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How to research your competitors (like a detective)

••25 min read
BusinessResearch

Businesses suck at hiding information.

Some of it is very valuable.

Almost everything is public if you know how to find it.

This post fleshes out strategies you can do better competitor research.

Pop on your sleuthing cap.

After reading this you'll be able to estimate key info using methods below; revenue, growth rate, suppliers and marketing strategies.

I’ll show you how to access data they don’t want you to see.

Let’s get into it.

I'm not your father. Be smart about how you use this info. Obviously, use this with caution. Don't do anything illegal or immoral.

1. Basics. Getting company details.Link to section

Before you get into the nitty gritty you need to find out key information.

Googling is obviously a good start, but we can get more info with a couple extra tips.

We are aiming to know:

  1. Who owns this website (company/person)?
  2. Official business name(s) and company/business number?
  3. Registered location(s)
  4. What is their business/company structure? Private or public company?
  5. Owned by a parent company? Other associated brands or domains?

Head to your competitors website(s). Scroll to the bottom.

See that “privacy policy” link? Or “terms of service”?

Click it.

It’s a lot of lawyer babble, but shows the legal entity who operates the website. Big companies will often have multiple entities listed. Helpful information to jot down for later on…

In some countries, it’s a legal requirement to list a business name and number on the bottom of every page.

Who owns their domain.Link to section

All websites have domain name (”example.com”). Details of domain ownership is registered on a publicly accessible database known as ICANN.

A lot of third-party services are built on top of the main database. I recommend going straight to the source though. The ICANN lookup site looks basic, but it is rock solid. Who.is is also good.

Some folks pay to have their data hidden (like me).

But a lot don’t, so you’ll be able information like:

  • Addresses
  • Phone numbers (rare)
  • Company Name and Business number
  • Registrant (person/company) name and contact info

Now that you have a company name and number. You’ll need to search different databases to find out some more interesting information such as owner/board members, address, time in operation, etc…

Find domains owned by an entity.Link to section

You can also do a reverse whois lookup to find the domains associated with a person or company.

It is less likely you’ll get a hit, but it can be very valuable when you do.

Where is the Business Registered? And figuring out if you can access that information?Link to section

All companies/businesses will be registered in a specific country or state within that country. No surprises then how you find information will change slightly depending on the jurisdiction.

The database you search depends on where the government organisation. It’s pretty easy to find that information.

This wikipedia page covers all international registries.

These are the ones I end up using most of the time:

  • Australia —> Use company name and/or number (ACN) into ABN Lookup or ASIC Connect.
  • USA —> No national registry, it’s all state based. Search the relevant state’s “secretary of state” database. Google “Arkansas secretary of state business search”.
  • UK —> Company name or number into Government House portal.

Employee count?Link to section

This one is a bit more tricky if the company is small. You can estimate employee count using the businesses' LinkedIn page. This is usually only a ballpark figure though, if they even have a linked in page.

2. Show me their numbers.Link to section

Companies are either public or private. Which means they share their financial data (revenue, assets, etc...) or they don’t.

Private CompaniesLink to section

Private companies don’t publicly disclose financials (except in the UK). You’ll need to use external sources for that juicy information. This blog post covers ways to find private companies’ financials around the world.

This web tool will help estimate USA private company revenue, payroll, and number of employees. Take it with a grain of salt. Not sure how accurate it actually is, but it's been decent for ballpark figures. God bless indie developers.

In the UK, the Government House requires all businesses to disclose limited financial information once they hit a certain threshold.

You can find a surprising amount of juicy data there. Once you’ve found the business of interest. Head to the “Filling History” tab to see reports. Financials are usually under “Full Accounts”. They share E V E R Y T H I N G. It’s awesome.

You can also use it to get the names of relevant directors/accountants/secretaries. The names of these 'people of interest' can be used in later parts of you exploration.

Can’t find the information you’re after from external sources? You can estimate minimum revenue with ball-park the formula below.

Rough Revenue Estimate = # EMPLOYEES X US$150,000

Public CompaniesLink to section

Public companies are… well... ✨public✨.

Data is released quarterly in USA (SEC) and yearly in AUS (ASIC).

