mpetitive Analysis Templates for Improved Performance and Getting Ahead

Every business should have KPIs that measure their success and set goals. You shouldn’t compare your performance with just…your past performance. You need to know where your business stands compared to other companies in your market if you want to grow.

Enter: The competitive analysis

This post will share seven different types of competitive analysis. I’ll describe each type, provide some examples and a template. Grab them before your competition does!

Table of Contents

• 
  What does a competitive analysis mean?
  
• 
  Basic Marketing Competitive Analysis
  
• 
  SWOT analysis
  
• 
  Keyword Competitive Analysis
  
• 
  7P Competitive Analysis
  
• 
  Social media competitive analysis
  
• 
  PEST Competitive Analysis
  
• 
  Porter Five Forces Competitive Analysis
  

What is a Competitive Analysis?

A competitive analysis compares your business with its rivals based on a number of criteria. However, rigid does not mean systematic. Competitive analyses can be very flexible.

• Direct or indirect competitors can be examined.
• You can either look at the entire business or specific strategies.
• There are no wrong or right criteria.
• There are sales competitive analyses and project competitive analyses.

What you want to achieve is what matters most. Competitive analysis can be used to:

• Find out where you are in the market.
• Increase performance in existing markets.
• Make yourself stand out among your competitors.
• Bring a product to the market.
• Enter into a new market.

Let’s crack on! The world is at your fingertips.

Examples and templates of 7 Competitive Analysis Templates

Here are seven types of competitive analysis. Start with the templates and examples as a guide and then adjust them to your marketing metrics.

1. Basic Marketing Competitive Analysis Template

This template is a great way to get a quick overview of your competitors. This includes:

• Tagline A short, powerful statement that helps you to understand the intended business value proposition.
• Market segmentation: Who are their primary audience?
• Personas – What types of personalities, lifestyles and wants & needs do your competitors cater for?
• Top organic keyword: What are their specializations?
• Top-paid keywords: Where are they spending their Budget
• Main Marketing Channels:Emailing, social media, websites, listings, and reviews?
• Newsletters or ads?
• Reviews – Do they have an active review strategy? On which platforms are there the most reviews from? What are the best reviews? The worst reviews?
• Social Presence: Which channels do they use. How active are they?
• What is the overall brand voice?What does their brand look like and feel like?

You will gain a better understanding of your competitors, and you’ll be inspired to come up with new ideas.

Go to the basic Marketing Competitive Analysis Template

2. SWOT Analysis

SWOT is the gold standard in competitive analysis. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

• Strengths : what do you excel at that your competitors do not?
• Weaknesses : What are your competitors doing well that you do not?
• Opportunities : What are your weaknesses and those of your competitors? Or, where can you use your strengths to gain a competitive edge?
• Threats : What could slow down your business’ growth? What are the strengths of your competitors that could give them a competitive edge?

SWOT analysis of a competitor

Here is an example of a competitive SWOT analysis for a restaurant in your area:

• Strengths Excellent Location, Lots of Foot Traffic, Good Reputation among the Local Community, Seasonal Menu, Eco-friendly Brand, Locally Sourced.
• Weaknesses Higher cost and longer wait; less brand awareness; single location limits reach. No online reservations.
• Opportunities : Growing support for local/sustainable ingredients, season keeping things interesting and fresh; potential growth via food delivery apps/technology.
• The threat: Increased competition from chain restaurants Uncertain economic climate ; increasing cost of ingredients; food delivery apps/technology

SWOT Analysis Template

The SWOT Analysis Template includes a list of questions that you can ask for each category. This will help you to do a thorough assessment and gain actionable insights. The SWOT analysis template is also accompanied by an extensive blog post covering everything you need about SWOT.

Visit this SWOT Analysis Template

3. Keyword Competitive Analysis

The analysis of keyword competition will help you to take your research up a notch. You can compare your organic keywords and/or your paid keywords to those of your competition.

It is important to determine which keywords you can realistically target to beat your competitors. It’s a waste of money and time to target keywords that you won’t rank for, whether for SEO or PPC.

Keyword Competitive Analysis Example

Imagine you’re a platform that streamlines communication via email, text and phone for home improvement companies. You want to run PPC ads for text automation. This is a great opportunity to perform a paid-keyword competitive analysis.

