Don't Copy the Competition. Understand the Customer.
One of the first questions we’re often asked when starting work with a new client is:
“Have you looked at what our competitors are doing?”
The answer is yes.
But probably not for the reason you think.
Many marketing agencies spend a great deal of time analysing competitors and then recommending that their clients follow similar strategies. If a competitor has launched a new website, they suggest doing the same. If they’ve started producing videos, they recommend videos. If they’ve redesigned their service pages, they become the benchmark.
We take a different view.
Competitors Show Opportunities, Not Direction
Competitor research has its place. We use tools such as SEMrush to understand where competitors are performing well, identify keyword opportunities and uncover content gaps.
That information is incredibly valuable.
What we don’t do is assume that because a competitor is doing something, it’s automatically the right thing to do.
After all, we don’t know:
- What objectives they’re trying to achieve.
- Whether their marketing is actually working.
- What constraints they have.
- What budget they’re working with.
- Whether they’re making good decisions or bad ones.
Copying another business without understanding the thinking behind it is a little like following someone else’s sat nav without knowing where they’re trying to go.
Competitor research isn’t only about finding what other businesses are doing well. Sometimes the most valuable insight comes from finding what they’re doing badly.
Are important customer questions going unanswered? Is information difficult to find? Are several competitors making exactly the same vague claims? Is there a gap between what customers need to know and what the market is actually telling them?
Sometimes the opportunity isn’t to do what a competitor is doing better. It’s to do something they aren’t doing at all.
Your Customers Matter More Than Your Competitors
Every successful marketing strategy starts with understanding the customer.
Who are they?
What problems are they trying to solve?
What questions are they asking?
What information do they need before they’re ready to make a decision?
What might prevent them from taking the next step?
What would make them choose your business over another?
And importantly, are these the customers you want more of?
Those answers shape everything from your website and content to your SEO and advertising.
Good marketing isn’t simply about generating more enquiries. It should help a business attract the right enquiries — the customers, projects and opportunities that support where the business wants to go.
That’s also why we don’t build content strategies around keywords alone. We look at the intent behind the search. What is the person actually trying to find out, understand, compare or decide?
The same principle increasingly applies to AI search. Useful, authoritative content that clearly answers genuine customer questions gives people, search engines and AI platforms something worth finding, understanding and referencing.
The question isn’t, “What content has our competitor created?” It’s, “What does our customer need to know?”
Our job isn’t to help you become a slightly different version of your competitor.
Our job is to help you become the obvious choice for your customers.
Winning Doesn’t Mean Copying
One of our clients competes directly with a national household name.
On paper, they shouldn’t win.
The national company has a larger marketing budget, a bigger team and far greater brand recognition.
Yet by focusing on creating the right content, answering customers’ questions and building authority over time, our client has consistently outperformed them for the searches that matter most to their business.
We didn’t achieve that by copying the market leader.
We achieved it by understanding what their customers wanted and delivering it better.
The Danger of Following the Crowd
When every business copies the competition, they all begin to look the same.
The same claims.
The same pages.
The same offers.
The same marketing messages.
Eventually, price becomes the only thing left to compete on.
That’s not a race we encourage our clients to enter.
Instead, we look for what makes your business different, what your customers value most and where the opportunities exist to stand out.
Marketing Should Be Built Around Your Goals
Understanding the customer doesn’t mean separating marketing from commercial objectives. The two have to work together. We need to understand who your customers are, which customers you want more of and what your business is trying to achieve.
Every business has different ambitions.
Some want more enquiries.
Some want larger contracts.
Some want to dominate a local market.
Some want to attract better-quality customers rather than simply more customers.
Those objectives should shape your marketing strategy, not whatever your nearest competitor happened to publish a blog last week.
The Last Word
At The Last Hurdle, we believe competitor research is a tool, not a blueprint.
We’ll always look at what’s happening in your market, but we’ll never assume that’s the direction you should follow.
Instead, we’ll focus on understanding your business, your customers and your objectives before recommending the strategy that’s right for you.
Because the best marketing isn’t about following the competition.
It’s about becoming the business everyone else is trying to catch.
And even then, what the competition does next isn’t really the measure of success.
The measure is whether your marketing is helping your business achieve its objectives by reaching, helping and converting the right customers.
Don’t copy the competition. Understand the customer so well that the competition becomes less relevant.
