If you're Focused on your Competitors, then you're not Focused on your Customers.

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Starting in any endeavor, we generally have this overwhelming urge to check out and monitor what our competitors are up to. It can end up driving you nuts. It's not like you want to copy; it's just they are hogging page one, in every conceivable combination you can think of.

More so in the hybrid offline-online world where you are a small business looking to grow. Competitor envy is a thing it can take over your business life. One of the worse scenarios is when you get to thinking they are copying you; always one step ahead of you and the game and, of course, reaping the rewards for doing so.

"Blogging is no different; getting some traction can take superhuman focus or forgoing the coffee in the morning for a couple of cups of Kryptonite."

It can be so hard to differentiate ourselves from what the next guy or gal is doing. If you cast an eye over the pool, many are doing similar things; it has been said that there is a high level of sameness across the oceans that make up the internet.

Success is about creating those strategies in your blog and business that ensure you are always one step ahead of your competitors.


Well, I have got a tip for you and me ( it is a constant work in progress ); it's just one thing; the longer you're focused on your competitors, the longer you are not focused on your consumers. AIE.

In the online marketing world, we tend to copy each other quite a bit regarding marketing and branding; you might be giving this text "the look" right now because you agree or disagree. I don't know, but really when we're focused on our competitors, we are not focused on our customers or audiences. Missing that connection creates a missed opportunity, especially during a time like this. Right now, people are looking for originality, reassurance, and direction. They are looking for creatives and brands to be original and authentic and create marketing that they want instead of what we typically do in online marketing, creating stuff that people chuck in the virtual recycling bin. I am keen to hear your thoughts, what do you think, do you agree do you disagree?

If we commit to getting as close as possible to our customers and audiences, and if it is a business or a niche that we feel passionate about, their problems are our problems. We can not fail.

There is that saying that when the momentums with you, not much will get in your way. I go along with that. This post reflects time spent with a client that had disappeared down; the competitors are doing a much better job than we will ever do rabbit warren.

There is a flip over to the online blogging world; go to page one, look at what's there, balance it against what you and your consumers are looking for; I would suggest that you are in the hunt more often than not.

Competitors need to become last in the list, consumers of your products and content have to become your story's heroes.

Yeah/Nah?

Thanks for reading.

Alex Evans.

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Recent Comments

22

You hit the nail on the head, Alex! Don't worry about competitors! Worry about customers! EZ-PZ!

Hi Jeff, from observation it can be so easy to worry about what the perceived opposition is up to.

We should be worried what we are up to.

Alex

We should always worry about ourselves before anyone else, Alex!

Jeff

Too true Jeff, wise words indeed.

Indeed, Alex! Once our "ship" is good, then we can concentrate others, perhaps!

Amen Alex. I agree 100% with your Excellent Post & Share. Thank you.

Yes we can expend a lot of energy worrying about what the competition are up to, when our best investment can be about worrying about what we should be up to.

Thank you for stopping by, Edward.

Alex

Yes, we need to be focused on our customers. They are the people whose problems we are offering to solve. If we cannot provide a solution that they are looking for (preferably before they are looking for it) then they will go to our competitors for the answer.

Therefore, we also need to know what our competitors are doing and what they are offering, but we definitely do not want to spend time worrying about them.

Alex

You have raised such a valid point, Alex; keeping an eye on competitors is healthy, obsessing over competitors is not a good recipe. Thank you for sharing; providing those answers before they are asked is definitely a way to create engagement and return visitors.

Alex

This is so true. Trying to best someone is not the same as trying to be the best.

That saying;

“A champion team will always beat a team of champions.”

Springs to mind, I really like your comment Jim, real food for thought. Thank you.

Alex

It is one thing to look at competitive websites in your own niche, to see what the competition is doing. We can learn a new trick, or they figured out how to display their page and you want to learn how they did so, because your attem[ps failed...grin. We are social creatures, we want to keep up with the other kids...

However, It is another thing to focus so much on someone else's website that you start to doubt yourself, where your small steps forward appear meaningless, compared to some of the other sites...

Stop. Review what you have created, not what you have not...

There is nothing stronger to deter your progress than to lose faith in yourself...

Rudy

Hi Rudy, top of the range observations, you have expressed the journey of many. I have to agree if we doubt ourselves we are already on the slope to the exit.

I also agree to look at what others have created with that eye to making what we do better is a healthy way to make things happen in our world. As you say we are social creatures.

Thank you for sharing your insights.

Alex

Thanks, Alex.

You are most welcome Rudy.

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