Marketing Strategies And Examples Of Competitor Analysis From Semalt
This is the basis of all SEO and must be done professionally. So, it is important to know that this analysis must be done with a proper SEO tool so that you have accurate information about your client's site and that of its competitors.
In this guide, we will shed light on how you can proceed to make a good analysis and the right tool to get real information.
How to do a proper competitor analysis
Get to know anyone whose business is close or similar to your client's, and then conduct a competitive analysis.
This analysis is completely legal since you only collect a small amount of information that is publicly available. You can use a search engine like Google to find information about each of your competitors' companies. Nevertheless, to go faster and have real information, use a referencing tool. The following are examples and steps for conducting a competitor analysis that you can see.
1. Know your competitors, what are they like?
The first thing to do is to first identify the type of your competitors.
These competitors include businesses that are or not similar to yours and could prevent potential customers from choosing you. Here are two types of competitors you need to know.
- Direct competitors
Direct competitors are businesses that have the same product or service offering. For example, if you are an insurance company, then your direct competitor is another insurance company.
Accurate information about direct competitors will make it easier for you to show the advantages of your product.
- Indirect competitors
Indirect competitors are those who do not offer the same services but meet the same needs in alternative ways. For example, the company you are in is a bank.
So, your indirect competitor is a company that offers online payment services. They will offer the convenience of financial services, especially online payments that many people are interested in using.
Information about indirect competitors will help you find effective ways to be at the forefront of your field.
After you know who could be your competitors, try to collect the top 10 companies. 'Top' here means either: in terms of technology, number of users, or number of sales. In addition, you also determine who your competitors are by searching on Google for the type of product that is similar to your business.
In addition to Google search, you should also use other tools to make sure you have the right information. For example, by using the Dedicated SEO Dashboard you can easily collect all the data you will need about your competitors, be it direct or indirect competitors.
Also, through this tool, you can get some of the company's data that you can use as analysis material. You can also see which traffic is contributing the most to the company or website.
2. Monitor your competitors' social media strategies
The next example of competitor analysis is about looking at how competitors use their social media.
Social media has become one of the most important marketing tools today. It helps to increase brand awareness, customer engagement, website traffic, and even conversions from sales.
Monitoring competitors' social media can help you a lot when developing a competitive strategy. Get as much detail as possible, such as the types of social media they use, the types of content provided, the involvement of customers on competitors' social media.
With this information, you can formulate the best strategy on your social media to attract new potential customers.
3. Analyze how competitors are marketing the product
After knowing who your competitors are, the next step is to analyze the content they use to market their products or services.
One example of competitor analysis regarding the way they market their products is by looking at what kind of content they use. Is it just focusing on blog posts or other content such as eBooks, videos, podcasts, press releases, news, case studies, webinars, and so on.
By knowing what content they make, you can determine the quality of each content they have and compare it with yours. You can see what content is effective in your competitors but you don't have and what strategies they are using.
4. Pay attention to competitors' SEO structures
You also need to pay attention to the SEO structure used by competitors. Even more so if your competitors have blogs.
Examples of competitor analysis of the SEO structure used by competitors can be seen in the H1 tags, page titles, internal links, image alt text, and your competitors' blog URL structures. In addition, also pay attention to what keywords are used by them.
5. Analyze the level of engagement on competitor's content marketing
Maybe have you often heard about "engagement on content". Engagement can be a measure to determine whether competitor content marketing is working well.
Knowing the level of engagement is not that difficult. You only need to see the comments, the number of shares and likes that competitors get. After that, you need to analyze some of these things:
- What content gets the most engagement?
- How about the audience's comments, is it positive or negative?
- Which social media is the best in terms of content engagement?
Don't forget to see if your competitors include hashtags on their social media and buttons that will increase engagement.
Besides that, you can also find out whether your competitors have a community on their social media. After that, you can analyze how big the community you have and whether the members of that community are active enough.
6. Also analyze the paid marketing channels used by competitors
In carrying out marketing activities, your competitors may also do paid marketing. Namely, marketing activities that are carried out on a paid basis. Channels used can also be various, such as, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads or recruiting Key Opinion Leader (KOL).
