Competitor research is an important part of many business strategies, helping you keep an eye on your competition and compare services, pricing, and marketing tactics.

Competitive intelligence takes competitor research to the next level, prioritizing innovation and technology by tracking and predicting future market trends and competitor moves.

As we enter 2025, competitive intelligence is your business’s competitive advantage—keeping you several steps ahead in your industry.

In this article, we’re diving into how you can leverage competitive intelligence in your business and the tools and strategies you need to be successful.

What is competitive intelligence?

Competitive intelligence involves ethically gathering and analyzing information on your competitors, customers, and overall market conditions.

The goal is threefold:

1. Understand your competitors
2. Know what your customers need
3. Identify market trends

With this information, you can better adjust your sales and marketing strategies to remain competitive.

Numerous digital tools are available today to help teams automatically and continuously gather information on competitor moves and consumer behaviors.

We’ll dig more into these tools later.

How to apply competitive intelligence in your industry

Competitive intelligence may feel abstract and complex when you are first getting started.

However, you will likely discover that you’re already naturally incorporating some of these tactics into your current strategies.

Let’s look at how you can practically use competitive intelligence in your industry.

Competitive intelligence in the mortgage industry

The mortgage industry is intensely competitive, especially in tough markets where many consumers can’t afford to purchase or refinance a home.

Mortgage professionals must keep their finger on the pulse of emerging products and services that aim to make homeownership more accessible and affordable.

In this industry, consider monitoring the following data as part of your competitive analysis strategy:

• Interest rates
• Housing market trends
• Competitor loan products
• Regulatory changes

Tracking interest rates, home sales, price fluctuations, and competitor products will help you predict consumer demand and behavior.

For example, by the end of 2024, the average homeowner was sitting on an average of over $300,000 in home equity due to high home prices.

To help borrowers access their equity without losing their current mortgage rate, many lenders began offering home equity loans or home equity lines of credit.

Competitive intelligence in senior living

As the need for quality senior living increases, more facilities are popping up and vying for attention.

Competitive analysis helps community leaders understand seniors’ and their families’ evolving preferences and needs.

In this industry, it’s helpful to track the following types of information:

• Services and amenities offered by competitors
• Pricing strategies
• Demographic shifts

Does your biggest competitor provide transportation to appointments? How much do they charge for different levels of care?

This information helps you understand what works and what doesn’t in the context of local consumer needs and interests.

Competitive intelligence in the legal field

Experience, open communication, and pricing transparency are some of the top concerns for legal clients.

To understand what you need to do to improve your services, consider tracking:

• Competitor success rates and case outcomes
• How competitors attract and retain clients
• Client reviews and feedback

To ensure compliance, legal professionals must also remain aware of and current on the latest regulatory changes in legal advertising.

Top tools and strategies for competitive intelligence

Now that you know how to apply competitive intelligence in various industries practically, let’s look at where and how businesses collect their data.

Competitive intelligence generally involves a range of tools, sources, and strategies, including:

• SEO and ad tools: Track competitor traffic and ranking data, which keywords competitors are using, how they are using them, and who they are targeting
• Customer relationship management (CRM) software: Analyze your customer data to pinpoint trends in behaviors that could be leading them toward or away from competitors and identify where your leads are coming from
• Competitor websites: Evaluate the products and services your competitors offer and how they are marketing them
• RSS feeds: Allow you to anonymously subscribe to competitor newsletters or blogs and keep an eye on the latest news
• Social media monitoring platforms: Pull in brand, competitor, and industry mentions from all social channels in real-time
• Customer reviews: Reveal overall customer satisfaction with a competitor and what customers like or dislike about their products, services, and support
• Industry publications and reports: Help you identify emerging trends and news in your industry
• Financial reports: Annual reports reveal information about competitor strategies and future outlooks
• Trade shows and conferences: Allow you to interact with others in the industry and collect information on competitors through presentations and discussions

AI and machine learning are increasingly built into many digital SEO and social monitoring tools today. Still, you can also leverage these tools to help you quickly evaluate the data you collect and determine trends, patterns, and forecasts.

Step-by-step guide to setting up a competitive intelligence process

Getting started is often the hardest part of competitive intelligence.

Follow these steps to set up a successful process.

1. Determine what you want to achieve

What do you hope competitive intelligence will help you accomplish? Better pricing? New products?

Establishing clear objectives will drive the next steps forward.

2. Identify your sources

Check the list above to determine which sources make the most sense for collecting your data.

You may prioritize certain sources and tools depending on your goals.

3. Collect and analyze your data

Develop a plan for gathering and analyzing your data, including how often you collect it and how you document it.

For the data to be most effective and impactful, you’ll want to find ways to interpret and visualize it in charts, graphs, spreadsheets, etc.

4. Compile and share your findings

Create reports, dashboards, or presentations to communicate your findings with relevant parties and tailor them to specific departments such as marketing, sales, or product development.

5. Use the insights to drive your business forward

Now that you have the information and know what it means for your business, what happens next?

You can leverage it to make improvements by adjusting marketing strategies, adding new services, redesigning products, or changing pricing models.

Next steps: Work with Kaleidico

Competitive intelligence helps you make positive, impactful improvements to your business backed by data.

At Kaleidico, we combine data-driven strategies with creative expertise to deliver measurable results and help you achieve your business goals.

Start your competitive intelligence journey. Schedule a Discovery call with us today.