How to Analyze Your Competitors’ Marketing Strategy

Every business competes for attention. To stay a competitive advantage, you need to know what other brands in your market are doing.

A strong competitive analysis gives you a clear view of how they attract customers, where they advertise, what messages they use, and how they position their products.

To analyze your competitors’ strategy, start by identifying your direct and indirect competitors, then study their website, content, ads, social channels, pricing, and customer feedback.

Compare their approach with yours to find what they do well, where they fall short, and how you can improve. By studying their actions, you can find new ideas, avoid mistakes, and improve your own results.

In this article, you’ll learn how to analyze your competitors’ marketing strategy and turn their moves into practical steps for growth.

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What Is a Competitive Analysis?

A competitive analysis is a way to study your business competitors and understand how they market, price, and position their products.

It helps you see what they’re doing well, where they’re weak, and what that means for your brand. The goal isn’t to copy others but to make better decisions based on real data.

This process gives you insight into the competitive landscape so you can improve your own marketing strategy, uncover trends, and find smarter ways to reach your target audience.

A good competitive analysis report can help in many ways:

• Identify opportunities - Find market gaps and areas where you can stand out.

• Track market trends - Stay updated on changes in buyer behavior and the tools others use.

• Refine your pricing strategy - Learn how others price and why customers respond.

• Improve products - See what features your competitors’ products offer and how they meet customer needs.

• Adjust your marketing tactics - Analyze how they promote themselves and which channels they use.

• Spot threats - Stay alert to competitors gaining ground in your market share.

• Boost customer satisfaction - Review how others handle service and support to improve your own.

How to Do an Effective Competitive Analysis

A strong competitive analysis starts with a clear process:

Step #1: Identify Competitors

Before you begin any deep competitive analysis, you need to define who you’re analyzing. This isn’t just about naming one or two rivals. You need a full list that covers every brand that could impact your position in the market. That includes both direct rivals and less obvious threats.

Direct and Indirect Competitors

Understanding the difference between direct and indirect competitors gives your research more depth.

Direct competitors sell the same type of product or service to the same group of buyers.

For example, two CRM platforms designed for real estate agents that offer similar features at a similar price point would be in direct competition. Both are trying to win the same customers using similar sales and marketing tactics.

Indirect competitors offer a different type of solution that still meets the same need.

For example, one company might sell a CRM, while another offers a lead tracking tool or client communication app. While the tools are different, they still compete for attention and budget from the same target audience.

These indirect competitors can take attention or budget away from you, even if their offer isn’t identical.

Neglecting either group weakens your analysis. Both types influence your competitive positioning and affect how customers compare your brand to others.

Ways to Find Your Competitors

Once you know what to look for, the next step is to locate them. Start with what your customers are already seeing.

Here are practical ways to identify your competitors:

• Search engines - Search for your product type and feature set. Who ranks on the first page?

• Review sites - Explore platforms like G2, Trustpilot, or Capterra to see who else is in your category.

• Social media - Pay attention to brands your target audience follows, mentions, or shares.

• Ad research tools - Use SpyFu or SimilarWeb to spot brands bidding on your keywords in paid ads.

• Buyer feedback - Ask leads or clients who else they considered. This often reveals both direct competitors and rising new competitors.

• Industry reports and directories - Browse analyst reports, trade sites, and B2B databases to complete your list.

The more accurate your list, the better your competitive strategies will be, especially when aiming for a unique value proposition.

Step #2: Gather Key Background Information

Once your competitor list is complete, take time to understand how each company operates.

The goal isn’t just to examine what they sell but to understand how they run their business and who they serve.

Company Overview

A clear company profile helps explain many of their choices, from product features to how they position themselves in the market.

Start by researching:

• Founding year and history – Knowing how long they’ve been active shows their level of experience and growth stage.

• Location – Geographic focus often shapes messaging, pricing, and regional marketing.

• Company size – A larger team may support broader campaigns, while smaller teams often move faster.

• Core product or service – Clarify what they offer and how it fits into the needs of the target market.

• Customer base – Look at who they’re targeting, including industries and specific market segments.

This basic information gives you context for their decisions and helps guide later steps in your competitive analysis.

Step #3: Analyze Their Unique Selling Propositions

Once you understand the basics of your competitor’s business, the next step is to look at how they position their product.

Their unique selling propositions (USPs) reveal how they want to be seen by potential buyers. It includes the benefits they highlight, the features they promote, and the value they claim to deliver.

Understanding their USPs gives you a clearer view of how they stand out in the market and what makes customers choose them.

Compare Product Feature and Benefit

Focus on how the product is presented. Look at headlines, descriptions, feature lists, and customer-facing language.

