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Content Hub > Competitive Intelligence
WHAT IS COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE IN MARKETING?
What is Competitive Intelligence in marketing?
Guides
Product Marketing Alliance
Product Marketing AllianceProduct Marketing Alliance
January 24, 2023 29 min read
Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe Get a copy
Follow us on LinkedIn Contents
1.
2. What is competitive intelligence?
1. What is the difference between marketing intelligence and competitive
intelligence?
2. What is competitive pricing intelligence?
3. What are the common types of competitive intelligence?
4. Which teams are responsible for competitive intelligence?
5. Why should you use competitive intelligence?
1. The importance of competitive intelligence in product development
6. Competitive intelligence challenges
7. What are the goals of competitive intelligence?
1. Spotting gaps in the market
2. Improve products and services
3. Meeting demand and pricing accordingly
4. Benefits for your executives
5. Benefits for your marketing team
6. Benefits and objectives for your sales team
7. Benefits and objectives for your product team
8. How often should competitive intelligence be conducted?
9. The competitive intelligence process: how to conduct CI
1. Direct and indirect competitors
2. Get to know your competitorâs company
3. Get to know competitorsâ products
4. Check out your competitor's marketing methods
10. Is enough PMM budget spent on competitive intelligence tools?
11. What are the best competitive intelligence tools?
12.
13. How do you compare your competitors?
1. What is SWOT analysis?
2. How to conduct a SWOT analysis
14. 6 steps for a successful competitive intelligence process
1. 1. Identify your competitors
2. 2. Track competitorsâ digital footprints
3. 3. Gather your intel
4. 4. Create a competitive analysis
5. 5. Communicate intel
6. 6. Turn data into results
15. Deliverables to watch out for
1. 1. Alerts or Watchlists
2. 2. Dashboards
3. 3. Newsletters
4. 4. Reports
5. 5. Competitor Profiles
16. How to monitor competitive activity
1. Set yourself up for success
2. Identify your competitors
3. Identify your stakeholders
4. Set a cadence for monitoring
5. Set goals and KPIs
17. Making competitive intelligence actionable for product marketing teams
18. Access this complete toolkit - and more - right here. đ
1. What's inside this guide?
2. Part 1: presentations
3. Part 2: templates
4. Part 3: competitive intelligence guides
Competitive analysis refers to the process of identifying your competitors and
analyzing their strategies.
The goal is to gather as much intelligence as possible so that you can find out
your competitorâs strengths and weaknesses in order to develop an effective
go-to-market strategy to gain a competitive advantage.
SCIP (Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals) Executive Director
Cam Mackey defines the process as:
> âA discipline that enables organizations to reduce strategic risk and increase
> revenue opportunities.â
Needless to say, competitive intelligence research is an invaluable process for
any product marketing team. When conducted properly, it can greatly enhance your
workflow and unearth vital competitive insights. These can help you:
* Spot gaps in the market
* Stay ahead of the competition
* Improve your products and services with comprehensive market research
* Meet demand and price accordingly
* Make more informed decision-making
* Support your sales team
* Improve resources such as battlecards.
Itâs important to pay particular attention to your competitorâs announcements
and keep up-to-date with announcements relating to a product, partnership,
merger, or acquisition.
Furthermore, customer reviews are also a great source of intel when youâre
trying to learn more about a rival product. Theyâre often available to the
public and serve as a visualization of what your target audience is looking for
in a product.
Here are the key questions you want to be able to answer when youâve conducted
market intelligence and fulfilled the data collection process.
1. What is your competitor's strategy, and more importantly, how can you apply
your findings to enhance strategic planning, and make smarter business
decisions thatâll appeal to your target audience?
2. What have they already done to effect that strategy thatâs visible in
product announcements, social media channels, webinars, press releases,
marketing messages, acquisitions, statements, etc.?
3. Where might they head next if they were continuing that strategy, and how
might I get ahead of it?
4. Which actionable insights can I transfer to the internal marketing team to
improve business strategy?
Executive teams, and communications teams, require market intelligence to
support the delivery of high-level strategic decision-making.
To help you answer these three questions, we're about to take you through:
* Why you should use competitive intelligence
* How to conduct competitive intelligence
* How to compare yourself to the competition
WHAT IS COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE?
Competitive intelligence is the practice of gathering and analyzing information
relating to an organizationâs competitors and using these insights to create a
competitive advantage. This tactic helps businesses to understand their
competitive landscape and the opportunities and threats that might be present.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MARKETING INTELLIGENCE AND COMPETITIVE
INTELLIGENCE?
Marketing intelligence focuses on understanding customers and their actions.
