Keeping track of your competitor's activities and progress within the market is an essential part of your market research plan, but many small businesses overlook the work needed to maintain records on the competition, simply due to lack of time and resources. It's a good idea to put even a simple tracking system in place that can help you gauge where your competition is striking next; not only can this help you evaluate your own marketing plans, but can also give you a much better idea of where to set your sights next. Here are just three easy ways to learn about your competition in almost any industry or domain:

1. Create charts on their products, pricing, and rates

This will help you draw a side-by-side comparison on your own products and prices, making it much easier to develop an average price point for future products, and also give you an idea of how similar (or different) your product lines are. Keeping track of price increases will also help you determine if you need to initiate your own price increases during each period, since you need to stay marketable and competitive as often as possible. This type of research is even easier today with inventory access on the internet; just visit your competitor's website for average prices, and make use of search functions for specific products when needed. Signing up for e-mail newsletters and other customer alerts is another way to keep tabs on sales, specials, and other discounts that they may be offering.

2. Read trade journals, newspapers, and magazines.

Reading up on industry-related materials is a surefire way to keep track of events, business growth, and even announcement on hirings/firings. Both local and national trade publications can help you tap into a fresh new market, and even find some other companies who you may be able to develop a joint venture with. If you narrow down your competitor research to about 8-10 different companies, glancing through an index or table of contents of each publication for the business is a great way to glean insights on recent activities. Another to find up-to-date information is in a company blog; blogs are becoming a popular medium with businesses who post recent and upcoming events, and can give you some insights on what's happening ‘behind the scenes,' in a timely manner.

3. Conduct in-depth online research.

The internet is full of business and company information available to the public domain. Take a look at Hoover's and even Forbes magazines's roundup of company and industry news for accurate data and records of large corporations and companies. From there, you can also determine if the company has a website, traffic and search engine rankings, and how long they've been in business. This is all valuable information on getting some cohesive and comprehensive data on the competition, and can easily be printed and stored for quick reference as you need it. Spending just a few weeks gathering this information can help you assess each company's standing very easily.

Keeping track of the competition is much easier today with the rich resources of data and public information available on the internet. Creating a tracking system for each of your competitors will help you keep your own records accurate, making it easy to formulate effective goals for growth.