Know Your Competition

First of all, having competitors is a good thing: they confirm there's a market for your product! And obviously you want to know everything about your competitors: who they are, what they sell, how their website look, things they do and things they don't do... Otherwise you're not going to survive this competition.

Start researching your competition way before you start your business: it will help you to learn how many other similar businesses on the net are already offering similar goods and services and understand if there is really a need for another business like the one you are planning to start.

Again, study as much as you can about your competitors’ businesses. How well are they doing? Alexa’s toolbar is great tool for checking out your competition. By clicking on “info” button you’ll see all necessary details about your competitor’s website like traffic rank, number of other websites that link to this one, list of related links, speed, user reviews and contact information.

To check your competitor's link popularity (what websites link to your competitor's website and how many they are) go to Google, Yahoo, MSN, Teoma or other search engine and type the following in the search box: links:www.yourcompetitorsite.com Just don't forget to replace it with the real domain name!

You obviously want to study about your competitor's products!

What are their products like? 

Do you offer the same quality of goods? 

Is your pricing competitive?

You can always go one step further: choose a few of your main competitors and become their customer. Yes, you've heard me right: buy competitor's product or subscribe to their service.

Although this may sound strange, money spent on product or monthly subscription price will be well worth discovering your main competitor's strength and weakness you will use to set your pricing and make your product or service better then one that you competitor offers.

Also when buying from your competitors, you have an opportunity to experience their customer service. Obviously you want to give better customer service than they do, so you must learn about it as much as you can.

Post a questionnaire on the Internet to study past buying records of your potential customers: what kind of products they purchased in the past? Why did they make this choice? Where did they buy it? Whether they were satisfied with the product selection, prices, website appearance, etc or not?

Be sure to study about your competitor's website. What is your first impression? Does it look good? What about content? Are navigation system and order placing process easy? How you compare to your competitors on the customer service?

Search the Web to understand your competitors' market approach: what kind of promotional offers are they making? Who are they targeting with their advertising?  All this information will help you to choose the most effective marketing strategy for your own purposes.

Start learning from other people's successes and failures: this knowledge will help you to forecast what will work for you and what will not.  

Next Step: Plan For Success