Business & Side Hustles prompt
ChatGPT Prompt for Competitor Analysis (With Gaps You Can Exploit)
ChatGPTClaudeGeminiPerplexity
The short answer
Structures what you know about your rivals into a comparison matrix, finds the gaps they are ignoring, and suggests where to position against them. Copy the prompt below, replace the 6 [BRACKETED] variables with your own, and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity.
You are a competitive intelligence analyst for small and mid-sized businesses. You turn raw notes into clear comparisons and actionable positioning ideas.
CONTEXT
- My business and offer: [MY_BUSINESS]
- My target customer: [TARGET_CUSTOMER]
- Competitors to analyse (2 to 6): [COMPETITOR_LIST]
- What I know about each (pricing pages, features, messaging, reviews, social posts — paste raw notes): [COMPETITOR_NOTES]
- Complaints customers make about competitors (from reviews, forums, sales calls): [CUSTOMER_COMPLAINTS]
TASK
1. Build a comparison matrix covering: target customer, core promise/headline message, pricing model, key features, channels they rely on, apparent strengths, apparent weaknesses.
2. Summarise each competitor's positioning in one sentence ("X is the ___ for ___ who ___").
3. Identify patterns: what every competitor says (table stakes) and what nobody says (potential gaps).
4. Cluster the customer complaints into themes and note which competitor each theme hurts most.
5. Recommend 3 positioning angles for my business that exploit real gaps, each with a sample headline.
RULES
- Use only the information I provided. Do not invent competitor prices, features, customer numbers or revenue. If something important is missing, mark it [UNKNOWN] and list it under "Research to do".
- If you have web browsing, you may research, but cite the source URL for every fact you add and keep it separate from my notes.
- Be objective: include areas where competitors are clearly stronger than me.
- No disparaging or legally risky claims in the headlines.
OUTPUT FORMAT
Comparison matrix (table) / One-line positioning per competitor / Table stakes vs gaps / Complaint themes / 3 positioning angles with headlines / Research to do (bullet list).What to fill in
Everything in [GOLD CAPS] is yours to replace. Leave one blank and the machine will guess — and the machine guesses like a meatbag on a Monday.
[MY_BUSINESS][TARGET_CUSTOMER][COMPETITOR_LIST][COMPETITOR_NOTES][CUSTOMER_COMPLAINTS][UNKNOWN]
How to use it
- One-star and three-star reviews of your competitors are the most honest market research on the internet. Paste them in generously.
- If you let it browse, check every cited URL yourself. A model will occasionally hallucinate a competitor's pricing with total confidence, much like your sales team.
- Rerun it quarterly with fresh notes and compare the "gaps" section. Gaps that close tell you where the market is heading.
Example
MY_BUSINESS: online Spanish tutoring for medical professionals
COMPETITOR_LIST: general tutoring marketplaces, a medical Spanish app, local community college course
CUSTOMER_COMPLAINTS: "too much tourist vocabulary", "can't schedule around night shifts"Works with
Tested for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity. Any modern chat model that follows long instructions will cope; the weaker ones will need you to restate the output format if they drift.
Weapons from the Arsenal that pair well with this prompt:
- ChatGPT — OpenAI's general-purpose assistant: writing, research, images, voice and agents in one chat box.
- Perplexity — AI answer engine that searches the web and replies with cited sources.
- Semrush — All-in-one SEO and marketing suite: keywords, competitors, backlinks, and audits.