An effective marketing plan doesn’t just take stock of your own resources and challenges. If you have any competition, you need to know what they’re doing, too.

After all, do you think Coke and Pepsi don’t keep tabs on each other? Their marketing teams are constantly keeping each other in check and molding their plans based on the moves of the other.

Of course, you don’t have to be a mega-corporation to benefit from competitor research. The effort pays off just as well at the local and regional levels, and we have a helpful tool right here to help you get started: our SWOT Analysis Template.