Why do you need to do a B2B competitor analysis?If you’ve ever wondered how you and your competitors engage with customers and prospects at various stages of the complex manufacturing buying cycle, a competitive market analysis can tell you. It also creates a competitive spirit within your organization to align your marketing and sales efforts, resulting in greater efficiency and faster ROI.
1. Identify Market Gaps with B2B Competitor Analysis
You can defend your competitive advantage in areas you’re good at, and that’s never a bad message to convey to key leaders and employees. Think of your B2B competitor analysis as something like a Venn diagram. Identify where you intersect with your competitors, with the goal of increasing your share at the expense of your competitors.
Identify opportunities in your competitive landscape that no one else is exploiting. The pandemic and subsequent disruptions to global supply chains have created many gaps and opportunities, and agile companies are leveraging their strengths to grow their business.
2. Get clues about where the industry is headed
Many manufacturers are focused on their own operations and specific verticals. There is a risk that the feedback loop becomes like a single-entity focus group, which is limiting.
A competitive market analysis can help you imagine how the market will react to your competitors by looking at their public personas and media strategies. However, any analysis of current trends and the future of the market should also involve market research.
3. Attract more customers through industry knowledge
B2B competitor analysis gives you the opportunity to articulate what sets your company apart from your competitors. You can demonstrate how you change your approach to engage customers and prospects at different stages of the complex manufacturing buying cycle. Then your potential customers will see you as a true industry expert. This creates trust and credibility.
When your team understands how your competitors approach the market, you can more clearly communicate your offer to potential customers. Knowledge is power – not just in terms of industry knowledge, but also in how others approach the industry differently than you do.
4. Identify vulnerabilities
It’s hard to admit that your tactics or approach aren’t working as expected. It’s even harder to figure this out in isolation when your only benchmark is your company’s metrics. A competitive market analysis can inspire your team to improve their marketing and sales by identifying the competitive advantages of your direct competitors.
And by providing them with industry and competitive knowledge and actionable goals, you can ignite their motivation and competitive spirit. People love to defend their niche and turn it from a weakness into a strength.
5. Expand your tools, reach and exposure through strategic paid media
Have you considered a paid media campaign or are you relying solely on organic advertising?
Knowing how much your competitors are paying for advertising to reach your market can help you plan a strategic paid marketing campaign. You can take a more direct approach or use other channels. As you have more data to evaluate and start to see the bigger picture, your recommendations become more meaningful and it becomes easier to allocate spending to meet your competitive goals. If you prioritize protecting your strengths, you’ll allocate differently than if you were expanding into adjacent markets or facing weaker competitors.
And don’t underestimate how your martech tools have evolved since you last checked. This could be an opportunity to update your tech stack with your actual goals in mind.
Gain a Competitive Advantage with B2B Competitor Analysis
B2B competitor analysis gives you insights about your company, your competitors, and the market environment, all with the goal of strategically improving your positioning in the market to win more business. Consider your own and your competitors’ product, sales, and marketing strategies by asking yourself the following questions:
Where are my competitors?
How do they get visibility and traffic?
Where are they without me?
Where am I without them?
How does their content appeal to the market?
Taking the time to answer questions about your business will give you an idea of where your strengths lie in the market. Once you consider the competition, you can adjust your marketing and sales efforts.
A competitive market analysis is a helpful tool to evaluate your marketing budget allocations and consider new opportunities to reach your goals. Are you willing to try a new social platform or attend a different trade show or conference? What are you willing to give up? Analysis can focus on almost any aspect of your product, sales, or marketing. It can be broad or narrow, superficial or deep.
Competitive Market Analysis is a Worthwhile Investment of Resources
Many manufacturers struggle to find the time to “work” on their business: market research, sales support, finding ways to improve their products, supply chain management, and so on. A B2B competitor analysis can be a great opportunity for companies to focus on key aspects of their business. In many ways, this is similar to continuous improvement and lean thinking in operations. It’s worth the investment of resources and effort.
If you’re ready to conduct a competitive analysis, contact us today and we’ll help you get started.
