2 - Review your Competitors

Welcome to our 2016 Advent Calendar! We are sharing a marketing tip or trick every day until Christmas. To make sure you receive these updates, don't forget to register here. Happy Christmas!

Could you say how well your business is performing against your competitors? Competitor reviews help to identify new and existing competitors, evaluate their strategies, strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately help you to grow your business. They should be conducted regularly to ensure that you stay on top of what's working well in your industry, as well as helping to identify what could be avoided!

Simply reviewing your competitors websites, social pages and emails can bring up a whole host of valuable information that you can use to your advantage. It can help you to identify any areas that you're currently missing so that (if this is working for them) you can adapt into your own strategy. Alternatively you could identify areas of weakness or gaps where you can gain competitive advantage...

Mystery shopping is not just for retail stores! Conduct a competitor review as a mystery shopper yourself, or ask a trusted colleague or customer. Put yourself into the shoes of a customer and review a competitors website, social media pages and so on. Get a feel for how the competitor engages with their target audience, review their product range and conversion funnel. Ensure that you sign up to their newsletters, user-test their website and even read some of their reviews! The idea here is to get a greater picture of the competitors' business so that you can leverage their strengths into your own, and build upon their weaknesses too. Who knows, you might even spot a gap in the market along the way!

Top tip: Formalise & win!

Making competitor reviews formalised and systematic will help ensure that your marketing plans remain fresh and your business can evolve with the times. Consider an industry review once a quarter to bring into your quarterly marketing review process, or at least twice a year, to reap the best rewards.

That's all for today. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks from our free advent calendar.