You can use tools for keyword research to find your competitors’ keywords.

In this example, the domain of Podium was entered into Semrush. I then searched for keywords that did not contain “podium” and had an average ranking of 1. Then, traffic to each landing page was sorted.

You can see that the most popular keywords are:

• Google Reviews (310 visits per month)
• Converge pay (310)
• Online reputation management (310)
• Hvac marketing (169)

The number of visits to “Sms Marketing” at 70 per month is lower on the list.

Podium seems to be more interested in online reputation managementand payments processing. This could be a great opportunity for me. If ” HVAC marketing” is getting similar traffic, then I may want to investigate further and find out if Podium is interested in this niche or if it is a very lucrative market.

Keyword Competitive Analysis Template

WordStream’s competitor keyword analysis contains columns for the keywords, search volume and competition, cost per Click, funnel stage, intent as well as competing domains. You can also mark two columns to indicate whether or not you are already targeting a keyword.

Click here to view this competitor keyword analysis template

4. 7P Competitive Analysis

The “7P’s” are the seven components of the Marketing Mix. The framework is designed to help you better understand your company. You can also use it to identify growth opportunities for your competitors. The 7 Ps are:

• Product:Think specific features around customer support, quality, variety and availability.
• Cost: Does not just include cost but also discounts, payment options, financing options, additional features, etc.
• Place: Where are the products or services sold? Which channels have the most success?
• Marketing:What are your marketing strategies? SEO, social, branding, PR, PPC, etc.
• What is the organizational hierarchy? What about culture? What about skills and talents? Hiring and recruitment methods? LinkedIn can give you a good idea about the team structure of some companies.
• Process: What is the process by which the product or service is delivered to the client? Does the business interact with its clients? Self-service features?
• Physical Evidence:How can you prove your solution is right? What tangible assets are there that validate your business?

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7P Competitive Analysis Example

Here is an example of a competitive 7P analysis for a company that does video advertising.

• Product Video Advertising Services with In-House videographers, proprietary budget optimization technologies, and access to an exclusive network. A website that can help you determine the best video ad type.
• Pricing: prices are higher than other ad agencies. However, because they include custom design services and multichannel strategy the total cost will be lower. Plus, ads with higher ROI have lower click costs.
• Location:Anywhere within the United States, as the team is able to operate and serve remotely.
• Promotion Can show off its strengths with its own video ads, and also uses DIY how-tos and video marketing industry content for SEO and Website traffic. There is not much PR. The focus is on branding.
• People Large Development Team heavily focused on proprietary software. Small Marketing Team as in-house designers create much of the Lead-Generating Content. Team that is remote but values company culture, social responsibility and helps in the community.
• Process: Mostly do-it for me with regular performance reviews and self-serve tools.
• Physical proof: Gallery of video ads video testimonials and its own content. There is a large YouTube following, and Spotify playlists are also popular.

7P Competitive Analysis Template

This 7P Competitive Analysis Template is a spreadsheet with each of the Ps, and columns that you can fill out for your company and your competitors. The column also includes a rating of each factor’s importance and any action items or key takeaways.

Click here to download the 7P Competitive Analysis Template

5. Social media competitive analysis

It’s an analysis of the social network strategy of your competitors. This is useful for getting content ideas, identifying your brand voice, finding tags, and much more.

You can examine dozens of social media metrics, but I only recommend the basics.

• What platforms do they use?
• What is the preferred platform?

Each platform is:

• Target audience
• Tone of Voice
• Posts Types
• Posting frequency
• Follower count
• Engaged in a variety of ways
• Hashtags

Competitive analysis of social media

Here is an example of the basic competitive analysis that I conducted on Chirrp – a texting software.

• Platforms where they are: Facebook (including YouTube), LinkedIn
• Favoured platform:YouTube
• 
  Facebook:
  
  #chiirp 937 followers and 790 likes. Promotional, testimonials, videos, quotes, 1-3 Likes per Post.
  • 
    Don’t let the cuteness fool you… our little bird is the most dangerous tool for marketing on the planet
    
• 
  LinkedIn:
  
  Five months ago, 137 people followed a single job posting.
  • “Chiirp, the ultimate marketing and communication toolbox for hind services companies.
• YouTube 441 Subscribers, 177 Videos, 1 video per month, Interviews, webinars and Demos to promote the product.

