Competitor analysis is one of the most critical steps to creating an effective digital marketing strategy. It provides insight into what’s working in your industry, what gaps exist, and how you can differentiate your business from others. By analysing the digital marketing efforts of your competitors, you can identify opportunities to improve your strategy, engage your target audience more effectively, and ultimately, increase your market share.
In this guide, we’ll explore how businesses can audit their own social media presence, analyse competitors’ digital marketing assets, and use these insights to enhance their overall strategy. Whether you’re a small business or a growing brand, this process will help you build a more robust digital presence.
What is Competitor Analysis?
Competitor analysis involves the systematic research and evaluation of your competitors’ strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. This process encompasses various aspects, including their social media presence, website performance, and content strategy. By gaining insights into these elements, you can effectively benchmark your business against the competition and identify valuable opportunities for improvement.
Why Is Competitor Research Important?
Conducting competitor research helps you stay ahead of market trends, discover what resonates with your target audience, and refine your digital marketing strategy. The key benefits include:
- Identifying gaps in the market that your competitors are missing.
- Learning from their successes and avoiding their mistakes.
- Understanding the needs and preferences of your target audience through indirect means.
- Improving your own social media engagement, SEO efforts, and overall content performance.
Step 1: Auditing Your Own Social Media Presence
Before diving into your competitors’ strategies, it’s essential to audit your own social media presence. Without a clear understanding of your current standing, it’s impossible to create a baseline for comparison. Here’s how to conduct an effective audit:
Assess Your Current Market Position
Begin by assessing your current position in the market. This involves reviewing your business goals, target audience, and value proposition. Ask yourself:
- Who are you aiming to reach, and have you created comprehensive audience profiles?
- What portion of the market do you occupy, and how does your online visibility demonstrate that?
- Are your digital marketing initiatives successfully aligning with your current business objectives?
Culminating personas specific to each audience results in a better understanding of how to tailor your content to meet their needs. Including factors such as age, gender, interests, digital behaviours and pain points will help to compare your performance to competitors targeting similar demographics.
SWOT Analysis of Your Social Media Content
Conduct a SWOT analysis of your own social media presence to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Evaluate the following:
- Strengths: Which types of content generate the highest engagement on your social media channels? Which platforms yield the most interaction?
- Weaknesses: Are there specific areas where your content is not receiving much engagement? Do you maintain a regular posting schedule?
- Opportunities: Are there emerging trends or content formats that you have not yet tried but could consider?
- Threats: Are your competitors achieving better results than you in terms of engagement, reach, or follower count?
By conducting a SWOT analysis, you can determine what’s working in your strategy and what needs improvement.
Step 2: Analysing Your Competitors’ Social Media
Once you’ve completed a self-audit, the next step is to analyse your competitors’ social media presence. This involves assessing how they engage with their audience, the type of content they post, and the overall effectiveness of their strategy.
Use Tools for Competitor Analysis
Several tools can help streamline your competitor research process:
- Ubersuggest: This tool provides valuable insights into your competitors’ website traffic, trending content, and keyword research. It allows you to monitor the keywords they rank for and discover gaps in your own content strategy.
- Sprout Social: This is a real-time social media search and analysis tool. You can track rich data points across various channels, utilising their suite of competitive reports to benchmark your content against competitors.
- Keywords Everywhere: This browser extension helps you uncover competitive keyword research data. It shows you the keywords your competitors are focusing on, which can inform your SEO strategies.
By leveraging these tools, you can analyse what’s working for your competitors and identify strategies they may be missing.
Analyse Their Content and Engagement
When reviewing your competitors’ social media, pay attention to their content strategy. Look at the following elements:
- Posting Frequency: How regularly do your competitors share content on their social media channels? Are they posting more or less often compared to you?
- Content Variety: What types of content do they share—videos, images, blog links, or user-generated material? Which content types attract the highest engagement?
- Engagement Metrics: What is the level of likes, comments, and shares on their posts? How promptly do they reply to comments?
Take note of the channels your competitors are most active on, as this may indicate where your target audience is most active.
Step 3: Analysing Your Competitors’ Websites and Other Digital Marketing Assets
Beyond social media, your competitor’s websites and other digital marketing assets, such as email marketing campaigns and blog posts, can offer valuable insights.
Perform a Website Audit
Take a deep dive into your competitors’ websites and assess the following:
- SEO Approach: What keywords are they focusing on, and in what ways are they enhancing their content for search engines? Tools such as Ubersuggest can assist you in identifying these keywords and deciding which ones to pursue.
- User Experience: Is their website user-friendly? Are they implementing clear calls-to-action (CTAs)? A well-structured website that provides an easy navigation experience can serve as a significant competitive edge.
- Content Approach: Examine the kinds of content they produce. Do they maintain a blog, and how frequently do they update it? Are they utilizing lead magnets like eBooks or webinars to attract potential leads?
By examining their website, you can determine what aspects of their digital marketing strategy are helping them stand out and which areas may be underperforming.
Competitive Keyword Research
Keyword research is essential to understand which keywords your competitors are ranking for, allowing opportunities for new SEO strategies to be developed.
- Use Keywords Everywhere to discover relevant keywords your competitors are targeting, but that you may have missed.
- Use Ubersuggest to track their traffic for those keywords and how difficult it would be to compete for those rankings.
By analysing your competitors’ SEO strategies, you can refine your keyword strategy, optimize your content, and improve your search engine rankings.
Step 4: Using Competitor Insights to Improve Your Digital Marketing Strategy
After conducting a thorough competitor analysis, it’s time to use your findings to improve your digital marketing strategy. Here’s how:
Identify Content Gaps
Examining what type of content your competitors are focusing on can help to identify gaps in your strategy, and guide what content format diversification is required to fill the gap and effectively compete for your audience’s attention.
Refine Your Audience Targeting
Competitor analysis can reveal important insights about your shared target audience. Are your competitors engaging with a slightly different demographic? Are there audience segments you haven’t yet tapped into?
Optimize Your SEO and Social Media Strategy
Gaining insights regarding competitor’s keywords, content strategy and social media activity can help to refine your SEO approach and improve social media engagement. Put your unique brand spin on the best practices you have discovered from your competitor research.
Conclusion
Competitor analysis allows you to uncover opportunities for development and improvement within your online presence. Utilising tools such as Ubersuggest and Keywords Everywhere can help analyse your competitor’s digital marketing assets and use these as inspirational to fill gaps within your strategy.
As you refine your strategy, you’ll be better equipped to connect with your audience, increase engagement, and ultimately boost your ROI. Remember, in the ever-evolving digital landscape, staying ahead of the competition requires constant monitoring and adaptation.
Need more help developing your digital marketing strategy? Contact ProfileTree today to find out how developing a digital marketing strategy can elevate your business!