Businesses often become obsessed with knowing what their competitors are up to. However, does this really matter? That is what David Jaeger, mentor at Result Kitchen, attempts to answer in the Big Business Challenges podcast. This blog post will provide you with an overview of the points covered.
Should You Be Monitoring Your Competition?
Many business owners, CEOs, and other professionals in high positions spend much of their time trying to find out what their competition is doing and where their competition is. Often, they exert far too much energy into this question ? time they could be spending on other business activities.
But, does it matter what the competition is doing? To answer this, you first need to consider that every business is different. Each has a distinct target market, a specific USP, and a unique value proposition. This means that even your closest competitors require something very different in terms of strategy.
You can know where your competitors are advertising successfully and what type of copy is working well for them, but there is no guarantee that the same will be right for your business. Whereas it may be useful to know what your competition is doing to some extent, by no means do you need to know their every move and understand every facet of their strategy.
How to Monitor Your Competition
When you do decide to track your competition, you should have a clear goal in mind. You should also limit the amount of time you spend on this pursuit. For instance, you may find that your competitor is bidding on random broad keywords. This does not mean you should do the same. Blindly copying the exact actions and strategy of your competitor fails to consider your unique needs and all the factors that differentiate you. Actions like these are just a waste of time, energy, and money. They will fail to drive your business forward.
A better way to monitor your competition to is try and understand their pain points or seek opportunities you can use in your own copy. In comparison to tracking their every move, this is a powerful way to use the information about your competitor. For example, when you look at their landing pages, instead of doing exactly the same you could use their ideas as a baseline to make your own landing pages better.
In Summary
It?s definitely a good idea to learn about your competitors? strategy. Although you should dedicate some time and resources to finding out more, you should never stress about the actions of another business. Most important, you should avoid the trap of thinking that whatever your competition does is right for you, too.
Furthermore, it is always possible that your competition is actually losing money ? you have no access to their numbers. If you follow their example, your business will fail. Instead, you should use whatever others are doing as a testing ground. Always remember your customers, USP, and other criteria are unique.
Knowing how much guidance to receive from your competition and when to blaze your own trail is the key to success for any business. Receive further advice by listening to the What?s Your Competition Doing? episode of the Big Business Challenges podcast and by reading the content on www.resultkitchen.com.