How to create a competitive analysis report: The complete guide with examples and tools

Your company is launching a new product, eyeing a new market segment or contemplating a strategic pivot—as a seasoned marketer, your first move would be to conduct a competitive analysis. This exercise is elementary to uncover critical insights about the new market and gain visibility into the competitive landscape.

But beyond research, there’s the crucial task of distilling those insights into actionable strategies that give your business an advantage. This is where competitive analysis reports become critical, providing you a roadmap for translating raw data into strategic direction.

In this guide, we’ll explore how competitive analysis reports benefit your business, the different types of reports you need, how you can build effective reports, present findings to stakeholders and the tools that streamline the process.

What is a competitive analysis report?

A competitive analysis report is a strategic document that transforms raw competitor data into actionable business insights. The report synthesizes your competitive intelligence research data and provides conclusions for better decision-making. It reveals market positioning, identifies opportunities for differentiation and formulates strategies to outperform competitors.

A competitive analysis report typically contains information on marketing tactics, target audience demographics, product comparison and industry trends.

Benefits of a competitive analysis report

A competitive analysis report serves as a tool for competitor benchmarking. You can use it as a standard for realistic goal setting, accessing your business performance and measuring growth.

Let’s dive into some more key benefits.

Know where your business stands in the market

A good competitive analysis provides a realistic understanding of your business’ position in the market. Rather than make assumptions, use your report to make data-driven calculations of how your business compares in terms of market share, customers, messaging and differentiation.

For example, if you’re selling video editing software, use a competitive analysis report to learn how easy or difficult it is for novices to use your tool compared to your competitors’ tools. With these competitive insights, you can define your unique selling proposition, understand customer preferences, identify gaps and decide on a positioning strategy that aligns your business goals with customer needs.

Understand your strengths and weaknesses vs. your competitors

Digging into competitor data doesn’t just uncover their strengths and weaknesses, it also exposes yours. Done properly, competitive reporting removes bias and shows you raw data on the areas where your business excels and lags.

A competitive analysis report also sheds light on the mistakes, failures and successes of your business rivals. So, you’ll build on those successes, avoid making the same mistakes and better position your business for growth.

Identify untapped opportunities and threats

A comprehensive competitive report uncovers growth opportunities such as underserved markets, emerging customer segments and areas where your competitors are underperforming. It also highlights potential threats like new market entrants or changes in customer behaviors. With this knowledge, you’ll create strategies to bridge those gaps.

Increase marketing effectiveness

Reporting on your competitors’ marketing strategies is an opportunity to review and refine your own. For example, if you notice gaps in your competitor’s offering, messaging or positioning, devise strategies to differentiate yourself by marketing and selling your unique value more effectively.

Inform stronger business decisions

The insights in a competitive analysis report inform stronger business decisions across departments such as product, marketing, procurement and others. By anchoring your strategies on data-driven insights, you’ll better defend your market and meet customer needs.

Types of competitive analysis reports

The most effective competitive analysis reports are tailored to their audience and objective. Your approach changes depending on who you’re presenting to and what you need to achieve.

Consider these three essential categories:

• Strategic reports for leadership: High-level summaries focusing on market positioning, share of voice and long-term opportunities. Connect competitive trends to major business outcomes.
• Tactical reports for marketing teams: Detailed analysis of competitor campaigns, messaging, content performance and audience engagement. Built to inform immediate action and optimize ongoing efforts.
• Product-focused reports for R&D: Deep dives into competitor features, pricing and customer feedback. Directly inform your product roadmap and identify market gaps.

How to create a competitive analysis report

A competitor analysis report gives your teams a clear picture of what the business is up against and the strategies to get ahead.

Follow these steps to create an effective competitive analysis report:

Have a well-defined objective for your report

Since competitive analysis serves every aspect of your business, it quickly becomes overwhelming. Outline it at the beginning of your document to clarify your goals and objectives.

Do you want to investigate every aspect of your competitors and create an all-encompassing report? Or are you interested in specific areas like their sales and marketing strategies?

