5 Tactics To Use Your Competition's Digital Marketing Strategy
Achieve Exponential Business Growth
Digital marketing can be difficult at times to figure out where to start. You can build a website, create content for social media, develop SEO articles, and so much more that it could make your head spin with what you can do online. Thankfully there’s a cheat to getting things started or even growing faster. It’s by studying your competition and using their tactics to start building your own digital marketing strategy.
Understand what competitive market research is
Competitive Market Research (CMR) is a method used to gather information about competitors. This type of research helps businesses understand how their products compare to those of others in the marketplace. In addition, it allows businesses to identify gaps in their product offering and determine where there might be opportunities for improvement.
There are many types of competitive research, including competitor analysis, customer satisfaction surveys, and focus groups. Each one provides unique insights into your customers and potential customers. Now with the internet, you can see what works for them online and how you can beat out your competition.
Why carry out competitor research?
Competitor analysis isn’t just about finding out what your competition is up to. It’s about uncovering how they’re doing it. And there’s no better way to do it than to analyze their digital marketing tactics. You’ll find out how they’re getting traffic to their site, where they’re spending money, and what they’re saying on social media.
You’ll even learn who their customers are and why they’re buying from them rather than you. This information will help you figure out how to improve your product or service offering to make sure you win over more customers.
Ways to conduct competitor analysis:
Competitors are important to understand because they’ll tell you what works and what doesn’t. If you don’t know what competitors do well, you won’t be able to replicate it. You might even miss opportunities to improve yourself.
There are multiple avenues for you to create a competitive analysis on your competitors. Here are a few ways you can start your analysis:
1. Using Search Engines
Search engines like Google and Bing provide detailed data on how often certain keywords are used in searches. The way you use search engines is by typing in the target keywords of your business and see what comes up. To be even more precise, type in “near me” and check to see which are your direct competitors are.
For example, a company looking for my website would possibly type in digital marketing company near me and find Awaken Media Solutions near them. Or another example would be to find a plumber they would need that is close to their location. This information helps you see where your brand is in the results compared to your competitors.
Did a specific article come up from your competitor to show up first? Write about the topic as well and add more quality content that your competitor doesn’t have. This will give you an edge over them.
Did you see an ad about your competitor targeting that specific keyword? Start writing out some ads to take some market share. This can help you build a massive following due to your ability to get things done!
2. Using Social Media Channels to Understand what Your Competition is doing
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn allow you to see what your competitors are posting and talking about. By analyzing these posts, you can get a good idea of what they’re doing and what they’re trying to accomplish.
Are they using influencer marketing to boost their online presence? Develop a good influencer marketing strategy to increase your social media presence. From there, you can develop content that can grab your target market’s attention and start taking screen time away from your competitors.
About Social Media Monitoring Tools
Social media monitoring tools allow you to track conversations happening around your industry. One such tool is called Dollar Eighty. Dollar Eighty is a tool that allows you to see Instagram hashtags and organize posts; this way you can comment on the trending posts in the quickest way possible.
These tools also let you see what people are talking about and what they’re saying about your company. They can also reveal whether your competitors are engaging with these same audiences. Sometimes your competitors aren’t even active on social media, which can be a method you can use to be ahead of them.
If you would like more information about social media marketing, check out our web page about social media marketing.
3. Using Competitive Analysis Tools
These competitive analysis tools are great for analyzing competitor websites and social media accounts. They also include analytics that let you see how much time visitors spend on each page and how long they stay on the site. Some tools even track how many times users click on links within a website.
Online tools like Google Analytics and others help you track visitor behavior across multiple channels. This allows you to identify trends and patterns that can lead to future success. These analytic tools are great to use for your own website to post the content that people are looking for in your niche.
Competitive analysis tools like BuzzSumo and frase.io help you analyze the performance of your competitors. These tools show you how your competitors rank for specific terms and phrases.
You can use tools like SEMrush to learn what keywords they are targeting and how well they rank for those terms. You can also find out what their strengths and weaknesses are and whether they’re likely to succeed or fail.