The easiest way to find financial reports is via the “investor relations” or “investors” page on their website. They can sometimes be buried in menu items, but if it’s a public company it will be there.

Some companies are owned by other companies. Often these financial records are nested in their parent companies’ records. If a you’re struggling to find the data check parent companies.

If you're really struggling, you can do a google advanced search in this format:

invest* <company> site:<website.com>

Long reports… Read the whole thing?Link to section

Financial reports are full of valuable information. Though a lot of stuff is junk to you at this point.

My suggestion? Figure out what’s valuable. Get in. Get an overview. Get out.

Here are the things that I scan every time:

  1. Press Release
  2. “From the CEO”
  3. Financial Report
    • managements discussion and analysis
    • cash flow statement
    • income statement
    • balance sheet
    • footnotes
  4. Conference Calls/presentation recordings
    • Reading transcripts is faster than listening (and they’re searchable with cmd + F).
    • Open mic for analysts to ask questions – some real gems can be found here, it also allows you to get a feel for the sentiment in the room/zoom.

Check Stock InformationLink to section

Stock prices might be useful to you.

I usually google “[company name] ticker” to see price movements. Used in combination with financial reports you can get an idea of how the company is tracking.

Detailed stock analysis beyond my circle of competence.

I know that these services might help though:

3. Assessing website quality.Link to section

You can tell a LOT by appearances.

High quality businesses usually have high quality websites.

A simple, but well designed website. Really pushes the call to action, good branding, colour design, custom images…

Three or more of these and you’re dealing with a company who isn’t successful by accident:

  • Good SEO.
  • Good copy.
  • Clear brand.
  • Custom made.
  • Call to actions.
  • Custom images.
  • Schema Markup.
  • Email collections.
  • Mobile optimised.
  • Social media links.
  • User intent optimising.
  • Good content marketing.
  • Google my business listing.
  • Cart Abandonment promotions.

On the other end of the spectrum… Old looking websites might mean dumpster fire business OR CASH MACHINE!

Good businesses with shit websites often have no competition. They also tend to be more B2B than consumer facing. Or, like most businesses, they could be small and local.

A small local business. Not well optimised, but does it really need to be?

What is their brand?Link to section

Everything is messaging. Well interpreted qualitative data is just as important as the quantitative.

Learn to read the messaging of a brand and you can figure out who their target audience/demographic/psychographic is.

  • What images?
  • Any product reviews?
  • User generated content?
  • How is their copy written?
  • What fonts/colours do they use?
  • Name dropping folks they’ve worked for?

4. Where are they growing/investing?Link to section

What jobs are they advertising?Link to section

Looking at job postings gives you a glimpse into the problems they’re trying to solve. What ants do they need to further their colony?

  • Looking for warehousing staff in Russia? → ecomm business that does their own fulfilment looking to expand Russian operation
  • Needing Django Developers? → Know what technologies they use and where they’re growing?
  • Marketing Folks? → They’ve got a bit of spare cash and looking to grow.
  • “Careers” pages are a good place to start. As are job boards and advanced google searches
(job* OR career* OR work*) CSIRO -site:csiro.au

→ ”(job OR career OR work) CSIRO -site:csiro.au”*

Get an idea of their traffic flow and sources.Link to section

This is an exciting topic. It feels like it should be illegal.

Website traffic = $$$. If you understand where a company’s traffic, you understand how they’re making money.

This is a complex topic. A whole industry is built around accessing this information. You can get most of the value using free tools:

Generally I look for; number of visitors, source of traffic, country of visitors, best blog posts, search keywords they’re going after.

Once you get used to these tools, you’ll figure out what information is important to you.

Who is talking about them?Link to section

Use your Advanced Google Searching to view latests mentions of X competitor. E.G.

5. Flick through their AdsLink to section

Facebook Ad libraryLink to section

What. The. Fook.

Facebook ad library… It breaks my brain to think you can search all ads run by your competitors. It feels like cheating.

Companies only pay for ads if they’re sure it’ll get them a return on investment. It’s worth seeing how ad creatives change overtime as the business fine tunes their strategy.

Each platform has trends and best practices. I recommend spending a bit of time analysing what works and why it does.

Go deep. It’s worth it.

