If you’ve ever tried to keep tabs on competitors with Google Alerts, random spreadsheets, or that one Slack channel nobody checks, you know how quickly things get messy—and how little you actually learn. If you’re finally ready to wrangle your competitor tracking into something reliable, this guide is for you. We’ll walk through setting up competitor tracking in Crayon, a platform built to pull in competitive intel without burying you in noise.
Whether you’re in product marketing, sales enablement, or just the default “person who cares about competitors,” this will help you get actionable insights—without wasting hours each week.
Step 1: Get Clear on What You Actually Need to Track
Before you even log in to Crayon, pause. What are you actually hoping to get out of competitor tracking? Most people skip this step and end up drowning in irrelevant updates. Take five minutes to write down:
- Your top 3–5 competitors. Any more and you’ll dilute your focus.
- What actually matters. Pricing changes? New features? Big hires? Ignore vanity news like “Company X sponsors a 5K.”
- Who needs to see this info. Is this for your execs, sales team, or just you?
Pro tip: If you try to track everything, you’ll learn nothing. The best insights come from ruthless prioritization.
Step 2: Set Up Your Crayon Workspace
Once you’ve got clarity, log in to Crayon. The platform is built around “workspaces,” which are essentially dashboards for tracking specific competitors or themes.
- Create a new workspace. Name it something obvious, like “Top 3 Competitors – 2024.”
- Add your competitors.
- Search for company names and select the right ones (double-check for similarly named companies—you’d be surprised).
- You can add websites, LinkedIn pages, or even custom RSS feeds if you’re tracking niche sources.
- Pick your sources.
- Crayon pulls from news, social, press releases, job boards, product pages, and more.
- Don’t just select everything. Go source by source and ask, “Does this actually tell me something useful?”
What works: Focusing on a handful of high-signal sources (like product update blogs) gives better results than tracking every tweet a competitor sends.
What doesn’t: Tracking generic news or minor social posts. You’ll just get spammed.
Step 3: Fine-Tune Alerts and Filters (Don’t Skip This)
Crayon lets you set up alerts and custom filters, but the defaults are often too noisy. This is where most people go wrong—they end up with dozens of pointless emails and start ignoring them.
- Set up email digests.
- Opt for daily or weekly summaries, not real-time pings, unless you truly need minute-by-minute updates (hint: you probably don’t).
- Use keyword filters.
- Add keywords for things you really care about (“pricing,” “feature launch,” “webinar,” etc.).
- Exclude noise (“hiring,” “event sponsorship,” unless that matters to you).
- Set up team-specific alerts.
- Sales might want intel on product changes, while execs care about leadership moves.
- Don’t blast everyone with every update—tailor the alerts.
Pro tip: Spend 15–30 minutes upfront getting your filters right. You’ll save hours later.
Step 4: Dig Into the Data—But Don’t Automate Analysis
Crayon does a good job pulling in raw info, but it won’t magically tell you what’s important. That’s still your job.
- Review the feed regularly. Weekly is usually enough for most teams.
- Tag or flag key insights. Crayon lets you annotate and categorize updates. Use this for things you’ll want to reference later.
- Ignore the filler. Not every competitor blog post matters. It’s fine to let most updates pass you by.
What works: Setting aside a short block of time each week to review, annotate, and share only the critical stuff.
What doesn’t: Hoping an algorithm will replace your judgment. Automated “insights” usually miss the context that actually matters.
Step 5: Share Insights With the Right People (and Only the Right People)
Now that you’re collecting useful intel, don’t just dump it into a giant report nobody reads.
- Use Crayon’s sharing features. You can auto-send digests or flagged items to specific teams or individuals.
- Keep it short and actionable. A one-line summary with a link beats a 10-slide deck.
- Tailor for your audience. Sales might want different info than product or leadership.
Pro tip: Less is more. People won’t read a 40-item “insight report,” but they will pay attention to three clear, relevant points.
Step 6: Revisit and Refine Your Setup Every Month
Competitor tracking isn’t “set it and forget it.” The market changes, competitors shift strategy, and your needs evolve.
- Review what’s actually useful. If you’re not using certain alerts, turn them off.
- Add or remove competitors as needed. Don’t keep tracking a company just because you always have.
- Adjust filters. If you’re missing key updates or getting too much noise, tweak your setup.
Honest take: Most people overbuild their setups and never prune. Treat this like cleaning out your closet—if you’re not using it, get rid of it.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Let’s be real—no tool is perfect. Here’s what trips up most users:
- Trying to automate strategy. Crayon is great for surfacing data, but it won’t connect the dots for you.
- Over-tracking. More sources = more noise. Be ruthless.
- Sharing too much. Flooding inboxes with updates ensures nobody pays attention.
- Ignoring setup maintenance. Your needs will change. So should your tracking.
Bonus: What to Ignore (and Why)
Some things just aren’t worth tracking. Here’s what you can safely skip, unless you have a very specific reason:
- Every press mention. Most are fluff or generic PR.
- Minor social posts. Unless you’re in social media, these rarely matter.
- Routine job postings. Unless you’re tracking a hiring surge or key roles, this is usually noise.
Focus on the stuff that signals a real shift—product launches, pricing changes, strategic partnerships, executive hires/fires.
Keep It Simple—And Iterate
You don’t need dozens of dashboards or daily alerts to get real value from Crayon. Set up a simple workflow, stay skeptical of what’s actually useful, and tweak your setup as you go. The goal isn’t to collect every scrap of competitor news—it’s to spot the things that actually change your game.
Focus on what matters, ignore what doesn’t, and don’t be afraid to prune. Competitor tracking should make your life easier, not more complicated.