This makes marketing intelligence a client-focused activity that may involve
understanding your customers and creating user personas.
Competitive intelligence on the other hand is focused on what your competitors
within the market are doing. This involves collecting and analyzing data to find
key insights into a competitor's decision-making and find opportunities and
risks in the business environment.
WHAT IS COMPETITIVE PRICING INTELLIGENCE?
Competitive pricing intelligence is a strategy used by organizations to track
the price and performance of competing products on the market to determine how
to make informed pricing decisions.
WHAT ARE THE COMMON TYPES OF COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE?
Competitive intelligence isnât all equal - there are two main types: tactical
and strategic. Tactical competitive intelligence deals with more short-term
issues such as increasing profits, whereas strategic activities help with
long-term issues such as key opportunities and threats.
WHICH TEAMS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE?
In the our Competitive Intelligence Trends Report, we explored who is
responsible for the CI function to decipher which department owns the process
and understand who is responsible in most cases.
Most product marketers surveyed (78.6%) indicated that they are responsible for
competitive intelligence at their company.
The undoubted value of a dedicated CI team is being recognized, with 11.4% of
respondents saying they have a specialist team who owns the process.
Adam Houghton, VP of Success at Klue, gave an insight into how the companyâs
client success team sync with PMMs across the board, and some of their common
findings:
> âOur Client Success team works closely with thousands of product marketers
> across multiple industries and company sizes.
> "Thereâs a common thread we tend to see - understanding how they differ from
> competitors and where they fit in their market landscape is critical to
> success - not only for positioning and messaging to empower revenue teams to
> win, but to help drive product direction and strategy across the
> organization.â
How can you create a culture of competitive intelligence at your company?
To learn more about creating a culture of competitive intelligence (CI) within
your organization and using it as a catalyst for collaboration, Erik Mansur, VP
of Product Marketing at Crayon, sat down with Patrick Wall, Head of Competitive
Intelligence at Imperva.
Product Marketing AllianceLawrence Chapman
WHY SHOULD YOU USE COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE?
Competitive intelligence enables you to learn from your competitorâs mistakes
and strive to improve in areas where they may be better than you. Conducted
properly competitive analysis will help you:
* Develop new products and features,
* Identify gaps in the market,
* Uncover trends, and
* Market and sell your product more effectively.
Competitive analysis helps you develop a deeper understanding of market dynamics
so you can find the best way to reach your target customers. The information you
gather will also help you develop and/or adjust your Go-to-Market strategy so
itâs as effective as it can possibly be.
Everything you need to know about Go-to-Market strategies
Letâs assess your current situation: youâve had your eureka moment, your killer
ideaâs smashed through the confines of your mind and landed in the lap of your
stakeholders.
Product Marketing AllianceLawrence Chapman
How to craft KPIs for a killer competitive program
âDoes anybody think the product marketing role is kind of a scam? No, of course
not, but a competitive program is something to show how we add value because
oftentimes itâs somewhat of an echo chamber that we have to prove our value.â
Product Marketing AllianceNikhil Dhingra
THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
A CI manager at Consensus Point and Cipher shared some insights into the
importance of competitive analysis in product development.
My experience as a CI manager taught me the importance of conducting a wide
market analysis to assess each playerâs strategic positioning and in doing so, I
uncovered a major competitor not mentioned in the report.
Upon deeper investigation, I understood that the competitor had begun product
development two years earlier and was soon to release the product. Due to the
competitorâs strong product, position, and status - this was a true game
changer.
Once management was informed, the company decided to switch product focus and in
hindsight saved millions by discovering CI insights. I often wonder how things
would have been different without the use of CI.
Competitive intelligence at the speed of DevOps
In this article, Iâll discuss competitive intelligence as a startup framed in my
experience at GitLab, how it affects overall marketing, and share the tools,
techniques, and resources we used to get CI information across the DevOps
lifecycle.
Product Marketing AllianceClinton Sprauve
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE CHALLENGES
There are a variety of challenges that can block competitive intelligence in
your organization. This can stop you from reaping the rewards of CI.
Here are some challenges that PMMs face:
> âAt my company, there arenât enough resources. Iâm the only PMM.â
> âThere are a few areas Iâm struggling with. I find it difficult to complete an
> apples to apples comparison, while itâs also tough to find pricing, hard to
> distinguish what a company does from their marketing hype.â
> âWe struggle with focus and prioritization. Most of the players in our space
> are not competition. Our offerings are not comparable and our target customers
> are not the same. We mistake everyone in the industry as potential
> competition."
