How to Use Competitor Apps to Your Advantage
Why competition is a good thing, and how to use it to your advantage
Competition.
It’s a scary word to some.
It means more work, more risk, and more pressure, right?
But...what if competition wasn’t a bad thing?
What if it didn’t have to mean feeling like you don’t have a chance at catching up, thinking your idea has already been taken, or wondering whether you’ll ever be able to create something better, when you’re starting at ground zero, and the competition’s already miles ahead?
Well, here’s the thing…
Competition isn’t a bad thing. It doesn’t have to be scary, overwhelming, or intimidating.
The reality is, competition is a great thing. And if you have it, you’re already well ahead of the rest of the pack.
If this sounds counterintuitive, keep reading.
You’re about to learn exactly why competition is a good thing, plus how to use it to your advantage while building a successful app.
Why Competition is a Good Thing
We’ve all grown up with competition — in sports, in school, and at work.
Competition is all around us.
You can look at competition in two ways:
- It’s bad.
- It’s good.
Personally, I prefer to look at competition as a positive thing, both internally and externally.
Let’s take sports, for example.
If you’re on a soccer team and you need to win 2 out of 3 games to advance in a competition, you could handle the loss of game #1 in a couple ways...
You could feel angry or discouraged, and continue fuming about the loss until your next game.
Or, you could look at it strategically, and instead of turning to your emotions, turn to analysis instead — what did you do wrong during the game? What did the other team do right? Can you improve based on what you’ve discovered?
You should view competition in business and with your app in the same way.
Instead of looking at the competition negatively, look at it to learn, analyze, and grow. Approach it strategically.
With that in mind, let’s dive into some specific ways you can view your competition as an advantage versus a disadvantage.
1. Idea or Product Validation
I’ve long been a proponent of NOT keeping your app idea a secret.
This often goes against the grain.
Many people, upon coming up with their app idea, immediately lock it behind a slurry of contracts and closed doors, shut themselves off from the world, dive into development, and don’t come up until months or years later when their product is “perfect” and ready to launch.
...All because they think someone’s going to steal their idea and capitalize on it first.
I see it again and again and have even struggled to help people with their apps because they’re truly so scared to share their idea, they can’t even expose it enough to get help bringing it to life.
We’ve even talked about this before in our Facebook group.
But look at it this way:
There aren't many new ideas in the world today. But there are new messengers. If your app has competitors, it means there's a market. And at that point, it's your turn to become a unique messenger.
I want to reiterate that — “If your app has competitors, it means there's a market.”
Think about that.
If you’ve come up with an app idea, you need to validate that idea before you invest time, effort, or money into building it. Doing so will help you avoid wasting said time, effort, and money.
Validating an idea takes work, though, and a lot of people aren’t willing to spend time laying the groundwork because they’re too eager to jump straight into building all the cool features.
That’s one of the reasons why competition is such a good thing, though...it can serve as pre- validation of your idea.
If someone else has already seen success with an idea/product similar to yours — if they’re already providing a solid solution to users and are creating profitable revenue from it — you know there’s a need for that kind of solution.
If, on the other hand, you come up with an idea that literally has no competition, chances are, it’s because there’s no need for that idea in the market.
Remember, there aren’t many new ideas in the world these days. There are, however, new messengers.
2. Market Awareness
Building on that point, competition is also a good thing because it means there’s more market awareness for products similar to yours.
Think about it this way…
If you come up with a revolutionary, never-before-seen idea, one of your first big hurdles will be to teach people what your product even is. And not only that, convince them why they need it.
Those are some big hurdles to jump before you even get to the point of building your product.
Now, that’s not to say it can’t be done. But if you have competitors successfully selling products similar to what you’re building, you’re going to have a much easier time selling your product, as well.
The more people who are using similar products, the more who will be looking for similar products.
In this sense, having competition will actually help you eventually sell your product.
3. Motivation
Bill Gates once said, "Whether it's Google, or Apple, or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors, and it keeps us on our toes."
Competition doesn’t have to be about fear or pressure.
It can be about motivation.
Motivation to build a better product, better support your users, and avoid becoming complacent.
This doesn’t need to be an unhealthy endeavor. Competition can be inspiring, and it should be.
How to Use Competition to Your Advantage
It’s obvious competition can be a (very) good thing when it comes to building and launching a successful app.
But this is about more than simply adjusting your outlook. It’s also about how to strategically use competition to your advantage.
Let’s jump into 3 specific steps you can take to turn competitors into strategic advantages for your app and business.
1. Understanding Your Target Market
Finding, researching, and understanding your target market is one of the most critical parts of building a successful product.
If you don’t know your market, you’ll struggle to find success.
Entrepreneur.com says “If you try to blanket everyone with one marketing message, you'll lose over half of your audience simply because it doesn't apply to them.”
Take that to heart. It’ll serve you well in the long run.
And here’s where your competition comes in…
Their target market? All the customers currently paying them for their product or solution?
