Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Competing to Win: Analyzing Your Competition

If you're serious about developing a successful online business, you need every advantage possible. That means getting to know not only who your customers are but also who else is after their business. Start by writing down a list of your top three to five competitors.

Keep this list on hand, and document basic information, such as

• Web site address
• Physical address (if they have one) and number of locations
• Annual sales
• Number of employees
• Types of products or services offered (with full description)
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Copies of ads, flyers, and brochures
• Special promotions (especially online offers)
• Pricing information for products or services similar to yours

As a quick and easy way to keep up with your competition, visit their Web sites and sign up for their newsletters and other promotional offers by e-mail. You can also follow them on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Be sure to maintain a list of your secondary competitors, too. These companies don't sell your exact products or services but come close enough to compete for your customers' dollars.

Hooray! You completed your due diligence and have a fat file of information about all your stiffest competition. What now? This kind of data does you no good when it just takes up space in a filing cabinet. Use it to your advantage.

Sift through your collected ...