> âWe have no budget and insufficient time to do it all manually. There are so
> many internal requirements for different information.â
> âIn the AdTech industry, your competitors can be your frenemies. So it is
> sometimes difficult to pick out your exact competitors.â
> âThere are too many methods and tools you need to apply to gather the same
> information.â
To help you overcome these problems and many more, check out our competitive
intelligence course.
Competitive Intelligence Certified | Masters
Learn how to stay 10 steps ahead of the competition, and convert more customers
into advocates.
Product Marketing Alliance
WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE?
Thereâs nothing worse than failing to learn from other peopleâs mistakes, and as
we mentioned before, thorough competitive intelligence will show you exactly
what your competitors have done wrong, paving the way for you to benefit from
their shortcomings.
While the benefits and goals of competitive intelligence will vary from brand to
brand, here are some of the core reasons to embrace the process and delve into
the activities of your competition.
SPOTTING GAPS IN THE MARKET
Thereâs no doubting consumers will always be attracted to something new, that
isnât available in other areas of the market - itâs part of consumerism, and
this will never change.
Making an existing product and pitting your wits against another company, and
fighting for customersâ attention is extremely difficult. However, conducting
competitive intelligence not only reveals whatâs already available but also how
you can fill a gap in the market with a brand-new product nobody else is
offering.
Sportswear manufacturers Admiral executed this to perfection in the 1970s.
Following the success of the England soccer team at the 1966 World Cup, owner
Bert Patrick scoured the market and identified a gap in the market for replica
team shirts. The company would go on to produce shirts for the likes of
Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, and the England national team,
with the likes of Adidas and Umbro, soon jumping on the bandwagon.
In using competitive analysis, Admiral spawned an industry worth billions to the
sports industry, annually; the perfect testament to the benefits of keeping an
eye on the ball.
No pun intended, honest.
IMPROVE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
A pessimistic may say, âthereâs no such thing as perfectionâ, but product
marketers adopting a more optimistic stance would argue competitive intelligence
can serve as the ideal way to aspire to achieve more or less the same thing.
Although mistakes are somewhat inevitable when making a product, or putting a
new service together, (letâs face facts, we are human, after all), the
shortcomings of other companies canât be acted upon if you donât know about it,
which is all the more reason to scope out your competition, spot their flaws,
and pounce the minute you get the chance.
MEETING DEMAND AND PRICING ACCORDINGLY
Competitive analysis also allows you to use the services being provided by your
competitors as an indication of how market trends are emerging.
For example, research into product sales can provide insight into what customers
in the field want, and donât want, at any given time. This can be used during
your product development phase to ensure youâre not promoting products unlikely
to prick the interest of your target market.
Similarly, price is always a key driver behind whether a prospect converts into
a customer, or whether they decide against making a purchase. Researching market
trends will give a clear indication of how much money someone is willing to
spend on a product; introduce a price thatâs too low, and not only could you
lose out financially, but you could also risk devaluing your product. Similarly,
if you price too high, this can drive away customers, and thrust them into the
grateful arms of other companies.
Use your competitors as guinea pigs, and analyze their strategy to inform your
decisions, never make an impulsive decision.
Ultimately, thereâs no doubt competitive intelligence can benefit your company.
We'd go as far as saying itâd be pretty ignorant to think no lessons can be
learned from those youâre competing with.
But before you can reap the benefits, you need to consolidate your understanding
of exactly who your competitors are.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crayon, a market, and competitive intelligence company, share the benefits of
competitive intelligence with each team at your organization.
BENEFITS FOR YOUR EXECUTIVES
"Your executives have a lot on their plates, but they need competitive
intelligence insights to effectively steer the organization. While they might
not be the ones acting on the insights, they want to have a view of the
competitive landscape so they know what their teams are focused on. When you
deliver insights to an executive, follow these tips for making sure theyâre
getting the most out of the data."
BENEFITS FOR YOUR MARKETING TEAM
"The information you gathered about your competitorsâ marketing efforts, whether
that be content marketing, events, social media, messaging, or A/B tests, can be
used to improve and implement new marketing initiatives.
"In collaboration with the product team, your product marketers can craft
stronger messaging to assist with upcoming product launches, website copy, and
collateral for your whole organization."
BENEFITS AND OBJECTIVES FOR YOUR SALES TEAM
"The information you gained about your competitorsâ pricing, sales teams, and
products can be used to improve your sales collateral, demo scripts, and sales
processes. If you turn the information you gathered into sales battle cards or
competitor profiles, your sales team will be well equipped with the information
needed to turn competitor intelligence into revenue won.
"The data that you arm your sales team with can give them the competitive edge
they need to better handle competitive objections throughout the sales process
and win more competitive deals."