Your objective will keep you and your report from getting lost in the vast amount of data you’ll uncover.

Identify your main competitors

Once you’re clear on the “why”, outline the competitors you must outperform to gain the upper hand in the market.

Identify these competitors by speaking to your sales team or leaning into customer feedback. Alternatively, you can use competitive monitoring and social listening to learn what other companies your audience is interested in.

It’s also important to identify your SEO competitors, as they sometimes differ from your business competitors. You can find SEO competitors by using keyword research tools to check who’s ranking for your target keywords.

Conduct in-depth market research

The next step is market research to gather and organize information about your competitors, customers and industry.

Deep dive into customer segments with detailed profiles that guide your marketing decisions. Sprout Social supports you in conducting market research on social media networks using advanced social media listening. Build sophisticated Listening queries to track millions of conversations around key topics and analyze insights by adjusting key filters without changing queries.

Keep track of your competitors’ social strategies, find out what’s working in your market and learn how well customer needs are being met.

Compare your product offerings

Compare your product to your competitors for quality, price, customer service and other areas to reveal your differentiators. Use social listening to gather information as well as scout forums like G2, Capterra and TrustPilot for unbiased opinions on your product and the competition.

It’s not compulsory to compare every feature you and your competitors offer. Instead, focus on only those relevant to the objectives of your analysis.

Compare your marketing strategies

Research the marketing and sales strategies of each competitor to understand how they conduct business. The goal is to analyze the factors behind their success and use those insights to inform your strategy. Investigate details such as their content marketing plans, influencer collaborations and sales channels.

Look at the social media platforms they use to communicate and engage with customers, promote their business and drive the most visibility.

These insights will support you in clarifying your position and messaging to differentiate your brand and stand out among competitors.

Run a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis supports your evaluation of your competitive position by laying out your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats based on all the data you’ve gathered. Competitor analysis collects key information through strategic social listening using filters like keywords, content type, social media platforms and common themes in Listening data. This synthesizes key areas the business must focus on across the competitive landscape.

It’s also a great way to visualize all your research in an easy-to-understand and shareable format.

Show your position in the competitive landscape

Finally, a competitive analysis report must show where your business and every important competitor stands in the competitive landscape. Achieve this by pinpointing the two most important dimensions for competitiveness in your market and mapping them on a matrix alongside your company and its competitors.

With that, you’ll get a well-defined idea of your position based on the SWOT analysis you created earlier. Conclude the report by making recommendations that serve the original purpose of the competitive analysis.

How to present competitive analysis findings to stakeholders

Data becomes powerful when you give it a well-defined narrative. Transform your competitive analysis from an interesting document into a catalyst for action.

Follow this presentation framework:

• Know your audience: Executives need revenue impact insights, marketing teams need tactical takeaways they can implement tomorrow
• Visualize your data: Use charts and graphs to illustrate market positioning, share of voice and performance gaps
• Lead with recommendations: End with clear, confident proposals that secure buy-in and drive business impact

Examples of competitive analysis reports

Here are some sample scenarios showing the details a competitive analysis report should focus on.

1. Increasing market share

To create a competitive analysis report focused on increasing market share, you must first start with a thorough product analysis. Identify and compare the core features and functionality of your competitors’ products against yours. Consider how their products meet the pressing needs of customers and look for areas of dissatisfaction you can capitalize on.

Evaluate the overall target market, including the customer segments your competitors focus on and their marketing strategies. By studying their positioning, messaging and marketing channels, you’ll discover underserved customer segments or areas of overlap in the market. The report should outline the opportunities gleaned from the analysis and recommend ways to address the needs and preferences of the untapped market segment.

2. New product launch

For a competitive report on a new product launch, start with a marketing competitive analysis to identify your direct and indirect competitors. Analyze their market share, product offerings and pricing strategies to determine the best ways to position your product, establish a strong presence and win customers early.

Consider the quality of each competing product, including its user experience and technological capabilities. Look for areas where your product can leverage emerging technology to gain a competitive edge. Also evaluate your competitors’ customer service and support offerings, including their return policies to identify how you can use superior customer service to build trust and loyalty quickly.

