Does your accounting firm have to deal with a lot of competition? Over 50% of businesses say gaining a competitive advantage is one of their top three priorities. However, in order to stay ahead of your competition, you first need to know what they’re up to.
In this article, we’ll explain how you can conduct an effective competitor analysis as an accounting firm. Specifically, we’ll look at the importance of competitor analysis, and key metrics to look for.
The importance of competitor analysis
The first priority of any competitor analysis is to uncover more information about your competitors, and how much of a challenge they present to your business. Keep in mind that there’s generally a limit to what you can find out — you’ll likely be able to uncover their services, size, and target demographics, but might not know exactly what their business plan is or the exact productivity tools they use.
Secondly, competitor analyses are also a great market research tool. By learning your competitors’ market share, you can better understand how much room your firm has to grow in the domestic market. If there’s not a lot of space, you might consider finding a new accounting niche.
Finally, a thorough competitor analysis can help you understand more about the demographics you should be targeting. If your primary competitor specialises in accounting for a particular industry, it would be wise to find an alternative audience for your services.
Key metrics for your analysis
Building a competitor analysis can be tricky if you’re not sure what to look for. Here are three metrics you can track to help build a competitor analysis:
- Prices: Your competitors’ pricing is a great indicator of their size, the demographics they’re targeting, and their capabilities as a business. Additionally, it’s usually fairly easy to find out what they’ll charge for various accounting services.
- Reviews: Reading the reviews your competitors receive offers a host of useful information. Identifying who submits the reviews can show the competitor’s target demographic while the content of the reviews can reveal more about their services, and the number of positive vs. negative reviews is a reliable general indicator of popularity. Using sites like Trustpilot is a good way to find public reviews of competitors.
- SEO: If your competitors have put effort into their Search Engine Optimisation, you’ll want to know about it. Ahrefs SERP checker is an effective and free tool for learning more: simply put relevant keywords into the search box and you can find out if your competition is ranking highly for those terms. You can also use it for your own website, which may help great with your content marketing.
Join INAA: Meet the greater accounting community
If you’re interested in receiving more helpful advice on running your accounting firm, news about industry trends, or are seeking to collaborate with other firms, joining INAA might be the perfect solution for you.
With 30 years of experience and over 140 member firms worldwide, INAA is an incredible opportunity for both new firms looking for connections and established accountants trying to enter the international market.
You can discover more benefits of INAA membership here, or apply for your membership on our join us page.