How to Conduct Competitive Intelligence Research

What is Competitive Intelligence?

Photo of a man looking at his iPad interpreting competitive intelligence research

Competitive intelligence is the practice of gathering, analyzing, and acting on information about your market, industry activity and disruptions, competitors, and their products/services. 

It is a combination of:

  • Market intelligence

  • Strategic planning

  • The competitive landscape

  • Development metrics


The Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) considers competitive intelligence the key to organizations being able to handle risk while increasing their revenue opportunities. An organization does this by having a firm understanding of what’s happening in their given environment.

Competitive intelligence research answers questions such as:

  • What are my competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?

  • How much do competitors charge for their product or service offerings?

  • What advantages do they have that I don't have?

  • What are their challenges that I can address with my offerings?

  • How many clients do they have compared to me?

  • What are their annual sales and revenue figures?

  • Who are their clients? What are their similarities and differences to my own?

  • Where are they getting most of their business from these days?

  • How can I increase my share of this market?

  • What key market trends and competitive insights can I leverage to grow my business?


Business information and insights platforms can make competitive intelligence research much easier for you.

This article will talk about how competitive intelligence can pave the way to powerful insights that inform crucial business decisions.

Market Intelligence vs. Business Intelligence

Market intelligence and business intelligence are often used interchangeably, but there’s a nuanced difference between the two. 

Business Intelligence

Business intelligence or BI focuses on company-related information and competitive insights rather than market-specific ones. They are linked to a business's key performance indicators (KPIs), informing strategic business decisions.

Business intelligence includes data on the following:

  • The sales process

  • Revenue figures

  • Production and operations

  • Financials

  • Company size

  • Competitive strategy

  • Financial services

This information is often tricky to obtain as they are typically accessible within the company and are seldom published publicly.

If you want to stay informed and receive daily updates on over 14 million companies, consider a plan from Owler. We can help you prospect for new business, keep tabs on your competitors, and track new updates happening in your industry.

Market Intelligence 

Market research deals specifically with your company, marketing strategy, and product line. Market intelligence is information about the market itself, not your specific positioning.

Market intelligence covers information on the industry and market movements, customers, and competitors, including (but not limited to) the following: 

  • Market share

  • Industry benchmarks and metrics

  • Market trends

  • Consumer demographics and behavior

  • Market size

  • Key stakeholders

  • Business regulations

  • Client relationship management trends and tools

  • Marketing channels

  • Industry white papers

How to Engage in Market Research

Engaging in effective market research involves three steps:

  • Creating a competitive landscape analysis

  • Prioritizing data collection

  • Using benchmarking

Create a Competitive Landscape Analysis

Map out your competitive environment by identifying your top competitors. Expand your competitive landscape by considering related industries and determining potential competitors from lateral sectors.

Competitive analysis involves pulling together and culling actionable insights from information about your competitors, such as:

  • Sales and revenue figures

  • Company size

  • Products or services

  • Price points

  • Sales and marketing strategies

  • Competitive edge

  • Financial services

  • Stakeholders

Owler Max provides comprehensive company profiles by giving your sales team company information such as revenue, employee count, leadership, funding, top competitors, and recent news.

Don’t underestimate the power of social media. As, when analyzed alongside a competitive analysis, social media allows you to:

  • Observe your customers’ posts and responses to other customers

  • Know what their messaging, tone of voice, and branding styles are

  • Look into their followers' comments and what they say about products or services

  • Observe their marketing strategies (are they tapping influencers, running ads, rolling out campaigns, promos, and activations)


Owler lets you see a company’s social media profiles, enabling you to quickly assess its presence and performance on social media. 

Prioritize Data Collection

Focus on data collection every step of the way. Having access to a substantial amount of information can give your business unprecedented data about your customers and their competitors—quantitative and qualitative alike.

Quantitative data may include their financial information, sales or revenue, employee count, and many more. Qualitative data may consist of branding and messaging, social media posts and comments, and customer testimonials.

