Step One - and it's an important one!

Analyze your competition locally, regionally, nationally and globally. Identify and evaluate their marketing strategies. Here are some questions you should think about regarding your competitors: who are they, where are they located, what do they sell, what do you perceive as their strengths and weaknesses, what are their pricing strategies, what customer services do they offer, how are they distributing their products, what is their brand and positioning vs. your own? What is your competitive advantage? Check out your competitor websites, evaluate their ads, PR mentions in the newspapers, online mentions, trade magazines, industry reports, etc. and begin to compare them in a chart with your own company’s strategies. There are apps and tools you might use to accomplish this which we'll cover in our next blog.