Many business owners in Nigeria operate without actively monitoring who they are in competition with. Even with a huge market share, it is crucial to study your competitors, or your business will hit the rocks in no time. Competitors in business are smart and fierce; always on the prowl waiting for you to slip off. How can you fight back? Here are five tips to help you stay ahead of your competition.
Conduct Extensive Research
The first thing is to conduct extensive research on who your prospective competitors are and what they are up to. You can utilize tools like AdWords and SpyFu, or even set up Google Alerts to get instant notifications. Additionally, you can read customers feedback on their corporate website or keep tabs on what industry analysts are reporting, to give you a working understanding of their business strategy.
Harness the Power of Social media
Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, are great marketing tools that many businesses use to advertise their brands. There is no shame in following your competitors’ updates on their social media platforms, to also see what other followers are saying about them. It will help you understand their marketing strategy, and keep you abreast on any opportunity to stay ahead of them.
Apply Customers Feedback
Your organic visitors or even some customers may be patronizing your competition, or at least considering it. As a result, you must utilize their feedback to help you understand what you’re up against. So when next you convert an organic visitor into a paying customer, ask them where they bought previously, and why they switched to your product.
Poach Employees
What better way to study your competition than to poach their employees? This will help you uncover their business strategy, sales, operations and other useful information to keep you ahead in the market.
Optimize Networking Opportunities
Most business executives don’t pay much attention to their competition at public events or conferences. It is necessary to network and sometimes form an alliance with your competition. Remember, the focus is to maximize profit and not crush the competing brand.
