Stop Guessing and Start Winning
If you’re running a business in Brisbane—whether you’re a sparky in Coorparoo or running a boutique law firm in the CBD—you know the feeling of looking at a competitor and wondering, "How the hell are they getting all the big jobs?"
Maybe they just dropped their prices. Maybe they’ve launched a new service that’s stealing your regulars. Usually, you don't find out until a customer mentions it or you see their new van driving past. By then, you’ve already lost the money.
In the old days, "keeping an eye on the competition" meant driving past their shop or obsessively refreshing their Facebook page. It was a massive waste of time. Today, we have AI tools that can do the spying for you.
I’m not talking about anything illegal or creepy. I’m talking about using smart software to alert you the second a competitor changes their website, shifts their pricing, or gets a bad review you can capitalise on. This isn't about being a "tech whiz"; it's about making sure your phone rings instead of theirs.
Why Most Business Owners Get This Wrong
Most owners I talk to fall into two camps. Either they ignore the competition entirely ("I just focus on my own backyard"), or they spend hours manually checking websites. Both are mistakes.
If you ignore them, you get blindsided. If you check manually, you're wasting time that should be spent on billable work.
Using AI and marketing automation allows you to gather "intelligence" while you sleep. Imagine getting a text message saying: "Your main competitor just raised their prices by 15%." That’s information you can use to win more quotes tomorrow morning.
Step 1: Monitor Their Website Without Lifting a Finger
You don't need to visit a competitor's site every day. Tools like Browse AI or Visualping act like a digital set of eyes.
You simply point the tool at a competitor’s "Services" or "Pricing" page. The moment they change a single word or price, you get an email.
How this makes you money: I worked with a landscaping business near Ascot. They used this to watch a big franchise competitor. The franchise increased their "minimum call-out fee" on their website. Our client saw the alert, kept his fee the same, and ran a quick Facebook post highlighting his "No Minimum Charge" policy. He picked up three new regular maintenance contracts that week because he knew exactly where the competitor had become vulnerable.
Step 2: See Their Ads (And Why They’re Working)
Ever wonder how much your competitors are spending on ads? You can actually see exactly what they are running for free.
Go to the Facebook Ad Library. Type in your competitor’s name. If they are running ads, you’ll see them all. But here is where the AI comes in: you can use tools like AdSpy or even just ask ChatGPT to analyse the text of those ads.
Paste the text of their top-performing ad into ChatGPT and ask: "What is the main hook of this ad, and what is the weakness in their offer?"
The Result: It might tell you: "They are focusing on speed, but they don't mention a guarantee." Boom. You now know that if you run an ad focusing on your 10-year guarantee, you’ll stand out. You aren't guessing; you’re reacting to real data.
Step 3: Listen to Their Customers' Grumbles
This is my favourite tactic. People love to complain on Google Reviews.
You can use AI to "scrape" (basically just collect) all the 1, 2, and 3-star reviews of your biggest competitors. Feed those reviews into an AI tool and ask for a summary of the top three complaints.
Usually, it’s things like: "They never showed up on time." "The final bill was higher than the quote."
- "They left a mess."
By automating your business research this way, you’re not just working harder; you’re being surgical about how you steal market share.
Step 4: Track the "Vibe" in Your Local Area
AI isn't just for looking at specific businesses; it's for seeing trends. You can use tools to track what people in Brisbane are searching for.
Are people suddenly searching for "solar battery repair" more than "solar installation"? If you’re an electrician, that’s a signal to shift your focus. Most businesses wait until the phone stops ringing to realise a trend has changed. You can see it coming months away.
What’s a Waste of Money?
Don't get sucked into expensive "Enterprise Competitive Intelligence" platforms. Those are for companies like Coca-Cola and Westpac. They cost thousands a month and provide data that is too complex for a small business owner to actually use.
Stick to simple tools that cost $20-$50 a month (or are free). If a tool requires a three-month training course to understand, it’s a waste of your time. You need answers, not more homework.
How Long Until You See Results?
This isn't like SEO, which can take months. You can set up website monitoring in about 15 minutes. You can analyse a competitor’s ads in 10 minutes.
You will see the benefit the very next time you go to a quote. Instead of wondering what the customer has been told by other companies, you’ll already know their prices and their weaknesses. That confidence alone helps you close more sales.
Your 3-Step Action Plan
If you want to start winning more jobs from the guy down the road, do this today:
1. Pick your top 3 competitors. Not the ones you like, but the ones who actually take money out of your pocket. 2. Set up a monitor. Use a tool like Visualping on their "Specials" or "Pricing" page. It takes 2 minutes. 3. Analyse their reviews. Copy their last 20 bad reviews into an AI tool and ask: "What is the one thing these customers wanted but didn't get?"
Let’s Get Your Business Ahead
At Local Marketing Group, we don’t care about fancy charts or tech talk. We care about making sure your business is the one people call first.
Most Brisbane business owners are still doing things the old-fashioned way. They’re guessing. By using even a tiny bit of AI to watch the market, you’re already miles ahead of 90% of your competition. It’s like playing a game of cards where you can see everyone else's hand.
Want to stop wasting time on the wrong leads and start dominating your local area? We can help you set up the systems that make growth inevitable.
Ready to grow? Contact Local Marketing Group today.