Taking a Quick Glance at Your Competition

So I have been constructing my marketing strategy for my company over the past few days, and I am currently working on the competitive analysis piece.

In order to take a simple glance over my competition, I went to their websites. Because I am in the web design industry, their website is their first line of selling power (besides themselves of course).

In order to find your competition, type your location as well as your industry into google. Mine, for example, was "Minneapolis Web Design". I took not of all the top websites, and then started to go to each one taking notes.

When you go to their website, answer the following questions in depth:

1. What is the background of the company? "About Us" would help.
2. What benefits do they offer if the client goes to them. This includes years of experience, specific bonuses, and quality guarantees.
3. What disadvantages does the company have in a competitive industry? Try to root out their weakness.
4. Take a closer look at their website: How do they advertise themselves, how do they attract the client, and how to do they convert the lead to a contact. What are the marketing goals of their website?
5. Take a closer look at their product or service: what do they sell and how do they sell it? What is the process? Is it easy/hard? How focused are they or specialized on a certain area of certain product in the market? What is their methodology? How do they describe their product or service? Who do they market too?
   
6. After you do this for multiple competitors, make a list of how you will do a better job with your company, market your company, and how you can modify your website for a better sales prospective.

As I said, quick glance. It should take between 30 minutes and an hour to glance over your competition for your competitive analysis. You are trying to find quick things that you could do to show your services better, but also to find ways to gain a competitive advantage in your market.