Having sufficient data available in your arsenal allows you to define industry standards, benchmarks, trends, movements, and performance. It also helps you analyze competitor products and how you can position your offerings against theirs.

Data empowers companies to understand, assess, forecast, respond to market movements, and watch for trends. You need big data sets for competitive analysis and a platform that can handle massive amounts of information. 

Owler is the world’s leading source of dynamic competitive information, with a massive network of businesses worldwide—14 million small businesses and multinationals alike. This leads to a faster, more intelligent primary research and solid competitive strategy.

As the most comprehensive company registry, Owler empowers your business by providing you with real-time data on the companies you care about. 

Use Benchmarking

Information about the market and your top competitors enables you to set industry benchmarks and KPIs for your company. It helps you understand the big picture beyond your company, detecting patterns and trends in the market.

For instance, having a competitive landscape analysis makes it easier to determine your competitors' market share.

Using benchmarking also lets you know your competitive advantage—how to position your company, brand, and offerings when you have knowledge and insights on what other companies are doing.

To choose a suitable benchmark, you need a deep understanding of your industry or market segment. Owler lets you explore your company's entire competitive landscape, analyze the sector, and look at micro-clusters between companies to explore how they compete on multiple levels. 

Improving Your Competitive Intelligence Research

Competitive intelligence empowers strategic planning, sales, marketing, finance, and operations decision-making. It also provides more quantitative and qualitative data, minimizing risk and uncertainties about external factors.

With the benefits competitive intelligence brings, it’s essential to improve and strengthen your systems and processes for research. Here’s how:

  • Record a competitor analysis

  • Be active on social media

  • Do pricing research

Record a Competitor Analysis 

Be on the lookout for competitors’ news on management, products and services, and business strategies. Stay up–to–date on new product launches and company efforts on hiring, marketing, partnerships with companies and influencers, new clients, and many more.

Keep your competitor analysis updated by getting access to real-time news updates on the companies you care about.

Thanks to the Daily Snapshot, Owler sends you daily alerts about the companies you care about. Enable notifications and save time on outreach with a personalized feed exclusive to Owler Pro and Owler Max.

Owler helps millions of competitive intelligence professionals, intelligence companies, and sales teams research with its easy-to-use competitive intelligence tool

Be Active on Social Media

Social media is a treasure trove of data. Social media influences the purchasing choices of almost 85% of decision-makers and executives.  

Establish a solid presence on social media with regular, consistent posts. Engage in conversations with your followers and see what customers say about your products. 

Check your competitors’ channels and take note of their social media activities, such as the following:

  • Ad campaigns

  • Influencers and thought leaders

  • Online activations, collaborations, and promos

  • Key messages and tonality of their posts

  • What their followers are saying about their offerings, i.e., comments

  • How they engage their followers

  • Customer support strategies 


Owler lets you see a company’s digital profiles, giving you an idea of its presence and performance on social networks. 

Follow decision-makers and thought-leaders relevant to your sector and build relationships with them. You can do this by joining business communities online via sites like LinkedIn, where you can exchange strategic intelligence on the biggest names in your industry.

Owler also lets you have better conversations by tracking the companies you are targeting (or interested in learning about) and sending suggestions for timely introduction topics to build empathy and help you close more business.

Always Do Pricing Research

Don’t forget to perform business intelligence on your competitors through regular pricing research. 

Having information on competitors’ pricing structures, profitability, and shareholders solidifies your competitive research, empowering you to decide on crucial aspects of your business operations.

Owler’s competitive intelligence capabilities can give you such information and more.

Improve Your Competitive Intelligence Research with Owler

Competitor intelligence research empowers your company’s decision-making by providing vital intelligence on your competitors and minimizing risk brought by market uncertainties. 

Owler Max's comprehensive company profiles streamline your competitive analysis process using rich data and actionable insights about top competitors. 

Track the companies you’re interested in today. Sign up for free or contact us to learn how we can best support your business.


If you want to stay informed and receive daily updates on over 14 million companies, consider a plan from Owler. We can help you prospect for new business, keep tabs on your competitors, and track new updates happening in your industry.

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