TLDR: How would you approach researching the competitive landscape of an early-stage business with little to no budget, with the end goal being to help them refine their positioning strategy.
Hi all,
I’m a brand and marketing strategist who recently started volunteer mentoring early stage business owners.
One of the areas I'm focused on is helping them to narrow their positioning and uncover more effective ways to differentiate themselves. This obviously starts with at least a hypothesis about who one's competitors are, however when I ask this question of my mentees, I'm discovering that most don't have an answer.
These are mostly internet based product (e-commerce) and service (consulting, creative services) businesses trying to stand out in competitive markets. So I'm really trying to beat the drum on the importance of clear differentiation. I'd like to provide them with a process beyond just Googling it, to get at least a picture of the businesses they're being compared against.
Which brings me here. I thought maybe SEO experts with all the research you do, might have some ideas / recommended tools for how one might use keyword analysis to draw some assumptions about 1) likely competitors and 2) how saturated a given category is.
Complicating factors: 1. Minimal budget - this is volunteer so I can't justify a tool like SEMRush or recommend something that is cost prohibitive to a small business 2. Minimal traffic - most average 2-5k visits per month 3. Broad focus - potential competitors are endless as these aren't geo-specific businesses.
Beyond manual google searches, below is what I’ve tried so far: 1. Service directories (like the Clutch.co - useful for my service businesses but not anchored in any data) 2. Similarweb: They don't have enough web traffic. I did find an alternative called Comparable but it's hit or miss and still requires a lot of manual refining. 3. Meta Audience Insights (to see other brands followed by a community): Hit or miss and only for businesses with significant followings 4. Moz's free 'True Competitor' tool: Sort of helpful but still had to input a larger competitor site as the mentee's didn't have enough traffic
What am I missing? I want to give my mentees some simple, reasonably sound methods for understanding their landscape without getting overly technical or breaking the bank. Any hacks, ideas or tools for achieving this are greatly appreciated!
THANK YOU for reading!
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