What Is a Competitive Analysis? (with Template + Examples)

Competitive analysis means looking closely at what other businesses (our competitors) are doing. We study their products, marketing, and sales to learn how we can improve our own plans.

Why a Competitive Analysis Report Helps

It helps us learn from what others have done right or wrong. This saves us time and effort. It shows us market gaps—places where other businesses may be missing something customers want. It helps us present our business better by understanding how others promote theirs. This is useful whether we are starting fresh or trying to improve. Some people also call this process “competition analysis” or “market analysis.”

How to Do a Competitive Analysis

1. Copy a Competitive Analysis Template:

Start by using a free template to guide us. A Google Doc template gives us a simple way to organize our research.

2. Find Our Competitors:

We need to look at the right competitors to get useful insights. Start with direct competitors—those who offer similar products or services to the same type of customers.

We can find these by:

• Searching Google for similar products or services
• Looking through directories or review sites
• Asking our sales team which other brands customers mention
• Asking old customers where they went after leaving
• Using tools like “Market Overview” to check website traffic
• Using the “Competitors” report from keyword tools

Once we find a direct competitor, write down their name and website in our report. We can also check how much traffic they get using tools.

It’s best to start with three competitors. That way, we won’t feel overwhelmed. We can always add more later, including indirect ones that offer different solutions for the same problem.

3. Study Competitors’ Products or Services:

This helps us see what they offer and where we can stand out. Look at their homepage to understand:

• What problem they solve
• How they solve it
• Who they help

Then check their product or service pages to find:

• Main features and what makes them different
• How they meet customer needs
• Their pricing: Do they charge more, less, or about the same as us?

Write all this in our report.

4. Check Their Marketing and Content:

See what channels bring them the most traffic. Use tools like “Top Pages” or “Traffic Overview” to check.

If a lot of their traffic comes from other websites, they may have good partnerships or are featured on trusted platforms.

Next, look at their social media:

• What platforms do they use?
• What kind of content do they post?
• Is the content getting a lot of likes, shares, or comments?

Also check other content they create:

• Do they write blogs?
• Send newsletters?
• Host webinars or classes?

If they write blogs, look at what topics they cover and how often they post.

5. Research Sales Processes:

We should study how our competitors sell their products or services. This helps us understand how they connect with new customers from the start to the end of the buying process.

Most sales processes follow four main steps:

• Presenting the product or service:
  Look at how competitors show the value of what they offer. If it’s a low-cost item, they may not use a sales team. But for higher-priced items, they often have a team to explain things in detail.
• Following up with potential buyers:
  See how they stay in touch with people who haven’t bought yet. They may send emails, call, or offer free trials to keep interest alive.
• Closing the sale:
  Study how they turn interested people into buyers. They might offer discounts, bundles, or guarantees to help people decide.
• Keeping customers coming back:
  Look at what they do to keep customers happy and loyal. Some may give rewards, special content, or discounts to existing customers.

To really understand their process, we can act like their customer—sign up for emails, join a webinar, or ask for a demo. Pay close attention to how they talk to leads, how often they reach out, and what tools or offers they use to gain trust.

This kind of research gives us ideas on what works well and where we can do things better.

6. Study Feedback:

We should also look at what people are saying about our competitors. This can give us useful ideas for improving our own business.

Here’s how we can collect this information:

• Check review websites:
  Look at what customers like or don’t like. If many people complain about the same thing, that’s a sign that we could offer a better option.
• Watch social media mentions:
  Look at what users say on platforms like X (Twitter), Reddit, and LinkedIn. People often share honest thoughts there. We can use tools like Mention or Brand Monitoring to track these mentions.
• Check news articles:
  Read news stories that mention our competitors. This shows us how the public views them and how the media covers them.

Write everything we find in our analysis report. This feedback gives us a clear view of what’s working—and what’s not.

7. Evaluate Competitors’ Strengths and Weaknesses:

After collecting all this data, we need to find what our competitors are good at—and where they fall short.

Look for repeated patterns in the research:

• Are their features solving customer problems well?
• Is their marketing strong and effective?
• Do they offer great customer service?

At the same time, we should notice what they don’t do well:

• Maybe their product is hard to use.
• Maybe they’re missing features people want.
• Or maybe they ignore a group of customers who still need help.

Write all these points clearly in our report using the template.

8. Determine Your Positioning:

Now it’s time to see where we stand in the market. We can do this by creating a simple SWOT analysis:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats

Next, we should figure out what makes our product or service different and better.
It could be:

• A feature that solves a key problem
• A better way of helping new users
• Flexible pricing

These unique points are our value proposition—what makes us special.

Also, we should decide which customer groups to focus on. If we see that our competitors are not helping a certain group, we can create products or messages just for them.

Record all this in our competitive analysis report to guide our future strategy.

Competitive Analysis Example (Step by Step)

We did a simple competitive analysis for a made-up coffee subscription business. This example helps show how the process works and what useful ideas we can get from it.

Let’s go through the steps one by one:

Identifying Competitors:

First, we searched on Google using important keywords to see which websites often showed up at the top. We also looked at review sites and articles, like one from Bon Appétit, to find other similar businesses.

Product Strategy Analysis:

We visited the landing pages, FAQs, and checkout steps of our competitors to learn more about what they offer.

If many competitors offer the same options, we might also need to follow those. But it can also be a chance to do something different and stand out.

For example, we could try offering deliveries every two months instead of every month.

Next, we wrote down their prices. This helps us later when we want to decide if we should charge more, less, or offer better value.

Marketing Strategy Analysis:

We used the Traffic Overview tool to see where competitors get most of their website visitors. It showed that direct traffic is high, which likely comes from current customers.

Search traffic also seems important, so we may need to focus on SEO. Email and paid search could also bring in good results.

We found links to competitors’ social media pages at the bottom of their websites. We saved those links and took notes.

From this, we learned that many brands use Instagram influencers to reach customers. But since no one is using TikTok, and we know it’s popular, we might use that platform to stand out.

We also saw that Facebook, X, and YouTube are not being used much, so they may not work well for us either.

Sales Strategy Analysis:

To study how competitors sell, we acted like a customers.

We explored their websites, clicked through their products, and signed up for their email newsletters.

All the brands use a quiz to help customers pick the best coffee plan.

They also give special deals, especially for long-term plans or larger orders. Most of these offers come through email, which helps them get more sales and win back past customers.

Feedback Analysis:

To learn what people think about the competitors, we searched for “[competitor] reviews” on Google. Then, we read comments on review sites, blogs, and forums.

Determining Our Positioning:

After finishing the report, we reviewed all the ideas we had gathered. We looked at where our competitors are strong and thought about how we could match or beat them.

We also focused on areas where they are weak. This gives us a chance to do better in those areas, so customers choose us instead.

How to Create Your Competitive Analysis Report

If you haven’t already, get a copy of our template and start your report. Keep these important tips in mind:

• Use real data: Don’t guess. Base your plans on facts and numbers.
• Be consistent: Use the same method for every competitor. It helps you compare them fairly.
• Make it your own: Change the template to fit your needs. You can also study other things, like their tech tools, team culture, or partnerships.
• Use tools + manual checks: Online tools are great for collecting info, but you should also look deeper yourself to spot trends.