Competitive Analysis: How to Gain a Competitive Advantage
Want to stand out? First, you’ve got to know what you’re up against.
"We are not worried about our competition - we want to do things our way" - is a common approach I hear a lot from companies.
Your brilliant engineered products and services deserves brilliant positioning. But first, you need to know what you're up against, or you run the risk of doing exactly what they do or missing out at what works!
Most engineering SMEs think they can just build better products and customers will find them. That's like designing a bridge without surveying the terrain first — you might create something magnificent, but will it actually get people where they need to go?
Why Competitive Analysis is Your Strategic Redprint
Before you can create the blueprint for your company's sales and marketing systems, you need a strong strategy (redprint) based on solid competitive intelligence.
Think of competitive analysis as reverse-engineering the market. Just as you'd dismantle a competitor's product to understand how it works, you need to dismantle their entire go-to-market strategy to see where the weak joints are.
This isn't just about knowing who's in your space. It's about stress-testing their approach to find where they'll crack under pressure — and where you can build something stronger.
The best part? Modern AI tools make this process as systematic as any quality control procedure. You can now automate market intelligence like you'd automate any other critical business process.
How to Engineer Your Competitive Analysis
- Identify Your Competitors: Start by identifying who your competitors are. Look at businesses offering similar products or services in your industry. Don’t just focus on direct competitors—consider indirect competitors as well, who might offer alternative solutions to the same problem. Using look alike profiles and using deep research in Chat GPT or Gemini is a good start to know who you are up against.
- Analyse Their Online Presence: Explore your competitors’ websites, social media profiles, and content. What kind of messaging are they using? How are they engaging with their audience? Tools like SimilarWeb or SEMrush can help you analyse their traffic sources, popular pages, and overall online strategy. Supercharging this with a more indepth prompt in Chat GPT, you can analyse all sorts of factors on your competition's website - and at scale.
- Examine Their Marketing Strategies: Investigate how your competitors are marketing their products or services. What channels are they using? Are they investing in SEO, social media ads, or email marketing? Understanding their approach can help you identify opportunities to differentiate your own marketing efforts.
- Monitor Their Customer Feedback: Customer reviews, testimonials, and social media comments can provide valuable insights into what customers like or dislike about your competitors. This information can guide your own product development and customer service strategies.
- Utilise AI Tools for Ongoing Analysis: AI-powered tools like Crayon or Owler can automate the process of monitoring your competitors. These platforms provide real-time updates on changes in your competitors’ strategies, helping you stay ahead of the game.
- Benchmark Their Performance: Use tools like Google Trends or BuzzSumo to see how your competitors’ content is performing compared to yours. This can help you identify content gaps or new topics to explore in your own marketing.
The Strategic Application: Building Your Competitive Engine
Here's where most businesses fail — they gather intelligence but don't engineer it into actionable strategy. Your competitive analysis is only valuable if you systematically apply what you've learned.
Apply What's Proven to Work
When you spot competitors succeeding with specific tactics, don't ignore them — improve them. If a competitor's case studies are generating leads, create better case studies. If their webinar strategy is working, engineer a more systematic approach to educational content.
This isn't copying — it's taking proven components and engineering them to work better in your system.
Engineer Solutions for Market Gaps
The real opportunity lies in what competitors aren't doing. Look for:
- Service gaps where customer complaints aren't being addressed
- Communication gaps where technical concepts aren't being explained clearly
- Channel gaps where competitors aren't reaching certain audience segments
- Process gaps where their customer journey has friction points
Test and Calibrate Your Position
Like any engineered system, your competitive positioning needs testing and refinement. Monitor how your differentiation performs in the market and adjust accordingly. Your competitive advantage isn't a one-time build — it's a system that requires ongoing maintenance and improvement.
Systematic Market Advantage
Your engineering expertise gives you a natural advantage in competitive analysis — you understand systems, processes, and continuous improvement. Apply that same systematic thinking to understanding your market position.
Before you invest time and budget into marketing that might miss the mark, engineer a clear understanding of your competitive landscape. Know what's working, identify the gaps, and build your strategy accordingly.
Remember: you're not just trying to be different — you're engineering a sustainable competitive advantage that your rivals will struggle to replicate.
Ready to stress-test your competitive position?
Our Industrial Growth Audit includes comprehensive competitive analysis specifically designed for engineering SMEs. We'll help you identify exactly where to position your business for maximum market impact.
