Keeping tabs on competitors is one of those jobs you know is important but gets pushed to the bottom of the to do list, until one of them does something that shakes up the market and your boss asks why you didn’t see it coming.
While a crystal ball would be handy you can get a good idea of a competitor’s strategy and direction by monitoring their media coverage. Get started with the following tips.
Identify your core competitors
In a crowded market it’s easy to get bogged down trying to track every single potential competitor. Focus on up to four of your biggest direct competitors to begin with. Starting small makes it easier to make time for and build into your planning.
Track using your media monitoring platform
Add your core set of competitors to your media monitoring and tag their coverage so you can benchmark your results against them.
Monitoring will enable you to easily benchmark share of voice, and sentiment of competitor’s coverage against your own.
Add social to discover audience perception
Tracking competitors mentions on social media can add another layer of insight to your competitor intelligence. Understanding how your audience perceives your competition enables you to weave their pain points into your messaging and communications strategy.
Analyse for key messages:
Analyse competitor coverage for any key messages they’re talking about to get an idea of how they are positioning and differentiating themselves. Are they talking about a specific customer challenge or sector issue and how they plan to solve it? Use this to align internally on messaging and communications strategies that ensure your brand stands out.
Share with internal stakeholders
Now you’re a pro at competitor intelligence share your findings with your internal stakeholders. Discuss in team meetings, schedule a regular newsletter, or set up a forum for colleagues to contribute and share any information they’ve discovered too.
Need advice on how to use competitor intelligence in your communications strategy? Get in touch to see how we can help today.