Their market might also be your market.
Aka...their market is a goldmine when establishing your own app-related business.
The quote above talks about losing half your audience because you don’t know how to talk to them correctly.
Well, you’ll never know how to talk to them correctly until you know who they are in the first place.
You’ll also never know how to build a product that’ll help them, find unique (and still useful) ways to stand out above your competition, and reach them where they’re at (instead of hoping they come to you).
Here’s what you need to do:
- Find your competitors.
- Find their customers (to do this, you can look at reviews, social media, forums, Facebook, etc).
- Research...
Find out what type of person is even using the product. Figure out what they like about it and what they don’t. Get a gauge for what they’re willing to pay. Uncover the kind of messaging that draws them in (or the channels/platforms they use to consume that messaging).
This is one of the best ways you can start using competitor apps to your advantage right now.
2. Find Your Unique Selling Point
To expand on the point above, understanding your competitors’ customers will help you build a better product, too.
One of the most valuable things you can do to validate your product and position it correctly from the start is to look at what competitor’s customers are raving and complaining about.
If they don’t like something about your competition’s solution, how can you adjust your own product to make it better?
If there’s something they do like about your competition's solution, how can you capitalize on that and enhance it within your own product?
This can be specifically app-related (in terms of features), but it doesn’t have to be.
Do their customers complain about receiving poor support?
Maybe that’s an area where you can fill an open gap.
This can go further than just researching how your competitors’ customers feel, of course.
Why not sign up for your competition’s email list or buy their product? Experience what they offer, how they engage users, and see how you like it from a consumer’s point of view.
This doesn’t have to be sneaky or secretive, and it shouldn’t feel that way.
Just like having competition is helpful for you, it’s beneficial for your competition to have competitors, too!
Think about it this way:
If your product can stand out in a way theirs doesn’t, and thus, provide a solution that’s better for certain users, the end result is, users get an improved solution.
See, it’s not about one-upping the “other guy.”
It’s about providing the best solution you can for your users.
This is true for yourself and your competition.
Use them to find a way to make your own product unique, and in doing so, you can fill an unmet need in your market.
3. Reduce Your Trial and Error
If you want to learn how to fix a leaky faucet, you might turn to YouTube for videos.
If you want to learn how to run ads for your app, you might buy a book on the topic.
If you want to learn how to build a Bubble app, you might join our Fast Track course.
You’d do all those things because they cut back on all the trial and error that would otherwise be necessary on your part. They’d help you bypass obstacles, correct your mistakes, and reach your end goal much more quickly than you otherwise would.
You can use your competition to do the same.
Study them, see what has and hasn’t worked, and use that to help yourself advance faster and smarter.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you’re trying to figure out which social media platforms your target market spends the most time on so you can more effectively reach them.
Instead of creating a new profile on every social media platform you can think of, and then blasting as much content on each platform as you can…
Why not check to see which platforms your competition uses, and which ones they see the most engagement on?
Does your competition have a Facebook account and a Twitter account? And is their Facebook account lively with customer feedback/engagement, while their Twitter account is full of crickets?
That might be a good sign your target market spends more of their time on Facebook than Twitter. And that might also be a good sign you should spend more of your time on Facebook than Twitter.
Looking at it from another point of view…
Did your competition release a product or iteration they later retracted?
That might be a good sign their customers just didn’t want the change they were offered.
Not too long ago, Converkit (an email service provider) rebranded and changed their name to Seva. As a company that was seeing a revenue of $1 million per month in 2018, you can imagine they spent a lot of effort and money on their rebrand.
What they didn’t realize was, the word “Seva” has religious meanings that didn’t align with what Convertkit was offering, and it offended some of their customers. They ended up reverting back to their original name.
Looking at that mistake can be a quick lesson learned for all other entrepreneurs — choose a name true to your brand.
Now, this example is of a bigger, more obvious way to learn from your competition, but it makes a good point:
Learning from your competition can help you grow in the right direction and potentially avoid mistakes they’ve already made.
How Will You Use Competition to Your Advantage?
Competition can be intimidating. There’s no doubt about that.
But the reality is, competition isn’t a bad thing — not when you want to strategically grow your business and provide the best solution you can to users.
Instead of comparing yourself to your competition, use them for:
1. Validation — If there’s a market for your product, you know you’re on the right track.
2. Market awareness — The more people who know about products/solutions similar to yours, the more who will be looking for them.
3. Motivation— Don’t look at competitors as a threat. See them as inspiration.
Here’s what you can start doing right now:
1. Understand your market— Study your competitors’ markets so you can learn how to best serve them.
2. Find your unique selling point— Research and experience the positives and negatives of what your competition offers, and see how you can fill any gaps.
3. Reduce your trial and error — Learn from others’ mistakes so you can avoid making them yourself.
By doing so, you’ll be able to use competition as a tool and resource, rather than a source of intimidation and pressure.