One very powerful and cost-effective marketing strategy is to study the competition. This is an important exercise, as essentially it allows you to find out as much as possible about the opposition ? how best they operate, what they lack and then how to capitalise on it!

Study the Competition Offline

Start by reviewing the Yellow Pages, the Thomson Local or even go online to determine what you?re up against locally (and if applicable nationally). Make a list of the businesses you need to research, then systematically list the advantages and disadvantages associated with each company. Try to be as objective as possible.

Some questions you might need to ask about the opposition include:

* Where do they advertise?

* Who buys from them?

* What form of marketing seems to work best (or not) for them?

* Do they produce a newsletter you could join?

* What?s their background?

* Do they try to appeal to all sections of your particular business sector, or do they have a niche market?

Study Your Competition Online

If a competitor is consistently higher in search engine rankings than you are, work out how they got there. For example use www.linkpopularity.com to see which sites link to their website, as well as your own. Relevant links can dramatically increase traffic to your web site as they provide an excellent source of consistent and targeted hits.

Review your competitor?s website from top to bottom ? essentially ?get under the bonnet? and see what makes it work.

View the competition as not only a force to be overcome but an aid in your marketing efforts. You might be pleasantly surprised, or shocked, when you compare your business to what else is out there. Either way you?ll learn a great deal using this method!