competitive intelligence smb-saas startups
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Competitive Intelligence Information required to understand Competitor’s Marketing Strategy:
1. Identify our target segment .(type of Ideal Customer Profile for us) 2. Ideal Competitor profile:includes the type of companies that are competing in the same
segment we are in. 3. Are they catering to the same Customer Profile we cater to?Which segment of
customers they are focusing at? 4. Positioning strategyare they positioned in a way they don’t have anyone with the same
message?are there other players with the same messaging? 5. Channels of distribution: do they have blogs/social media platforms /key influencers on
board? 6. Advertising/Campaign themes: Which topics/areas/news are they most targeting in
content marketing? Questions to get answers of a)Blogs What is their blog subscriber base? How frequently do they blog? On what topics to they blog?Is it of good quality ? Is it about news related to a particular industry? Is it about current trends they are talking about? b)Email Subscribe to their email newsletters. How often do you receive their mails? Does the content cater to your Industry/Ideal Customer Profile? Does it include Promotional offers? Does it include Whitepapers/Casestudies/Blogs/Pricing information? c)Landing Pages Are there many landing pages ,ie,when a user clicks on a search result or paid ad search,he lands up on a webpage which is mostly to provoke you to a CTA like filliong a form or subscribing to newsletter or checkout option based on your search query?Eg.BUY NIKE SHOES takes me to Amazon>Footwear1 click on the type of shoes i choose and it takes me to checkout option straightaway. Are the landing pages optimized for mobile devices/browsers too? d)Website Does their website have ABOUT US tab and Pricing Information? Is it easy to load all the times on any platform on any browser on any device? Is the content easily readable and understandable to users?Is it visually appealing? Can their content be shared via social media platforms?
Do they have any casestudies / whitepapers/ webinar videos etc. to showcase to prospects ? Who are their partners/customers/suppliers/investors /distributors? e)Content marketing Do they regularly update your content on the website? Are they actively talking about events in your industry? Do their key influencers speak well of them/you ? Share of voice takes place when both tend to be actively speaking about content regarding industry and its future and news surrounding it. f)SEO Is your competitor high on keyword search of terms related to the industry? MOZ rank google ranking ? How many users visit your website from different sources paid/organic/direct/from other website’s pages/from links on own social media pages/blogs? g)Social Media Is your competitor active on social media platforms like Linkedin,fb,twitter,Tumblr ? If yes,is he responsive to messages/comments? Does he actively post about terms/happenings relevant to the industry? How many followers?not important.But growth in followers over a period of time? Who are the followers?Are there common followers between your company’s fb page and competitors fb page ? How do common followers react to news items?Are they key influencers of your service/your competitors /media channels? h)Press Releases/News articles Recognition for which Industry/Segment/Customer Profile they target? Who’s the face of their companythe one person one looks up to when one thinks of that brand? What does he stand for?His value system?his interests?his hobbies?his style of functioning? g)Organizational structure of the particular competitor Understand who’s spearheading the company’s 1)marketing plan 2)business strategy 3)customer success campaign What’s their elevator pitch? Their messaging?activity on social medialinkedin profiles,fb,twitter? What do they believe in?How does their messaging relate to the company’s/founder’s?
h)Feature Comparison:either you have/don’t have a feature that your competitors have.The ones you have and they don’t becomes your unique competitive advantage and vice versa. #Listed companies only 1)Check Annual Report of last FY to understand a)Cash flowsare they burning cash ? b)Proportion of debt in Capital structure from Balance Sheet c)Talk to Analysts regarding company’s strategy d)P&L to know topline (revenue) growth More insightful questions to understand Business strategy: 1. What all conferences,seminars,meetings do they attend?Do they attend the same ones that you attend? Who all are seen regularly attending them? 2. Do their Marketing Head/Strategy Head/CEOs give interviews if yes,what are their views on the business they are currently in? 3. Was there a mention of their business strategy in the interview? 4. Check out the posts of founders : Are there any photos of theirs with any influencers/key people in the industry? What are their personal likes/interests/hobbies?What type of people do they most talk about on social media ?Do they have an opinion on social issues/issues out of the industry(values)? How active are they on social media pages? Reason A business is a personal interest of how a founder feels the world around him should be.Hence,it’s a reflection of his personal interests. 5. Values of the company Personal values of the founder drive the values inside a company. What culture prevails within the company can be estimated based on this? Are these values reflected in the kind of engagements they have had in the past?Do their partners also share the same set of values? 6. Any new hires? VP,sales? VP,Marketing? VP,Strategy? Their background and why they have been hired can be known from what they did back in the previous companyvia LinkedIn profile? Information available on news articles ? How to go ahead with this research?Sources of information: 1.http://edwardlowe.org/howtoconductandprepareacompetitiveanalysis/
2. And by using tools like Compete,Marketing Grader,Moz ,Raven ,Simply Measured ,BuzzStream . How to identify whether the competitor lies in the same industry or not?
1. Same buyers and suppliers : eg.Intel supplies processors for computer system manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, HP and Dell.They sell to the same set of customers all over the world,hence fall in the same industry.
2. Same buyers but not suppliers: Mcd’s vs Burger King 3. Same suppliers : For 2 separate film production houses like Dharma Productions or Red
Chillies Entertainment ,SRK can act.It can have same set of actors and hence fall in the same industry.
4. Common technical platforms: Different apps are existing on the same shared Android Platform in app development space.Hence,all apps and app developers are competing in the same industry.
5. Shared Competitive Intent:
a) With the imposition of entry tax on ecommerce marketplaces for entering goods within states like Gujarat,W.Bengal,the players Flipkart and Amazon both react by filing petitions against the law.Hence,both compete in the same industry.
b) If employees switch from one company to another ,the companies are operating in same industry.
Approach to analyse Industry and competition in SMB/SaaS segment : 1. Porter’s 5 forcesstarting step to understand the industry,buyers,suppliers,threats of
new entrants,threat from rival firms,threats from substitutes.
Eg. for Zwibe,as attached in previous mail. 2. Business Model Canvas: It offers a practical stepbystep process to find new ways to create value and analyze a company’s current model. Link http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/ or http://alexosterwalder.com/
3.Cost structure comparison / Value chain analysis When no information is available on the competitors’ costs, this analysis provides a structured approach to identify and calculate differences. It is helpful when one has no access to the actual competitor cost information (which is always the case), and allows an alternative analysis method. As you can imagine, there are not many companies advertising about how they do the analysis. This is one of the most powerful analysis tools I know—it helps anticipate product margins, bidding prices and sustainability of pricing strategy. More here: http://www.imanet.org/PDFs/Public/Research/SMA/Value%20Chain%20Analysis.pdf Complexity: High 4. Competition Matrix As explained in http://dmresourcecenter.com/unit2/competitiveanalysis/.