Webinar Recording: How to Build a Competitive Analysis for Your Business

August 13, 2018 // by Luke Middendorf

Webinar Intro:

The content below is an excerpt from the webinar posted above. In the webinar, we compared two different Montessori schools so that we could provide a clear example of how we start to build a competitive analysis.

How to Build a Competitive Analysis for Your Business

The goal of a competitive analysis is to identify your competitors’ weaknesses and strengths to see how your business compares to theirs. This will show you the areas in your digital marketing strategy that need improvement, which can help you reshape your strategy to stay ahead of the competition.

Our competitive analysis process is fairly in-depth, so instead of walking you through the entire process, we’ll go over the most important elements with which you can get started right away.

Our Competitive Analysis Process

When working with a client, the first thing we do is schedule a discovery call. This helps us to understand their business, their target markets, and their goals for growth. From there, we gather data about the client and their competitors. Once we complete the template, we conduct a data analysis to identify areas of opportunity and present our key recommendations to the client.

A competitive analysis includes two types of deliverables:

an Excel spreadsheet containing the raw data, and
a PowerPoint presentation with the key findings.

You can see a detailed example of the Excel spreadsheet and the PowerPoint presentation in the above video. The Excel template is available upon request.

The Core Areas of a Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis consists of seven core areas:

Market opportunity
Website trust signals
Reputation management
SEO performance
Paid search
Other digital marketing strategies
Website technical performance

Evaluating market opportunity involves using search terms and keyword ranking to identify the client’s potential in the market compared to their competitors.

After identifying their market opportunity, our first priority is to identify each company’s website trust signals and determine areas of improvement for the client. This involves going through a list of key points and seeing how many of them are present on the client’s website (see the above video for a detailed example).

From there, we compare the reputation management strategies of the client and their competitors on sites such as Google My Business, Facebook, and Yelp. We also look at various factors of the companies’ SEO performance to see how well their websites rank in search engines like Google or Bing, as well as how much they invest in paid search per month.

Other digital marketing strategies we evaluate in a competitive analysis include email marketing, social media marketing, display advertising, and remarketing. And finally, we evaluate the client’s website technical performance: average load time, utilization of Google AMP, CDN, etc. Note that these last two areas are generally for analyzing companies in highly competitive industries, so they may not be necessary for a competitive analysis of your business.

By building a competitive analysis for your business, you’ll be able to compare your company to your competitors and identify core areas of improvement in your digital marketing strategy. Get started with this tool today to stay ahead of the game!

Need help building a competitive analysis for your business? Watch the webinar video above for a detailed walkthrough of our process, and learn more about our Digital Marketing Competitive Analysis service!

5 Free Competitive Research Tools (my favorites)

July 11, 2018 // by Luke Middendorf

Competitive marketing research is more than studying your competitors’ websites and their social media pages. You must also uncover the threat your competitors pose to your financial wellbeing and identify ways you can enhance the customer experience.

Competitive research begins with a growth mindset and the right tools

To fill in the missing pieces in a competitor’s marketing strategy, leverage the power of a competitive analysis. The right tools take the guesswork out of your assessment.

Keep in mind, tools only play a small role in a complete competitive analysis. It’s still critical to visit each website and determine the key strengths and weaknesses. Look for trust signals and conversion paths.

It’s also important to note that the tools below only provide data. It’s up to you to determine how to interpret and use the data to create actionable strategies to out-class your toughest competitors.

Building a useful competitive analysis

We’ll use our client, Mike’s Auto Body (https://mikesautobody.com/), to illustrate how to use each tool.

First, to set up a competitive analysis, create an Excel document to track how your metrics and observations compare to those of your competitors.

5 Free Competitive Research Tools (my favorites)

1. I Search From (http://isearchfrom.com/)

This tool allows us to replicate a Google search from a specific city. In this example, we are simulating a search from Walnut Creek, CA for the keyword “auto body shop near me.”.

