People often look at their competition as the enemy, someone to be feared. When in fact, your competition is a valuable resource.
By analyzing the competition you can determine their strengths as well as their weaknesses which helps you identify opportunities.
Don’t feel threatened by your competitors, leverage their weaknesses to help you compete more effectively.
One important thing having competitors tells is that you are in a niche or a field that makes money.
Secondly, the internet has opened a whole new world to finding out exactly who our competitors are, what they are doing, what keywords they use to attract their market, what their sites look like, what marketing methods or strategies they use and how they use them.
That’s exciting and valuable information! What can we find out from our competitors?
- What do they use to bring in customers? For example how good is the content? Do they use ads, free stuff, etc?
- How do their websites look? How well is it designed? Is it a site that impresses you?
- How long have they been in business?
- Where are they on the Internet? For example, social marketing, other websites, etc.
- What specific niches are they in?
- How are they finding leads? With newsletter, squeeze pages, etc.
There are many ways to attract customers and if you are just getting started, finding out how the competition markets their products gives you a big jump on where to start with your business. It’s about looking at what’s right in front of you.
Keep your eyes open for businesses that recognize their top sellers.
One of the products I promote just recently ran a contest on new product promotion. When the contest was over the affiliate manager posted the names of the top 20 sellers. When I researched each seller in the list, I got tons of good information about how they sell, where they sell and what methods they use. This is where you get ideas!
Check out company websites and look for lists of top consultants, they often post gross sales on a monthly basis. If they have been interviewed, read about them for helpful tips on how they find customer traffic.
Use your competitors to help you rank higher in the search engines
Each page of your website is a sales page for your business. You can also use your competitors to help each of your pages rank better. Good keyword research and keyword competition analysis can help you evaluate the web pages that rank well in the search engines and giving you the means by which to out rank them.
Keep up with new and current information
Keeping your website updated with new content is a must if you want repeat traffic. People won’t come back if you publish the same stuff everyone else has. You don’t have to write the content yourself – you can outsource it, there are plenty of writers looking for your business.
Google your competitors
One way to evaluate marketing techniques for a competitor is to Google them. Use Google Alerts to find out what articles are being written and what sites feature them.
If they are using content it will be ranked. If they have written articles for other sites or have used keywords to set up the pages on their website that will be shown as well. Articles that mention their name will also pop up, like an article about the top movers and shakers on the Internet. You’ll want to investigate and get in on their secrets.
The bottom line is to know who your real competitors are and what they are doing. If you want to be able to stay in the game, it is essential. Rest assured they will be looking at you.
