Competitive Analysis: Spot Market Gaps for Your Business (+Free Template)
Competitor Analysis Full Template (Editable Google Sheet)
A ready-to-use Google Sheets template to track competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and market gaps so you can plan smarter and sell better.
Zakaria Shuvo
Competitive analysis means studying your competitors to learn what they do well, where they fall short, and how you can stand out.
This guide will help you to understand how to perform a detailed competitive analysis, even if you don’t have any tools, teams, or experience. This isn’t theory, it’s practical, actionable, and designed for business owners like you.
If you’re a small business owner struggling to grow, or just starting and looking for your market gap, doing a competitive analysis could be the turning point you need.
Competitive analysis is not for giants like Unilever, P&G, Gucci or big brands with marketing teams anymore. For businesses, it’s a low-cost, high-impact strategy that helps you understand who your competitors are, what they’re doing well (or poorly), and how you can position your business to win.
What Is Competitive Analysis?
Competitive analysis is the process of identifying your direct and indirect competitors, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and using that insight to improve your own strategy.
It helps you answer three crucial questions like:
- Who else is serving the same customers?
- What are they offering that I’m not?
- How can I differentiate my product, service, or content?
Whether you’re running a clothing brand, a local agency, or an online product store, competitive analysis helps you:
- Find market gaps
- Improve your offer
- Position your brand
- Avoid repeating others’ mistakes
Real Life Example of Competitor Analysis
Let’s look at Dulkar, a small eCommerce business owner in Bangladesh. He started his business as a personalized gift shop, but over time he evolved into a broader eCommerce brand. Now, he sells a variety of products, ranging from electronics and fashion items to home goods and accessories, through his online store.
His business competes with some of the largest players in the industry:
- Local giants like Daraz BD and Othoba.com, who offer everything from groceries to electronics with fast delivery and big marketing budgets.
- International platforms like Amazon and AliExpress, who provide massive variety and lower pricing, especially for imported goods, though often with slower shipping.
As a small business, Dulkar knows he can’t win on volume, pricing, or logistics alone. But instead of trying to copy these companies, he uses competitive analysis to find out what they’re missing, and fills those gaps.
Through analysis, Dulkar founded several opportunities:
- Faster, local delivery: Unlike Amazon or AliExpress, Dulkar can fulfill same-day or next-day deliveries within Dhaka, building local trust.
- Focused product curation: While Daraz has thousands of options, Dulkar narrows down the best-rated and most relevant products for a specific niche like budget tech or home essentials.
- Personalized customer support: Where others rely on automated systems, Dulkar offers real-time WhatsApp support, humanizing the experience.
- Clear and honest listings: No unclear descriptions or fake reviews, Dulkar offers transparent pricing, real product images, and verified user testimonials.
By studying both local and global competitors, Dulkar understands where he can stand out: with speed, service, trust, and clarity. And none of that insight came from guessing, it came from doing the work.
Start Your Competitor Research Now
Why Competitive Analysis Matters for Small and New Business Owners
Your business is not just competing with other businesses like yours anymore. Your customer is constantly comparing every experience they have, whether it’s with a global brand or a neighborhood store. That’s why you can’t afford to guess your way forward.
Without competitive analysis:
- You could be underpricing your product or charging too much
- You might adopt a flawed marketing tactic copied from others
- You may spend time and money targeting the wrong audience
With proper analysis:
- You’ll find real gaps in pricing, features, or positioning
- You can design offers and content that feel fresh and valuable
- You’ll know where to focus your limited time and marketing budget
In short, competitive analysis gives you actionable business intelligence, without needing an MBA.
When to Do Competitive Analysis
There are three moments when competitive analysis is especially critical:
- Before launching a new product or service
- When growth is plateauing or slowing down
- When pivoting your positioning or messaging
If you’re in any of these phases, it’s time to roll up your sleeves.
Step 1: Identify Your Real Competitors
Make a list of:
- Direct competitors – businesses that offer similar products/services to the same audience
- Indirect competitors – alternatives your audience might consider (e.g., DIY vs. hiring you)
- Search competitors – those ranking for your keywords, even if they don’t offer the exact same service
How to Find Them:
- Search Google using your service + location or pain points (e.g., “custom shirts for events”)
- Use Meta Ad Library to see who’s advertising similar offers
- Ask customers who else they considered before buying
- Use SEO tools like Ubersuggest, Semrush (free trial), or even Pinterest/YouTube
Step 2: Audit Their Messaging, Offers, and Positioning
Once you have your list of 5–10 key competitors, you need to understand how they’re positioning themselves:
Look at their:
- Website homepages & about pages
- Product/service descriptions
- Taglines, CTAs, and guarantees
- Pricing structures
- Reviews and testimonials
- Ads on Meta platforms
- Email sequences (if you can sign up)
Questions to Ask:
- What are they promising?
