With the constant changes in customer demands, industry trends, and competitor strategies, building product manufacturers (BPMs) need ways to gain valuable insights into their competition. That's why we created a Competitor Analysis Template—a tool that can help you enhance your digital marketing efforts, optimize pricing, and get your products noticed by more AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) professionals.
In this blog, we’ll break down why competitor analysis is essential to your success, share the top 6 advantages of using our template, and walk you through how to execute your research effectively.
1. Streamlined Research Process
2. Identifying Market Gaps & Opportunities
3. Informed Product Development
4. Refined Strategies for Marketing Your Building Products
5. Benchmarking Your Performance
6. Strategic Decision-Making
Why Competitor Analysis Is Essential for Your Success
Before diving in, let’s explore why conducting a competitor analysis is so important. It offers a wealth of benefits that can help you stay ahead in the building product industry. You'll be able to:
- Better understand your target AEC audience
- By analyzing your competitors, you can better understand the needs, preferences, and pain points of your target audience, helping you tailor your products and marketing strategies more effectively.
- Clarify what makes you stand out from the crowd
- Understanding your competitors allows you to pinpoint your unique selling propositions (USPs) and use them to differentiate your brand and products from the competition.
- Stay ahead of the latest industry trends
- Competitor analysis keeps you informed about emerging trends, new technologies, and shifts in consumer preferences within the building product industry. By staying up to date, you can adapt quickly and remain relevant
- Identify your strengths and weaknesses
- A thorough competitor analysis allows you to assess where you excel and where you may need improvement. This insight helps refine your strategy and ensure your product offerings are aligned with market demands.
To make this process easier, our custom-made template for building product manufacturers is designed to provide industry-specific insights that support your continued success.
6 Benefits of Our Competitor Analysis Template
1. Streamlined Research Process
Without a template, performing a competitor analysis can feel like a daunting task. It involves gathering information across various platforms, from competitor websites, blog pages, social media channels, financial reports, and more.
Our template helps you organize and structure your research, ensuring you don’t miss any crucial details. It includes pre-defined sections for gathering data on competitors’ products, pricing information, marketing tactics, customer experience strategies, and more. This framework allows you to conduct your analysis more efficiently and focus on the most relevant aspects of your competitors’ businesses.
Tips to Take Action:
- Visit competitor websites, download spec sheets, review product listings.
- Use tools like:
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WebCEO – for SEO audits and keyword analysis
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SimilarWeb – to analyze traffic sources and competitor site performance
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Prisync – for real-time competitor pricing intelligence
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SEMrush – for competitor keyword rankings and digital advertising insights
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2. Identifying Market Gaps & Opportunities
One of the key benefits of competitor analysis is the ability to spot gaps in the market. By assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, you can identify areas where they are not meeting AEC needs or where there is room for improvement.
For example, if you notice that your competitors' products lack BIM models or fall short in energy efficiency, this could present an opportunity for your business to create innovative products that meet current market demands. The competitor analysis template helps you systematically track this information, making it easier to pinpoint opportunities you may otherwise overlook.
Tips to Take Action:
- Track competitor limitations using the Weaknesses row in the Strategic Summary section of the template
- Highlight areas in the template where your brand can outperform (e.g., “Competitor X doesn’t offer downloadable BIM files—we can fill that gap”).
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Cross-reference gaps with customer feedback or specifier requirements.
3. Informed Product Development
The building product industry thrives on continuous innovation. By monitoring the technological advancements and performance successes of your competitors' products, you can fine-tune your own product development strategy.
You’ll have a clearer picture of what works and what doesn’t, helping you avoid common mistakes and create products that truly meet the needs of AEC professionals. For instance, if a competitor’s product is gaining traction due to sustainability features, you may want to consider incorporating green technologies in your own product line.
Tips to Take Action:
- Conduct periodic product audits to determine if competitors are pushing smart tech, faster installs, green building solutions, etc.
- Share insights with your R&D or product team as part of roadmap planning.
4. Refined Strategies for Marketing Your Building Products
Knowing your competitors’ marketing strategies is just as important as understanding their products. With our template, you can gather information on your competitors’ customer segments, brand positioning, distribution channels, and pricing strategies. This data will help you make smarter marketing decisions, ultimately leading to better brand visibility and engagement.
For example, you may notice that many of your competitors leverage product listing platforms like CADdetails.com to connect with their target audience and boost brand visibility, in which case you should consider doing the same. Or, if you observe that your competitors are lacking a strong presence in trade shows, this could be an opportunity for you to stand out by exhibiting at these events.
Tips to Take Action:
- Track which industry publications they advertise in—check out this list of top publishers to reach the AEC audience.
- Identify where competitors are absent and build a strategy around those gaps.
5. Benchmarking Your Performance
Our template not only helps you better understand your competitors but also provides a benchmark for assessing your own performance. Benchmarking is a strategic process that allows you to measure your company's success against other companies in your industry.
By comparing key metrics such as product quality, research and development initiatives, pricing strategies, and more, you can see how your company stacks up against others in the industry. This will give you valuable insights into areas where you may be outperforming your competitors or areas where you might be falling short.
Adjusting your strategies based on your findings will enhance your operations and drive long-term success. For instance, if your products are priced lower than your competitors, you can revise your pricing strategy to boost your bottom line.
Tips to Take Action:
- If you're behind, use the template to identify how to get ahead (e.g., more support, better technical documentation, etc.)
- Use the Recommended Actions section of the template to outline the necessary steps for progress.
- Revisit these benchmarks quarterly using tools like BuiltWith to monitor tech stack changes and SimilarWeb for traffic shifts.
6. Strategic Decision-Making
Whether it’s deciding where to focus your resources, which market segment to target, or how to differentiate your products, analyzing your competitors provides the clarity needed to make well-rounded, proactive decisions for your business.
Our template allows you to organize information about key competitors, making it easier to visualize your options and identify the best course of action. This reduces the likelihood of making reactive, poorly thought-out decisions and helps you stay aligned with your broader goals.
Tips to Take Action:
- Use the Strategic Summary section of the template to draw clear conclusions (“Competitor A dominates in [market], but lacks [feature]”)
- Create a visual scorecard of strengths/weaknesses across all competitors.
- Present findings to leadership to support key business decisions like new product lines, pricing adjustments, or marketing budget reallocation.
Discover the Power of Our Competitor Analysis Template
For building product manufacturers, maintaining a competitive edge means keeping an eye on your competitors, learning from their successes and shortcomings, and assessing your own performance to pinpoint areas for improvement.
Whether you're a small manufacturer looking to enter a new market or a large company seeking to modernize your processes, our Competitor Analysis Template is an essential tool for success. By leveraging this powerful resource, you’ll be better equipped to navigate competition, anticipate market trends, and ultimately drive your business forward.
Download your Competitor Analysis Template now!
Cover image by Spacejoy on Unsplash