Below you can see what a simulated search looks like. Take the time to note where your website ranks in relation to where your competitors rank. Are you dominating the search results or is it likely that the majority of the leads are going to your top competitors?

2. Website Grader by HubSpot (https://website.grader.com/)

This tool provides a simplified overview of some of the important website elements. It only covers each topic at a very high level. For example, the SEO test only shows the most basic SEO fundamentals. Thus a perfect SEO score doesn’t indicate a comprehensive SEO strategy is in place.

3. Spyfu (https://www.spyfu.com/)

Now that we understand who our toughest competitors are in Google’s search results, we can analyze their search engine marketing focus using SpyFu. This will help us understand what keywords they are focusing on; and, how much priority they are putting on Google organic search vs. Google paid search.

We can also see which keywords they’ve done a good job optimizing and how many searches they get based on those efforts.

Play close attention to non-branded keywords that show buying intent (e.g. auto body shop near me). These are the most valuable because they are likely to convert into paying customers. How do your keywords compare to those of your competitors? Who ranks the highest for the non-branded keywords that show buying intent?

4. Moz Link Explorer (https://analytics.moz.com/pro/link-explorer/)

After using SkyFu to understand which keywords you competitors are ranking for, Moz Link Explorer can help you understand a few of the components that help them rank well. One of the biggest external influences are the number of other websites that link to your website. Moz identifies these websites, and based on their authority, it calculates the authority of your website. Although authority is not the only factor that influences rankings, generally the more authority your site has, compared to your top competitors, the better.

A significant difference between competitors is +/- 10. A competitor with a domain authority of 28 is performing substantially better than a competitor with a domain authority of 18. If you are deficient in this area and are struggling to compete well in Google searches, you need to bring in an expert to help.

5. Moz Local (https://moz.com/local)

Local directories, citations, and data aggregators play a key role in how well a local business ranks in the local organic results. This is the three listings that shows up in a local search below a small map (also referred to as the local pack, three pack, or snack pack). Moz Local shows where you or your competitors have complete profiles. If both you and your competitors have a score, above 80%, you will need additional analysis to help understand how you can out-compete them for local searches. It’s necessary to run this test for each individual location.

Important note: None of these tools provide an effective way to analyze on-page SEO, which is by far the most important, and easy to fix, element of SEO. For more information about on-page SEO please see our blog, Essential On-Page SEO Techniques.

Other Free Competitive Analysis Tools I Like

Ubersuggest – This is a tool that Neil Patel acquired and is now available on his website. It’s not a competitive analysis tool. I’ve included it because it is a very helpful tool for identifying keywords that you need to rank for on Google. Just type in a keyword and it will give you a list of suggested keywords. Find the ones with buying intent and check those on I Search From as well. I recommend sorting by the largest search volume.
SEMrush – The first step in your competitive analysis is actually finding your true competitors. Just because a brand offers a similar product as you doesn’t mean they are your true competitor. SEM Rush is a great online tool that lets you see which sites are ranking for keywords that are relevant to your business. With SEM Rush you gain insights into your competitor’s website traffic, where the traffic is coming from, and how you stack up against the others.
BuiltWith – Ever wonder how your competitors were able to implement that fun widget or feature on their site? With Builtwith you may be able to find out. Enter your competitors URL to gain a wealth of information including website services, analytics tools, and advertising networks. BuiltWith isn’t just used to look at your competitors, you can also gain insight into your existing leads technology usage.
Buzzsumo – With Buzzsumo you can see which brands are ranking highly for the content topics that are relevant to your brand. Buzzsumo shows the engagements of blog posts and other content types to show you what’s performing well and what isn’t. You can use that knowledge to build your content marketing around topics that are resonating well with your audience. You also identify the top influencers in your industry and reach out to them for guest posting and influencer marketing.
Similarweb – This shows you how many unique visitors your competitor’s websites are generating each month and which channels that traffic is coming from. If your competitor’s traffic is coming from social media, for instance, then you know you can either beef up your social presence to attract a chunk of that traffic; or, you can focus heavily on SEO to gain an untapped share of the market.