Are they pushing speed, simplicity, cost savings, or flexibility? Do they describe benefits clearly, or are the messages vague?

The goal here is not to collect marketing buzzwords. You want to see which features they believe matter most and how those features connect to outcomes for the target market.

Once you see how they tell that story, compare it to your own messaging. Do you emphasize the right benefits? Is your product solving the same problems better or faster?

This comparison helps you spot gaps in your positioning and refine how you talk about your value.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Looking at both sides of a competitor’s offer can reveal where you have an advantage.

• Strengths - Good support, strong product reviews, active user community, and high customer satisfaction.

• Weaknesses - Common complaints in reviews, missing features, poor onboarding, or slow updates.

These points help you sharpen your business strategy and give you specific areas to improve or highlight in future campaigns.

Step #4: Evaluate Their Advertising and Marketing Tactics

To understand how a competitor reaches their audience, you need to look at how they promote their product. This includes their website, messaging, content, ad strategy, and how they use different channels.

The goal is not just to see where they advertise, but to understand what kind of message they lead with and how consistent it is across channels.

This step shows you where they focus their marketing efforts and gives insight into what is likely working for them.

Website and Content Strategy

Start with the homepage. What message is at the top? Do they focus on benefits, features, or pain points? From there, explore their site structure. Is it easy to navigate? Are calls-to-action clear?

Next, look at their blog or resource section. Are they publishing regularly? What topics do they cover? Are they trying to educate, sell, or both?

You can also check their use of keywords and how well their content is optimized.

Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush show how much website traffic they get and which pages perform best. This helps you evaluate their overall content strategy and identify opportunities to outperform them.

Social Media Presence

Social platforms reveal how a company interacts with its audience. Start by checking which platforms they use most often. For many companies, that’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or X (Twitter).

Take note of:

• How frequently they post

• The type of content they share

• How much engagement they get

• Whether their posts focus on branding, lead generation, or support

Your goal here is not to copy their posts. It’s to understand your competitor’s social media presence, how well it aligns with their brand, and what tone they use to connect with people.

Email and Ad Campaigns

Sign up for their email list to see what messages they send. This includes welcome emails, follow-ups, product announcements, and special offers. Look at the frequency, layout, tone, and calls to action.

For ads, search for their brand name or core keywords on Google and social platforms. Look at their headlines, offers, and landing pages. You can also check ad libraries, such as the Meta Ads Library, to get a wider view of their active paid ads.

Pay close attention to whether their campaigns focus on discounts, free trials, feature highlights, or testimonials. These details show what they believe motivates action.

Step #5: Review Their SEO and Digital Performance

A strong presence in search engines is one of the clearest signs of a well-planned digital marketing strategy.

If a competitor consistently ranks well, they’ve likely invested time and resources into content, backlinks, and technical optimization.

Reviewing these areas helps you understand how they attract organic traffic and how well they connect with their target audience through search.

Keyword Strategy

Keyword targeting is one of the most visible aspects of a competitor’s SEO approach.

Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Similarweb let you see which terms they rank for and how much estimated traffic those keywords drive.

Focus on how they match search intent. Are they targeting comparison queries, product keywords, or top-of-funnel guides?

These choices reflect their market positioning and show how they speak to different stages of the buyer journey.

Also review how keywords are placed in URLs, headings, and meta data. These small details help explain why their content ranks well or why it doesn’t.

Monitor ad spend, keyword usage, and content performance across all your competitors. Book a TapClicks demo today!

Backlink Profile

Links from other trusted websites improve a domain’s authority. A strong backlink profile tells search engines that others value their information.

Use SEO tools to review:

• Number of referring domains

• Link quality and authority

• Common sources of backlinks

Are they getting cited in industry blogs, media outlets, or directories? Or are they relying on low-value links from unrelated pages?

This helps you understand how they build visibility and how your site compares in the same competitive landscape.

Traffic Insights

Estimated website traffic numbers reveal how much of their audience comes from organic search and which pages do most of the work. Review traffic volume, bounce rates, top URLs, and traffic split by source.

You should also examine their top content. This includes landing pages, blogs, or resource hubs.

Studying your competitor’s content shows how they structure information and what type of content pulls in traffic consistently.

Together, these insights help you fine-tune your strategy and focus on themes that work in your digital marketing plan.

Step #6: Examine Their Pricing Strategy

Pricing decisions reflect how a company sees itself in the market and who it wants to attract. Some position their offer as a lower-cost alternative, while others focus on premium value.

By studying how your competitors price their products, you get a clearer view of their intended audience, value perception, and place in the competitive landscape.