BENEFITS AND OBJECTIVES FOR YOUR PRODUCT TEAM
"Gathering information about your competitorsâ products from their websites,
customer reviews, and online forums is a great way to improve your own products.
Knowing the specs of your competitorsâ products, how they work, and what people
like (or dislike) about the solutions can help your product team iterate to make
your product even better.
"There are many tools that you can use to assist with gathering intel and
analyzing your competitive landscape. There is a lot of valuable data on the
internet about each of your competitors, and with the right resources, you can
seamlessly integrate competitive intelligence into your existing business
strategy.
"If you follow these steps, you can pull out key pieces of intel, communicate it
to your team, and derive value from the data you gathered during your
competitive intelligence process.
"Understand who are the market leaders, who is controlling the conversations,
and who is up-and-coming in your industry. Request a free competitive landscape
report."
HOW OFTEN SHOULD COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE BE CONDUCTED?
So, now you know what competitive intelligence is, and how to conduct the
research, you may be wondering when you should be completing the exercise.
Competitive intelligence is a continual job, and honestly, thereâs no definitive
answer to how often it should be carried out; the frequency will vary depending
on how many companies youâre scouting.
Competitor research may be conducted weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, depending on
individual circumstances. However, what we can say is leaving it longer than
once a month isnât advisable. After all, the market and the behaviors of your
competitors are always changing, and you could well be left behind.
Itâs also important to note your stage in the cycle should also influence when
you conduct your research into the competition. For instance, if youâre
launching a new product, or making improvements to an existing service, you need
to make sure youâre completing competitive intelligence.
THE COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE PROCESS: HOW TO CONDUCT CI
First of all, you need to divide your competition into two groups: direct and
indirect.
DIRECT AND INDIRECT COMPETITORS
A direct competitor is a business with a product or service similar to yours,
which operates in the same geographic location.
An indirect competitor provides products that arenât quite the same but could
meet the same customer need or solve the same problem as your product.
If youâre comparing your brand, itâs important to focus mainly on your direct
competitors. However, this doesnât mean you should completely drop your guard
around indirect competitors, they could quite easily become direct competitors
in a very short space of time.
GET TO KNOW YOUR COMPETITORâS COMPANY
Use your competitorâs founding date, fundraising rounds, and employee count as a
benchmark against your own growth. If your companyâs been around for two years,
where were your competitors at the same age? How fast was their growth? How much
revenue did they generate?
You can find this information on websites like LinkedIn, AngelList, Crunchbase,
and Owler. You can also use this data to set goals and projections for the year.
Itâs not easy to find out information on market share, but itâs something thatâs
worth looking into. Big companies spend millions investigating competitors, we
know thatâs not a viable number for the majority of SaaS companies or start-ups,
but there is a way you can get a ballpark figure without spending a ridiculous
amount.
Conduct a survey with a decent sample size of respondents and ask them which
solutions or tools theyâre currently using, if the same products or companies
keep popping up you've got a solid estimation of their market share.
GET TO KNOW COMPETITORSâ PRODUCTS
You'll need to analyze your competitor's complete product line along with the
quality of the product or services, looking at the competing productâs strengths
and weaknesses.
How do customers perceive your competitorâs product design, quality, and price
Make a list of your competitorâs core product features and compare them to your
own, looking at which features your competitors offer that are unique to their
product. How do your same features measure up?
Look at pricing and whether or not theyâre offering discounts to users. Ask
yourself the following questions:
* How are the products distributed?
* Which methods are used to differentiate products from competitors?
* Does the company offer a budget or premium product?
* How do customers perceive the productâs design and quality?
* What are their customersâ needs?
* Is their online pricing different from their in-store pricing?
Check out our members area to unlock the competitive intel checklist below.
CHECK OUT YOUR COMPETITOR'S MARKETING METHODS
Scoping out your competitorâs website is the easiest way to gauge their
marketing methods. Do they publish regular blog content? Do they make Vlogs?
Podcasts? What advertising campaigns are they using? Is there an FAQ section?
Look at the companyâs about us page, What story are your competitors telling
customers? How do they position their product?
How do they describe its value proposition and benefits? Whatâs their tagline?
As well as products and marketing, itâs important to research other areas,
including:
* Sales tactics
* Content strategy
* Customer success approach
* Social media presence
Youâll want to look at the kind of topics they cover on the blog and how their
customers engage with it. Are they commenting? Sharing? Liking the content?
