We recommend identifying actionable gaps in competitors' strategies with thorough market and competitor analyses. Start by examining your competitors' product offerings, pricing models, and marketing techniques, identifying any elements that appear to be underperforming or overlooked. Conducting customer and user experience surveys can also yield valuable insights into potential areas of dissatisfaction or unmet needs. Analyzing online presence, such as social media engagement and SEO performance, is another effective way to spot potential opportunities. Following are ten areas of your competitors’ business that should be explored: 

1. Product Innovation: Utilize competitor analysis to identify gaps in their product offerings and design new products or enhancements to meet unmet customer needs.

2. Pricing Strategy: Analyze competitors' pricing models to identify opportunities for offering more value, either through lower prices or better value at a comparable price.

3. Marketing Techniques: Assess the effectiveness of competitors' marketing techniques and develop innovative strategies that incorporate what works while improving upon their shortcomings.

4. Customer Experience: Use customer and user experience surveys to expose areas where competitors are underperforming, then improve upon these areas to boost your company's customer satisfaction ratings. 

5. Social Media Engagement: Assess how competitors use social media and identify opportunities to improve engagement, such as more effective use of hashtags, richer content, or more responsive customer service.

6. SEO Performance: Examine competitors' SEO efforts to identify keywords or strategies they may be overlooking, providing an opportunity for your business to gain a competitive edge in search engine rankings.

7. Sales Strategies: Look at your competitors' sales tactics to identify weaknesses or gaps that your business can exploit by offering superior sales services or strategies.

8. Brand Positioning: Use the information gathered to carve out a unique brand positioning that differentiates your business from the competition.

9. Operational Efficiency: Learn from your competitors' operational pitfalls and streamline your processes to provide a seamless customer experience.

10. Customer Retention: Explore how competitors handle customer retention and identify areas where your business can provide greater value to encourage customer loyalty.

Ultimately, the key is to identify areas where your business can add value and differentiate itself in a meaningful way — and Octo specializes in doing just that.