This part of your competitive analysis shows you how each company frames value and whether their price aligns with what they deliver.

Price Points and Tiers

Many competitors use tiered plans to serve different business sizes or use cases. You’ll often see basic packages for individuals or startups and expanded versions for growing teams or larger clients.

Tiers may include feature splits, usage limits, or billing incentives.

Analyzing these structures helps you understand who they’re targeting and how they structure value across levels.

Perceived Value vs Cost

A higher price doesn’t always mean better value, and a lower one doesn’t always signal weakness. What matters is how customers interpret the offer.

Here’s what to consider:

• How clearly features and benefits are communicated

• Whether users feel they’re getting a fair exchange for the price

• How does the offer compare to others in the same space

• What public feedback says about price-related satisfaction

Companies that connect cost with clear results tend to perform better over time. Strong perceived value contributes directly to customer satisfaction and may justify premium pricing.

If a competitor fails to deliver on what they charge, that gives you a chance to differentiate with a stronger value proposition and a smarter pricing strategy.

Step #7: Understand Their Customer Base and Satisfaction

A competitor’s customer base can reveal who they serve, what types of clients they retain, and how well they deliver on expectations.

By understanding their typical user profile and how customers feel about the product or service, you can assess their brand strength, identify loyalty drivers, and spot areas where your business can stand out.

Customer Feedback

Public reviews, case studies, and testimonials show how people actually experience the product. These comments highlight product strengths, recurring issues, and general satisfaction levels.

Focus on:

• Comments about ease of use, reliability, and performance

• Frustrations related to missing features or unexpected limitations

• Repeated praise that hints at competitive strengths

• Pricing concerns or value comparisons to other options

By studying this feedback, you’ll get a clearer view of how the competitor’s claims match actual results.

If customers regularly mention unmet needs or gaps, that may be a signal to reposition your offer for the same group of users.

Support and Onboarding

Support systems and onboarding experiences play a large role in overall customer satisfaction. A tool may offer great features, but if setup is confusing or support is slow, long-term retention will suffer.

Review help centers, chat support availability, onboarding emails, or tutorial content. Also, check what users say about response times, knowledge base quality, and staff helpfulness.

Well-rated support often leads to stronger customer loyalty, especially in industries where switching tools is costly or time-consuming.

If a competitor’s support is weak, you can turn that into a clear competitive advantage by investing more in service and training.

Step #8: Extract Insights and Build a Competitive Edge Matrix

Once you’ve collected competitor data, the next step is to organize your findings and use them to guide decisions.

A competitive edge matrix helps you compare brands across key categories, identify performance gaps, and position your offer more effectively.

It also turns raw insights into strategy and keeps teams aligned around the same goals.

Monitor Changes and Market Trends

The market doesn’t stay still. Competitors regularly adjust messaging, pricing, and features to keep up with shifting demand. Keeping track of those changes helps you respond faster and avoid surprises.

You can follow product updates, ad launches, and site content using alert tools or scheduled reviews.

Also, watch how competitors react to changes in market trends, such as rising demand for integrations or new reporting needs. These signals often mark broader shifts in the market landscape.

Monitoring helps you see which brands are gaining traction and which may be falling behind.

Identify Opportunities and Threats

When you break down your findings, you’ll start to see where your brand can grow and what risks may be ahead. These can relate to pricing, content, onboarding, service quality, or keyword visibility.

Look for signs like:

• High-interest topics competitors aren’t covering

• Pain points customers mention repeatedly in reviews

• Gaps in their product roadmap

• Weak SEO performance in key areas

• Targeting that misses relevant specific market segments

Organizing these details makes it easier to spot growth opportunities or vulnerabilities that need attention. A SWOT analysis can help categorize this information clearly.

Refine Your Strategy

Insights only matter if they guide real decisions. Use your findings to improve messaging, shift focus to underserved segments, or build a stronger content plan.

You may not need to compete on every feature, but you should communicate your value proposition in a way that directly addresses gaps in the competitive landscape.

The matrix you build should become a working tool. Keep it current, revisit it often, and let it support how you create strategies that connect better with your target audience.

Key Metrics to Measure Competitors’ Marketing Performance

To evaluate how well a competitor’s marketing performs, you need to track the right metrics.

These key performance indicators show whether their campaigns are working, how efficient their spending is, and how strong their brand is in your shared space:

• Lead conversion rate - Measures how effectively a competitor turns leads into paying customers. High rates often point to clear messaging, strong offers, or tight alignment with the target customer.

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) - Calculates the total spend required to gain one new customer. If your CAC is much higher than theirs, it may signal inefficiencies in your funnel or less effective marketing tactics.

