Competitive Intelligence for Dummies Geniuses

Presented by:Hallie Janssen(@hallie_janssen)CEOAnvil Media, Inc.503.595.6050 ext 221hallie@anvilmediainc.com

About Anvil Media

Anvil Media, Inc. is a digital marketing agency specializing in search engine marketing services, including search engine optimization,  analytics, pay-per-click management,  online reputation management, mobile & social media marketing services.

Some of Our Clients

100% of account team Google AdWords & Analytics certified100% of account team published and spoken in the industryHigh client & employee retentionFounding member of SEMpdx trade associationSocial Media & PPC Training partner with OMI & WhartonExpertise in technology and entertainmentMajority of clients come from word-of-mouth and referralsAward winning: PBJ Fastest Growing, Inc 5,000, AMA MAX

Anvil Key Differentiators

Agenda

• What is Competitive Intelligence?

• Why is Competitive Intelligence Important?

• Who are my Competitors?

• Where is the Competition Active?

• How is Tactical Competitive Intelligence

Conducted?

• Resources & Q&A

What is Competitive Intelligence?

Competitive Intelligence-“An analysis of the online presence

and strategies of key competitors in order to better understand their

marketing objectives, competitive strengths & weaknesses, and areas of

opportunity.”

Definition

Factors InvolvedOnline

Competitive Intelligence

On Site

Paid Media Ads

Search Visibility

Social Media

Offline Competitive Intelligence

Traditional Ads

Pricing

Location

Product/Service Key

Differentiators

Factors Involved in Online Competitive Intelligence

On Site: Volume, Month-Over-Month Trends, On-Site

Engagement,

Conversion

Optimization,

Mobile Site

Search Visibility: Target Keywords, Link Profiles, Link Anchor

Text

Paid Media: Target Keywords,

Spend, Ad Creative, Channels

Social Media:

Profile Develop

ment, Fan Counts, Levels of Engagem

ent, Campaig

nsCompetitiv

e Intelligenc

e

Why is Competitive Intelligence Important?

• Complements any marketing strategy • Gives the decision support needed to move forward

with confidence and realize the true impact of marketing efforts

• Gives businesses insights to stay on top of the competition while enhancing their own marketing efforts for the future

Importance of Competitive Intelligence

Marketing Decisions

Comp.Intellig.

Marketin

g

Strategy

Who are my competitors?

“Old School” (Traditional) Advertisers

“New School” (Online) Advertisers

“Old School” “New School”

Marketing Channels

TV, Print, Radio, Direct Mail, Billboard, Store Display

Website, PPC, Display Ads, Social Sites, Review Sites, Coupon Sites, Forums, Blogs, Organic Search

Operating Budget

High – traditional types of advertising are costly

Flexible – with the right knowledge, making/maintaining a website and online presence can be much more affordable than traditional advertising

Distinguishing

Competition

Easy – marketing channels are limited, so finding competitors requires little effort.

Difficult – companies often think they know who their competitors are, but they actually might not be competing with them online, depending on the search results from various keywords.

“Old School” Advertiser vs. “New School” Advertiser

SEO Competitors

Wikipedia is occupying

SERP space.

Paid Search Competitors

Paid Search Competition.

Where is the Competition Active?

Where is the Competition Active

SocialFacebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Profile Development, Fan Counts, Campaigns, Levels of Engagement

On-Site

Traffic Volume, Month Over Month Trends, On-Site Engagement, Conversion Optimization, Mobile Site

Search

Visibility

Target keywords, Link Profiles, Link Anchor Text

Paid Media

Target Keywords, Spend, Ad Creative, Channels

How is Tactical Competitive Intelligence Conducted?

SOCIALFacebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+

Social: FacebookJaguar USA has a well developed, customized Facebook presence:• 124,000+ Fans• Videos• Video Chat• Frequent/Relevant Wall

Posts• Models page• Special offers

incentivizing Likes

Social: Facebook

Screen Shot 1.12.2012 Screen Shot 1.13.2012

Increase of 1,234

FacebookLikes in one

day!!

Social: Twitter

• Both Jaguar and Audi have very clean Twitter layouts that are visually pleasing

• Audi has more followers at 183,000 compared to Jaguar’s 17,000. Audi is also following 13,000 users compared to Jaguar following only 117

• Jaguar has limited their updates to only one per day compared to Audi’s average of 10 tweets per day

Social: YouTube

• Jaguar has the most carefully managed YouTube channel, with custom layout, easy navigation, and professional videos

• Surprisingly, BMW’s view totals and other metrics are much greater than any competitors.