This analysis shows that Chiirp does not prioritize social marketing, aside from YouTube and video. This will help me determine if it’s due to limited resources, in which case there is an opportunity to fill the gap. Or if social media isn’t a good channel for this targeted market.

Social Media Competitive Analysis Template

This template for a social media competitive analysis covers all the above points, for , the most popular social networks, including Facebook, Instagram LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube. This template also has columns for top users, notes and links to each profile.

Click here to download the Social Media Competitive Analysis Template

6. PEST Competitive Analysis

A PEST analysis is a more in-depth look at the threats that you identified during your SWOT analysis. We mentioned that threats are usually driven by external factors. You can include:

• Political: Taxes, laws, regulations and other political factors that can impact your ability to do business.
• Economic inflation Stock exchange rates, interest rate, labor costs and supply chain patterns, as well as stock exchange rates.
• Social: Demographic patterns and consumer behavior, as well as cultural shifts, that affect interest in your products or services.
• Technological Tools, platforms and technology that could compete with or give an advantage to your competitors.

Example of PEST Competitive Analysis

Here is a brief overview of some PESTs that impact a communication platform, primarily for businesses in the home improvement and service industry.

• Political There are new rules and regulations regarding texting. This presents an opportunity for creating templates, educational materials, and product offerings to make compliance easier.
• Economic:Supply-chain shortages and seasonality have a dramatic impact on any vertical’s interest.
• Social With the pandemic behind us, people are now less interested in DIY home improvements and turning to professionals. The home service industry will also grow as millennials and Gen Z age and become less interested in DIY (and instead more concerned with saving the world).
• Technological Artificial Intelligence combined with personalized automation presents a great opportunity for call centres to become more lean and powerful.

PEST Competitive Analysis Template

Compare your challenges to those of competitors using this template. Remember, the challenges of your competitors can be your opportunities.

Go to the PEST Competitive Analysis Template

7. Porter’s Five Forces Competitive Analysis

Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School professor who developed the framework in 1979, gave it its name. The model looks at five factors that can affect any company in any industry.

• New entrants are a threat: More players in an industry means more competition. However, some industries have fewer barriers to entry. The ease of entry into a given industry is determined by the upfront costs, certifications and training as well as existing brands.
• The bargaining power of suppliers:How powerful are suppliers to increase prices, which in turn would decrease profitability? This depends on the number of suppliers in the market and the availability and alternatives.
• Bargaining Power of Buyers:This shows how easily customers can switch brands for better prices. There are fewer customers, but there are many options, which means that bargaining power increases. The internet also makes it easier to compare prices. This is why building a brand loyalty is important and how you can truly differentiate your products and service.
• Substitute products are a threat:Think about products and services that can meet the same needs, but not necessarily identical.
• Competition between existing competitors.When there is fierce competition, the industry players are forced to spend more on advertising and even engage in price wars. This can have a negative impact on profitability.

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Five Forces Competitive Analysis Examples

• New entrants are a threat: The hotel industry is harder to break into than, say, home services, although home services remains harder than the food and beverage industry.
• Bargaining Power of Suppliers:A restaurant industry example would be here. Fast food is more plentiful than farm-to table, so the supplier power of the latter would be greater.
• Buyers’ bargaining power: In sectors like real estate and hotels, the buyer has a lot of tools to compare prices, which gives them a high level of power.
• Substitute products are a threat: Take the beer industry. Although spiked seltzer does not serve the same purpose, it can be a danger.
• Rivalry between existing competitors:Due to its difficult entry, the airline industry is smaller and has therefore more competition. The competition becomes even fiercer when you add in the strong bargaining power that buyers and suppliers have.

Five Forces Competitive Analysis Template

This template can be used to analyze your company and its competitors in relation to Porter’s Five Forces.

Go the Five Forces Competitive Analysis Template

These templates and examples of competitive analysis will help you grow your business.

A good business measures performance. But a great one takes a step forward and compares its performance to that of the competition. You’re now equipped with seven different templates and examples of competitive analysis to help you.

Which is the best option for you? What you want to achieve depends on your goals, whether it’s to solve a particular problem, reach a specific goal or learn something new.

The post 7 Competitor Analysis Templates To Improve Your Performance And Get Ahead first appeared on WordStream.