• Market share - Reflects how much of the total industry revenue they control. A growing share usually suggests that their marketing strategy and sales process are outperforming others in the same market.

• Customer lifetime value (CLV) - Estimates the total revenue generated from a typical customer. A higher CLV indicates stronger retention, better upsell paths, or more consistent value delivery.

• Brand awareness - Tracks how visible and memorable a competitor is. This can include direct brand search volume, mentions across platforms, and recognition within your target market.

Tools for Business Competitor Marketing Analysis

You don’t need to gather competitor data manually. With the right tools, you can monitor rankings, track ad activity, review content performance, and analyze digital presence all in one place.

These platforms simplify the research process and help you make faster, more informed decisions:

1. TapClicks

One essential tool is TapClicks, which includes built-in competitive intelligence features designed to support data-driven decision-making.

It pulls data from multiple sources into a single dashboard, giving agencies and marketing teams visibility into competitors’ digital campaigns.

You can track keyword usage, ad placements, and social media engagement to benchmark competitor performance against your own.

TapClicks also integrates with platforms like iSpionage to deliver deeper insights for local SEM analysis.

With Local Impression Share data, you can compare a client’s visibility to nearby business competitors, identify weak points in their SEM funnel, and use those insights to strengthen your pitch or campaign strategy.

iSpionage also provides:

• Users’ journey reports – See how competitors attract, convert, and retarget visitors. This includes keyword paths, ad copy, and landing pages used in paid ads.

• Landing page analysis – Review PPC page design, copy, and offers in real campaigns to see what’s working in your area or industry.

• Ad copy monitoring – Track changes in competitor messaging and identify A/B test variations to improve ad performance and raise quality scores.

2. Semrush

Image Source: semrush.com

Semrush offers a comprehensive view of your competitors’ search engine visibility and digital marketing efforts.

Its reporting tools help you pinpoint where competitors are gaining traffic and how their content and keyword strategies are structured.

Key features to monitor include:

• Organic keyword rankings – See which search terms drive traffic to competitor sites.

• Backlink profile – Identify their top referring domains and track new or lost links.

• PPC strategy – View the keywords and ad copy used in their paid search campaigns.

• Traffic estimates – Analyze which pages get the most visitors and from which sources.

• Keyword gaps – Find terms your site is missing that competitors already rank for.

3. Hootsuite

Image Source: hootsuite.com

Hootsuite makes it easier to track what your competitors are doing across social media platforms.

It allows you to monitor their posts, engagement trends, and how well they connect with their audience.

Use Hootsuite to:

• Track post frequency and format – See how often competitors publish and what content types they use.

• Measure engagement metrics – Compare likes, comments, and shares across platforms.

• Analyze audience sentiment – Review how followers react to campaigns or announcements.

• Monitor response times – Benchmark how quickly they reply to user comments or questions.

• Set up social listening – Catch brand mentions, competitor hashtags, and trending topics early.

Make Competitor Analysis Simple and Scalable With TapClicks

Manual research can slow down your process. Gathering data from multiple platforms, organizing it, and trying to find patterns takes time. TapClicks simplifies this by providing valuable insights into one platform.

With TapClicks, you can:

• Track competitor ad spend, keyword focus, and campaign activity

• Monitor search, display, and social channels from a single dashboard

• Build automated reports with up-to-date data

• Compare your performance with local or national competitors using tools like iSpionage

TapClicks is built for agencies and marketing teams that want quick access to useful insights.

Track your competitors’ SEO, PPC, and social strategy from one dashboard. Start your 14-day free trial of TapClicks!

FAQs About Competitors’ Marketing Strategy

How to Analyze Your Competitors’ Marketing Strategy

The four competitive strategies are cost leadership, differentiation, cost focus, and differentiation focus. These approaches help a company position itself in the market by either offering lower prices, unique value, or serving a specific niche more effectively than other businesses in the same industry.

What is your competitors’ marketing strategy?

Your competitors’ marketing strategy includes how they attract and convert customers through advertising, pricing, distribution, and messaging. By conducting market research and analyzing competitors’ campaigns, including their content marketing and outreach, you can identify their positioning, tone, and focus areas. This process often includes both primary and secondary research to understand what drives their visibility and market presence.

What are the 4 P’s of competitors?

The 4 P’s of competitors are product, price, place, and promotion. Evaluating these elements helps you assess their strengths in the business environment and reveals opportunities where your own company may offer alternative solutions or better serve the target market through your sales team or distribution network.

What are the four marketing strategies?

The four core marketing strategies are market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification. Each strategy plays a role in how companies expand reach, adapt to industry trends, and compete more effectively within or beyond their current segments.