Three Quick Tips to Keeping Tabs on Compeitors

Around 400 B.C., Sun Tzu once said that you’re only as good as how you develop and utilize good information sources. It still holds very much true today. Knowing your competitors offers you invaluable insights into their strengths and weaknesses, as well as helps you uncover new great opportunities.

Competition is always a good thing. It keeps entrepreneurs like you and me on our toes and motivates us every single day to keep improving and innovating, offer better quality products or services, and come up with new ideas to gain market share.

Below are three easy tips to gaining more knowledge about your competitors and use that knowledge to grow your business.

1. Set up online monitoring tools

There are free tools that help you monitor your online brand mentions. You can also use the same free tools especially Google Alerts to keep tabs of your competitors.

Once you’ve set a Google Alert you will be notified via email every time one of your closest competitor is mentioned online. You will know if they launch a new product or promotional offer, press releases, news articles, et ceterra. You can select an option for how often you want to get alerted through email.

2. Become a subscriber

If you haven’t subscribed yet to your competitor’s newsletter, it would be wise that you do today. This is the best way to learn what types of information or messages they are communicating to their existing customers and prospects.

If your competitor is doing better than you in the market, the newsletters or email messages that they are sending out daily is a perfect way to learn how they do it, and what you can do to improve how you communicate with your target customers.

3. Keep an eye on them on social media

Humor yourself today by liking your competitor on Facebook or following them on Twitter. Trust us on this one: you will learn a lot about your competitors by monitoring them on social media. Many business owners today often make important announcements about a new product they are planning to launch on social media.

You will also learn about any special deals they are offering or sneak peak to new projects they are currently working on or events they are promoting.

Final thoughts

Keeping tabs of your competitors is crucial to growing your business. It won’t just help you learn many great things that they are doing to stay ahead of your business, you will also learn from their mistakes. Start keeping an eye on your competitors today!

Are you a savvy type of woman entrepreneur who knows what her competitor is doing? What are some specific strategies you've set up to monitor them?