Ecommerce, service-based, or SaaS businesses all have one thing in common. Most copy what their competitors are doing, or at least try to! If you haven’t spent time in a competitor's Facebook Ad library looking at content, are you even trying to grow your business?
This is especially true of that one company that seems to be crushing it; everyone pays particular attention to what they do.
In subscriptions, the brand that keeps coming up more and more like this is Magic Mind. Many of our clients and brands I speak with mention them as the North Star for product page design, offers, and cancellation experience.
In software, some darlings are Notion, Canva, and ChatGPT for how they roll out new features, get people using the platform, and model their pricing to drive more revenue.
Being a copycat can be an incredible asset to your business. It lets you shorten your learning curve by mimicking others, save ‘wracking my brain for ideas’ time, and hopefully find the secret sauce for growth.
The problem with being a copycat, however, is twofold. If you can learn to overcome these problems, you can be an effective copycat and make significant strides for your business.
The first downside to being a copycat is that you don’t know if those strategies work. Most brands aren’t publicly traded, and even if you know a particular offer's conversion rate (for example), you don’t know the contribution margin and its effect on the business.
The second problem is that being a copycat is limiting without the right strategy. You’ll end up chasing your tail instead of working on what needs to be done for growth.
With the right methodology - which I’m going to break down for you - you can make being a Copycat part of your secret sauce.
The Copycat Method Explained
Step 1 to being a great copycat is to stop chasing every trend you see happening out there. When you want to be a great copycat, you use it as a research method. You must ignore the hype train and focus on your business.
This means we only act as copycats when looking for solutions. Did you just hear that a competitor doubled their call booking rate with a new AI outreach software? Great. Certainly worth a little digging, but you can’t let it distract you when your goal for the month or quarter is improving retention or content output.
Don’t chase every trend your competitors are. Stay focused.
Step 2 is all about learning how to be a copycat. So, the copycat approach is the right place to start when setting goals or looking for ways to fix a problem.
For example, let’s say we’re trying to improve a website's conversion rate (online sales, booking meetings, it can be either).
We then look at what everyone else around is doing or testing. There will be some wild ideas, things that look overly simple, overly complex… now is when we open our eyes and ears and look for what everyone else is doing.
We then compile those ideas into a working document with screenshots and notes. We want to improve conversion rates, so we have listed all the tactics we see our competitors using.
Step 3 is where the real magic happens. We try to guess or reason why our competitors are doing what they’re doing.
It’s a mistake to assume everyone has it all figured out. The biggest companies with the most expensive employees make stupid mistakes every day. But there’s a reason they’re doing it this way, so understanding that reason (or at least trying to) will enhance the information you’re collecting.
Part of Step 3 is outreach to other experts and people in your industry. Frame the problem for them and ask what they think. For website conversions, you could talk to CRO agencies, consultants, independent contractors, or even people in the same space who aren’t immediate competitors. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve learned just by asking!
Having your list of what others are doing lets you get better feedback. “Hey, Company X is doing Z. Why do you think that is?” This approach will bring you more information than just asking them to look at your website.
Step 4 is when you prioritize the list with your business in mind. Now is when you go back to ignoring all the outside noise, take what your competitors are doing - combined with the reasons you think they are doing them - and nail down what to work on next.
This is NOT the time to completely overhaul a product page or outreach strategy. But if you know the reason behind the strategy, you can start to develop tests that prove that reason out (or not). For example, test a new landing page element instead of redesigning the PDP. Do trials of software to see how they work for your business.
You cannot chase the same thing your competitors are doing just because they are doing them. Finding opportunities to improve based on your business goals and objectives is what makes this work.
As a very personal example, I’m building a consultancy/agency focused on helping subscription brands. A few months ago, I struggled to figure out how I can scale beyond a handful of clients. I see posts all the time about offshore talent, AI, fractional workers… it’s easy to get caught up in how someone else is doing it.
So, I made a list of different structures I’d seen and talked to several agencies, consultants, and people running fractional consultancies. Then, something someone told me struck a chord. Build the structure around the strengths of the people you bring on. I had an incredible retention marketer working with me at that point, and our current structure was born, just like that.
Conclusion
They say that there are no new ideas. Everything has been thought of at some point in human history. While I’m not so sure that’s true (have you even watched Severance?), the point is that there are so many great ideas out there to steal from. Sorry, learn from.
The point is that you cannot get distracted by what everyone is doing at all times. Make a plan, do research, figure out the why behind what’s being done, and then look at it through the lens of your business.
If you do that, you’ll come off as an incredibly original thinker, not just a copycat.
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Matthew Holman is the visionary founder of Subscription Prescription, a leading platform that delivers top-tier content and cultivates a thriving community for ecommerce founders and operators. Driven by a passion for education and empowerment, he also created Commerce Catalyst, further demonstrating his dedication to equipping ecommerce professionals with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed.
Beyond his role as a founder and creator, Matthew serves as the Head of Partnerships at QPilot, where he leads the charge in developing and implementing an innovative software solution designed to help ecommerce merchants seamlessly manage repeat and scheduled orders. Through QPilot’s powerful platform, he helps businesses streamline operations, optimize efficiency, and unlock sustainable growth.
With a creative mindset and an unwavering commitment to excellence, Matthew has established himself as a respected leader in the ecommerce space. His passion for fostering community and driving meaningful connections continues to inspire countless entrepreneurs and operators in the industry.
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