bereniketech/competitor-intelligence

Competitor Intelligence

Systematically research competitors and build actionable intelligence for positioning and strategy.

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1. Research Framework

Five dimensions to research per competitor

| Dimension | Questions | Sources | |---|---|---| | Product | What do they offer? Pricing? Key features? | Website, G2, Capterra, App Store | | Marketing | Where do they advertise? What's the angle? | SimilarWeb, Meta Ad Library, Google Ads | | Content | What topics do they rank for? | Ahrefs, SEMrush, their blog | | Customers | Who uses them? What do they love/hate? | G2, Trustpilot, Twitter, Reddit | | Team | How big? Growth trajectory? Key hires? | LinkedIn, Crunchbase, job postings |

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2. Ad Intelligence

Meta Ad Library (free):
1. Go to facebook.com/ads/library
2. Search competitor name
3. Filter: Active ads
4. Download: all running ads, headlines, copy, landing pages

Note: Ads running >30 days = profitable (they wouldn't keep unprofitable ads)

Google Ads:
- SpyFu: competitor keywords + estimated spend
- SEMrush: Google ads history, copy variants
- SimilarWeb: traffic by channel

LinkedIn Ads:
1. Go to competitor's LinkedIn page
2. Click "Posts" → "Ads" tab (shows all active sponsored posts)

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3. SEO & Content Research

# Using SEMrush or Ahrefs
1. Enter competitor domain
2. Export: top organic keywords (filter: positions 1-10, volume >100)
3. Export: top pages by traffic
4. Gap analysis: keywords they rank for that you don't

# Free alternative: Google Keyword Planner
# Type competitor URL to see their keyword clusters

Content audit:

• What topics do they publish most? (their editorial priorities)
• What gets the most social shares? (Buzzsumo)
• What format: long-form, video, infographics? (emulate what works)

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4. SWOT Analysis Template

# Competitor SWOT: [Competitor Name]
Date: [Date]

## Strengths
- [What they do exceptionally well]
- [Market advantages they hold]
- [Resources or capabilities we lack]

## Weaknesses
- [Common customer complaints (from G2/Reddit)]
- [Features they're missing]
- [Operational or pricing vulnerabilities]

## Opportunities for US
- [Their weaknesses = our positioning opportunities]
- [Customer segments they underserve]
- [Geographic/vertical markets they're not in]

## Threats from them
- [Features they're building (from job postings)]
- [Markets they're expanding into]
- [Pricing changes that undercut us]

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5. Positioning Map

Plot competitors on two axes most relevant to your market:

Example: SaaS tool — Ease of Use vs. Feature Depth

                High Features
                     |
    [Enterprise X]   |   [Your target position]
                     |
Simple ———————————————+——————————————— Complex to use
                     |
    [Budget tool Y]  |   [Competitor Z]
                     |
                Low Features

Find the white space — where no competitor is positioned — that's where you can win.

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6. Battlecard Format

One battlecard per competitor, used by sales team:

# Battlecard: [Competitor Name]

**One-line summary**: [Who they are in one sentence]
**Pricing**: [Their pricing vs ours]
**Target customer**: [Who they sell to]

## Why We Win
1. [Specific advantage #1 with evidence]
2. [Specific advantage #2 with evidence]
3. [Specific advantage #3 with evidence]

## Their Strengths (acknowledge honestly)
1. [What they genuinely do better]

## Common Objections & Responses
**"[Competitor] has [feature X]"**
→ "Yes, and here's our approach: [response]"

**"[Competitor] is cheaper"**
→ "The total cost of ownership is [evidence]"

## How to Spot Their Customers
- Job titles that buy from them
- Company size / industry
- Red flags in their tech stack

## Proof Points (use in competitive deals)
- Customer who switched from them: [quote]
- Independent comparison: [link]

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7. Monitoring Setup

Free monitoring:
- Google Alerts for competitor names, product names
- Twitter lists: follow competitor employees and customers
- G2/Capterra: subscribe to new review notifications

Paid tools:
- Crayon / Klue: automated competitive intelligence
- Owler: funding, news, headcount changes
- SimilarWeb Pro: traffic changes month-over-month

Review cadence:

• Weekly: new reviews on G2/Capterra, major news
• Monthly: pricing pages, job postings, new feature announcements
• Quarterly: full SWOT refresh, battlecard updates