Competitor research offers insightful information that guides organizations in their decisions. By doing this, UAE businesses would be better aware of their market orientation.

Gaining a competitive advantage depends on digital research tools such as Ahref helping these companies to provide credible information on indstry competitors and minimize expenses.

Therefore, companies must remove out-of-date procedures if they are to keep ahead. So, in this article we will discuss five key tools conducting competitor research in 2024.

Why Do UAE Businesses Need Competitor Research?

Since 2009, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the most important US exporting market in the Middle East and Africa.

More than 1,500 US corporations are spread around the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia, making it a global hub.

The Emirate administration and the nation are substantially spending on diversifying and expanding the economy.

Competitor study will help UAE firms to properly know the surroundings in which they operate.

Competitor research is critical for UAE businesses because it does the following:

• Identify untapped market opportunities.
• Aids in competitor framework positioning.
• Help businesses anticipate potential risks and threats.
• Provide insights into customer preferences, perceptions, and behaviors.
• Identify areas where there is room for improvement and innovation.
• At lastly, it helps businesses react to competitive challenges efficiently.

Why Competitive Analysis Framework?

By the use of a well-planned competitive analysis framework, marketing strategies of competitors are easily detectable. This approach displays strengths or weaknesses as well as available untapped market potential.

To get a competitive advantage and make informed business decisions, you need to gather information on competitors’ products, pricing, marketing plans, and general performance.

Since the UAE business scene is naturally competitive and no marketing plan exists in isolation, doing this is crucial. The secret is to know initially what is boosting your competitors’ success.

Company name	SEO ranking	Social media presence	Market share	Digital readiness
Etisalat	High	Strong presence on Twitter, Instagram, etc.	Largest in telecom	Dominant in digital infrastructure
Emirates	Medium	Strong presence on Facebook and YouTube	Dominant in aviation	Significant expenditure on digital innovation
ADNOC	Low	Limited but growing presence	Major participant in energy	Concentrate on digital transformation.
Careem	High	Highly active on social platforms	Leader in ride-hailing	Excellent tech integration
Noon	Medium	Strong Instagram presence	Leading e-commerce	Expanding quickly in digital operations

Table showing Competitive Positioning of Major UAE Businesses

Five Essential Tools for Competitor Research in 2024

These are some top indispensable tools for competitor research in 2024:

1. Similar Web

This leading analytical tool provides actionable market research.

Advantage:

• Its segregated accessible market data reflects use cases.
• It features dynamic and reliable data sources.
• Its UI is easy to use.

Disadvantages:

• Its access to thorough specialized data is limited.

As a business owner, this tool will allow you to examine your audience engagement, marketing mix, and more.

Pricing:

Starter plan costs ($125/mo), Professional plan costs ($333/mo), Team plan (pricing upon request), and Corporate plan (pricing upon request).

2. Sprout Social

The best competitor analysis tool for social listening is Sprout Social.

Benefits:

• It has comprehensive insights into competitors and general trends.
• It automates and analyzes using artificial intelligence (AI).

Drawbacks:

• Relatively expensive.
• Some of its key features, like reporting and X-Trend analysis, are paid.

As a business owner, nevertheless, this tool will let you view what your rivals are posting and examine opinion patterns via user comments.

Sprout Social is costly even with all this ease; yet, it is well worth it for companies who depend on social media presence.

Pricing:

The Standard plan costs ($249/month), the Professional plan ($399/month), the Advanced plan ($499/month), and the Enterprise plan ( rates upon request).

3. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is the ideal tool for SEO competitor analysis.

Benefits:

• It is a competitor framework analysis tool used to expose content shortage in companies.
• Its collection of SEO tools is really extensive.
• Its backlink profile is current, and its keyword database is vast.

Drawbacks:

• It’s quite expensive, especially for a startup.
• Competitor analysis is just a small component of its features.

Pricing:

The Lite plan runs ($99/mo), the Standard plan runs ($199/mo), the Advanced plan runs ($399/mo), and the Enterprise plan runs ($ 999/mo).

The Site Explorer option will help you, as a UAE company owner, uncover fresh content prospects. Furthermore, Ahref will help optimize your current contents, and show how your competitor contents performs.

4. Semrush

Semrush is the best all-in-one competition analysis tool.

Benefits:

• Its array of strong analytics tools is really extensive.
• Its Market Explorer provides competitor market statistics.
• It can replace multiple independent products.

Drawbacks:

• For some jobs, it’s not as robust as some other tools.

Pricing:

The pro plan runs $139.95 a month; the expert plan runs $249.95 a month; the business plan runs $499.95 a month.

Semrush does, however, have some amazing features you may employ for competitor study or company analysis. Features like social network listings will enable you to monitor your development versus your rivals faster.

5. Owletter

This is the ideal competitor analysis tool for email campaign study.

Pros:

• It automatically retrieves and organizes competitors’ email campaigns.
• It has a unique competitive email analysis and trend graphs.
• It has custom keyword alerts.

Cons:

• Its lowest tier offers negligible analysis.
• It doesn’t provide personal insight into metrics like open rates.

Pricing:

It costs ($19/mo) for the Starter plan, ($39/mo) for the Pro plan, ($79/mo) for the Unlimited plan.

As a business owner, you can gather and classify emails to monitor the outreach initiatives of your rivals and copy what is effective. This tool also allows you to create keyword-based alerts to let you know when terms relevant to your business come up.

How to Successfully Research Competitors?

Here’s a four-step strategy for properly researching your competitor in the UAE market.

First step: Know who your competitors are.

Assume you’re in a race. You have to know your opponent if you are going to win. In business, too, you have to be aware of your rivals.

Second step: Study their marketing strategies. Could you then have a closer look at their activities? Please note their pricing, special offers, discounts, and other things.

Third step: Research competitors’ social media approach. Review their marketing materials—websites, social media profiles, and ad campaigns, among other activities.

Fourth step: Read their client comments and reviews. Find out what their customers hate and value.

These actions will enable you to identify your areas of strength and weakness as well as guide your improvement across them.

Trend Analysis of Competitor Performance Over Time

The chart above illustrates the Trend Analysis of Competitor Performance for three major companies in the UAE from 2019 to 2024, based on their Stock Market Capitalization. The performance of Companies A, B, and C respectively is shown by the blue, green, and red lines correspondingly.

To Sum Up

The UAE market is growing and the competition can only get more intense. While the businesses have access to several Competitor Research tools, here is our advice:

• Assess your technology stack.
• Identify the market data points and metrics you already have access to.
• Concentrate on weak areas you wish to improve on.

Ultimately, choose a tool that aligns with your needs, available equipment, and expertise.

Companies in the UAE market are vying with one another. Thus, you must be current with the top Competitor Research tools if you want to be strong in the game.

Thus, read this post to learn how to keep ahead of your rivals in the UAE market by using these five basic tools effectively.