To analyze these channels, you can visit Facebook Ad Library and Twitter Ads Transparency. Even though the data that will be obtained is quite limited, you can still get information in the form of what advertisements are being run by competitors and in what number.
7. Knowing the prices of competitors' products
The pricing strategy is an important aspect of business and is often an advantage. Therefore, the next competitor analysis strategy is to find out what prices are set by them and what customers need through these products. To set a fair price, you can do some identification with:
Identifying target customers, whether customers come from the low, middle or high economy. If they are from the upper class, it means there is no problem buying expensive products of good quality.
Knowing the costs needed to produce a product, don't let the product cost more than the selling price otherwise it means you lose.
Knowing the income target to be achieved
Keep in mind that products that are competitively priced are not too expensive and not too cheap but have better quality, sometimes preferred by buyers.
8. Perform a SWOT analysis
When doing a competitor analysis, make it a habit to do a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
You must note the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your competitors to get insights into designing competitive strategies.
Use a few questions as a guide, such as:
- What makes your competitors better (in terms of products, content marketing, social media, etc.).
- Where is the advantage of your competitors that you don't have?
- What are their weaknesses?
- What are you superior in?
- In what areas would you perceive this competitor as a threat?
- Are there opportunities in the market that your competitors have identified?
Now, after you take the steps to analyze competitors as above, it's time for you to see what sides you need to improve to be superior to your competitors.
Discover now the right tool you have to use to make such an analysis
So far we have detailed 8 paths to follow to make a good competitive analysis. As we all know, to accomplish such an important task in SEO, an adequate tool is essential. It is the only way that can allow you to work efficiently and very quickly. Using an SEO tool is not new for you. Nevertheless, I would like to draw your attention to one aspect. Do we agree that the requirements of Google 3 years ago or 5 years ago are not the same today?
The answer is an absolute yes and I don't think you will tell me otherwise. So, you should know that the requirements are increasing because the competition is increasing.
As all this is clear between you and me, let's talk about the tools.
Indeed, the SEO tools created 3 or 5 years ago were created according to the requirements of that time. Now, things have evolved a lot, and these tools can no longer cope with the current market requirements.
So, you need to get a modern tool that can meet the current market requirements.
So, how to do it?
Don't worry at all! Semalt's experts have already answered this question by developing an SEO tool called Dedicated SEO Dashboard. This tool combines efficiency, performance and speed and has been specifically designed to meet today's SEO requirements.
Let me explain this tool and also present three features of this tool. Then I'll let you discover the multitudes of features remaining afterwards.
What is the Dedicated SEO Dashboard?
The Dedicated SEO Dashboard (DSD) is a comprehensive web analytics and SEO auditing platform that can be run on your domain at zero cost. It will allow you to provide your clients with advanced analytics services under your brand. This is just a brief definition of this tool. Now let's go to discover 3 features among many others.
Google SERP Analysis
This feature included in the DSD allows you to show your customers the positions of their website in the Google SERP as well as the TOP pages and the keywords for which they rank. The particularity of this feature is that it has a great capacity to analyze competitors. It reveals the main competitors in the required niche in a short time. Moreover, it checks their traffic-generating keywords and gives you a clear idea of their promotion strategy.
Technical SEO audit
One of the competitive advantages of this wonderful tool is that you can perform a complete website analysis in it. With the DSD, you can perform everything from technical audit and speed test to plagiarism check. All this can be done in a matter of minutes. Your customers will love it!
SEO Reports
The Report Center tool is another unique feature of our dedicated SEO dashboard focused on innovation. With this feature, you can create report delivery schedules for each of your clients individually. The benefit of this tool for your business is undeniable as it allows you to provide your clients with full SEO reports with your logo and brand name.
Get a free 14-days trial
These three features presented are just a small part of the Dedicated SEO Dashboard. So, you have 14 free days to explore and familiarize yourself with this tool. Please note: during these 14 days, you will have all the benefits and features of the standard package.
Nevertheless, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask us! It will be a pleasure for us to help you!