How To Identify Competitors For A Small Business
Small business owners are spending their hard earned money on getting more sales and they are not getting that much as their competitors are on top and they have to spend more for reaching that point which is frustrating as small business owners can't invest too much. In this case the term spying on competition and gathering real data makes it easier to target your customer and have them buy your products.
So, the guide here about how to identify competitors for a small business to grow sales is about how you can spy on the exact strategies your competitors are applying and so you can apply the same thing for your business and beat the competition. The best thing is you can add your own perfection to that data and get highest sales of your career. So, let's get started:
You will be easily able to know their ideas and content strategies. You can get notified whenever they post new updates and you will see their ads about promoting their products. Now the thing is to find what they are not providing? you should check their comments and know what people are asking to them and how people are reacting to their social media updates. You can use the same data to post on your social media accounts and get a boost in your sales. If you can invest then its good, but if you can't then the best way is to engage with the audience from the competition and tell them about your product. You can easily make it happen on Facebook and Twitter. So use these two players to steal customers from your competition and you can use Hashtags their to identify your competition.
In that time you can setup Google Alerts for your product mentions and also for your competition, so whenever someone will talk about you or your competition you will be notified by Google and that is amazing. You can also choose to Google your own keywords with on Incognito Mode with a VPN activated. Since the VPN hides your IP and Incognito Mode blocks cookies, this will allow you to see Google SERPs as would be seen by your target market or you can say that using VPN service you can do transparent SEO analysis.
There are many other networks, but the best job portal and recruitment platform LinkedIn is powerful to hire your competition. All you have to do a simple search and it will show you the real people with their profiles showing where they have worked and where they are working for now. So you can find people working in your competition and offer them a job at your company or small business. You can simply give them higher salary and cut down the cost of your employees. They will give you the suggestions and insights from their previous work so that you can easily hit your competition and know their way of getting more sales.
You can just setup a live chat box on your website and ask your customers to directly interact with your sales officer so they can ask their questions and recommend their tips. With this you can ask your customers to tell you about their previous purchases and tell about why they like your product and how you can improve your product as your customer like. This way you can beat your competition and there is no need to pay for tools and advertising.
Just ask them and then give them your suggestion that if they discount their items with a flat 15% rate you will give them your product in 25% discount rate so that you can get together and tell the customer that when they will buy two products together they will save up to 40% in discounts.
That's the beauty of being friend to your competition and selling each other's items so that nobody is going to fail.
You can simply set a schedule of meeting with employees on one day of a week or 2 days in a month. Just don't take these meetings as business meetings. Buy some soft drinks and burgers for your employees and ask them to be frank this day and tell what they want you to change in your business and products. So they will reveal the best of their minds.
You can get data from those studies and then apply that data into your business strategy. This maybe a time consuming and technical work for you. I recommend you to hire an expert in your industry or just ask him to give you the advice on how to utilize data in your industry to grow your business. There are also free guides available at YouTube and in articles at many business related blogs. So do read them and watch that guides.
This is all for now on how to identify your competitors if you are a small business and how to grow your sales with spying on your competition and creating your own strategies. For more stay tuned and share this article with your friends.
So, the guide here about how to identify competitors for a small business to grow sales is about how you can spy on the exact strategies your competitors are applying and so you can apply the same thing for your business and beat the competition. The best thing is you can add your own perfection to that data and get highest sales of your career. So, let's get started:
1. Social Media
Here you don't have to invest in social media marketing and pay social media networks to promote your product. As you know that every brand and service is using social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and few other like Pinterest and LinkedIn, they are investing their and they are getting more audience and clients from these platforms. You don't have to invest like they do, all you have to do is spy on them and know what they are up to. Always do follow your competitors on every social media network and get alerts from your profiles whenever they post new things.You will be easily able to know their ideas and content strategies. You can get notified whenever they post new updates and you will see their ads about promoting their products. Now the thing is to find what they are not providing? you should check their comments and know what people are asking to them and how people are reacting to their social media updates. You can use the same data to post on your social media accounts and get a boost in your sales. If you can invest then its good, but if you can't then the best way is to engage with the audience from the competition and tell them about your product. You can easily make it happen on Facebook and Twitter. So use these two players to steal customers from your competition and you can use Hashtags their to identify your competition.
2. Competition Tracking Tools
There are some of the best tools available online to know your competition and then keep an eye on their steps. You can easily use tools like:- Google Adwords
- SEMrush
- Google Trends
In that time you can setup Google Alerts for your product mentions and also for your competition, so whenever someone will talk about you or your competition you will be notified by Google and that is amazing. You can also choose to Google your own keywords with on Incognito Mode with a VPN activated. Since the VPN hides your IP and Incognito Mode blocks cookies, this will allow you to see Google SERPs as would be seen by your target market or you can say that using VPN service you can do transparent SEO analysis.
3. Hiring
Recruitment is what every small and large business have to do for getting more sales and taking the business to the next levels. But this time, as you can't afford to pay too much to your employees and keep on testing new employees. You can just hire the competition. Yes, hire employees from your competition and use them as your business success factor. You can use some tools like LinkedIn to find people who are working with your competition.There are many other networks, but the best job portal and recruitment platform LinkedIn is powerful to hire your competition. All you have to do a simple search and it will show you the real people with their profiles showing where they have worked and where they are working for now. So you can find people working in your competition and offer them a job at your company or small business. You can simply give them higher salary and cut down the cost of your employees. They will give you the suggestions and insights from their previous work so that you can easily hit your competition and know their way of getting more sales.
4. Feedback
As from the first 3 methods about getting customers from the competition you maybe receiving some clients. If you can setup a poll or feedback page then your loyal customers will give you more insights about their previous purchases and tell you the things they need in your products and services.You can just setup a live chat box on your website and ask your customers to directly interact with your sales officer so they can ask their questions and recommend their tips. With this you can ask your customers to tell you about their previous purchases and tell about why they like your product and how you can improve your product as your customer like. This way you can beat your competition and there is no need to pay for tools and advertising.
5. Be Friends
You can just be friend to your competition and collaborate so that you can create a win-win situation and party together. As you maybe aware about many big brands collaborating on events and giving some freebies or discounts with purchasing of each other's products. You can do the same thing with your competition.Just ask them and then give them your suggestion that if they discount their items with a flat 15% rate you will give them your product in 25% discount rate so that you can get together and tell the customer that when they will buy two products together they will save up to 40% in discounts.
That's the beauty of being friend to your competition and selling each other's items so that nobody is going to fail.
6. Meetings
Do you know that your employees want you to talk with them frankly on a weekly employees meeting so that they can express their feelings about your business and product with a series of communications with your employees you can easily create an awesome product which everybody will love to purchase.You can simply set a schedule of meeting with employees on one day of a week or 2 days in a month. Just don't take these meetings as business meetings. Buy some soft drinks and burgers for your employees and ask them to be frank this day and tell what they want you to change in your business and products. So they will reveal the best of their minds.
7. Benchmarks and Reports
Do have an eye on industry reports and benchmarks which are available online and many big analytic companies and some of the professional digital marketers are conducting many surveys and studies to create those data charts and reports. They do it for their studies and then publish online to help small business owners survive and take good care of their products.You can get data from those studies and then apply that data into your business strategy. This maybe a time consuming and technical work for you. I recommend you to hire an expert in your industry or just ask him to give you the advice on how to utilize data in your industry to grow your business. There are also free guides available at YouTube and in articles at many business related blogs. So do read them and watch that guides.
This is all for now on how to identify your competitors if you are a small business and how to grow your sales with spying on your competition and creating your own strategies. For more stay tuned and share this article with your friends.
