Every business has competitors who deliver the same or similar services and products. The vast business emporium provides the customer with multiple choices. Rising above this competition is only possible by understanding more about competitors, and that is where competitive intelligence comes into play.

Out-perform your competitors by incorporating competitive intelligence into your business plans and decisions. 

Competitive intelligence, as the name suggests, is the process of gathering data about competitor companies, entrepreneurs, and businesses. Using this data to upgrade products, services, marketing strategies, budgeting, etc., gives your business the upper hand. It is another addition to data analytics. 74% of businesses have admitted to using competitive intelligence tactics and data analysis methods in their business decisions. 

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Using tips and tricks of successful marketing campaigns of your competitors and steering clear of marketing blunders already made by your competition is an advantageous effort that minimizes loss of time, labor, and finances. Some of the factors concerning competitive intelligence (CI) in marketing are:

• Effective metrics
• Customer feedback/surveys 
• Target markets
• Customer demographics and buyer personas
• Market trends
• Sales data 
• Operating structures 
• Business cycle data 
• Supply and distribution chain structures 

The 5 standard steps to getting started with competitive intelligence are as follows: 

1. Preliminary planning – there are enormous amounts of data. Feeling clueless with too much irrelevant data works against the whole purpose. So, start by prioritizing the type of data that can pose as useful for strategizing.
2. Data collection – the shortlisted data types can be collected from various sources. There are separate platforms like Keyhole, Oktopost, Google Analytics, Sisense, Tableau, etc., that collect and present easy-to-comprehend target buyer data. 
3. Data analysis – segregating and organizing the data mass into viable statistics to proceed with comparison studies will arrive at loopholes and areas of issues that need improvement. 
4. Execution – the collected data analysis needs to be applied in upcoming projects, campaigns, sales pitches, etc., to fulfill the purpose of competitive intelligence.

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Best tools to advocate competitive intelligence

• Visualping – is a website monitor that can track visitors, click-throughs, interactions, and more. It provides email and notification alerts on the latest data summaries.

Features – competitor monitoring, news sites, and research reports, security breach detections, buyer tracking, intelligence alerts, browser extensions, business solutions.

• CIradar – the platform provides a wide range of easy-to-comprehend data concerning ad campaigns, marketing strategies, and competition. They also provide the services of consultants and assign analysts. 

Features – ad hoc analysis, customize email briefing, consultation, analyst curation, competitive intelligence, market innovations, R&D plans, pricing models, marketing trends, intelligence feeds, insights.

• Crunchbase – from prospecting solutions to analytics and finances, Crunchbase covers several sectors of business intelligence. They provide customized data with recommendations, salesforce and CRM integrations, and searchable content data. 

Features – templates, variables, leads, and prospects identification, companies and buyer tracking, CRM syncing, prospecting tools, data, and analytics. 

• Klue – with more than 10,000 partnered companies, Klue gives more than data. It provides a complete top-to-bottom service on tackling competition. They cater to all business sectors and roles.

Features – competitor tracking, dashboards, and battle cards, real-time insights and strategies, sales improvement schemes

• Tallwalker – gives alerts, data reports, and analytics. Much like the services of google analytics and google alert, Talkwalker free monitoring and reporting platform. 

Features – social media monitoring, analytics, reporting, AI engine, social listening, customer intelligence, market intelligence, acceleration platforms. 

• Meltwater – monitors and serves understandable data from various social media platforms and website interactions. They collaborate with leading global brands and with departments of PR, marketing, and media relations. 

Features – custom reports, media monitoring, consumer insights, social media monitoring, press distribution, real-time alerting, media database, API reporting, brand management. 

• Owler – is a great way to collect and compare data with potential competitors. It helps identify and track competition so that your company can stay ahead. They have experience with more than 14 million company profiles. 

Features – trend-watchers, company data research, sales, and competitive intelligence, data licensing, prospect tracing. 

• Spyfu – provides insights, data, analytics, predictions, and more about prospects, clients, leads, and competition. Serving more than 200,000 monthly users, they provide consultation and data service. 

Features – tutorials, Application programming interface (API), Pay per click marketing (PPC), SERP analysis, domain comparisons, keyword research, rank tracking, backlink builders.

• Moat – is used to tracking the effectiveness and reach of digital advertisements. It also provides a comparative analysis of the same from competitors, indexing areas that can use improvement.

Features – measurement analytics, data collections and dashboard presentation, analytics, predictions. 

• Crayon – helps delineate sophisticated data to bring easily accessible and ready-to-execute analytics and reports on competitors, prospects, and customers, and they provide AI-aided assistance in reports. 

Features – web tracking, customizable dashboard, benchmark reporting, channel acquisition, AI assistance.

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There are several methods of executing or gaining competitive intelligence through multiple phases of a business. The use of more data-driven decisions in a business proportionately increases success rates of campaigns, advertisements, and sales pitches. Understanding the competition, learning from their mistakes, comparing your company’s stance in relation to the competition in the industry, and enticing the target audience is achieved more easily with the application of competitive intelligence.