How can you use your competitors' Web sites to glean the kind of competitive intelligence that will keep your business on top? Here are two more ways:
4. Create a competitive intelligence database of white papers and webinars.
Increasingly, white papers and webinars have become the preferred way for a company to establish its mind share and leadership -- so this is another area you should be tracking. You should maintain a list of titles of the whitepapers and webinars your competitors create or host to get an idea of their new direction.
You may not learn much from one single event or white paper, but you'll learn a lot when you look at these as a whole. You'll see trends and patterns that clearly indicate how these companies are positioning or repositioning themselves.
5. Check who they are hiring and firing.
Once in a while, check the management team and job postings pages on your competitors’ Web sites. Try and see whether your competitors have added or removed any names from their management team. This is often the only way you may learn that your key competitor has lost their VP of Sales; no press announcement is likely to be made about such events.
Competitive intelligence is rewarding, but not easy.
You’ll gain a lot by making these activities part of your routine, but this work does take serious time, effort, and discipline!
If you don't have the time to invest in such activities, you can always stick to just using Google Alerts to get the top-level news about your competitors. But the truth is, you're short-changing yourself if you do this. Quality competitive analysis may not come easy, but it will go a long way towards ensuring your business success.
The good news is that some new automated competitive intelligence tools are now starting to become available. Such tools can automatically scan company Web sites and deliver any new information that is posted. You may want to consider one of these to make this job significantly easier.
As CEO of Watch360 Systems, Srikanth Chari can help you track your competitors & uncover their not so hidden secrets simply, effectively, and affordably. With his competitive intelligence services, you will be updated on market landscape changes and get back to working on growing your business -- in less than 3 minutes. To work smarter, keep informed and stay on top of your competition try Watch360.
