Understanding the Meaning of Competition
Start by drawing a circle in the air with your finger to represent the market. Inside the circle are all the people on the planet who have regular or consistent access to the Internet. Everybody outside of the circle can be ignored for the purposes of this market research.
The Internet is the primary marketplace and distribution medium for digital product makers. They create products for, deliver products to, interact with, and acquire users through the Internet. The Internet is more powerful than traditional mediums like television and radio because it is more interactive and global.
Types of Competitors
Your competitors are the people, teams, or companies who are trying to achieve the same goal as your product team. If you’re just entering the market, there may not be any “direct competitors.” Still, it’s likely that there is already a market for your product, and you just don’t know about it yet.
Companies who offer the same value proposition as you do (or will do in the future) are your direct competitors. This means that if there are customers you want who are already spending their time and money on a competitor’s product instead of yours, it’s because that product is better at solving their problem than yours is.
An indirect competitor is a company that offers a similar value proposition to a different customer segment, or that targets your customer base without offering the exact same value proposition. For example, an indirect competitor’s primary service might not be your value proposition, but their secondary service definitely is. Or, your customer base is using an aspect of an indirect competitor’s interface to solve the problem that your product will soon be able to solve.
Ideally, you want to be able to quickly and accurately scan to determine if they match your criteria for competition. This is what sets professional web researchers apart from amateurs. A good search result will often yield more potential competitor websites than those shown on the search page. Additionally, it will lead you to niche media platforms, such as blogs, where you can find articles from experts, such as “Top 10” or “Best of” articles. These are another great jumping-off point to find competitors. Other tactics you can use include Crunchbase, which collates the largest dataset of startup activity, or advanced search tools, such as the “more like this” button within Google AdWords.
13 Ways to Beat Out the Competition With Interactive Content
1. Ask For Feedback
Asking customers for feedback is a good way to come up with new product ideas and improve your existing offerings. You can learn about your customers’ needs, what your competitors are doing, and how to better serve your target market by asking them questions directly. Asking for feedback also shows that you value your customers’ input and are willing to make changes based on their suggestions.
Here are some examples:
- Did our staff answer your questions in a friendly manner?
- What solution were you using before you found us?
- What would you tell your colleagues or friends about our products and services?
2. Shoot Product Photos
Product photos help customers understand what they will be getting from your brand. If you own an e-commerce store, product-only photos are recommended. In addition, remember that high-quality photos from different angles are essential in order to highlight all features of the product.
Product photos that show the item in use, or in a particular context, can be more effective than just shots of the product. Action shots, in particular, can add a sense of creativity and can be good for posting on social media, in blog posts, or in emails.
3. Trending Content
People are talking about trending topics a lot on social media. This is because different ideas are often being discussed on these platforms. Trending topics are a great way to increase your reach and engagement because there’s a high chance that these discussions will appear on news feeds.
Try to post content that is interesting and new, so that people will want to share it with their friends. Keep in mind that the topics should be relevant to your business if you want to generate leads.
4. Behind-the-Scenes
People largely want to connect with other people, not brands. If you want people to trust your brand, try posting behind-the-scenes content that humanizes your brand. What makes your brand unique is you and your team–show this off with content that is personal, progress-based, or team-building.
5. Tell a Great Story
If you want to connect with others and increase user engagement, tell a compelling story that highlights your brand’s authenticity. You can track engagement through social media dashboards and reports.
You could start by talking about how your company started and what inspired you. You could discuss the challenges a business owner may encounter and how to overcome them. You could also tell a success story about how you pivoted your business to find success.
6. Create Engaging Video Content
At least 100 million hours of video are consumed on Facebook by users according to a marketing agency. This is because videos strike a deep connection to digital audiences.
There are many types of videos that can engage your audience, and it is always a good idea to add them to your social media marketing. These include live videos, tutorial videos, informational videos, behind-the-scenes videos, or user-generated videos.
If your company website has a blog, you can use the content ideas from the blog to create video content.
7. Branded Graphics
The graphics you use for your brand should match your business identity to help people in your industry recognize your brand. Your images should follow your brand guidelines and include your company logo to make them more credible.
