Product launches are anxiety-filled events that test your strategy and patience. To mitigate some of this stress and increase your chances of success, a thorough understanding of your competitive landscape is crucial. You can utilize Perplexity's new task automation feature to streamline the daunting task of competitor analysis, providing invaluable insights that inform your product positioning, marketing strategies, and overall market entry.

Perplexity unveiled its innovative 'Tasks' capability, allowing you to program AI-driven prompts for autonomous execution on a predefined cadence, whether daily, weekly, or at custom intervals. This groundbreaking feature transforms repetitive research into effortless automation, handling everything from vigilant competitor monitoring and comprehensive market news scanning to in-depth SWOT analyses, all without requiring manual intervention. 

In this tutorial, we'll guide you through using Perplexity's new search task automation feature to define competitor analysis objectives, identify key competitors, set up automated tasks, and retrieve and review results. 

By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to:

• Define the competitor analysis objective
• Identify key competitors
• Set up automated tasks
• Retrieve and review results

Let's dive in right away!

Step 1 - Define the competitor analysis objective

Before diving into the mechanics of automating competitor analysis with Perplexity, it's important to establish a clear and concise objective for your efforts. Without a well-defined goal, your analysis risks becoming a broad, unfocused exercise that yields little actionable insight. For a product launch, consider pricing strategies, feature sets, marketing messaging, or market share to guide Perplexity's automated tasks, ensuring the data collected is directly relevant to your strategic decisions. 

Log in to your perplexity account. 

Click the 'Deep research' option in the chatbox. 

Note: It is advised to use a Pro account for deep research and analysis. The results will be more focused, and you can also utilize the automated search task feature, which is required for this tutorial.

Now, write a prompt to define your objectives for competitor analysis.

Prompt:

I'm launching a [name and description of your product], targeting [specify your target consumers]. The product is aimed at both casual users (e.g, for TikTok/Reels) and content marketers looking for [describe your target market and the purpose of your app].

Please help me define clear and actionable objectives for competitor analysis in support of this launch. Focus on competitors in the [name of your target market and a few examples of your [competitors].

Review the implementation timeline and methodology. That's some advanced-level stuff. 

Step 2 - Identify key competitors

To understand the market landscape and the competition you might face for your new app, it is crucial to identify key competitors. Craft a well-structured and super-focused prompt. It will help Perplexity identify and list the competitors for you. 

Prompt:

I need a clear list of both direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors should include apps with [similar AI-powered video creation and editing features on mobile]. Indirect competitors can be tools that help users create short videos through manual editing, templates, or partially AI-assisted workflows, even if they're web-based]. For each, I'm looking for the name, platform, core AI features, monetization model, and a brief one-line description. This will help me craft precise prompts for automated monitoring and differentiation.

Not only did it provide a separate list of indirect competitors, but it also listed competitors based on different segments within the same market. 

Step 3 - Set up automated tasks

To stay ahead of the curve for your product launch, set up the automated search tasks. The idea is to let Perplexity continuously scan the web for updates on competitors, trends in AI video editing, user feedback, and anything else that could impact your positioning. This way, you don't have to research manually every day. You'll just get the insights as they happen. 

Navigate to the task section by clicking your profile icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. Select 'Tasks.'

Click the '+' sign for the tasks. 

Use the following prompt to set up an automated search that compares the product features of your product with direct/indirect competitors. 

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Prompt:

Compare the product features of [your product] with its direct/indirect competitors you listed in the chat. Compare the latest product updates from [Competitor A], [Competitor B], and [Competitor C]. Summarize in bullet points.

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Now set the schedule for the search. Select how many times you want the search to be generated. It can be once, daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly. Set the date and time.

Change the mode to 'Research' for deep analysis and click 'Save.'

The task appears below the chat box in the tasks section. 

Step 4: Retrieve and Review Results.

After setting the schedule, it's time to revisit perplexity on the day or time you mentioned in the task section. Retrieve the results and review them. 

Go to the 'Home' tab. A new search with your specified prompt will be listed.

Review key competitive differences to get a clear picture of the competitors' apps and your own. For a more focused analysis, list the features of your app or share the initial app development documents with Perpleixty. It will provide a great comparison of your product's features versus those of your competitors. 

That's it for this tutorial. Ask follow-up questions to clarify any points you didn't understand or for which you would like more details. Set up multiple automated tasks and use Perpleixty Pro to its full extent. This will reduce the time spent on product launches and provide your marketing team with additional details to work with.