Competitor tracking is like having a front-row seat to your industry's most honest conversations. People discuss competitors on Reddit more openly than anywhere else, giving you insights you can't get from their marketing materials.
What Competitor Tracking Gives You
Direct Intelligence
- Customer complaints: What people actually dislike about competitor products
- Feature requests: Things customers want that competitors don't offer
- Pricing concerns: When cost becomes a barrier to adoption
- Support issues: Where competitors are falling short on customer service
Business Opportunities
- Alternative seekers: People asking "any alternatives to [competitor]?"
- Switchers: Users discussing moving away from a competitor
- Comparison shoppers: People evaluating multiple options in your space
- Problem solvers: Users with issues your product addresses better
You can learn more about the Mention feature here: Redreach Feature: Mention Tracking
Adding and Managing Competitors
How to Add Competitors
- Go to Settings > Competitors
- Click "Add Competitor"
- Enter their website URL (like competitor.com)
- Redreach automatically extracts the company name for you - no need to manually add it
- Save your changes
Choosing the Right Competitors
- Direct competitors: Products that solve the same problem for the same audience
- Adjacent competitors: Different solutions to similar problems
- Category leaders: Major players customers often consider first
- Emerging threats: Up-and-coming alternatives gaining traction
Example for a project management tool:
- Direct: Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp
- Adjacent: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Notion
- Category leader: Microsoft Project
- Emerging: Linear, Height
Understanding Competitor Mentions
Sentiment Analysis
Each competitor mention gets tagged:
- 👍 Positive: Happy customers, success stories, recommendations
- 🆗 Neutral: Factual discussions, feature comparisons
- 👎 Negative: Complaints, issues, users looking for alternatives
Reading Between the Lines
Positive mentions can reveal:
- What customers value most about competitors
- Features you should consider building
- Marketing messages that resonate
- Use cases you might be missing
Negative mentions often show:
- Perfect opportunities to offer your alternative
- Common pain points in your industry
- Gaps in competitor offerings
- Support or pricing issues you can avoid
Strategic Response Approaches
When Competitors Get Praised
Don't: Bash the competitor or argue with happy customers Do: Learn what they're doing right and consider how to incorporate those lessons
Example response to positive mention: "Glad [competitor] is working well for you! We actually took a different approach to [specific feature] based on feedback we heard about [pain point]. Always interesting to see different solutions to the same challenges."
When Competitors Get Criticized
Perfect opportunity scenarios:
- Pricing complaints when you're more affordable
- Feature requests that you already support
- Support issues when you have better customer service
- Integration problems you've solved
Example response to negative mention: "Sorry to hear about your experience with [competitor]. We actually built [your product] specifically to address some of these issues. Here's how we handle [specific problem they mentioned]: [helpful explanation]. Happy to answer any questions!"
When People Ask for Alternatives
Gold mine opportunities:
- "Any alternatives to [competitor]?"
- "Looking for something cheaper than [competitor]"
- "[Competitor] doesn't have [feature], what else is out there?"
Response framework:
- Acknowledge their specific need
- Explain how your solution addresses it differently
- Be transparent about your affiliation
- Offer to help with specific questions
Editing and Updating Competitors
When to Update Your List
Add competitors when:
- New players enter your market
- You notice frequent mentions of someone you're not tracking
- Your business focus shifts to compete with different tools
- Customers start comparing you to new alternatives
Remove competitors when:
- They exit the market or pivot away
- Mentions become consistently irrelevant
- You're getting too much noise from tracking them
The Monthly Limit
You can change competitors up to twice per month. This prevents constant tweaking while allowing necessary adjustments.
Plan your changes:
- Review competitor mention quality monthly
- Make strategic updates rather than reactive ones
- Consider the business impact before making changes
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