Taking steps to analyse your competition is an important part of running any type of business. It’s a good idea for an online business and thanks to technology, it’s something you can do quite easily.
We’re not talking corporate espionage here, but keeping your eye on the public image and public goings on with your biggest competitors will help you in many ways with your online business.
How often do you think Pepsi analyses Coke and vice versa? Constantly! Continuously keeping your eyes on your competition is a wise move in internet marketing.
Why Analyse Your Competition?
While you can’t peek in and figure out what they’re going to do before they do it, you can be well-aware of their moves as they happen. Analyse your competition closely, whether they’re a major player and you’re a small guy or if your businesses are a similar type and size. So, what can you learn from analysing your competition…
• See what they do right.
• See what they do wrong.
• Keep on top of industry news.
• See what’s coming.
You don’t have to ‘spy’ on your competition, really. There are plenty of tools to help you see what they’re putting out there. Doing so on an incognito basis, perhaps with a secondary account rather than as your brand, is probably a good idea – at least on social media sites.
• Follow them on Twitter.
• Subscribe to their newsletter.
• Check out their website statistics with tools that analyse sites that are not your own.
• Gather business intelligence through search engines and tools like Alexa.
• Subscribe to their blog.
• Set a Google alert for their name.
See what they do right so you know what you’re up against. See when they do things that could be improved on so you can set your own brand as head and shoulders above them. Figure out what keywords they’re focusing on for SEO and try to figure out how they’re approaching SEM and SEO so you can try to de-throne them if they’re in the top spot.
Knowing their weaknesses gives you an opportunity to build your own strengths. Pay attention to promotions, product launches, and new product developments as well.
Spending time to analyse your competition is an important part of both proactive and of reactive marketing and keeping your eye on competitors will help you dramatically. And…they’re probably doing this to you as well, so keep your eye on the prize because your competitors are very likely watching what you’re doing as well.
Have a most outstanding day.
Sean RasmussenAussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2010
