How to learn from your competitors

Want to get better results from your marketing?

Keep an eye on your competitor's messaging.

Here's the thing...

There are always trade-offs. 

Your competitors can't say everything about their product or service (e.g., list every single feature or benefit on their site with equal prominence.). 

So what they choose to say is what they feel most aligns with their buyers (your buyers).

By watching their messaging, you can get insights into your buyer.

You can use those insights to improve YOUR messaging.

Question to ponder:

👉 Are we leveraging our competitors to learn more about our buyers?

Have a great weekend!

CQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does watching competitor messaging reveal insight into shared buyers?

Because competitors can't say everything about their product or service equally, they have to choose what to emphasize. Those choices reflect what they believe resonates most with the exact buyers being targeted.

What does it mean that "there are always trade-offs" in messaging?

That no company can highlight every feature or benefit with equal prominence. Whatever gets emphasized is a deliberate choice, revealing what a competitor believes matters most to the shared target buyer.

How can competitor messaging actually be used to improve one's own positioning?

By treating competitor emphasis as market research, if multiple competitors consistently highlight the same benefit or angle, that pattern likely reflects genuine buyer priorities worth incorporating into messaging.

Why does this approach work as a shortcut to understanding buyers?

Because competitors are already working hard to attract the same buyers. Their messaging choices are effectively a form of market testing that can be observed and learned from without repeating the same research independently.

What's the practical question worth asking about current competitive awareness?

Whether competitor messaging is actually being monitored and used as a source of insight into shared buyers, rather than ignored as simply "what the competition is doing" without extracting any real learning from it.