Analyzing competitors for your entrepreneurial project and studying the project’s superiority over the 4 most important competitors

Today, young people are aware of and interested in entrepreneurship and creating strong projects in various fields and presenting them in the market. When they start launching a project, they discover a large number of competitors in the market, whether it is the same market or intersects with it at certain points. Therefore, before starting to implement any marketing plan, you must conduct studies and analyze competitors accurately. This will enable you to know some of the competitors’ gaps that will help you overcome them or reach the level they are at in a short time.

Who are the competitors?

Today, we are witnessing a tremendous increase in the number of competitors in the market in various sectors, and many advanced techniques have emerged based on analyzing these competitors, as everyone is searching and seeking to expand their knowledge and gain more customers. So, who are the competitors? Competitors are all the entities (institutions, companies) and people in the same field in which you work, providing the same services or products that you offer. These services may be completely similar to your services or share parts with them but are presented differently. Your competitors in the market are not only the current competitors that you know, but they are also those who may choose the same field and services as you in the future.

Types of competitors

The large number of competitors we see today has contributed to classifying them into four types, where the classification is based on the tasks offered by them and the percentage of possible competition between you, and they are as follows:

First, the direct ones:

They are competitors who work on the same products and services as you but have a different competitive advantage, they may offer them at similar, lower, or higher prices. For example: McDonald’s and Burger King offer the same services at almost the same prices.

Secondly, indirect:

They meet the same customer needs and solve the same problems that your services solve, but in a different way or in a different market area that overlaps with your target group. It is also possible that competitors offer the same services as you, but not primarily. For example: a chicken restaurant competes with fast food restaurants.

Thirdly, the potential:

They offer completely different services and products than you do, but the problem is that they target the same target market as you, so they pose a threat to you if they decide at any moment to adopt your product and work on it as a primary product, and they move from being potential competitors to direct competitors. For example: Dell Computers and Samsung Mobile Phones, at any moment the company can start producing phones and compete with Samsung.

Fourth, the future:

There is a similarity between them and the potential ones, and it is expected that they will enter the market at any moment and with great force, as they will be in the form of small projects or even initiatives.

The importance of knowing your competitors

Many people and business owners ignore this step or do not give it the time and effort it deserves, but knowing your competitors in the market helps you:

• Develop assumptions for business plans by analyzing competitors.
• Knowing the methods you use in your marketing plan.
• Anticipate possible losses in the future.
• The potential to know the market share you can capture.
• Knowing what’s happening in the market.

What will you do?

Entrepreneurial projects are projects that aim to develop and achieve profits at a rapid pace, unlike small projects that aim to achieve profits at a slower pace. They usually study the probability of a project’s success and the percentage of possibility of repeating it and expanding it at a faster pace. Entrepreneurial projects are distinguished from other projects by the risk of time, effort, and money. Learn about the article What is the difference between an entrepreneurial project and a small business? 4 basic differences in the success and failure rate for both? Entrepreneurial projects study the marketing plan and target groups in this process, to see its success rate and impact on potential people. They are also characterized by new ideas and offering services and products in innovative and unconventional ways and methods in most cases. Entrepreneurial people can be considered people who are ready to lose at any moment accept all types of failure and are ready to face it. Among the types of entrepreneurial projects, we find:

• Small
• Scalable
• The big one
• Social

Top Questions to Ask Before Starting a Competitor Analysis

• Does the message I’m working with help me get my idea across to customers in the right way?
• What are the strengths that helped them beat other competitors in the market?
• What strengths do you have that enable you to beat your competitors?
• What are the advantages of competitors that attract customers to them over others?
• Who are your competitors in the same industry?
• What strategies do they rely on to attract potential customers?
• What qualities do you have that I have not employed or demonstrated yet?
• Who is the target group of competitors?

Many questions help you analyze competitors in a way that serves you and your entrepreneurial project.