4. Checking Their Website to See What's Working for Them
The best way to get a feel for what your competitors are doing is to look at their website. Check out their landing pages, blog posts, and other content. What search engine optimization techniques are they using? Do they have any unique features? How much time does each page take to load? Is there anything that stands out? Take note of these points and see where you can improve your website.
Look through their content to see if it matches up with your business goals. If you notice something similar, then you know you need to do some research into what works for them. All of this information is gold!
How can you improve your website using the information? Use the information you found on their website to create strategic goals for your website. Once you do, use different digital marketing techniques to enhance your website. These techniques include: unique website design, video marketing integration, web page optimization, and more.
5. Looking at their ads and landing pages
If you want to get really deep with competitor analysis, look at their ads and landing pages. They may have a website and other landing pages specific to each service to capture information from their ads. Note the differences between their landing page and their main business home page. Are they using the same images? Do they have similar copywriting? What is their call to action? How does their website layout compare to yours?
The goal of this exercise is not to copy everything they’re doing but to learn from them, so you can create a strategy that works for you.
How to find competitor ads and landing pages?
– Find your competitors using keywords and a search engine.
– Use a tool such as SEMrush or Serpstat to see what ads your competitors are running.
– Clicking on the links will send you to the landing pages.
Pay attention to your competitor's content marketing strategy
Another point to add to this article is to analyze their content marketing strategy. Your competitors are likely already working on their content strategy. They’re probably thinking about how they’ll use it to attract visitors and keep them engaged. You don’t necessarily have to copy what they do exactly, but you should make sure you understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. This way, you can think up ways to differentiate yourself while still staying true to your brand.
If you’re looking to improve your own content strategy, here are seven things you should consider:
1. What are your goals? Are you trying to sell something, entertain people, educate them, or inspire them? Knowing your goal will help you figure out what type of content you should produce.
2. Who is your target audience? If you are a brand that your customer base is centered around roofing, then you probably won’t be targeting homeowners who are interested in interior decorating.
3. What is your message? What do you want your customers to remember after reading your content?
4. Where will you publish your content? Will it be on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.? Or will it be published on your website?
5. How much information do you want to provide? Do you just want to give a brief overview of what your product does, or do you want to go into detail about every aspect of it?
6. Where do you want your audience to go once they’ve finished reading/watching/listening to your content? Will they want to buy now, or will they want to come back later?
7. What types of questions does your target customer have? Once you know who your audience is, you’ll be able to figure out what questions they’re asking. For example, if you’re producing video tutorials for your target audience, you could answer the questions they ask like “What are some problems I’m having?” or “How can I fix my problem?
Study your competitors regularly
You want to know what your competition is up to. But how do you find out without getting caught? Here are three easy ways to keep tabs on your competitors.
1. Use Google Alerts
Google Alerts lets you set up alerts for keywords related to your industry. When your competitor posts something online, it’ll show up in your inbox. This is great because you can use this information to see what they’re saying about your product or service. For example, let’s say you are a real estate agent. If someone writes about “real estate agents in the Los Angeles area,” you could sign up for an alert that emails you whenever someone else mentions “real estate agent Los Angeles.”
2. Check Your Competitors’ Social Media Accounts
Social media monitoring tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social make it easier than ever to track what your competitors are posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. They even allow you to follow hashtags and topics, so you can watch what people are talking about.
3. Track Their Search Rankings
If you’ve got access to your competitor’s web analytics tool, you can easily view where they rank for certain terms.
How does your digital marketing strategy compare?
Now it’s time to dive deep into your own business. Take a look at your current strategies and evaluate whether they’re working. You may need to tweak things here and there, but don’t get discouraged! It takes time to build a successful digital marketing strategy.
Remember: The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it. So take advantage of your competitors and build a digital marketing strategy that beats them!
Do you think you need to change anything about your current approach? Need help to set up your digital marketing strategy? Get connected with us on Instagram or book a call!