Does this sound familiar? You have a fantastic service or product that you KNOW your target market needs. Your killer pitch has easily converted several prospects into customers. You’re growing your client base and looking to scale your business, then …
The Plateau.
Your sales and pipeline are chugging along, and growth seems imminent; then, it all cools off – seemingly out of nowhere. Your pipeline goes stale, new leads dry up, and your projections become hopes.
So – what happened?
There’s likely been a change in the market—the channels they use, what drives them to act, or even their interest in your offering. Also as likely, there’s a new competitor in the field, or a known competitor has shifted their tactics and is drowning your lead potential.
This is the risk every company takes that doesn’t build their marketing strategy on competitive and market analysis or that did that due diligence at launch but has become complacent in tracking the market or competition and assumes “everyone” knows what they do and why they’re great.
The fact is that 60% of B2B companies existing customers are not fully aware of their vendors’ additional offerings. That means 60% of your clients are not likely aware of your full scope of services, which represents a significant opportunity to grow your business revenue by increasing your existing account lifetime values.
When it comes to refilling that pipeline with new opportunities, ongoing and consistent market, and competitive analysis are critical to your ability to differentiate your brand with targeted and unique messaging and offerings that your market really needs.
Market and Competitive Analysis Benefits
The benefits are tangible and wide-ranging. According to a study by B2B House:
- Improved Revenue and Profit Growth: Companies that regularly use data-driven insights and competitive analysis are twice as likely to outperform their peers in revenue and profit growth.
- Better Marketing Strategies: Competitive analysis helps businesses develop more effective marketing strategies by understanding competitors’ tactics and market trends.
- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: By identifying and addressing gaps in competitors’ offerings, companies can improve their own products and services, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
- Identification of New Opportunities: Market research and competitive analysis can reveal underserved markets or niches, allowing businesses to expand their reach and tap into new revenue sources.
- Strategic Decision-Making: Data-driven insights from competitive analysis enable more informed and strategic business decisions, helping companies stay ahead of the competition.
It’s pretty simple. You cannot compete in a market when you’re not aware of what the market wants, what makes them engage and act, and what might turn them off. You also can’t compete if you don’t know what other brands like yours are saying, their value propositions, or what channels they use to engage prospects.
Digital marketing tools afford us a ton of real-time data for our marketing efforts. Launching a campaign or strategy without doing your homework on the market and competing brands is akin to shotgunning a barn with your marketing plan when the data we have at our fingertips in the digital space allows us to be much more intentional and effectively use a scalpel for carve out our piece of the market-share pie.
Rebuild Your Marketing Strategy Process to Make Room for More
It’s not enough to do competitive and market analysis to build a better mousetrap at the outset of your strategy. It has to be an ongoing part of your strategic process. Our recommendation is to pull quarterly reporting on your market and competition to stay on top of shifts and allow your marketing team to be proactive instead of reactive to changes in the market that threaten your pipeline.
No business is protected from the threat of market change, so being intentional about tracking your competition and market activity gives you the advantage of visibility into potential trends and shifts to protect your pipeline opportunities and your future business growth.