When creating various types of posts for Facebook, it is important to have a range of templates that will grab your audience’s attention and leave a lasting impression. This can be achieved by having templates for industry advice and tips, announcements, promotions, motivational quotes, and other branded graphics that support your business.
8. Show Your Personality
You can make your brand more exciting and appealing by giving it personality. You can gain an advantage over the competition by creating a brand that positively resonates with the target market.
Building customer confidence in your brand can be done by exhibiting trustworthiness and desirability. Creating an emotional connection with customers will help to solidify your brand’s credibility.
9. Write Compelling Blog Posts
Blogging can help you write about and share opinions on company information and specific topics. If you post timely news articles, this can help build business credibility and send traffic to your company website.
It is important to keep your audience in mind when writing blog posts. Your blog can be a place where they can share their interests, comment on market trends, or get educated on a particular topic. And if you seek to write content for social media, your blog can serve as a repository of that content.
10. Industry Tips
By sharing tips related to your industry, you can increase engagement while also providing information that is in line with economic and market changes.
If you’re looking to help your readers understand the market, focus on different dynamics in your industry tips. Real-world experience and expertise can go a long way in producing blog articles, how-to guides, or industry news that will keep them updated and help them achieve success.
11. Contests and Giveaways
Hosting a contest or offering giveaways are great ways to increase brand awareness, engage with followers, and expand your reach. Having contests and giveaways gets people talking about your brand and gets people interested in your products or services.
If you want to increase engagement, you can ask people to participate in online challenges. To do this, you need to include a call to action, asking them to like, comment, or share a post, in return for something you can do for them.
A “vote contest” can encourage friends and family to share their thoughts about their favorite products and help increase participation.
If you want people to engage with your posts, offer them something exciting in return, like discounts, freebies, or giveaways. Motivate your audience by including your custom logo on items like tote bags or ballpoint pens.
12. Funny Videos and Images
Funny videos are popular because they make people happy and reduce stress.
If you want to make funny videos that will make your audience laugh, use multiple cameras to add visual interest and capture all angles of the performance and humor. As you tell your funny stories or deliver a punchline, be sure to get the reactions of the person providing the story and the audience to connect effectively with them.
13. Ask for Participant Suggestions to Improve Engagement With Your Audience
You can improve your company by asking the audience for suggestions. Suggestions allow you to improve products or services and sustain engagement. Asking your customers about their motivation in choosing your brand can help you understand your customers better and make improvements based on their feedback.
Most products these days are designed to work with social media platforms, but they don’t take full advantage of all the features these platforms have to offer. You can find most of this information by simply searching the product’s name on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and any other popular relevant social platform, or by just checking out the competitors’ sites, or you could do this method below:
CONDUCTING UX-FOCUSED MARKET RESEARCH
There are many benefits to having your market research conducted by the UX(User Experience) lead or a UX team member:
Design enhancement through nuance is what separates a great UX design from an average one. Something as small as a different color shade or a tone played at the perfect beat can make all the difference. Enhancing the interface or flow of screens to provide an unexpected capability or power to the user can be achieved through content messaging, prompts, and other subtle means.
UX designers try to make things as simple as possible, with the fewest number of clicks. They’re always looking for ways to improve the user experience. Take Tinder for example. Swiping left or right is a much simpler way of making a decision than other options that Tinder could have used.
Re-use. The UX designer can take what he learns for one project and apply it to other projects, making him more valuable over time. The cost of having a UX designer research and build a product is faster than other methods. The UX designer can see which interaction-design best practices work the best by examining the competition and become expert in the subject matter by researching each site’s taxonomy and content.
Working in pairs is a great way for junior UX researchers to get mentored by a lead, and for the lead to become more efficient by having the junior handle the research while they provide analysis. It’s also a great way for the whole team to get familiar with the designs of all the competitors.
UX innovation is constantly improving. People are becoming more familiar with sophisticated tasks and are willing to explore new solutions. The internet is only going to become more powerful, fast, complicated and pervasive.
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