Competitive intelligence: The complete guide for marketers

Competitive intelligence can seem more like a to-do list item than a business function. You might read analyst reports, check some CRM data, and maybe do a once-over of your competitors’ social media presence and websites. From there, you might even create battle cards for the sales team and update them once a year. But strong competitive marketing intelligence—the kind that impacts marketing and communications strategy for years to come—is more than checking a box.

Competitive intelligence is one of the most crucial pieces of data you can use to inform your strategy. Keeping a close eye on your competitors’ messages, offerings and tactics will keep you one step ahead, no matter what happens in the market.

Table of contents: 

What is competitive intelligence?Why competitive intelligence is importantTips for conducting competitive intelligence researchThe best sources for competitive intelligenceTools for gathering competitive intelligence

What is competitive intelligence?

Competitive intelligence, sometimes called corporate intelligence or CI,  is strategic data gathering on competitors and the market environment to gain an edge in decision-making and business performance. It can encompass your competitors’ social media presence, brand positioning, pricing strategy, product tiers or even their recent job postings. Competitive intelligence is the output of transforming these individual data points into a complete picture of your competitors’ strategies.

A piece of information like your competitor’s next office location might be meaningless individually, but when you aggregate it with other details, these disparate data points tell an important story.