Competitor Profiling and Analysis: Definition, Key Components, and a Step-by-Step Guide

Knowing who your market rivals are will help you to assess your company's position in the competitive landscape.

By engaging in a "competitor profiling" practice, you can also gain a better understanding of why customers choose your business over your rivals and vice versa.

Where do you start? What tools do you use, and which competitors do you analyze first?

In this guide, you will find the answers to essential questions about competitor profiling and how RightAngle can be of service.

What you’ll learn:

• What is competitor profiling?

• Key components of a competitor profile

• How to conduct competitor profiling (step by step)

• FAQ: competitor profiling

What is Competitor Profiling?

By periodically investigating and recording key details about your competitors, you can create an accurate representation of their profiles, products, business practices, and market perceptions, and how these are evolving.

The objective is to convert raw competitor data into insightful information to inform your own strategy.

For instance, profiling may highlight the weakness of competitor’s product line or an underserved consumer segment that you can leverage in your own marketing and development plans.

When undertaken correctly and systematically, competitor profiling can provide the market intelligence you need to adjust your marketing strategy, make informed strategic decisions, and even anticipate what your rivals may do next.

Key Components of a Competitor Profile

A comprehensive competitor profile includes a number of important elements. These components will guarantee that you examine a rival from all angles.

1. Company (Competitor) Overview

Gain an extensive summary of the rival's operations, including:

• The company's background and history (foundation date and history, etc.)

• Their mission, vision, and leadership structure

• Number of employees and departments, branches, etc.

• Basic financial information, e.g., revenue, funding, and profitability.

Being aware of a rival’s growth stage can help to explain their strategic moves. Assessing their financial health from public reports or estimates is also useful as this can show how aggressively they are able to invest in new product development, marketing, or innovation.

2. Target Audience and Market

Identify which consumer groups or industries they target, as well as the regions in which they operate.

Take note of their market share or estimated size in those segments, if these figures are accessible. This can indicate where the competitor concentrates their efforts and which audience they believe to be most valuable.

Say, for instance, that a competitor focuses on tech-savvy millennials – these insights can help you to differentiate your own offerings. Being aware of the competitor’s audience can also help you to spot any underserved segments.

3. Product Offerings and Pricing Strategy

For each competitor, identify their:

1. Product portfolio, which covers the primary features or unique selling points of their offerings

2. Pricing tiers or pricing strategy (premium vs. low-cost, subscription vs. one-time fees, etc.)

You can determine the advantages and disadvantages of the competition's products by looking at their features and price, which can also help you to benchmark and adjust your own pricing or value proposition accordingly.

For example, you could discover that a competitor's product has an attribute that yours does not or that its price is significantly higher, which could be a drawback if clients desire better value.

4. Marketing and Communication Tactics

Examine how the competitor markets and interacts with its consumers. This part deals with their distribution channels, communication, and branding.

Research the distribution channels and sales strategy. Are their products sold online, in physical stores, or do they prefer hybrid sales? If possible, find information about the share of each distribution channel in the overall sales structure.

Take note of their preferred communication channels, e.g., do they focus on email and trade exhibitions, or are they heavily involved in Instagram and TikTok?, as well as the main messages they focus on.

Learning a competitor’s marketing strategies may help you to:

• Learn how a rival reaches and affects your target demographic

• Discover their strategic priorities, i.e., the extensive promotion of a new feature can show their areas of investment

5. Strengths, Weaknesses, and Customer Perception

This competitor profile component is basically a mini SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of your competitor.

Why "mini"? Mainly because you do not have all the insights, and you do not possess all the data related to sales, and other vital information to formulate a comprehensive SWOT.

Write a summary of the competitor's strengths and weaknesses based on all the information you have collected, and then use that information to your advantage.

The process of analyzing these channels can help you to gain a better view of your competitor.

