How to Research Competitors' Content and Positioning from Public Sources

Competitor research has a reputation for spreadsheets full of numbers nobody can check: “their traffic”, “their engagement rate”, “their ad spend”. Most of those figures are estimates from outside, and some are guesses dressed up as data. You don't need them to learn something useful.

What a competitor publishes tells you how they want to be seen, who they are trying to reach and which arguments they think win. That is what matters for your own content — and all of it is public, readable and checkable.

What you can learn, and what you can't

Visible likes and comments are a rough signal at best. You don't know how many people saw the post, whether it was boosted, or what the account usually gets. Note them if you like, but don't build conclusions on them.

Where to look

Their website

Start with the home page headline and the line under it: that is their positioning in their own words. Then read the pricing page (who each tier is for tells you who they want), the about page, and the last few blog or changelog posts, which show what they are pushing right now. Write down the exact phrases they repeat.

How their positioning has changed

The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine keeps old copies of most public sites. Compare their home page from a year or two ago with today's. A changed headline, a new audience named or a feature that disappeared from the page tells you which direction they are moving.

Their social profiles

Scroll back through their last month or two of posts on each platform they use. Note the formats (text, carousels, video), the topics that come up again and again, who appears in them (founders, staff, customers) and the tone. Count posts yourself if frequency matters to you, and say it is your count over the period you looked at.

Their ads

Several platforms publish the ads advertisers are running. The Meta Ad Library shows active ads on Facebook and Instagram, and the Google Ads Transparency Center shows ads by advertiser. LinkedIn also lets you look up the ads a company has run. An ad that keeps running for months suggests the advertiser is happy with it — that is an inference, not a result, so write it down as one.

What their customers say

Public reviews, app store comments, forum threads and replies under their posts are where you hear customers' own words. Look for what people praise (the thing you'll need to match or beat) and what they complain about (a gap you may be able to fill). Copy short phrases exactly; they make better content than anything a marketing team writes.

Everything else they publish

Sign up for their newsletter, read their job posts (a burst of hires in one area says where they are investing), and watch any talks or podcasts they have done. All public, all in their own words.

A simple worksheet

For each competitor, fill in one row. Three to five competitors is usually enough; more than that and the patterns blur.

Turning research into content

The point is not to copy what works for them. It is to find where you can say something they don't.

1. 1Find the unanswered questionsQuestions customers ask in reviews and forums that no competitor answers clearly are the easiest posts to win.
2. 2Find the claim nobody makesIf everyone promises speed, and your customers care most about support, lead with support — if it is true of you.
3. 3Find the format nobody usesIf every competitor posts text, a clear carousel or short video on the same topic stands out.
4. 4Answer complaints honestlyIf customers complain about something in your category, explain how you handle it — without naming or attacking anyone.

For turning what you found into a steady stream of posts, see what to post when you have nothing to post.

Things to avoid

• Quoting estimated figures as fact. Traffic and follower-growth tools model their numbers from outside. If you use one, call it an estimate.
• Naming competitors in your posts to knock them. It sends attention their way and rarely reads well. Make your own case.
• Copying their posts. People who follow you both will notice, and you'll always be a step behind.
• Making claims about them you can't show. If you can't link to it, don't post it.

Letting the Agent do the reading

In Postclo you can ask the Agent about your competitors: what they post, where, and how they position themselves. It reads public pages — sites, posts, profiles — and tells you what it found with the sources, so you can check each point. It can't see anyone's private analytics, so it won't claim to know a competitor's traffic, revenue or results. When it suggests a piece based on what it read, the sources travel with the suggestion. More on that in the FAQ.