Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

What criteria should I use when constructing a competitive analysis? Is it really important to have one for a dating site? Is quantcast.com enough to construct a good competitive analysis?

It can help in figuring what the "WOW" factor is for your site.  Also, help in telling you whether or not the market is too saturated.

For dating sites, it`s probably a good idea because there are sooooooo many.  Quantcast alone would probably not be adequate.

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Confadate for your peace of mind.

Sandy

Having an understanding of the competition has many potential benefits. It could help one define their strategy for pricing, positioning and messaging. It can help one describe the market size and direction.

The criteria one chooses should relate to the purpose for the process.

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Business Growth Masters, LLC -
Capital Catalysts for Entrepreneurs
Home of the Scalable Business Plan and QuikStart Capital Programs
http://www.bizgrowthmasters.com
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Sandy,

Confadate sounds like a very "useful" service for those who want to move from an on-line connection to an actual meeting. I can see several ways to "promote" this service.

Send me a PM if you`d like to discuss some specifics.

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Business Growth Masters, LLC -
Capital Catalysts for Entrepreneurs
Home of the Scalable Business Plan and QuikStart Capital Programs
http://www.bizgrowthmasters.com
info@bizgrowthmasters.com

This is something we`ve done a fair amount of.  We believe that having a strong competitive intelligence read is key to success in your marketplace, especially something as crowded as online dating.  I would recommend a few steps in constructing your competitive intelligence.
1) Find as many competitors as you can and spend some time on their sites.   use search engines, industry reports, etc.
2) Organize a first cut into a spreadsheet
3) Create a set of screens to build a short-list of the best 10-20 competitors in your space
3) Define the "attributes" that you want to track for each competitor - things like business model, size/number of subscribers (use alexa, compete, quantcast),  revenues (Dun & Bradstreet), differentiators, etc.
4) collect a full set competitive sites
5) Perform a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunity, Threats) on your market
6) create dimensions in your space that will allow you differentiate from the others... what market niches are available?  (e.g. dating for military,  urban dating, etc.)
7) create your messaging and strategy to target your new-found niche
8) Track your competitors through something like Rivalmap.com or Google Alerts

Hope that helps!  Good luck!

- Skip



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