Watching for a Competitive Edge

You don’t have to be a spy to know that it’s important to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. In fact, paying attention to your competition’s online marketing techniques can often spur your own thinking to come up with better, more effective ways to promote your business. By understanding what your competitors are doing with their marketing strategies, you can develop a more targeted, effective online marketing plan that can help your business gain a competitive edge.

First Things First
The first thing you must remember is that monitoring your competitors’ marketing techniques is NOT the same thing as actually spying on your competitors, engaging in corporate espionage, or anything that could be considered unethical. Stick with the information that is easily and publicly available to anyone, and don’t be tempted to use any unscrupulous methods – ever.

In the Public Eye
The good news is that you don’t have to resort to such tactics anyway. There are many useful public resources available that can give you plenty of detail about what the competition is doing. Once you have this information, you can evaluate the methods being used by your competitors and decide where to concentrate your own marketing efforts. Some of the types of information publicly available include:

• Company web site– visit the web sites of your top competitors. How does the design and professionalism of each site compare with your own site? Do the sites use current web technology such as a blogs, RSS, or web video? Or are they stuck in the past with outdated elements like Frames or Flash animation?
• Meta data – does the site correctly use meta tags and data? Do the title tags and description tags include targeted keywords? Can you see the keywords used in the visible text on the home page?
• Search engine rankings – do a Google search for a few of the keywords that you currently target in your own web marketing. Who comes up in the top five listings? Does your site display ahead of your competitors, or even show up at all? What page do you land on if you click on a competitor’s link
• Online advertising – what types of online promotion do they use? Do they use Google click ads? Are they listed on related sites or quoted as industry authorities? Do they publish articles or send out press releases? All of these techniques are great inbound link builders as well.
• Inbound Links – go to Google and type in “link:www.competitorwebsite.com” (no quotes) where “competitorwebsite.com” is the actual address of your competitor’s web site. This will display a list of web sites that contain inbound links to your competitor’s site. However, Google only gives you a partial listing of inbound links, but it can still be helpful to see where some of these inbound links are coming from.

Keep It Up
By evaluating the techniques that your competitors are using, you can make sure you have coverage in the same areas as they do. You may even be inspired to try some new ideas and techniques that you hadn’t thought of before. Implement the methods that make sense for your business, and make sure that you test and measure your results. With so much information publicly available, it makes sense to watch what your competition is doing so you can make sure your business always stays a step ahead.