Are you taking the time to research the competition? Do you know whether or not prospects and customers can tell the difference between you and others in your space? You know how great your product or service versus what the competition provides. Make sure you demonstrate that difference in your content marketing.
Below, we’ve assembled several different resources from around the web to help you learn more about how to research the competition. Check them out below.
Articles on Competitive Analysis, Research, and Differentiation
How to Differentiate Your Company From Competitors | PRNewser
Did you know that 86 percent of B2B buyers perceive no significant difference between products from competing companies? Not great news. Check out this article by Wendy Marx to learn ways to use storytelling to help differentiate your B2B brand from the competition.
14 Advanced SEO Tactics That Your Competition Doesn’t Know About
Neil Patel shares 14 advanced SEO tactics that your competitors either don’t know or that they are ignoring because they’ve bought into the myth that SEO is dead or dying. Check out his recommendations.
Discover Where Your Competitors Are Beating You Online
This post from Scott Lambert on the Hubspot blog takes a concept you’re already familiar with — the SWOT analysis — and explains how to use it to measure your online presence against the competition.
How to Use Competitive Analysis to Build a Content Strategy – ClearVoice
Sid Bharath lays out the critical areas to analyze when studying your competition’s online strategies. While you don’t want to copy what they are doing, you do need to understand it and find a way to stand out in comparison in the minds of your target audience.
3 Sources for Competitive Market Analysis to Fuel B2B Marketing | VentureFizz3
Natalie Nathanson outlines the critical need for market intelligence and awareness of your competitors. While a competitive market analysis may sound time, labor, and budget intensive, Natalie describes some cost-effective and time-efficient research tactics that work for small and mid-sized businesses.
Competitive Content Analysis: 17 Ways to Beat the Competition
Andy Crestodina’s article gives content marketers a glimpse at 17 different ways to beat the competition. He covers six key inbound marketing areas to dig into: content, traffic, search optimization, social media, email marketing and advanced content strategies.
Tools to Research the Competition
Google Alerts – Monitor the Web for interesting new content
With Google Alerts, you can monitor your competition’s latest updates and news.
Open Site Explorer: Link Research & Backlink Checker | Moz
Open Site Explorer from Moz lets you research the competition and their inbound links. Use this information to help you find guest blogging and linking opportunities with relevant, high-authority sites.
SimilarWeb – Digital Market Intelligence & Website Traffic
SimilarWeb helps you research the competition’s website traffic. Even with the free plan, you can see overview information about your competitors’ sites.
Real Time Search – Social Mention
Want to know what your competitors are up to on social media? Monitor some of their posts and mentions with Social Mention.
SEMrush – service for competitors research, shows organic and Ads keywords for any site or domain
SEMRush can give you information about your competitor’s keywords, ranking, and more.
Learn More About Competitive Research and Other Content Marketing Fundamentals
Check out our ebook, Fundamentals of a Strong Content Marketing Strategy to find out more about competitive research and more!
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