Finding Your Competitors
23 Sep
Finding Your Competitors
Successfull marketing research means finding out who your competitors are. Getting a good idea of what the market is like before entering it is essential. You need to know who you will be competing with for business. All this information is at your fingertips online.
How to start and where to look:
You should have an idea of keywords to use when you search online for your competitors. Try every possible keyword that is related to the business you want to start. If you want to enter the hosting market then search for keywords such as hosting and go from there.
Do a search on the general category or top category then work your way down. You can use (Google Keyword Tool) to find keywords as well has how many times monthly they have been searched for. Finding related keywords will broaden your search and even open up new niche markets you can target. For an example if want to start a web hosting company you can focus your marketing on smaller keywords such as Affordable Web Hosting, Cheap Web Hosting etc. You will find there are less competitors when you broaden your search terms.
Use Google to search for your keywords. Once you find a competitors site browse through it and note all the features of the site as well as their product offerings. Check out their About Us page or Company Info page to get an idea of who’s behind the business. It’s good to either write this information down in a notepad or store it on your computer in a research folder you keep to organize this info.
If you are entering a large industry then search for industry specific business directories. For hosting you would search for “hosting directory”. Directories have become very popular online and you are bound to find one on your industry.
If you want to find more detailed information about your competitors and are willing to pay a fee look them up on Dun and Bradstreet. You can get access to a companies credit reports to see where they stand financially. You can also search Hoovers to get revenue, employee and general information regarding companies.