Conclusion

Performing a marketing competitive analysis is an essential part of developing a highly effective marketing strategy. Remember, these tools just provide the data. To make the data valuable, it must be interpreted and developed into a clear, actionable marketing strategy.

WSI Connect Chosen to Help Auburn Storage Company

August 8, 2015 // by Luke Middendorf

Copper Knoll Mini Storage in Auburn, California, offers great value for all one’s storage needs. With over 20 different sized storage units, consumers are certain to find the right space. Copper Knoll even offers boat storage and is a convenient location to store a boat en route to Lake Tahoe.

WSI first performed keyword research and competitive analysis, focusing on terms such as public storage, storage units, Auburn storage company, and self storage. These keywords will be used to create great content and generate more business for Copper Knoll. First, WSI will create a profile for Copper Knoll Self Storage on sites like Google+, Facebook and Twitter. Also, WSI will generate directory listings for Copper Knoll on sites like Yahoo and Bing. All these things will work together to enhance Copper Knoll Self Storage’s reputation on the web.

WSI will create a new website for Copper Knoll Self Storage using WordPress. The responsive website will include newly created pages with content that has been optimized for SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) SEO will be based on the keyword research and competitive analysis initially completed. The content will be shared on a variety of social media and third-party sites to maximize its reach.

WSI will create accounts for Copper Knoll Mini Storage on Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools so that they can effectively monitor website traffic and performance. Close monitoring will allow WSI to make any necessary changes to Copper Knoll’s marketing strategy in a timely manner.

WSI expects their efforts will make swift and efficient improvement in Copper Knoll’s web presence.

Marketing Competition Analysis – Standing Out From Your Competitors

January 17, 2013 // by Luke Middendorf

Today, when it comes to the Internet, understanding your competition through a marketing competition analysis has become crucial. Just several years ago, the Internet was a diversion full of entertainment, fun, and confusion for most people. While that of course is still true today, there is one major addition that needs to be understood: the Internet has literally blossomed overnight when it comes to highlighting and showcasing businesses, and functioning as a platform to attract customers and clients.

Because of that, the ability and desire to gain new customers and clients over the Internet, and attract customers from search engines and social media sites has become extremely competitive. You may not see it or feel it, but your competitors are working just as hard as you, if not harder, to gain prospects and customers on the Internet.

For your business, no matter the industry, it’s necessary that you do the same when it comes to standing out from the crowd and showcasing yourself online so that customers and new prospects can find you with ease.

Crowded Marketplaces Mean Less Opportunity To Stand Out

As the Internet in general becomes more crowded and chaotic with businesses offering incentives and advertisements at every turn, it becomes more important than ever to stand out from the crowd and attract customers with your products and services. Otherwise you risk having your business being lost in the flood of countless other businesses just like yours.

Leverage a competition analysis to understand what your competitors are doing with everything from search engine optimization, to social media accounts so that you can differentiate and stand out. No matter what the industry, you have to bring your ‘A’ game online, lest you be bested right out of a job.

Online Presence Equals Offline Dollars

Being online doesn’t just mean getting people to follow you on Twitter, or having people check out your blog. Sure, that’s important, and they can lead to offline conversions and results. A strong online presence that puts you out ahead of your competitors can directly and swiftly lead to offline dollars and profits for your business.

As more and more people go digital when they are searching for products and services, and a greater number of people work to review and purchase products or services online, it’s critical that you get out there and have a lasting, visible presence on the Internet where customers can come directly to you. This, in turn, will rapidly improve your business while dramatically cutting a variety of your costs.

Need help with your marketing competition analysis? WSI Connect has the expertise that you need. Contact us today to learn more.