Taking notes from your competitors is always a strange scenario. On the one hand, it feels like you should be doing whatever you can to differentiate yourself from them and offer your customers a superior alternative. At the same time, it might seem as though copying anything they have done well already will be obvious to others, painting you in a negative light.
The trick is to take inspiration from what they do rather than copying it, allowing you to put your own spin on it. The area where you might find this most useful could be in how they use digital spaces to their advantage.
Understanding Brand-Specific Choices
That issue of trying to discern what makes the difference between being inspired by a particular direction and copying it outright is difficult. You have to think carefully about it in each given situation, usually unable just to apply a rule to help you figure it out. A lot of the time, though, it might help to understand the role that branding plays in all of it. This can be especially helpful when using digital spaces because of how much of a role tone of voice can play here. How a brand interacts with and engages their audience is, in some ways, entirely unique to them. Therefore, even if a certain direction has proven successful for a competitor like your brand in many ways, it might not make sense for you to copy it. However, That doesn’t mean you can’t take something away from it.
Objective Elements
If you can identify those more subjective aspects of how a brand has approached their digital presence, you can eliminate them – focusing instead on what is more foundational and transferrable. A good example is the kinds of digital tools they use to construct their websites or apps. You might notice that the use of Istio API gateway is something that comes up again and again in your industry. This can be something that improves the user experience of those visiting such platforms, improving brand perception at the same time. If you are not already, you might feel as though this is something your platforms could benefit from – showcasing a more competitive side to your digital competence.
Audience Involvement
Again, a large part of this might come down to your own brand personality and how you have historically involved your audiences. The dynamic between you might be something that you want to keep as formal and professional as possible, but even then, you do not want to neglect opportunities for audience engagement through platforms like social media. You want to make the most of what these kinds of spaces have to offer, and part of that for some audiences is getting to be more involved with the discussion. Making use of polls and hosting competitions through these platforms can be a good way of increasing such engagement, and might even help to draw attention from new audience members.