How to conduct a social media competitive analysis
A social media competitive analysis is a key component to developing a
successful social media strategy. In fact, itâs one of three elements that feed
any strategy that I develop for clients. But what is a competitive analysis and
how do you conduct one?
Product Marketing AllianceAventi Group
And, to help speed up your shortlisting process, we put together a tried and
tested list of competitor intel tools, personally recommended by product
marketers.
IS ENOUGH PMM BUDGET SPENT ON COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE TOOLS?
Whether itâs an awesome product launch, compelling messaging, or essential sales
enablement assets, investment plays an essential role in the success of every
facet of product marketing.
This prompts the million-dollar question: is enough money being spent on
competitive intelligence?
In our Competitive Intelligence Trends Report, we asked our crop of PMM experts
how much budget is allocated to competitive intelligence at their companies, and
it was encouraging to see 62.3% of respondents indicated their orgs are setting
money aside to support the function.
Chris Owen, Director of Product Management at Saviynt, explained how the company
used existing data to incentivize company executives to invest in a competitive
intelligence program:
> âThe first thing we did at Saviynt was targeted the exec team with the concept
> of a CI program, asking how we can stretch our competitive landscape from 1 to
> 40.
> âBy starting with the data we have in Salesforce, and broadening that to the
> other software areas in which we exist, we were able to predict how much we
> could increase our win rate by targeting certain competitors. That really
> incentivized them to move forward with a CI solution.â
WHAT ARE THE BEST COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE TOOLS?
As highlighted in the Product Marketing Tools of Choice, there are plenty of
competitive intelligence tools available.
Here are the top 9 competitive intelligence tools:
* Klue
* Google
* Crayon
* Gong
* Google alerts
* Gartner peer insights
* SEMRush
* Slack
* Chorus
HOW DO YOU COMPARE YOUR COMPETITORS?
Itâs really important to establish an internal baseline before you compare your
competition. Look at your sales, business, and marketing methods through the
same lens youâd view your competitors. Record the information and use this to
compare across the board, the information you gain can also be really helpful
when the time comes to perform a SWOT analysis.
WHAT IS SWOT ANALYSIS?
If you're looking for a way to get an accurate overview of your productâs
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and potential threats stick with us and
weâll explain how to conduct one.
And how you can use it to blow your competition out of the market.
Competitor SWOT analysis
Competitor SWOT analysis Date last reviewed: DD/MM/YYYY Company Strengths
Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Your company Out of everything you listed in
your competitor intel worksheet, what do you outrightly do better than your
competitors that distinguishes you? For exa...
Google Docs
SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Strengths: what sets you apart from the competition? Do you offer a feature
unique to your product? Are you an innovator? Do you have an established,
engaging social media presence?
Weaknesses: what is it thatâs stopping you from having a competitive edge? Is it
a lack of capital? Is your marketing strategy letting you down?
Opportunities: these are prospects or openings you could take advantage of to
get ahead of the competition. They could be new developments in the market you
serve, a new trend, or perhaps a popular feature you're sure you could improve
on.
Threats: include anything that could negatively affect the business, internal or
external. For example, evolving technology is always a threat! Anything that
makes you especially vulnerable in the market is a threat.
HOW TO CONDUCT A SWOT ANALYSIS
You donât have to be psychic to conduct a successful SWOT analysis (although
that would definitely give you a competitive advantage) itâs not about being
exact in your predictions, itâs about planning for any and all eventualities.
Specify an objective
It sounds kind of obvious but itâs worth reiterating, establish exactly what
data you're trying to gather and assess, this way youâll know precisely what to
look for in the research stage.
You might want to run a SWOT analysis to decide if you should introduce a new
feature or launch a completely new product, add a new department or outsource a
specific process. Itâs flexible enough to assess all kinds of different areas
across the organization.
Assemble an elite team
Youâll want to assemble a team whose knowledge and experience closely match your
objectives. Your team can include customers, stakeholders, executives, anyone
you deem a match basically, the more feedback you can gather the better.
Research, research, research
Itâs time for brutal honesty. You need to carry out some truly unbiased research
to find out where you stand in the market.
Be honest about your weaknesses, because, well, not to get all Mr. Miyagi on
you, but your weaknesses could very well lead you to your biggest strength. Be
just as honest about your strengths too, without this research youâll never be
able to compete or maintain your advantage.
Make a list
Using a grid formation, or better still this free template! Use each square to
condense your results (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) into
short, snappy sentences. Always use the points that crop up most frequently in
your research, these are the ones thatâll pack the most punch.
This template is a great way to visualize your success and find potential
connections between each square, could your strengths be used to eliminate a
weakness? Could eliminating a weakness open the door to a new opportunity?