Competitor Analysis Process

All new companies and organizations that are about to enter a certain market need a marketing plan to study the future of the project, and one of the most important steps that must be started and developed is the technique of analyzing competitors in the market. It is known that before starting any project, you must know your competitors in the market and study them carefully. Currently, and in light of the developments we are witnessing today, the market has become crowded with millions of goods and products, so it is necessary to study all competitors to save effort and time to implement the project at a faster pace and avoid potential financial loss. For more, see the article The 2 Most Famous Tools for Analyzing Entrepreneurial Projects. Learn about them in detail.

Competitor Analysis Steps:

• Search for all companies and organizations that provide the same services and products that you offer.
• Work on providing something special in your products that competes with other products in the market.
• Clarify your strengths and weaknesses to keep up with your competitors in the market.
• Knowing and studying the strengths and weaknesses of competitors.
• Knowing their target audience.
• Knowing the prices of their products.

Why analyze your competitors?

1. Knowing the right time to start implementing the project and enter the market.
2. Avoid all mistakes and problems that can cause huge losses to the company.
3. Make product additions and updates to beat your competitors.
4. Determine the appropriate budget for the success of the project.
5. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of competitors.
6. Discover your strengths and weaknesses as well.

Opportunities that a competitor can create

Many companies encounter many problems and crises that may threaten the company with bankruptcy or huge losses. In this case, you need to ask for help from one of your competitors who you see as superior and able to help you overcome the crisis while ensuring that there are other services that you can provide in return so that it does not become like a debt on you and is done by analyzing competitors to find out who is best at assisting. You may be able to enter into a profitable partnership with your competitor by joining forces and providing the best together, and this may return much greater financial returns than working alone, so do not rush to make your competitor your enemy.

Best Competitor Analysis Tools

If we delve a little deeper into the technique of competitor analysis, we find that we also need to know the following:

• The marketing plan your competitor uses to attract customers, whether through paid advertising or search engine optimization (SEO).
• Keywords used by competitors to target potential customers.
• The position your competitors occupy in the market, whether global or country-specific.
• Social media pages used by them.
• Services and products preferred by the target audience.
• The most important countries targeted by your competitors.
• Know other competitors in the same field.

In this article, we will mention the most popular platforms for competitor analysis, including free and paid platforms:

Similarweb: This site has both a free and paid version, but it only analyzes competitors’ sites with more than 50,000 visits and provides a detailed report on everything mentioned above.

Semrush: This site also has a free and paid version, but the paid version gives better results in analyzing competitors, what distinguishes it from the first site is its analysis of small sites with less than 50,000 visitors.

Competitor analysis by identifying the top ten competitors:

There must be several companies and individuals in the market that provide the same services as you, whether they are from your country of residence or other countries around the world. Several means and sites help you discover and analyze competitors, including the two sites mentioned at the top of the article. The top ten competitors will certainly have the best plans and strategies followed to reach the target group.

Content Benchmarking Process:

This step creates an opportunity for you to:

• Knowing and identifying the content your competitors are using is essential to discovering your competitors’ weaknesses exploiting them to your advantage and outperforming them.
• Analyze their SEO, i.e. analyze competitors in terms of the keywords used.
• Discover the most effective methods your competitors use to attract potential customers.

Study your competitors’ social media sites:

Knowing the content provided by your competitors and the way it is written and presented to the audience, enables you to discover the designs that helped convey the idea to this target group. In addition to being able to identify the services and products that customers are most attracted to, to consider them and provide the best of them. Google is considered one of the best engines that help in the above-mentioned processes, i.e. in analyzing competitors.

Finally, it is necessary to analyze competitors every period to know what is new and discover and keep up with any changes that occur in the market that may provide some benefit. Currently, technologies and strategies are being developed continuously to reach the largest number of potential customers at the lowest possible costs. You always need to adhere to the laws of this large electronic world to be able to build and create your mark in it, and you can now use Khutana services to advance your entrepreneurial project.

Discover more articles:
Establishment and operating expenses for a pioneering project and sales expectations of close to 100%
Economic feasibility study, its importance, standards, and characteristics – 5 steps to implement it
The success of pioneering projects and 7 steps towards making glory and reaching the top

Questions about the article on analyzing competitors for your entrepreneurial project and studying the project’s superiority over the 4 most important competitors