Want to automate competitor research in Notion? This tutorial shows how to build a competitor intelligence workflow in Needle that researches companies and updates your Notion database.

Overview

The workflow fetches competitor lists from Notion, browses their websites, analyzes with AI, and updates Notion with findings—automating competitive intelligence gathering and tracking.

Key Actions

1. Scheduled Trigger – Runs weekly to refresh competitor data
2. Notion Fetch – Retrieves competitor list from Notion database
3. Web Research – Browses competitor websites for latest information
4. AI Analysis – Extracts key insights, features, and positioning
5. Notion Update – Saves findings back to Notion with structured data
6. Slack/Sheets Export – Optional summary to team channels or Google Sheets

What You'll Need

• Notion Database – With competitor list (company name, website URL) Tip: Include fields for industry, last updated date, analysis status
• Slack Channel (optional) – For weekly competitor updates
• Google Sheet (optional) – For exporting analysis

How It Works

Every week:

1. The workflow connects to your Notion database
2. Retrieves all competitor records with:
   • Company name
   • Website URL
   • Industry
   • Last research date
3. For each competitor:
   • Browses their website homepage
   • Extracts:
     • Current messaging and positioning
     • Products/services offered
     • Pricing (if publicly available)
     • Recent updates or announcements
     • Contact information
4. AI analyzes the gathered data to identify:
   • Value Proposition: How they position themselves
   • Target Market: Who they're selling to
   • Key Features: Main product capabilities
   • Differentiators: What makes them unique
   • Competitive Threats: Areas where they compete directly with you
5. Notion database is updated with:
   • Analysis summary
   • Key findings
   • Last updated timestamp
   • Competitive threat level (Low/Medium/High)
6. Optional outputs:
   • Slack message: "Updated competitor intel for 5 companies this week"
   • Google Sheets: Export all competitor data for analysis
   • Notion page: Weekly summary report with trends

Example Notion Update:

Competitor: Acme Corp
Last Updated: Oct 1, 2025
Analysis: "Acme recently added AI features to their platform, positioning as an enterprise-first solution. Pricing starts at $99/mo for teams."
Threat Level: High
Key Features: AI workflows, team collaboration, integrations

Wrap-up

With this Needle workflow, your Notion competitor database stays current without manual research—providing your team with fresh competitive intelligence for strategic planning, product positioning, and sales enablement. Perfect for product managers, competitive intelligence teams, and strategic analysts.