Take action
Making plans and mapping out strategies is all well and good if you actually
follow through.
Now you have the results, what are you going to do about it? You're going to
prioritize your list into an actionable plan you can tackle straight away.
Think about what you and the team can realistically address right now, then
think about what you can tackle and how long-term.
Make sure your action list is measurable. No vague statements like âincrease
productivityââ thank you very much! We want to know how youâll increase
productivity, actions like âinvesting in a new platform, to make accessing
client information easierâ or âinvesting in a PMA Team Membership plan, so
everyone is aligned and has access to the same templates and vast library of
content đâ. Donât forget to set goals and KPIs so you can measure the success
of your objectives too.
Depending on the size of your team you could delegate an action to the specific
person whose experience aligns best with the objective (someone who has buy-in
preferably). Set an allotted time to sit down with this person and set
benchmarks and measurable goals.
Finally, create a timeline to begin the action and complete it. Breaking up the
timeline into manageable chunks ensures everyone can see the progress unfold and
your best-laid plans won't fall by the wayside.
If youâd like to take a deeper dive into SWOT analysis, we have a number of
resources you can access in our members' area.
6 STEPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE PROCESS
Crayon shares their top six steps to a successful competitive intelligence
process.
1. IDENTIFY YOUR COMPETITORS
"The first step in the competitive intelligence process is to identify your
competitors. Have a robust competitive landscape. Start with your top five
direct competitors. In addition to your direct competitors, you should identify
your indirect competitors, your aspirational competitors, and your perceived
competitors.
"Your indirect competitors are key players within your industry but likely donât
compete with you for customers. Your aspirational competitors are those leading
companies within your industry that you donât necessarily compete with, but you
can pull inspiration from to benefit your own business.
"Finally, your perceived competitors are those companies that may come up during
the sales discovery process, but that you donât actually compete with for
business.
"If you want to segment your competitive landscape even more, you can break it
down by sales vertical or industry focus, and solution type. Identifying your
competitors is key to beginning your competitive analysis and diving deeper into
your market to understand your competitive landscape."
2. TRACK COMPETITORSâ DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS
"Once youâve identified your competitors, and who you want to start analyzing,
you should choose major focus areas for the data you need to collect. Consider
all of the data accessible online about each of your competitors as well as
internal knowledge from your front-line teams. If you narrow down the types of
intel you care most about, data points that align with current initiatives, it
will be easier to digest the data.
"If youâre unsure where to start, try exploring some of the most engaging
competitive intelligence types."
3. GATHER YOUR INTEL
"The act of gathering the intel can be the most time-consuming step of the
competitive intelligence process. In fact, The State of Competitive Intelligence
reported that 33% of time dedicated to CI/MI goes toward the research phase.
This is where you have to take the time to explore your competitorsâ online
presence and gather information about their products, websites, teams,
announcements, social media engagements, content, and everything in between.
"You want to gather the most intel about each of your competitors so that you
can dig in and analyze the data to pull out the valuable insights."
4. CREATE A COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
"Analyzing the intel is where your analyst or competitive intelligence manager
breaks down the data, pulls out the key trends and essential pieces of
information, and organizes the findings so that they can be easily communicated
throughout your organization.
"Creating a competitor analysis can be done a couple of different ways. One way
is to do a benchmark or baseline analysis, which will allow you to compile your
data and create a competitor profile.
"Competitor profiles or battle cards are highly useful to ensure that your
findings on each competitor are being kept within one centralized document. An
equally important approach to competitor analysis is to analyze competitive
intelligence on an ongoing basis, in real time.
"Itâs beneficial to create profiles on your competitors, but itâs even more
valuable to continue to track your competitors. The best way to keep a pulse on
your competitors is by setting up alerts on everything from new news mentions to
product changes to customer reviews. That way, you can stay on top of your
competitorsâ moves and continue to arm your team with up-to-date analysis."
5. COMMUNICATE INTEL
"The worst thing to happen when youâve gathered competitive intelligence is if
no one consumes your findings. You want to ensure that the key stakeholders see
your findings and that the data is being leveraged to improve your own
strategies. The State of Competitive Intelligence report found that 66% of
companies share their competitive intel via email, 54% use meetings, and 25% of
companies use an internal chat.
"A useful tool that many people take advantage of for intel communication is
Slack (or other internal chat), where they can easily communicate competitive
intel to their whole company via instant message. Another great place to store
complete competitor profiles if you donât have a CI platform is on a
collaborative website such as a company wiki or intranet. That way, you can
alert your coworkers when new intel is added, and you can ensure that the
information is in an easy-to-locate place."