How are they getting your attentions? What is their copy? Who is presenting the information? How many shots? How long is each shot? User generated content? What is their call to action? Where does the ad link to?

TikTok Top AdsLink to section

TikTok has a similar ads library called Explore Top Ads.

It’s nuts. You can’t search for ads in a country, for a specific industry, by a specific company.

TikTok is still an emerging platform. It’s the wild west out there! Being able to see what works for for others is invaluable.

Oh, they also allow you to see click through rates, ad retention graphs and all sorts of useful (slightly nerdy) tools.

Newspaper ArchivesLink to section

Old businesses didn’t have the internet, but they had newspapers. And damn good marketing.

Below is a list of free databases of the worlds newspapers. Use it to see how old companies advertised their products.

  • TROVE is Australia centric. It contains digitised and searchable newspapers, books, art, letters, research, reports…
  • Europeana is a project that makes europe’s history searchable; newpapers, photos, posters, art… 50+ million items to search. Its a big deal.
  • Elephind.com aims to make all free newspapers searchable from one place. It’s a work in progress, but bloody powerful. Has newspapers from around the world.
  • Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers by Library of Congress makes US newspapers from 1789-1922 searchable.
  • U.S. Newspaper Directory has newspapers published between 1690-present.

That should be more than enough to get you started. You can find the definitive list of all online newspaper archives at this wikipedia page. ICON is also a good source of info.

You’ll note that the calibre of copywriting in these ads is impressive. Use it for inspiration on your marketing campaigns.

Google trends allows you to see how popular a search terms is. See search volume for Google, YouTube, Google images, google shopping.

You can use it for topics, but also for specific brand names.

You can do some pretty sophisticated stuff with this tool. Google it.

6. Who is talking about them?Link to section

See mentions on other sites.Link to section

Advanced Googling is a great way to see where Company X has been mentioned. Google *“company name” -site:companywebsite.com. A bunch of interesting results will pop up. You’re looking for contact info, reports, publications, staff, reviews, news articles. You can’t be sure what you’ll find, but its often useful info.*

ExampleLink to section

I’m interested in starting a pet treat brand and I know “U-Chews” is a supplier. What information can I find?

Search phrase: “*u-chews” -site:u-chews.com.au”*

Found

Where has their logo been used?Link to section

Reverse image searching for a companies logo often give you a list of websites where their logo has been used.

This includes websites that they own, websites where they’re mentioned, places that they’ve advertised, and other shared resources.

Figure out where the images are being used using:

7. Guerrilla Contacting.Link to section

Contact customersLink to section

Find past customers, read their review and… contact them?

Services like Snippet, built with, Clearbit, case studies, social media, Google reviews allow you to see customer reviews. It’ll help you find pain points in current product offerings.

This is a bit naughty, but nothing is stopping you from contacting known customers over email. Some people send surveys and ask for feedback on best features, worst feature, best headaches, things you’d like them to include etc…

Not sneaky enough?

Let’s pretend company.com is our competitor. We could just buy “company.com.au” or “company.co” and send the survey from there.

Make sure you state that you are not associated with COMPANY.

Contact employees (or investors)Link to section

If you need insider information, talk to insiders. Most folks want to share what they’re working on. You can ask questions.

See the my blog post about cold emailing to learn how to find anyone’s email.

8. E-commerce TacticsLink to section

Finding Competitors’ SuppliersLink to section

  • https://www.importyeti.com
    • Free
    • Search records of imports for pretty much any US company. Allows you to see past shipment contents, supplier names and address (can then get Alibaba supplier).
    • Also does agricultural shipments, pharmaceuticals and animal products.
    • Then search factory liason a
  • https://www.importgenius.com/
    • paid

Shopify HacksLink to section

Shopify stores all have similar website structre. To find out their best selling products */collections/all?sort_by=best-selling after their website.*

Similar tactics are possible for a lot of other online stores. Etsy, eBay, Amazon all have entire ecosystems of tools you can use to get the upper hand.

ConclusionLink to section

We’ve covered a lot here. Hopefully it helps you.

If I’ve missed something, please let me know. Always keen to see how we can better navigate this internet thing.

Have a good one.

Loic