Find Your Direct Competitors
A direct competitor generally serves a similar customer with a similar type of solution.
Suppose you are considering a monthly social media content service for independent landscaping companies.
Another company offering monthly social media packages specifically to landscaping businesses would be a direct competitor.
Start with ordinary searches your customer might make.
For example:
- social media marketing for landscapers
- landscaping social media service
- monthly social media content for contractors
- marketing service for lawn care companies
Look beyond the first result.
Check:
- search engines,
- Google Maps for local businesses,
- industry directories,
- marketplaces,
- app stores,
- social media,
- YouTube,
- Reddit discussions,
- online communities,
- and places where your target customers ask for recommendations.
You are not trying to build a database containing every competitor in existence.
You are trying to identify a useful sample of businesses customers are realistically likely to encounter.
For many early-stage ideas, five to ten meaningful competitors can teach you much more than a spreadsheet containing 100 names with almost no analysis.
Do Not Ignore Indirect Competitors
Some of your most important competitors may not look like your business at all.
An indirect competitor solves the same underlying problem in a different way.
Suppose you want to build an appointment-scheduling service for independent service businesses.
Direct competitors may include other scheduling platforms.
Indirect competitors could include:
- Google Calendar,
- spreadsheets,
- paper appointment books,
- virtual assistants,
- industry-specific management software,
- website plugins,
- or simply texting customers manually.
Customers do not compare businesses according to neat industry categories.
They compare available options.
Sometimes the competitor you need to beat is not another company.
It is:
“The way I already do it works well enough.”
That can be a powerful competitor.
A new solution has to provide enough additional value to make switching worth the customer’s effort, uncertainty, and possibly money.
This is why asking potential customers what they currently do is so useful.
Their current behavior reveals your real competitive landscape.
Build a Simple Competitor List
Once you start researching, it is easy to collect too much information.
Keep the first version simple.
Create a spreadsheet or document containing columns such as:
| Competitor | Target Customer | Main Offer | Price | Main Promise | Strengths | Weaknesses or Gaps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor A | Small agencies | Monthly service | $___ | Saves time | Strong reputation | Complex onboarding |
| Competitor B | Freelancers | Software | $___ | Easy automation | Low price | Limited support |
| Competitor C | General market | Templates | $___ | Do it yourself | Affordable | Requires more work |
You can add more information later.
The important thing is to compare competitors using the same criteria.
Otherwise, you may spend two hours studying one company and five minutes studying another without learning anything useful from the comparison.
