One of my favorite questions from clients is, “What else can we do to beat our competitors?”
My answer is usually immediate.
“Let’s go after them.”
At MarketStorm we spend a great deal of time helping businesses conquest their competitors. We target the audiences visiting competitor websites, identify consumers actively researching competing brands, and build campaigns designed to introduce a better alternative before a buying decision has been made.
We call it “Competitor Conquest” and it is, without question, my favorite game.
Not because I enjoy beating competitors for the sake of winning.... Ok, I think I just lied to you, I do love winning, but I also enjoy it because it forces us to think differently. Most businesses spend almost all of their energy looking inward on things like improving their website, adjusting pricing, and launching another promotion. Those things matter, but they ignore an important reality.
Every customer your competitor serves was once available to everyone. Google’s own research shows that nearly 70% of the time, even if they start with another brand in mind, you can change their minds if you show up at the right place at the right time and at the right frequency. MarketStorm can help with that, but there are things you can do too.
Do your own analysis
The best competitor analysis isn’t an annual exercise that gets filed away in a PowerPoint presentation. It becomes a continuous process of understanding how customers make decisions, where competitors create friction, and where opportunities exist to offer something better.
When we begin a competitive assessment, we start by identifying who the real competitors actually are. That sounds obvious, but it rarely is.
There are direct competitors selling the same services to the same customers. There are indirect competitors solving the same problem in a completely different way.
Then there are what I call search competitors; these are the companies and websites that may not even sell what you sell but dominate the search results your customers see.
Industry publications, YouTube videos, Reddit discussions, local directories, review sites, and AI-generated answers increasingly compete for attention long before a prospect ever reaches your website. If you don’t understand all three groups, you’re competing with only part of the market.
Next, we evaluate how those competitors position themselves. What do they actually sell? How do they package it? Where do they price themselves? Are they competing on cost, convenience, expertise, luxury, or speed?
Sometimes the most valuable information doesn’t come from their marketing at all. It comes from their customers. Reviews are often more valuable than advertisements because customers tell you exactly what they expected—and exactly where the competitor failed to deliver. Every recurring complaint is a market opportunity waiting for someone willing to solve it.
Where does their demand come from?
The next step? Deconstructing how they generate demand.
What keywords are driving traffic? Which offers appear repeatedly? What messages do they continue investing advertising dollars behind? Which social platforms generate meaningful engagement instead of simply collecting followers?
Today, this analysis extends well beyond Google. Consumers discover businesses through AI assistants, YouTube, Reddit, Facebook groups, streaming television, podcasts, local search, and dozens of other touchpoints. Understanding where competitors appear often tells you more than understanding what they say.
After gathering the evidence, organize it into something practical. Every competitor has strengths that deserve respect. Every competitor has weaknesses. Every market contains opportunities that no one is addressing. And every business faces threats that require a response.
A thoughtful SWOT analysis helps transform observations into priorities instead of opinions.
Develop a game plan
But this is where many businesses stop. They complete the analysis. They discuss it. Then they put it in a folder.
The real value begins only when the analysis changes how you operate. If competitors consistently disappoint customers in one area, become exceptional there. If everyone competes on price, compete on trust.
If they all sound the same, develop a voice that customers actually remember. If competitors dominate search results, build better content. If they own the conversation today, start creating one customers would rather join tomorrow. And yes, if they have built valuable audiences, intelligently and ethically compete for those audiences.
That’s one of the reasons competitor conquest campaigns have become one of my favorite strategies. Someone who is researching your competitor has already demonstrated intent. They are already investing time trying to solve a problem. They have raised their hand.
The question is whether they ever learn that another option exists.
That is where MarketStorm becomes incredibly powerful. We can find them in milliseconds. Instead of waiting until someone searches specifically for your business, we can introduce your brand while they’re actively evaluating alternatives. You’re not interrupting an unrelated experience—you are becoming part of the decision-making process itself.
Ultimately, competitor analysis is not about obsessing over other companies. It is about understanding customers better than your competitors do. Businesses don’t win because they copy what everyone else is doing. They win because they discover what everyone else is missing.
That’s the game and it’s still my favorite one to play.
By Carole Lawson
Co-Founder & Chief Data Officer, MarketStorm