How to Conduct Competitor Profiling and Analysis (A Step-by-Step Guide)

You may consider approaching competitor profiling using a more step-by-step method, and this guide could help you with that:

Step 1. Identify Your Direct and Indirect Competitors

1. List your direct competitors (those that offer very similar products or services, and whose target audience is the same as yours)

2. List your indirect competitors (those that may have goods and services that differ, but address the same issue or satisfy the same client need)

Say you’re a coffee shop – your direct competitors are other coffee shops in the area, while indirect ones are smoothie bars or convenience stores.

Step 2. Collect Key Data on Each Competitor

When you have created a list of all your competitors, collect both quantitative data (numbers, facts) and qualitative insights (reviews, reputation) about them.

1. Company information can be collected from the About Us” page on the competitor’s website, financial and annual reports if these are publicly available, and press releases.

2. Product or service line-up and pricing information can be learned from product pages, catalogs, or pricing pages.

Sometimes, you may be able to visit the physical store where you can see the rival’s products, pricing, merchandise and other critical aspects of their marketing strategy.

Tip: Take note of the features of each product, the cost of each tier or package, and any noticeable discrepancies between your own offerings. Look for data such as the number of users (software) or sales numbers, if this is legally obtainable.

3. Online presence and website traffic data can be obtained using digital tools, for instance, SimilarWeb for website visits, traffic sources, demographics, etc. Various SEO tools can also help to examine the competitor’s search engine presence.

4. Marketing channels and online content data can be retrieved from competitors’ blogs, by subscribing to their newsletters, and by following their social media pages.

Tip: Evaluate the tone and engagement of their social media posts to learn what resonates with their audience. Social listening tools like Sprout Social can help.

5. Customer review data can be found on Google Reviews, Yelp, G2, Amazon, social media, industry-focused review websites, or app stores.

6. Advertising and promotions of your competitor

Analyze where and how the competitor advertises, and try to answer the following questions:

• What messages does the competitor push in online ads?

• Do they run Google Ads on certain keywords or social media ad campaigns?

Tip: You can get this information using various tools such as SEMrush, SpyFu, and Meta Ads Library (Facebook, Instagram).

7. Public and third-party information can be obtained from various press releases, news articles, industry reports, databases (Crunchbase, PitchBook for start-ups), and industry events or webinars.

Tip: To facilitate the examination of your competitors, as you collect, store this information logically on a spreadsheet, for instance, with sections that include company information, its products, marketing, etc. Read more on the tools for research later in this article.

Step 3. Analyze and Benchmark Your Findings

Now it’s time to analyze the information you have collected and draw meaningful conclusions.

1. Start by analyzing each competitor’s profile individually:

Check out the details and try to sum up what drives this competitor's performance and what constraints they face.

2. Make a side-by-side comparison

This will help you to spot the advantages or disadvantages of your company and those of your rival’s. You might consider comparing the pricing, product feature checklists, and brand positioning.

Tip: You could create a comparison table of the key metrics or features.

Step 4. Turn Insights into Actionable Strategies

Applying the knowledge you have gained to enhance your own company plan is the final and most crucial stage.

It's time to put your findings to good use, which may involve a variety of business-related tasks:

1. Product development:

If you discover that your competitors do not offer a specific feature that their customers want, you could consider offering this feature.

Or if a competitor’s product has a weakness that clients have complained about, ensure your product effectively addresses that issue, and you could show customers the difference.

2. Marketing strategy:

Change your positioning and marketing depending on competitive insights.

• Say your competitor underserves a specific customer demographic – you could place a stronger focus on that group

• If their social media participation is low – focus more on community building.

3. Pricing and sales:

You could change your pricing approach or provide your sales team with talking points that capitalize on competitors' flaws.

Ensure that your customer-facing team is also familiar with rival profiles so that they can appropriately respond to inquiries such as "Why should I choose you over Competitor A?".

4. Overall competitive strategy:

Decide where to stay out of head-to-head conflicts and where to openly compete.

If your research indicates that one competitor consistently outperforms you on price, you could choose to focus on quality or features rather than starting a price war.

Tip: Develop an action plan or prioritize critical objectives based on competitor analysis, and discuss these insights with your team.

