that entails based connected the ones we identified above:

Website Traffic Data

We’ll usage Semrush’s Traffic Analytics instrumentality to get the website postulation data. 

Open the instrumentality and click “Check Competitors.”

Next, prime the location, participate your domain and your competitors’ domains, and click “Analyze.”

You’ll spot the important website postulation metrics for the selected sites for the past afloat period (you tin alteration the day scope if you wish). So you tin analyse your site’s show against the competing domains. 

Click “Export to PDF” to get this information successful your email. 

Or paste it straight into your template copy.

Now, let’s spell implicit however to get competitors’ societal media information utilizing the Social Tracker instrumentality (part of Semrush Social). It lets you way the societal media enactment and show of up to 20 competitors. 

Open the tool. And travel the Social Tracker configuration instructions.

At the apical of the “Overview” tab, you’ll spot the chosen competitor’s assemblage size, posting activity, and engagement connected antithetic societal platforms. 

Scroll to the “Comparison With Competitors'' widget to spot however you stack up against your competitors.

The “Audience” tab shows the full fig of followers oregon subscribers crossed the societal platforms. Including the changes successful the assemblage size. 

Click the “Activity” tab to spot the full fig of societal posts of each competitor. For the selected period.

Similarly, analyse the full engagement.

You tin present adhd this information to your competitory scenery chart. 

Further reading: How to Uncover Your Competitor's Social Media Strategy

Demographic, Geographic, and Socioeconomic Data 

Comparing demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic information tin uncover invaluable insights astir your people audience.

Use Semrush’s One2Target instrumentality to find this information. 

Enter the aforesaid domain names and prime the location. Then, click “Analyze.”

In the “Demographics” tab, you tin propulsion information astir age, gender, and country.

In the “Socioeconomics” tab, you’ll spot household size and employment status. Plus acquisition and income level.

These insights tin usher your product, pricing, and marketing strategy. 

For example, if a ample portion of your assemblage is successful a low-income bracket, past you’re astir apt operating successful a price-driven market. That means buying decisions are apt to beryllium influenced astir by the terms of the product. 

In specified markets, you whitethorn privation to absorption your messaging astir worth for money. And thrust income measurement with discounts, offers, and promotions. 

Step 4. Fill In the Matrix

Now that you’ve collected your data, simply adhd it to your examination matrix. In this case, the competitory scenery chart.

It mightiness look thing similar this:

Use Your Findings to Gain a Competitive Advantage

The main extremity of creating a competitory matrix is turning information into insights you tin enactment connected to thrust growth.

But maintaining a semipermanent competitory vantage besides requires an consciousness of your competitors’ actions.

Use Semrush’s EyeOn to automate tracking your competitors’ online selling activities. 

It keeps you updated connected your competitors’ recently published pages, blog posts, Google ads, societal media updates, and more.