Gilad Krein on researching your market and competitors for your online business

If you’re running an online business, then understanding your competition is critical for developing a successful business strategy.

A digital nomad and successful entrepreneur, Gilad Krein is always on the move and shares business insights on his blog. In today’s feature, he advises on how businesses can conduct market and competitor research to stay ahead of the curve.

Any business, whether online or offline, needs to understand two key things to be successful:

Who their target market is and what their competition is doing? This is especially true for businesses trying to establish themselves in a crowded marketplace.

The more you know about your market and competitors, the better your decision-making will be regarding your business strategy.

Gilad Krein says, “market research can also help you to identify target markets and learn more about their needs and desires.” This information can create marketing campaigns more likely to resonate with your target audiences.

It can also help you understand their strengths, weaknesses, and overall strategies. You can develop a unique selling proposition for your business using this information.

What is Competitive Market Research, according to Gilad Krein

Any conscious entrepreneur understands that competitive market research is a mandatory step before launching a business.

Competitive analysis is a process through which an online business can research and analyze significant competitors. The aim is to gain insights into their products, sales, and marketing methods.

Competitive analysis helps a business understand how competitor businesses operate. This way, developing strategies to better compete in the marketplace becomes easier.

Gilad Krein states, “Competitive market research is an important part of any business’s overall market research strategy.”

He adds, “It helps businesses to identify their competitors, understand their strengths and weaknesses. It also makes it easy to develop strategies to better compete in the marketplace.”

Gilad Krein Shows the Steps to Competitive Research for Online Business

Gilad Krein believes that it is only through well-coordinated and strategic approaches can better help grow you online business. You can gather helpful information they need to make informed decisions about their competition.

“The process cannot be sped up,” Krein says. “Competitive research requires a methodical and diligent approach.”

Here are the steps that Gilad recommends businesses take when conducting competitive research:

Identify your competitors

Identifying all businesses that may be considered competitors is vital in this step. This includes businesses that offer similar products or services and businesses that target the same market.

As you go along, you’ll be able to better identify and understand your business competitors.

Check out what your competitors are selling

Ensure you’re looking at the same information your target market would see. This means:

• Considering the 3 P’s: price, product, and presentation
• Determining if they are a low-cost or high-cost provider
• Identifying if they are working mainly on volume sales or one-off purchases
• Assessing their market share and
• Understanding the characteristics and needs of their ideal customers

Look at your competitors’ pricing, as well as any perks they offer

The best way to understand your target market is willing to pay is to study your competitors. This is important because you want to understand how another online business is pricing its products and services.

You also need to ensure you’re meeting competitive shipping costs.  You do not want to be at a disadvantage regarding shipping costs. So, it is vital to make sure that you are competitive.

Consider learning what technology stack your competitors use. By looking at their websites, you can determine what type of technology they use.

Analyze how your online business competitors market their products

The next step is analyzing how your competitors market their products.

Gilad Krein recommends observing how competitors promote marketing content. This includes looking at their website, social media, and any other marketing channels they are using.

Also, take note of your competition’s content strategy. That means looking at the type of content they create and how often they publish new content.

It’s also important to analyze the level of engagement on your competitors’ content. That includes looking at the number of likes, comments, and shares their content receives.

Gilad Krein: Perform a SWOT analysis

The most crucial step for any competitive research entrepreneur is to perform a SWOT analysis after collecting all this information.

It will help you understand your competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Using this information to develop your marketing strategy will be invaluable.

The SWOT analysis identifies these four factors. A SWOT analysis should not be a static document and should be revisited and updated periodically.

To perform a good SWOT analysis, Gilad Krein recommends these SWOT analysis best practices for any online business.

• Keep it short and straightforward but not exclude any crucial details – For example, when looking at a large company, you may want to focus on a specific part of their business.
• Brainstorming with your team – This will help you come up with different perspectives and insights.
• Using data to support your analysis – This includes using data from your competitive research and other data sources.
• Being objective – This is important because you want to see your competitor’s business objectively, without biases.
• Updating it regularly – As mentioned before, a SWOT analysis is not meant to be a static document. You should update it regularly as your online business, and the market evolves.

In the end, any savvy online entrepreneur knows that understanding their competition is critical to the success of their business.

By conducting market and competitor research, you can gain valuable knowledge that will help you create a winning marketing strategy.