The Competitor Analysis Checklist for B2B Marketing in 2022

ByCompany Expert

1. Identify and Categorize Your Competitors

The first step is finding out who your competitors are. So, identify at least your top 5 competitors and categorize them as direct competitors and indirect competitors.

  • Direct competitors include businesses that operate in the same geographical regions and sell products or services that customers can use to replace your products or services.
  • Indirect competitors sell products/services that can satisfy similar customer needs. 

For B2B businesses, choosing 3 direct and 2 indirect competitors is enough to get the desired outcome. Make sure you do both general and geographically-specific research while choosing the competitors.

2. Visit Your Competitor’s Website

Visiting the website is one of the easiest ways to understand your competitor’s B2B business plan. A structured, visually appealing, and easy-to-operate website gives a professional impression to the customers. So, when you visit your competitor’s website, you get to know what kind of web page structures or design features are working best. 

Whenever you visit a website of your competitor, you must check the quality of the website in terms of usability and lead generation. In addition, review how your competitors are using their websites to present their products or services when it comes to  SEO. Consider the following factors for an in-depth analysis of the website.

  • What kinds of CTAs are used on the homepage?
  • Do they have a blog and FAQs section on the website?
  • What products are displayed on their website?
  • Do they offer media kits on their website?

3. Check their Marketing Strategy

Understanding the competitor’s marketing strategy is one of the most important parts of the competitive analysis. From social media pages to content strategy, analyze everything related to the marketing efforts. But, remember, it is only to collect data and get inspiration. You don’t have to include certain things in your plan because your competitor is doing something. The following questions will help you understand whether your competitor’s content strategy is working or not. 

  • What gets a lot of engagement?
  • Is content reaching the target audience?
  • Do they use internal linking and lead nurturing strategies?

When you get an answer to these questions, you must ask yourself if you can apply any of their strategies to your content. The right marketing strategy should speak to the target audience.

4. Evaluate their Online Presence 

Social media is an important part of  B2B marketing strategies. So, when evaluating your competitor’s online presence, check their presence on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, and Pinterest. In addition, the following metrics can help you check the engagement rates.

  • Number of followers
  • Likes and shares on their posts
  • Posting frequency 
  • Viral content

The tone of interaction, the authenticity and quality of content, and the response of your competitors’ followers will give you an idea about the social media presence of your competitors.  

5. Analyze their Sales Tactics

The hardest part of a B2B competitive analysis is analyzing the sales tactics. Finding out the information can be tricky, but a little digging and research can help you. You can use the following ways to determine the sales tactics of your competitor.

  • Check if your competitors have a process page on their website. 
  • You can also find the annual reports online of a public company.
  • Know whether your competitors are scaling their company up or down.

When you know what sales tactics are working or not working for your competitors, you can tailor sales tactics for your business accordingly.  

The Final Word

A competitive analysis will help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, and it can make or break a marketing strategy. If you need more help, the B2B sales and marketing consulting firm or playbook products like the competitor analysis template can guide you in assessing your competitors.