Identify your competitors
The first step is to indentify exactly who your competitors are. Look at what you are offering and put yourself into the shoes of the user, looking for what you offer, and what comes up when you make a search. The more competitors both direct and indirect, that you can identify, the more a comprehensive competitive analysis you can perform.
Make a choice of up to 20 or 30 websites that you can commit to monitoring on a continuing basis. It isn’t enough to do this just once. The monitoring of competitors must be on an ongoing regular basis or you will quickly find that your business website is behind others. From the 20 or 30 websites, choose 5 of your closest competitors to provide the most in-depth of analysis.
What to monitor?
Once the competitors have been identified and the committal is in place to make the regular monitoring required, it is important to know what to monitor and how this can help you create an online store that stands out from your competitors. Firstly, try and ascertain whether the business is in growth, it is steady or in decline. Do a thorough investigation into what the strengths and weaknesses of each business are, looking at every aspect that might give your business an edge over its competitors. It’s not all about price. Identifying a simple weakness, say in the length the postage time can add value to your business if you can better it by offering faster shipping.
Look comprehensively at the websites and with the eyes of a user try to answer some important questions;
- Easy to find? What was searched and what came up?
- How quick did it download? Was it slow?
- Easy to navigate? Was the information easily accessible?
- Pricing and Products. How do they compare to yours?
- Merchant Services. What shipping do they offer? How are payments made?
- Advertisements. Are you inundated with pop-ups? Do they have paid advertisement opportunities?
By spending the time to make this research, you can go a long way in helping your business keep ahead of its competitors. Analyzing what the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors will give you the opportunity to create your own website that will really stand out from all the others. You will be able to look at every aspect, from ease of navigation to payment methods, and make that comparison to what you currently offer and what you are able to offer. You may not always be able to beat a competitor on price, but that is only one aspect of the competition. Look at offering quicker and cheaper shipping, look at providing an easier to navigate website and look at making the overall experience of the visitor a simpler experience with a better feel. There will probably be a lot you can do to make your website stand out from those of your competitors.
A business website must know what its opposition is doing at all times. Signing up to newsletters and for updates from your competitors is a good idea and saves time in making the analysis. This will get an understanding of competitors marketing strategies and let you know of any special offers or bonuses being offered that might have a direct effect on your business. The monitoring must be conducted on at least a monthly basis and can play a huge part in the success of the website you created.
When learning how to make a website that will succeed, it is imperative that the competition is not ignored. Knowing and monitoring the other websites will give you the opportunity to fine tune your own marketing strategy, be responsive to changes in market, and stay that all important one step ahead of your competitors.
