You work hard to make sure that your business is successful from the inside out. But have you taken the time to check on things from the outside looking in? In other words, check on your competition! This post is all about how to do content analysis on your competitors.
Checking in on the businesses that you compete with is a necessary step if you want to be the best of the best. Use content analysis strategies to make sure that your business stays a step ahead of your competitors.
What Is Content Analysis?
You probably have some experience with content analysis in your own business. For example, any time you use data to measure the success of your advertisements, website layouts, or social media pages, you are performing a content analysis.
But now you want to learn how to do content analysis on another brand. You won’t be able to access the same information as an outsider, of course! But there is plenty of content to analyze just by cruising through your competitor’s public materials, disguised as a customer with the keen eyes of a business analyst.
Why Should You Research Your Competition?
The answer to this is simple. Have you ever experienced a weird symptom that you researched on Google to make sure it was “normal”?
Checking out your competition ensures that you are on the right track with your own business strategies. Unlike Googling a health symptom, it’s NOT a bad idea—it’s just a smart business tactic. And every business owner needs to be doing it!
Once you unlock how to do content analysis on other brands, you multiply the amount of information that you have to work with.
For instance, let’s say you spent a chunk of money on your social media advertisements last quarter while your competition spent the same amount of money on billboard ads. Now you get to compare the effectiveness of both marketing strategies.
Related: 5 Important Reasons Knowing Your Target Audience Inside And Out Matters
5 Tips on How to Do Content Analysis on Your Competitors
Learning how to do content analysis on other businesses like your own starts with the ambition to take your brand to the next level. If you want to be the Elon Musk of your niche, you have to do a little research on the “cars” that people drive.
Examine Different Types of Competitors
If you want to know how to do content analysis effectively, you have to think outside the box. You will naturally want to know more about the competitors who are similar to you, but you must also consider the brands that are slightly different.
Investigate what else in the world meets your clients’ specific needs—it can be anything. For example, if your business focuses heavily on building the Facebook and Instagram presence of your entrepreneurial clients, then you might also perform content analysis on businesses that use Pinterest and Twitter.
Make a list of targets. In the end, you want a varied pool of data to dip into.
Consistency is Key
You should not be watching your competition like a hawk. Think about how to do content analysis for competitors in a way that doesn’t distract from your internal goals and trends.
A good rule of thumb for eyeing the businesses around you is no less than once a year and no more than 4 times a year.
There are a few reasons to limit the amount of times that you analyze outside business content:
- Fewer check-ins means greater focus on your own business strategies
- More time between check-ins reveals more usable data trends
- It often takes months for marketing plans to succeed or fail
Check on other businesses a few times a year to stay consistent and up-to-date. But never let that research distract from your current projects!
Don’t Limit Yourself to One Location
While it makes sense to check out the businesses in your area, don’t miss out on successful business insights from other places. Examine your target audience demographics and go fishing to figure out where else in the world they exist.
No matter how specific your client base, chances are there are businesses like yours helping clients like them somewhere else in the world. Tapping into business ideas at a distance helps to separate you from the local flock.
Check Their Social Media Profiles On Every Platform
When digesting how to do content analysis for competitors, remember that social media is the new way of the business world. And luckily, most social media platforms offer a tremendous amount of insight on the success of a business.
Use social media to measure the growth and achievement of your competition:
- Compare followers. Feel free to “request” big business right from a competitor’s page
- Compare shares. Figure out who is doing better and why
- Leverage any useful language or imagery to inspire your own campaigns
Leave no stone unturned. You never know where your next bright idea might come from.
Related: How To Improve Your Brand Visibility As A B2B Business Owner
Check on Their Collaborators
Tying your business to a well-known name never hurts. As you figure out how to do content analysis on your competition, keep an eye out for the big names or famous faces featured on their pages.
Noting the collaborators for other brands can help guide you towards your next business venture. For example, if your competition has a gold-star review from Ellen Degeneres, make it your goal this year to get an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey.
Clients respond to people—so fly that brag flag as high as you can. Even if you have no celebrity business interactions to speak of, you can boost your reputation just by posting a few positive reviews from your closest clients on your website.
If how to do content analysis on your competition was a mystery before, it should be much clearer now. Use what you know about other businesses to grow your own. And don’t feel bad about doing it! Chances are that your competition is watching you, as well.
Content analysis makes such a positive impact on your business—which is why having an expert do it for you is a phenomenal way to find success. Book a discovery call so that together, we can build the perfect tailored marketing strategy for you and your business.
