For me, online marketing is like playing a computer game, you need to know not only your position but also your competitor’s position. I am not suggesting doing James Bond lever spying, it is just to know how they market their services and products online.
Who is your competitor?
For me, your competitor is a person or a company that is marketing products to the same audience as you.
Remember, I did not say the same product or services, I said the same audience, in my experience demographic, buys certain types of products, the idea is to figure out how the demographics respond to different types of ads and content.
Why You Should Spy Your Competitors
Seeing how your competitors are marketing themselves across social media, the web, and even search engines can give you great insights as to how they’re positioning themselves.
What they’re saying to their audiences, and who that audience is. It can also be a great starting point for one-upping their efforts and carving out your own piece of the pie.
How to do it:
- Follow them on social
Create dummy accounts (or use your own personal account) and follow competitors on social media. Sign up for their newsletters and blogs. Make note of the kind of content they’re sharing, how often, and what gets the most engagement. - Google them
Search for competitor names and common industry keywords on Google. What keywords are they using in their copy? Which competitors show up for specific keywords? And what do their landing pages look like? Also, be sure to keep an eye out for remarketing ads that follow you around the internet after. - Use SEMrush and Ahrefs to find out which keywords your competitors are bidding on—and which ones they aren’t. This can help you reach the coveted top position in Google (even if it is an ad).
- Interact with their content. This may sound wild but you need to build some kind of relationship with your competitors, you need to interact with their content, comment on their social media, Youtube, or blogs, you need to know everything they’re up to, especially if they have a larger audience than you.
Final words
That is it, now you know why you spy on your competitors. Spying on your competitors will give you a slight edge when it comes to marketing.
Also remember that if your competitors have a large audience than you, most of the time they will not have time to answer all questions on their platform, here is where you can go on and help your audience, and this audience will start to follow you.