How to Prove Your ROI with Competitor Analysis

Often, competitor analysis is associated with optimising a company’s strategy in terms of positioning, content marketing, profiling and segmentation, market mapping and business opportunities.

However, agencies that want to make the most of their work to clients must be able to extract the most relevant KPIs relating to competitors, as well as to their own performance. The goal here is to emphasize your actions in comparison to the overall results of major players in the market, while finding opportunities for up-selling services.

The reasons for fielding this type of analysis are numerous, and can be grouped into four broad categories:

1. Lack of clarity on the customer’s objectives, as well as poor investigation by the account manager.
2. Non-customised reporting for different decision makers.
3. Market fluctuations and overall negative trends.
4. Difficulty in proving the ROI of digital and social media initiatives to marketing and brand managers. 

Here are 3 strategic models for structuring a competitor analysis to highlight the most of your results, campaigns and tactical levels to your customers:

1. Visibility and reputation

This phase includes the investigation and analysis of campaigns, promotions, product lines, digital PR, E-reputation, and market opportunities. Below are the main indicators of business.

Metrics of competitor analysis:

• Buzz and share of voice: Volume, medium, and trend of posts related to campaigns, promotions, events, and product launches. To optimise this analysis, segment according to channel coverage, geo-location, level of influence, and media authorities involved.
• Sentiment: Polarity and involvement (i.e. number of mentions) of product lines, customer support, brand image, and monitoring of the main consumer trends. For example, identify the main problems related to your customer’s competitors and deliver targeted and profiled actions based on this analysis.
• Semantic categories: Key topics of conversation on pricing, in-store experience, services, and needs. From here, propose a fine tuning or integration of online to offline activities. 

2. Positioning and engagement

This second phase serves to identify investments on platforms, content marketing strategy, involvement, and profiling of target audiences. In this case, one must select a few metrics that are most relevant to the areas of focus.

Metrics of competitor analysis

• Community: Growth of and number of fans, followers, and subscribers. Don’t forget to identify any opportunities or potential areas for optimisation.
• Engagement: Segment the level of interactions by channel and time distribution to assess the reach and influence of campaigns or dedicated actions. In addition, identify the hashtags used and assess the level of involvement from competitors.
• Content: Analyse the content that has generated the most engagement to define your own distinctive position in term of copywriting, visuals, distribution, and value proposition. 
• Audience: Identify the most active contributor in the customer’s social media channels to identify interests, location, and purchasing behaviour.

3. Advocacy and loyalty

This phase serves to highlight brand advocates - conversations, consumers, prospects, and influencers. These users can communicate the brand message, strongly influence the decision making process, and guide the assessment of alternatives.

Metrics of competitor analysis

• Advocate: Level of involvement (sentiment, number of mentions/posts on the subject), influence (potential reach and networking capabilities), themes, and types of purchase (evaluation of profitability).
• Influencer: Coverage, reference channels, public involvement, and diffusion network.
• Campaigns: Assessing the quality of themed conversations to determine campaigns and best practices to stimulate brand loyalty.

Finally, remember to create analysis reports on a regular basis - whether quarterly or half-yearly - to compare and correlate specific flagship campaigns related to your client’s brand and its competitors.