Competitors’ information research is a fundamental part of market research.
This focuses on understanding the way competition thinks and run their business (customers, traffic source, prices, etc.).
It helps discovering trends within the industry and increasing productivity by leveraging the best practices of leading firms.
As a business owner, you are supposed to carry out a competitor’s information research to know what your opposition is capable of doing.
Companies choose from a variety of available options when in need of such research reports.
Big businesses favour consulting professional agencies to carry out research on their competitors.
The desire to succeed and compete as humans is innate and plays a pivotal role in the evolution of the human race.
Likewise, in the business environment, successful companies stay ahead of the competition by researching information about their customers and competitors.
In contrast, small business owners, are beginning to leverage on the variety of freely available tools that are obtainable through the internet.
Internet tools, such as Web Audits and analytics from digital market intelligence companies, can be used without spending a cent.
You can use them to understand the scope and other characteristics of your addressable markets, competitors, and industry.
In this article, we will be discussing top online analytical tools used in a competitive research.
Web tools such as Alexa, SimilarWeb and Follow help you identify changes and trends in your competition and industry.
We will also cover how to maximize their potentials while conducting a competitive research.
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Competitors’ information research with Alexa.com
Alexa is one of the leading providers of veritable competitive intelligence Data.
The company’s ranking system that makes the frequency of visits to various websites available publicly is popular among online marketing Companies.
Also, Alexa Internet is a subsidiary of amazon and provides both SEO and competitive Intelligence tools.
Competitors’ information research tools offered by the company includes the Audience Overlap Tool and Website Traffic Statistics.
The Website traffic statistics shows how aggressive your business web marketing campaign is by providing metrics and a global ranking. While also allowing you to find and compare your rankings against top websites in your location and industry.
On the other hand, the Audience Overlap tool allows you to find sites with a similar audience base.
To make use of Alexa for competitors’ information research, sign up on their website here and choose a pricing plan within your budget.
This Website metrics displays data gathered from all web users who have the Alexa toolbar.
To see how your company ranks against your competitors, you enter a competitor’s website URL into the “Compare Sites” toolbar.
You can glean from the results how your brand fares in comparison with other competitors’.
2. Competitors’ information research with SimilarWeb.com
Another Popular tool for online competitive research of competing businesses is SimilarWeb.
SimilarWeb strives to provide the closest approximation of the digital world by aggregating data from several sources.
Data are gathered via a panel of monitored devices, Local internet service providers (ISPs), web crawlers that scan every public website and direct measurement sources from directly connected sites and apps. All those are then processed to give reliable data.
SimilarWeb Digital Insight and SimilarWeb PRO Services are the available Competitive Intelligence Tools provided on their platform.
These devices are useful in research marketing analytics and deducing the behavior and strategies of the competition.
You can research your competition by clicking on the “Add Competitor” button which intelligently displays similar websites and the category leaders.
SimilarWeb’s Traffic Insight features provide a lot of data about the websites. These date can be engagement metrics, traffic data sources and a web ranking based on country or category or both.
You can start using the tools by signing up for free and then upgrade to a paid plan if you desire premium features.
Unlike Alexa, most of the tools are free and you can compare up to three sites using SimilarWeb’ platform.
3. Competitors’ information research with Follow.net
Follow is another online platform to gain valuable competitive insights useful for understanding one’s market.
Like Other Competitive Intelligence or Information providers, Follow has tools for competitors’ information research and industry trends.
One unique feature of Follow is that it provides you with the ability to create portfolios of websites and to create a team on the platform.
You can also invite team members who will have access to the same statistics.
To use Follow, you sign up on their website here and instantly get access to their free plan. Free users get 50% of High-level data by default.
This means if there are 20 ads available for any domain you look up, you’ll only be able to see half of the results.
Paid plans offer 100% Overview Data, and other premium features.
Conclusion
Finally, the tools discussed are some of the most famous names out there. Yearly, more web traffic tools are still inducted.
With online tools such as the ones above, you can engage in an efficient competitors’ information research to increase or gain a competitive edge for your company.
With the right set of tools under a proactive management, companies can compete favorably against their competitors.
Have you ever used one of the tools above? If yes, are they effective tools?Why?
Would you share to the world your precious advice to aspire thousands?
Also, thanks for sharing with your friends and family.