6. TURN DATA INTO RESULTS
"So, now youâve identified your competitors, gathered intel, analyzed the data,
and effectively communicated your findings to the relevant stakeholders. The
final step is to make your data actionable - use your findings to benefit your
overall business strategy. Here are a few ways you can make the data actionable
for each of your key stakeholders."
DELIVERABLES TO WATCH OUT FOR
Deliverables are an effective tool for getting the right information to the
right people to drive action. Here are some examples of deliverables to consider
implementing in your organization.
1. ALERTS OR WATCHLISTS
Create alerts or watchlists to get notified about changes in your industry or
updates on your competitors' actions. These alerts can give you quick updates on
your competition regularly to keep you in the loop.
2. DASHBOARDS
Keeping data on a dashboard keeps it visible and allows you to check data at a
glance. You can easily find all the data-driven insights you need to compare
your organization to competitors in one place.
3. NEWSLETTERS
Sending short weekly newsletters internally in your organization can help to
give insights to the right team members. These newsletters could share all the
new information on a particular topic so it can be read quickly. This can help
everyone stay on the same page.
4. REPORTS
If you need to go more in-depth into a particular topic or area, a report might
be the best way to share this information internally. They will analyze your
insights in an impactful way and share these findings within your organization.
5. COMPETITOR PROFILES
Competitor profiles can provide key information about your competition at a
glance. These should be very short and specific. Think of these profiles as
one-page fact sheets on each of your main competitors.
Remember to update these regularly to keep the information up to date.
HOW TO MONITOR COMPETITIVE ACTIVITY
Emily Dumas, Content Lead for Product GTM at ZoomInfo, shares her top insights
into monitoring competitive activity.
SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
"Before you begin monitoring your competitors, you need to set yourself up for
success.
"Competitive intelligence (CI) canât be conducted in a vacuumâif youâre
conducting CI on your own, with no clear goal in mind, your CI program wonât be
impactful for your organization.
"Here are four actionable items to complete before you get started monitoring
competitive activity:"
IDENTIFY YOUR COMPETITORS
"Every company has multiple competitors, even startups. The first step in
monitoring competitive activity is identifying who youâre competing against.
Depending on the size of your company, you might have many competitors.
"At first, you donât want to go after your entire competitive landscape, so
break down your market, and tier your competitors based on who you compete with
for the most revenue. Start with tier one, two, and so on."
IDENTIFY YOUR STAKEHOLDERS
"Externally, youâre identifying your key competitors. Internally, you need to
identify your key stakeholdersâwho within your organization is integral to your
CI program?
"While everyone within your organization can benefit from Competitive
Intelligence, you will have a group of key stakeholders that youâll work closely
with, who will be the main consumers of your intel.
"Some examples of key stakeholders might be:
* Product Marketing Managers
* Sales Enablement Managers
* Product Managers
* Sales leadership
* Marketing leadership
* Executives"
SET A CADENCE FOR MONITORING
"Conducting competitive intelligence research doesnât have to be time-consuming.
If you can set aside a certain amount of time every week or month to focus on
CI, youâll soon build a habit of incorporating competitive intelligence into
your day-to-day.
"When setting a cadence for monitoring competitive activity, you should take a
few variables into consideration:
* How much time can you realistically allocate to your CI initiative?
* How many people are dedicated to CI on your team?
* How often are changes happening within your market?
"There is no right or wrong answer to how often you should be conducting
competitive intelligence research. It all depends on your unique market and your
business needs. Whether youâre going to spend 10 minutes per day or five hours
per week, just make sure you set a cadence and stick to it."
SET GOALS AND KPIS
"As a product marketer, you know that it doesnât make sense to kick off a new
project without setting goals and KPIs. When it comes to CI, you should set both
short-term and long-term goals, as well as a combination of both quantitative
and qualitative KPIs.
"Some examples of KPIs:
* Revenue - how has your revenue changed? (Revenue is the ultimate KPI!)
* Win rate - how has your win rate improved?
* Strategy shifts - How has your strategy been impacted by CI?
* Employee engagement - Is there a high adoption rate of your CI tools? Are
your teams benefiting from CI?"
How to craft KPIs for a killer competitive program
âDoes anybody think the product marketing role is kind of a scam? No, of course
not, but a competitive program is something to show how we add value because
oftentimes itâs somewhat of an echo chamber that we have to prove our value.â
Product Marketing AllianceNikhil Dhingra
MAKING COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE ACTIONABLE FOR PRODUCT MARKETING TEAMS
Q: How do you make competitive intelligence useable for your team? I'm curious
about tools or processes that have enabled your teams to effectively understand
both high-level and detailed competitive intelligence.