Tools and Methods for Effective Competitor Profiling

Although gathering and evaluating competitor data can seem a little overwhelming, fortunately, there are several tools and techniques that can help.

1. Digital Analytics Tools (SimilarWeb, Semrush, Ahrefs, and others)

These tools can help to profile the online presence and performance of competitors. For instance:

• SimilarWeb calculates the traffic, demographics, and online engagement of any website.

• Ahrefs provides various SEO competitor analysis features (keywords that drive traffic, topics that your competitor ranks for but you do not, backlink profile, etc.).

• Semrush is more of an all-in-one tool with various SEO tools and features for PPC advertising research, social media tracking, and market analysis.

Other tools in this category include:

• Google Alerts – to monitor competitor mentions in the news

• Google Trends – to compare brand search interest over time

• BuzzSumo – for specialized analyses such as content virality or specific SEO metrics

2. Social Listening Tools

Social listening tools monitor and examine online sentiment about a company, its rivals, and its industry on news websites, blogs, forums, and social media.

Brandwatch, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite are among the most well-known platforms that use sentiment analysis and artificial intelligence to offer insights into consumer trends, opinions on brands, and possible crises.

Suggested reading: Top Major Competitor Tracking Tools: Overview, Tips, Pricing, and Trends

3. RightAngle: Expert Networks for Real-World Insights

Expert networks are services that connect users with industry experts, such as former executives or professionals, for one-on-one consultations.

These networks offer clients access to firsthand knowledge of various markets and competitors that cannot be found in public reports or online sources.

For instance, you need information about a certain company - you can get in touch with a former employee from that company who might share valuable competitive intelligence.

RightAngle: This expert network connects clients with vetted experts across more than 200 industries, with global coverage (99% across five continents).

It focuses on rapid, compliant consultations for market research, investment decisions, or due diligence.

Key advantages include speed (profiles in 24 hours or less), strict confidentiality, and flexible, affordable solutions without subscriptions.

Conclusion

Regularly tracking companies that you compete with will create a knowledge foundation that can lead to better decisions about marketing, products, and strategy. A comprehensive competitor profile, which includes background, audience, products, and consumer sentiment, will allow you to identify market opportunities, predict certain behaviors, and avoid costly mistakes.

FAQ: Competitor Profiling

What’s the difference between competitor profiling and competitor analysis?

Profiling involves collecting and assembling data about particular competitors into comprehensive profiles, including information on their products, tactics, and audiences, while analysis entails an evaluation of the advantages and weaknesses of current and potential competitors to identify opportunities and risks to arrive at a competitive strategy. In short, profiling gathers information; analysis converts this into action.

How often should competitor profiles be updated?

It’s important to update profiles regularly. Experts advise examining competitors’ profiles at least once every three months or once a month for industries undergoing rapid growth and after every important event, such as the introduction of a new product or an acquisition. Frequent updates will maintain the accuracy and usefulness of your insights.

If a certain competitor is particularly active, you may even conduct monthly updates in some sectors.

Tip: Set a calendar reminder or include it in your planning process. Many businesses conduct competitor analysis at quarterly strategy sessions or during annual planning.

How do I identify which competitors to profile?

You can begin with your three to five direct competitors, meaning those that target the same customers, and then continue adding a few significant indirect competitors that aren’t exactly in your space but provide alternative solutions. Find these using competitive tools, customer feedback, or sales feedback.

What if I can’t find much information about a competitor?

There are several things you can do:

1. Expert insights: Consult experts via expert networks like RightAngle to gain insider perspectives.

2. Make use of third-party tools for estimates: For example, use web analytics tools like SimilarWeb, RightAngle, or SEO platforms like Ahrefs or BuzzSumo for traffic and visibility estimates.

Also, check if there are industry reports or news articles that mention them.

3. Customer perspectives: Consider reading customer reviews on forums and social media by using social listening tools

Remember, even limited data can reveal patterns – combine clues carefully to build a useful profile.