3. SEO campaigns

A competitive analysis report for an SEO campaign should focus on evaluating the content marketing, social media presence and SEO strategies of competitors. Analyze the keywords, content types and promotional strategies that drive the most organic traffic and customers for their business. On social media networks, monitor their engagement levels, posting frequency, top-performing content and audience growth.

These insights are useful for comparing and benchmarking your performance. The report should also cover local search optimization and online advertising efforts for a comprehensive view of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.

Top competitive analysis reporting tools

Competitive monitoring tools support the optimization of the research process, analyze multiple data points and deliver data-driven insights you can use immediately.

Check out these three tools that help streamline the process of creating competitive analysis reports.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social provides powerful tools to support you in monitoring your competitors’ performance across social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter).

It allows you to benchmark your social performance against your top competitors to understand your brand’s social health. Sprout Social’s Advanced Listening tool supports you in tapping into conversations about you, your industry and competitors across social media platforms, review sites and communities.

With its powerful AI technology, you can sift through millions of conversations to uncover insights about key topics, your audience and industry in seconds. Those insights help you measure your share of voice (SOV), develop crisis management strategies and identify new market opportunities.

With access to tools like Premium Analytics and Sprout’s suite of competitive reports, you’ll visualize and show the impact of in-depth competitive analysis research. Your report can include:

• Customized metrics based on your business goals and team’s priorities
• Interactive charts and graphs that illuminate critical social data
• Custom date range comparisons for performance benchmarking

And with Sprout’s dynamic shareable link, you’ll share the report with your team and external shareholders outside Sprout.

Kompyte

Kompyte gathers competitive intelligence from millions of data points, including social, website, content, ads, reviews, job postings and more. The platform uses artificial intelligence to filter through the noise and deliver actionable insights on your competitors.

It automatically organizes competitive data into battle cards highlighting differentiators, market feedback, revenue and everything else your sales teams need to win deals.

Crayon

Crayon uses artificial intelligence to track your competitors and also gives you alerts based on your requirements. It analyzes social content, reviews, press releases, pricing updates and other information to collect and provide insights into top competitors to keep your teams informed with relevant data.

Crayon allows you to create customizable reports and use battle cards, newsletters and announcements to share competitive intelligence data with your team.

Use competitive analysis reporting to grow your business

A competitive report is a compilation of data and statistics that empowers your company to make informed decisions and develop effective strategies. Once you compile the information from your competitive intelligence, you’ll be able to follow up on your findings with a well-defined action plan to increase your business.

Sprout supports you in streamlining your competitive research process, benchmarking your performance against the competition and creating comprehensive reports that highlight your most critical data in an engaging way. Sign up for a free trial to try it for yourself.

FAQs about Competitive Analysis Reports

How often should I create competitive analysis reports?

Create strategic reports quarterly for leadership and tactical reports monthly for marketing teams to maintain competitive advantage.

What's the difference between competitive monitoring and competitive analysis reporting?

Competitive monitoring is the ongoing process of gathering real-time competitor data across channels like social media, websites and advertising. Competitive analysis reports take that raw data and synthesize it into strategic insights that inform business decisions. Think of monitoring as the continuous data collection engine, while reporting transforms those findings into actionable recommendations for your team.

How do I get executive buy-in for competitive analysis investments?

Connect every insight directly to core business objectives like revenue growth, market share capture or brand risk mitigation with compelling data stories. Frame your competitive analysis as a strategic investment that reduces risk and identifies revenue opportunities, using concrete examples of how competitor insights have informed successful business decisions in the past.

Can I automate competitive analysis reporting for social media?

Yes. Sprout Social automates data collection and visualization, freeing your team to focus on strategic analysis and implementation rather than manual reporting tasks.

What metrics best demonstrate competitive analysis report ROI?

Track share of voice improvements, campaign engagement benchmarks and changes in customer acquisition cost after implementing report-derived strategies.