Amazon is doing it. Google is doing it. Even Pepsi is doing it. So why aren’t you?
In today’s business world, it’s not enough to focus on what you’re doing. You also need to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing so that you can respond if they suddenly take unexpected action.
In this post, we take a look at some of the strategies you can use to spy on your rivals and gain competitive advantage. If you feel bad about it, just remind yourself that they’re doing the same to you.
Subscribe To Their Blog And Newsletters
Subscribing to your rivals’ blogs and newsletters is one of the best ways to learn more about their content strategy and how they’re trying to beat you in the marketplace. You’ll often discover various patterns and tricks they’re using to entice customers and get them to buy from you and not them.
What’s more, being able to see what competitors are doing can also help spark creative ideas in your mind. You might not have thought about specific topics that they decide to cover.
Track Links
You can also get an edge on the competition through link tracking. The idea here is pretty simple: you use an online link tracking tool to see how your competitors are using SEO. Many will be purely organic. That is, they will have to wait for other sites to link to theirs after producing compelling content. But others will be paying for links. Doing the analysis tells you how they are succeeding.
Watch Their Activities On Social Media
Social media is another great place to keep track of what firms in your industry are doing. Agencies, like BrandTotal, have vast experience in this area. The idea is to simply analyse competitor data and then use those insights to form an outreach strategy for your company.
Many platforms allow you to track the activities of your competitors directly. The best way to do this is to simply sign up and subscribe to their accounts and monitor what they do.
Use Google Alerts
If you’re still struggling to keep track of what your competitors are doing, you can use tools like Google alerts. These are free to set up and will tell you whenever anyone uses a particular keyword, straight to your inbox.
Look At Their Most Engaging Content
Instead of just copying your rivals’ content strategy, allow them to figure out what works and what doesn’t first, and then just copy.
For instance, take a look at the content they’ve produced with the most likes and shares. See what is engaging users the most and then try to figure out why by reading the comments or just reading the article yourself.
Find Out Which Keywords They Are Targeting
Lastly, use online tools to discover which keywords your rivals are targeting. Often, you’ll discover that they’re targeting keywords you never expected. If they are, ask yourself why. Are consumers using those keywords instead of the ones that you’re targeting? If so, why?