What is a Competitive Intelligence report?

Competitive Intelligence is the systematic process of gathering, analyzing, and exploiting information into an actionable plan. Competitive Intelligence is a tool that allows decision-makers to develop reliable strategies.

Competitive intelligence services are a practice that has influenced upper management decision-making. As well as penetrating the lower-level operations such as sales and marketing.

This is due to the ability of competitive intelligence to improve operations management.

Since the market has become more consumer-oriented it is often required for businesses to position themselves. And reposition themselves in order to meet the changing demands of consumers. 

So organizations need more adaptable structures that are more oriented to provide the value that customers desire. So competitive Intelligence has become a more decentralized tool. It’s not just a practice of decision makers, but a practice that influences multiple departments. 

Yet enterprises function on hierarchies and chains of commands. So in order to use the intelligence information according to the greater plan. Competitive intelligence practices must be integrated into the organizational system.

For this purpose, competitive intelligence information needs to be communicated efficiently. So enterprises develop competitive intelligence reports that make it easier for different departments to understand and manipulate information about business activities.

Competitive intelligence reports are designed to be categorically easy to understand and interpret. Moreover, the function of a competitive intelligence report is to make the competitive intelligence practice easier.

The focus is to make reasonable analyses and understand the entire competitive environment. So the competitive intelligence report includes all analysis that allows you to compare yourself with your competitor.

In a way that makes it possible to come to reasonable conclusions. And create a road map to reach your objectives. A competitive intelligence report is made to compare and contrast direct and indirect competition. 

Competitive intelligence reports may be used for all purposes. But generally, a competitive intelligence report is made for sales or marketing. On the other hand, it is important to note that the executives are also the consumers of the Competitive Intelligence report.

This is the entire purpose of developing a CI report. So, it must be structured in a way that supports this purpose.

Structure of The Competitive Intelligence Report

The structure of the competitive Intelligence report needs to be adjusted depending on who it is sent out. So, if it is to be viewed by the sales team, it must suit their tactical needs. Or if it’s sent out to the executives it must provide a detailed analysis of the intelligence.

The competitive intelligence report content can be divided into two categories. Firstly, the type of content that is general and does not require any adjustment to suit the type of consumers.

For example, the strengths and weaknesses analysis remains the same as the report is handed out. These are general details that need to be delivered to all consumers of the competitive Intelligence report.

Strengths and weaknesses is the general type of information that gets repurposed multiple times in other areas. Let’s suppose, in terms of the sales team it is a strong battle card against the competitor’s sales strategy.

So the sales team when understands the difference between the competitor’s strengths and their own strengths. The sales team is then able to capitalize on the information provided by the competitive intelligence report.

So often a competitive intelligence executive job requires you to have some sort of sales experience. In particular, you must understand the sales process in order to come up with a strong battle card for your sales team.

In order to come out with a proficient Competitive intelligence report, you must ask yourself these questions. Where do you stand in the market? What are the market objectives you must achieve? And who are the competitors you are dealing with?

Then after going through the process of competitive Intelligence You can now construct a competitive intelligence report. So it is important to highlight that the competitive intelligence report has no defined structure.

Yet there are general details and specific details that need to be included depending on who the report is sent out to. So the contents are interchangeable and are included based on relevance. 

Competitive Intelligence Tools: Winnower

There are many competitive Intelligence reporting tools that allow you to deliver intelligence effectively to the required departments. For example, Winnowpro is an Ai-powered software that allows you to develop competitor insights.

Winnowpro focuses on the digital content that is driving leads to your competitors. So that you can generate an understanding of their tactics and strategies to gain market share.

Winnowpro focuses on improving the market share by providing insights about your competitors. Moreover, the software focuses on making strategies that can help you save up to 30% on digital marketing costs.

Competitive Intelligence is now widely used in the digital marketing sphere largely because a lot of businesses have moved to develop a digital presence. So the professional competitive intelligence report often consists of the following content.

The Similar Web Analysis

Similar web analysis focuses on the functionalities of your websites in comparison to your competitor. So your site speed, design, display, etc. are all detailed in comparison to your competitor.

AHREFS Analysis

AHREFS analysis helps you understand if there are any problems with your website. Are there any missing open graphs or missing meta titles or image issues etc? So AHREFs analysis allows you to look at a whole range of technical issues within your digital presence.

Within the AHREFS analysis, there are multiple checks that allow you to develop a good competitive intelligence report. Firstly the sideliner check which allows you to do multiple audits like the google lighthouse audit.

Moreover, it is important to analyze site keywords. This includes the top keywords that bring traffic to the site and improve site ranking. You must develop a thorough understanding of the top keywords so that you could delete the low-functioning keywords. 

More importantly, you must be able to compare your keywords with your competitor. Which allows you to compete effectively on the digital platform.