How much time do you spend researching the competition? If you don’t know what you’re up against, how can you convince them to use your product over your competitors?
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It's a balance, I believe. You can spend maybe 30 minutes or so a week researching the competition. But everyone's prospective clients are different.
For instance, I'm a writer who specializes in blogs and books. Other public relations people churn out news releases and try to get on TV and radio. I doubt most of them are doing that many releases any more because they aren't being used. I recall being a daily newspaper reporter and getting stupid phone calls from PR people, following up on a dumb news release they mailed me a day or two ago. I remember them being flaky and annoying. If I did PR nowadays, I'd never pester a journalist.
You must know your audience, who uses your service. You can do that by looking at past experience. Or if you're just starting out, who do you want to reach? Doctors, lawyers, construction engineers? The first rule is to know your customer. And your customer may not be the same as your competitor's.
Look at Macy's and JCPenney. They have different kinds of customers. Macy's is more upscale, Penney's is older and middle class. Most younger people buy everything online these days, so if you want to reach them, social media and online ads are the best marketing tools.
In other words, I wouldn't waste much time looking at my competitors. Aim higher; if you listen to your customer, you'll usually win them over.