- What pain points do they deal with?
- What are their pricing anchors?
- How do they differentiate themselves?
- What kind of language/tone are they using?
Organize Your Competitor Insights
Step 3: Analyze Their Content Strategy:
Most businesses don’t analyze content deeply, but if you’re running Ad campaigns, you NEED to know what content your audience has already seen from competitors.
Review Your Competitors –
- Blog topics and frequency
- Lead magnets or downloadables
- Social media content (engagement levels)
- Facebook/Instagram ads (use Meta Ad Library)
- Videos and webinars
Ask:
- What are they educating their audience on?
- What tone/style works for them?
- Are they prioritizing short-form or long-form?
- Is their content SEO-optimized or viral-focused?
This helps you:
- Avoid repeating the same generic topics
- Find tone or niche gaps (e.g., more practical vs. more inspirational)
- Create retargeting sequences that feel fresh
Pro Tip: Track their most popular content and reverse-engineer why it’s working.
Step 4: Map Their Funnel (and Plug the Leaks in Yours)
You’re not just analyzing content, you’re mapping their funnel.
Start from their:
- Ad → Landing Page → Offer → Email Sequence
- Organic Post → Link in bio → Freebie or Sales Page
Look for:
- How many steps are they using until conversion?
- Are they offering trials, discounts, or value stacks?
- Where are they losing attention?
Once you understand their funnel, ask:
- Where is their weakest link?
- What step can I do better or simplify?
- Is their offer aligned with their content?
This helps you create:
- Better funnels
- Smarter lead magnets
- Offers that convert faster
Step 5: Perform a SWOT Analysis (Add-on Insight)
After gathering competitor data, a simple yet powerful way to frame your next move is by conducting a SWOT analysis, a structured look at your business’s:
- Strengths (What are you doing better than competitors?)
- Weaknesses (Where are you losing opportunities?)
- Opportunities (What market gap can you fill?)
- Threats (What changes or rivals could disrupt you?)
Read our in-depth blog on How to Run a SWOT Analysis
Evaluate Your Brand with SWOT
Step 6: Find the Gaps, and Decide What to Do Differently
Now that you have:
- A list of competitors
- Their positioning, offers, and content strategy
- A mapped funnel and SWOT perspective
Ask the only question that matters: Where’s the gap I can own?
Gap Examples:
- Competitors are vague on pricing → You offer pricing transparency
- Their funnels are slow and complex → You simplify with one-click booking or purchase
- They focus on product features → You focus on transformation or outcome
- They overlook a niche (e.g., teachers, solo founders) → You own that space
The goal isn’t to copy. It’s to find your lane.
Step 7: Apply It to Your Strategy
Once you know the gap, you can:
- Refine your messaging
- Launch smarter Meta campaigns
- Write better content that fills unmet demand
- Build offers that hit the right pain points
Instead of starting from zero, you’re now responding to what the market is already telling you.
Template Download → Grab our competitive analysis template to organize your findings.
Final Step: Get Expert Eyes on Your Analysis
If you’re still unsure how to make sense of your findings, or how to turn them into campaigns, content, and offers, book a free 30-minute consultation.
We’ll walk through:
- Your top 3 competitors
- Your current positioning
- Quick-win content ideas and campaign gaps
Analyze your competitors is part of a bigger system. To run effective campaigns, you need a full framework that includes story, targeting, and measurement.
That’s why we created the SMART Marketing Framework. It helps you:
- Set up your story
- Clarify your mechanism
- Allocate resources smartly
- Respond to your audience
- Track results
Download the SMART Marketing Framework Ebook
That’s why we created the SMART Marketing Framework. It helps you:
- Set up your story
- Clarify your mechanism
- Allocate resources smartly
- Respond to your audience
- Track results
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Book a 30-Minutes Consultation For Free!
If you’re still unsure how to make sense of your findings, or how to turn them into campaigns, content, and offers, book a free 30-minute consultation.
We’ll walk through: 1. Your top 3 competitorsc 2. Your current positioning 3. Quick-win content ideas and campaign gaps