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A Sneak Peek Behind Competitors’ Curtains

BY DEBORAH DAILY, OWNER, BUCKAROO MARKETING

Have you ever wished you could take a surreptitious peek into your competitors’ operations or decision-making processes? What if I told you that it may be easier than you think?

First, there’s the low-tech insight you may gather by analyzing the elements of your competitors’ online presence. You’ve probably glanced at their websites, skimmed their blog posts and tried to keep an eye on their social media profiles. But have you really taken the time to analytically review this information? Have you read it word for word to see what you might be able to glean from the presented information?

For example, you might discover their materials emphasize benefits your products also deliver but you don’t promote. If they make a strong case for those benefits, the question to ask is why. We all like to think we’re smarter than our competitors, but it’s safe to assume that they may know some things we don’t.

For instance, you may refer to a particular attachment for your product as a “mixer,” but a review of your key competitors’ sites reveal they call the same type of product a “blender.” Are they operating out of ignorance, or do they know something you don’t? Could it be that a large portion of your customer base also calls this item a “blender” and you’re the one who’s out of step?

Or maybe you’ll discover the competition is targeting a market segment you haven’t considered. This may present an opportunity for you to grow your market share.

Also examining the keywords they’re using, how they rank on search engines and how they’re investing in pay-per-click strategies may provide as much insight as stealing a copy of their strategic plans.

Take keywords, for example. You can identify the keywords your competition believes are the most important to see whether you’re using the same keywords. You can examine how Google ranks every page of a competitor’s website for specific keywords and you can compare how your web pages rank. If they consistently outrank you, it pays to discover why. Don’t just look at the obvious choices, try to think like a prospective customer and examine search strings that customers may have entered. Let’s go back to your choice of the word “mixer” and your competitors’ use of “blender.” You can compare the actual number of clicks each of those terms has received over the past six months. By looking at other terms your competitors have assigned as a high priority, you may discover you need to weave those words throughout your content.

It’s also important to understand how search engines operate and how they compare to actual humans. We know humans react well to visuals, but Google doesn’t assign any weight to the images, so you need to make sure to use verbiage and tags when describing the photos. Instead of doing what may seem logical, you must play the game according to the preferences of the search engines.

When you discover additional keywords and other terms that perform well for your competitors, it demonstrates the words that your prospective customers are using, so you should weave those words into your blog posts, newsletters, email marketing efforts and even your offline brochures and sell sheets. Data may tell you a lot about marketplace behavior and trends if you know how to correctly analyze it.

A little research may pay off handsomely, especially when you can do it without being noticed. And have you ever wondered whether your competitors have been smart enough to do the same to you?

“By looking at other terms your competitors have assigned as a high priority, you may discover you need to weave those words throughout your content.”

— DEBORAH DAILY

Test, Learn, Evolve

Social media moves quickly. Trends, platforms and use cases are constantly changing. Here are some of the ways that consumer expectations have shifted. Consumers are more conscious with their screen time, especially as they find their footing in a post-pandemic world. Marketers have more channels to choose from, algorithms to untangle and audience preferences to rethink. Here are some of the ways in which we can reflect and reorient to the everevolving social media landscape.

■ Your brand is in constant competition for consumers’ attention— online and offline. Savvy marketers need to understand where their audience is going and what they’re looking for when they get there. ■ Consumers find short-form videos 2.5 times more engaging than long-form videos. ■ Seventy-four percent of consumers think the publishing sweet spot for brands is one to two posts per day. ■ The most engaging types of in-feed social content (in order of importance): short-form video, images, live video, GIFs/memes, text-based posts and user-generated content. ■ Types of content consumers like to see from brands they follow on social media (in order of importance): posts highlighting their product or service; customer testimonials or real customer demos; posts highlighting the brand’s personality; authentic, less-produced videos; and contests and/or promotions. “Today’s consumers seek authenticity, and a super-polished or overly stylized piece of content isn’t it. A produced video is essentially your opinion—and consumers aren’t interested in your opinion,” said Jenny Li Fowler, director of social media strategy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “They want to hear what other people think of your brand and/or product. Who better to serve as brand ambassadors than people who love your brand so much that they create content for their personal channels bragging about you?” V

Source: 9th Annual Trend Forecasting Report, on U.S. Social Media Trends For 2022 & Beyond, Sprout Social

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