One of the first questions we ask a new client is, "Who are your competitors?" One of the first pieces of advice we give them is, "Now, let's agree to ignore them."
This usually gets a strange look. The business world is obsessed with "competitive analysis." There's an entire industry built on tracking what your rivals are doing, what keywords they're targeting, and what their latest ad campaign looks like.
This is a profound and dangerous distraction.
Obsessing over your competitors is the fastest way to become a slightly different version of them. You start to adopt their language. You start to match their features. You start to fight over the same scraps of the market. Your own unique point of view gets sanded down until you're just another "me too" business.
Your best work, your most original ideas, and your most powerful marketing will never come from looking at what everyone else is doing. It will come from a deep, almost obsessive focus on two things:
Your Customers: What do they really need? What are their frustrations? What would make their lives genuinely better? If you spend half the time you currently spend thinking about your competitors thinking about your customers, your business will be transformed.
Your Own Point of View: What do you believe that no one else does? What are you angry about in your industry? What is your unique way of solving the problem? The more you can clarify and amplify your own unique perspective, the less your competitors matter.
We don't do competitive analysis reports. We don't spend hours scrolling through our clients' rivals' social media feeds. We believe that the time is better spent talking to customers and refining our clients' own story.
Of course, it's good to be aware of the market. But awareness is different from obsession. Take a quick look once a quarter to see what's going on, and then get back to work. Your real competition isn't the company down the street. It's the temptation to be a little more like them.
