Businesses, particularly small ones, tend to get caught up in all of their own day-to-day affairs and operations. In the case of marketing, a business owner may be struggling to put together that winning campaign – trying to focus on being clever and memorable. But only looking at your own business is half the marketing battle. You need to be taking clear notes on your competition. That doesn't mean plagiarizing their campaigns, of course. It means taking the time to do some competitive research. Why? Because competitive research shows you how to position your company in the minds of your market.

Research shows you what your competition is doing. That sounds like an obvious statement, but it's an important one. If you look closely at what your competitors are doing, you can see what is working for them. Every business should have a unique approach to their market – something that they can offer that their competitors cannot. By researching what they are doing, you can see how they are positioning themselves in the marketplace. And by evaluating their success, you see what angles are going to bring in business and what angles are not.

As a simple example, let's say you run a struggling office supply company. You have better prices than your competitors, but you are still getting beat. You are positioning yourself as the best-priced office supply company in town in all of your marketing materials. By looking at your competition, you see they have a website where customers can fill up an order cart and have supplies sent right to their office. That tells you that the market wants convenience more than anything else. Now you set up a website and advertise that you are easy-to-use and have the best prices in town. Sales go up.

You also can take a look at what your competition is not doing. This can be valuable if there is a need in your market that hasn't been fulfilled. Back to your office supply company: you are starting to catch up with your competitors, but you haven't gotten there yet. You need to take an angle that will really bring customers in. After looking closely at your competition, you see that their customers log in every week to place orders. You know that it would be much easier on the customer if they could automate those orders. So, you implement a new system that allows automatic reordering of supplies that customers use up regularly. Now, not only are you saving them more money than your competitor, you are also saving them more time. Sales skyrocket.

The goal in studying competition is not just to see what they are doing. Your goal is to see if what they're doing is working. Through competitive research, you gain valuable insight on your market: you see what they want and what they don't want. Using this information can help you take a strong position in the marketplace, filling a need that your prospective customer hasn't had filled before.

How you position yourself in the market is the most important decision you can make in your marketing. Competitive research will help you make the right decision.