A business plan's competitive analysis asks “can this business win?”. A marketing plan's asks a narrower, more practical question: “where and how do we speak to customers so they choose us over the alternatives?”. That changes what you compare. Prices and features still matter, but the core of a marketing plan competitive analysis is positioning, messages and channels. This guide shows what to include and gives a worked example.
How it differs from the business plan version
| Business plan | Marketing plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Main reader | Lender or investor | You and your team |
| Question it answers | Is there room to win? | How exactly do we win attention? |
| What gets compared | Offer, price, reach, reputation | Positioning, messages, channels, offers |
| Output | A competitive advantage | Positioning, key messages and channel choices |
If you need the lender-facing version, see how to write a competitor analysis for a business plan.
What to include
- Positioning: who each competitor says it is for and what it promises, ideally quoted from its homepage headline.
- Key messages and proof: the benefits they repeat and the evidence they show (testimonials, numbers, logos, guarantees).
- Offers and pricing: entry price, free trials, discounts, guarantees.
- Channels: where they get attention: search, paid ads, social media, email, partners, events.
- Customer perception: what reviews praise and complain about. This is often the gap between what a competitor promises and what customers experience.
- White space: the customer, message or channel nobody owns yet.
Free sources for each part
- Positioning and messages: competitors' homepages, pricing pages and About pages. Save screenshots with dates.
- Paid ads: the Meta Ad Library shows active ads on Facebook and Instagram, and Google's Ads Transparency Center shows ads by advertiser. Both are free and public.
- Search: type your category into Google and note who appears for the questions your customers ask. Autocomplete suggestions show the wording customers use.
- Social: what each competitor posts, how often, and which posts get real comments rather than just likes.
- Reviews: Google, app stores and industry review sites. The method is in how to analyze competitor reviews.
Worked example
Fictional business: Fluentry, an online Spanish-tutoring service for working adults in the US. Competitor names are invented; the method is real.
Positioning and messages
| HablaNow | TutorHub | LinguaApp | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homepage promise | “Fluent in 3 months” | “Any language, any tutor” | “Learn 10 minutes a day” |
| Who it targets | Travelers | Everyone | Casual learners |
| Main proof shown | Testimonials | Number of tutors | App store rating |
| Entry offer | $29 first month | Pay per lesson | Free tier |
| Main channels | Instagram ads | Search, marketplace SEO | App stores, TikTok |
| Top review complaint | Tutors change often | Hard to pick a tutor | Never get to conversation |
What the analysis tells us
- Nobody speaks to working adults who need Spanish for their job. All three target travelers, casual learners or everyone.
- The common complaint is consistency: changing tutors at HablaNow, choosing one at TutorHub, and never reaching conversation at LinguaApp.
- LinkedIn is unused by all three, and it is where working adults look for career skills.
The marketing decisions that follow
- Positioning: “Spanish for your job, with the same tutor every week.”
- Key messages: one dedicated tutor; lessons built around the learner's industry; conversation from week one.
- Channels: LinkedIn content and ads first, plus search content for “Spanish for healthcare workers”-type queries.
- Offer: a free first lesson with the tutor they would keep, answering the “hard to pick” complaint.
Turn it into a positioning map
Pick the two dimensions customers care about most and place each competitor on them. For the example: casual ↔ career-focused and self-study ↔ live tutor. LinguaApp sits in casual self-study, HablaNow and TutorHub in casual-to-general live tutoring, and the career-focused, live-tutor corner is empty. That empty corner is the positioning. More formats are in these competitive comparison examples.
Keep it current
Marketing moves faster than business plans. Competitors change headlines, launch offers and start new ad campaigns every few weeks, so treat this analysis as something you refresh each quarter, or watch continuously. The guide on monitoring competitor websites covers doing that without drowning in noise.
Common mistakes
- Copying the leader's message. The analysis should show where to be different, not who to imitate.
- Listing channels without results. A competitor posting daily on a channel does not mean the channel works for them; look for real engagement.
- Skipping reviews. Reviews show the gap between a competitor's promise and its customers' experience, which is often your best message.
- No decisions at the end. Every finding should change a positioning, message, channel or offer choice.