The art of staying in your lane

How often do you look at what your competitors are doing? Maybe you’re looking a little too often.

Author

Joe Michalowski
November 08, 2023

One of the best things you can do for your career is to make a point of regularly connecting with peers.

Admittedly, I’ve been pretty terrible at following this advice. 

But I’ve had a good couple of months trying to be better — and I’ve had some awesome conversations with other folks in the content game.

There are plenty of common themes that carry through each chat. The one that surprised me a bit was questions about competitor analysis. 

“How often do you look at what your competitors are doing?”

“How do you take plays out of the competition’s playbook and make them your own?”

“What do you do when competitors are copying you?”

The truth is that I don’t have much to say about any of these. I spend almost zero time thinking about the content that our competitors create and distribute.

It’s not that I don’t believe competitor analysis is useful. We’ve just done a ton of work to understand our audience, craft a content strategy unique to our resources and abilities, and adapt according to what works well. 

Why change just because Competitor X is doing something different? 

To me, so much of content success comes down to your ability to put blinders on and stay in your lane. To execute at the intersection of what you can deliver and what your audience loves. To focus on building your skyscraper, not tearing down those around you.

But by all means, check out what your competitors are doing. Learn from it and sharpen your strategy accordingly.

Just make sure you embrace the art of staying in your lane. 

Don’t give in to FOMO and start trying to be everywhere just because your competitors are doing something.

— Joe Michalowski

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Thanks for reading. See you for the next one.

— Joe Michalowski

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