> âSlide deck presented in a lunch and learn format, and Ask Me Anything; mix of
> high level and granular. People can come to you individually for deeper
> dives.â
Yuting Chu, Digital Product Manager at CrowdDoing
> âUseful deliverables: External - one slide for customers showing where you are
> better (tick marks vs crosses). Internal - two-page battle card with
> strengths, weaknesses, how to attack, etc.â
Anatolii Lakimets, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Bold
> âSales will be focusing on individual deals and their territory - product
> marketing can add value by looking more broadly at trends and collating to
> give a larger picture. We tackle market intelligence a few ways at my company:
* Maintain battle cards for tier 1 competitors, quick SWOT analysis for tier 2
and emerging competitors, and quick readouts of competitor news (investments
and acquisitions, product updates, etc) analyze closed opportunities each
month for win/loss, and do a quick recap on Slack to build interest in our
market position.
* Build an overview of key competitor analysis for new hires with a picture of
where we win/they win.
* Run workshops with sales to analyze recent deals, to get them to talk to each
other and share insights. E.g. how to spot a competitor, what traps they
leave for us when to walk away.
* As we build up a better picture of our competitors we create assets such as
one-pagers to show reasons to choose us vs them. Itâs not a feature
comparison or checklist but we highlight our pricing strategy and how that
helps customers to grow with us, for example.â
Louise Dunne, Product Marketing Manager at Linnworks
> âTable with comparison by features and pricing. Newbies onboarding and
> testing. Bi-weekly meeting about the news and competitors. Chat in the Slack
> or Telegram for hot news, questions, and updates.â
Alexandra Kulachikova, Product Owner (ML-based SaaS for B2B) at Semrush
> âIn my experience, sellers want very straightforward competitive materials.
> Our battlecards are built in Crayon and integrated to live in Highspot with
> the rest of our collateral. They consist of:
* Quick dismisses (< 10-word responses when a competitor is mentioned)
* Long-form content for emails
* Shareable collateral (G2 grids, case studies, etc)
* A feature comparison
* Negative customer reviews (from G2 and TrustRadius)
> âOur executive team gets a monthly newsletter summarizing competitive product
> changes, acquisitions, funding, pricing updates, employee headcount changes,
> and competitor mentions (tracked via Chorus).
> âProduct managers get semi-annual reports based on the products that they own.
> In the reports, we include information from analysts, NPS, win/loss reviews,
> and survey responses that help them better understand what to prioritize for
> their roadmaps.â
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell, Product Marketing Manager at ZoomInfo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACCESS THIS COMPLETE TOOLKIT - AND MORE - RIGHT HERE. đ
WHAT'S INSIDE THIS GUIDE?
Whether you've got a big competitive intelligence session on the horizon or just
want to brush up your knowledge, learn from the best, and see how others keep an
eye on their competition, here's a selection of presentations, templates, and
guides assembled by competitive intelligence professionals to help you keep tabs
on your rivals during your next CI project.
PART 1: PRESENTATIONS
- Ready to launch: differentiation in a competitive landscape- Growth hacking
with real-time CI- Demystifying competitive intelligence- Panel discussion:
competitive intelligence strategies- The competitive intelligence continuum-
Ideas for building a world-class competitive intelligence program- Data and CI
for product innovation: enterprise vs startups- Craft your metrics for a
competitive program- Competitive intelligence at the speed of DevOps
PART 2: TEMPLATES
- Competitive intel checklist- Competitor SWOT analysis template- Porter's five
forces
PART 3: COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE GUIDES
- Competitive intelligence 101- Building a data-driven win-loss program-
Gathering and staying on top of competitor intel- How to collect (and share!)
competitive intelligence results
There's plenty more where this came from. đ
Unlock it all in here. đ
Competitive intelligence toolkit | Product Marketing Alliance
Crush your next competitive intelligence project.
Product Marketing AllianceProduct Marketing Alliance
Head-to-head: The Competitive Intelligence Playbook has been designed to include
all the most important insights and steps needed to build and refine your
competitive intelligence strategy, and ultimately win your market...
Head-to-Head: The Competitive Intelligence Playbook
Head-to-Head: The Competitive Intelligence Playbook has been designed to equip
you with the knowledge you need to build and refine your competitive
intelligence strategy, and ultimately win your market.
Product Marketing AllianceProduct Marketing Alliance
Product marketing toolkits | Product Marketing Alliance
Everything you need to gear up for your next big project.
Product Marketing AllianceProduct Marketing Alliance
January 24, 2023 Subscribe
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