Finding Competitors
and Their Secrets
One thing almost everyone in marketing needs to understand is their competitors. To capture your share of a market you will need to know as much about your competitors as possible. First, you need to determine the differences between your product and theirs. Then, determine your strengths and weaknesses compared to their product.
What will your product offer that is an improvement over the competitor(s)?
How is their product sold? (benefits and features)
How many similar products are being sold in the market place?
What are the cost of these products?
How large is the market?
Spying on your competitors is actually pretty easy using the Internet. The search engines are very good at helping you answer almost any question. You will need to become proficient at using these resources if you want to be successful in business. There are some minor differences between the search engines in the way they perform their particular searches but each has tutorials. The time spent learning to use and search will more than pay for itself. Start with Google it is usually recognised as the probably the best.
The best place to start is by creating a list of good keywords. Keywords are words that others use on the Internet to search and find the information they are trying to look up. These words, and there can be hundreds of them, will lead you to specific information that the search engine or directory spiders or robots found related to each of these words. Some keywords are much better than others and will lead to very large numbers of searches by Internet users. Most search engines and directories will tell you how many web pages were found using that particular keyword for your search.
This can help you to determine the amount of competition you will have related to a given keyword. There must be some competition in a given area or keyword before it will worth much to you. Most search engines have "pay per click" methods of placement or ranking; that's how they make a lot of their money. The top few pages are generally all that search engine users (searchers) ever look at. Who wants to look at lists that are hundreds of pages long?
Sellers are willing to buy top listings usually the top 3 pages for a given keyword; if a market exists and sales are being made. It is usually a good idea to watch the listing of keywords and their ranking for a while to determine if they are legitimate. This method should determine the top competitors for any given keyword; and if they remain at the top for extended lengths of time there is probably a legitimate market for their product in the area defined by the keyword.
Using keywords related to your topic and searching should lead you to a list of your competitors. Usually after creating this list, it is a good idea to determine the specific product these competitors are selling. Create a list of information related to each competitors product. Know your competitor and determine what works for them; then begin finding ways to improve your product that will allow you to compete and grab some of their market.
