Website-Based Competitive Matrix
Turn competitor websites into a structured gap analysis
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 97%
Begin with a company or domain and identify its closest competitors. Visit each competitor's relevant public pages and extract the same evidence categories, such as features, pricing, positioning language, target audience, integrations, and claimed differentiators. Normalize that evidence into a structured table so products can be compared consistently rather than through disconnected notes. Review the completed matrix for patterns, over-served categories, missing capabilities, weak audience coverage, and opportunities for vertical or pricing differentiation. Finish with an executive summary and a short list of strategic opportunities tied directly to the observed gaps. Because website claims can be incomplete or promotional, validate consequential findings and preserve source links before using the matrix for decisions.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain through a live ChatGPT Agent task researching HubSpot and ten competitors.
Core principles
- 01Use primary competitor websites as evidence
- 02Compare competitors through consistent dimensions
- 03Separate observed facts from strategic interpretation
- 04Look beyond parity to underserved needs
- 05Conclude with actionable opportunities
How to run it
- 1
Set the market anchor
Choose the focal company, product, or domain and define the market boundary being evaluated.
Pro tip State whether the comparison is product-level, category-level, or suite-level.
Watch out An undefined market boundary produces irrelevant competitors.
- 2
Select close competitors
Identify a manageable set of direct alternatives that customers are likely to consider. The episode uses ten competitors as the working set.
Pro tip Include both established leaders and credible emerging alternatives.
Watch out Do not fill the list with companies that share only a broad category label.
- 3
Collect primary evidence
Visit relevant product, pricing, solution, and positioning pages for every competitor. Extract facts using the same fields for each company.
Pro tip Capture exact positioning language and source URLs.
Watch out Do not silently treat marketing claims as independently verified facts.
- 4
Build the matrix
Place features, pricing, positioning, audiences, and differentiators into a consistent structured table. Mark unknown values rather than guessing.
Pro tip Use compact, comparable language in each cell.
Watch out Inconsistent categories make the final comparison misleading.
- 5
Find underserved areas
Analyze the matrix for missing features, weak segments, pricing gaps, vertical opportunities, and incomplete workflows.
Pro tip Distinguish genuine whitespace from capabilities customers do not value.
Watch out Absence from a web page does not prove absence from the product.
- 6
Form strategic options
Convert supported gaps into potential positioning, packaging, product, or go-to-market moves. Rank them by customer value and evidential strength.
Pro tip Tie every recommendation to one or more matrix observations.
Watch out Avoid generic recommendations that could apply to any company.
In the wild
A product marketing team analyzes HubSpot and ten alternatives across features, pricing, positioning, target audiences, and differentiators. The matrix reveals that many competitors emphasize sales and marketing automation while fewer present a unified customer-service story.
→ The team develops a differentiated front-office positioning hypothesis and flags it for customer validation.
Common mistakes
Comparing inconsistent fields
Researching different attributes for each competitor creates a collection of profiles rather than a usable matrix.
Treating missing copy as missing capability
A feature omitted from a public page may still exist, so apparent gaps require validation.
Stopping at data collection
A matrix creates value only when patterns are translated into testable positioning or product opportunities.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for product marketers, founders, and growth teams preparing positioning, planning, or competitive enablement.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when competitors have little public information or when private product performance is the primary differentiator.
From the transcript
“And then we're going to research 10 closest competitors. We're going to go to their website, visit all of these different pages. Then we're going…”
“Then we're going to highlight any gaps or opportunities not covered by these competitors because we've been on their website.”
“Features, pricing, positioning, taken from the website.”
From the episode
The New ChatGPT Agent Promised to Save Me Hours - Did It?