Social: Google+

• Audi, BMW, Jaguar and Infiniti all have Google+ Business pages• Audi has the most +1’s at 2,510 compared to Jaguar’s 173 +1’s• The main find here is that they all have Google+ profiles. This is an

important factor as Google is starting integrate their own social network into their search results

ON-SITE

Traffic Volume, Engagement, Conversion Optimization, Mobile

On-Site: Traffic Volume

• BMW is the distinct winner for visitors, but Audi is keeping up and ever surpassed BMW in early 2011

• Jaguar has obviously been making a push since the end of 2011 and their efforts are paying off.

Tool Used: Compete

On-Site: Traffic Volume

Tool Used: Compete

On-Site: EngagementTraffic is only part of the story of the success of a website. Metrics such as length of average visit, visits/person, and pages/visit provide a more complete picture. (Top performers highlighted)

BMW

Infiniti

Jaguar

Audi

Tool Used: Compete

On-Site: Conversion Optimization

On-Site: Conversion Optimization

On-Site: Conversion Optimization

On-Site: Conversion Optimization

• How well a site converts can only be determined internally

• The important thing here is to review what your competitors are doing in this area and test something on your site if you think it will benefit your conversions

On-Site: Conversion Optimization

On-Site: Mobile

Mobile sites ensure more

users can access your

site.

Tool Used: Mobilizer

On-Site: Mobile

Nice use of images and navigation

optimized for mobile.

Tool Used: Mobilizer

On-Site: Mobile

Good call to action that

keeps mobile site interactive

and not just static.

Tool Used: Mobilizer

SEARCH VISIBILITYTarget Keywords, Link Profile, Link Anchor Text

Search Visibility: Target Keywords

• BMW currently ranks for 11,733 keywords and ranked for as many as 13,589 in November 2011

• Jaguar currently only ranks for 1,117 keywords• Knowing how many keywords and what keywords your competitors

rank for is important because their results occupy the Search Engine Results Page

Tool Used: SEM Rush

Search Visibility: Link Profile - Quantity

The most important factors in organic search engine ranking are the quantity and quality of inbound links to that domain or page.

Audi had dominated all categories.

Tool Used: SEO Moz – OpenSiteExplorer.org

Search Visibility: Link Profile - Quality

Looking closer at the quality of links:• Follow v. nofollow: “Followed” links explicitly allow search engine

spiders to follow them; and “nofollow” links, while still potentially valuable, do not provide the same SEO value.

• Internal v. external: While internal linking structure (links from page-to-page within the same domain) is important for helping spiders discover and understand the content of a site, external links (from other sites) provide much greater SEO value. Note Jaguar’s off-balance internal v. external profile.

Tool Used: SEO Moz – OpenSiteExplorer.org

Search Visibility: Link Anchor Text

Anchor TextNumber of Linking Root

Domains Containing Anchor Text

Number of Links Containing this Anchor

Textbmw 619 2797

bmwusa.com 303 72312

bmw usa 205 7904

www.bmwusa.com 197 593

bmw of north america 129 519

<i>[No Anchor Text]</i> 105 314

http://www.bmwusa.com 62 177

bmw north america 59 2886

bmw of north america inc 46 58

bmw of north america llc 42 1273

http://www.bmwusa.com/ 39 59

bmw 38 324

usa 20 1576

<i>[No Anchor Text]</i> 14 17

bmwusa 12 1394

bmw usa 10 46visit bmw usa bmw is the ultimate driving machine

9 1368

bmw north america llc bmw north america

7 12

bmws 6 11

website 5 14

Tool Used: SEO Moz

PAID MEDIATarget Keywords, Spend, Channels, Ad Creative

Paid Media: Target Keywords

Tool Used: SEMRush

• Tools like SEM Rush will not only tell you how many keywords your competitors are paying for but they will also tell you which keywords they are paying for

• BMW is obviously bidding on the most on keywords at about 29,000

Paid Media: Spend

Tool Used: SEMRush

• SEM Rush will also tell you how much your competitors are paying on Paid Search

• Even though BMW is bidding on a significantly larger number of keywords they aren’t paying much more than Audi

Paid Media: Channels

Tools like Adbeat will show you where your competitors are advertising.

Tool Used: Adbeat

Paid Media: Channels

Adbeat will also show you what creative your competitors are using.

Tool Used: Adbeat

Paid Media: Ad Creative

Targeted Keyword better

Stronger Call to Action

Use of Site links

NEXT STEPSWhere do we go from here?

In order to capitalize on the findings in this competitive analysis, and to continue to monitor the online strategies of competitors, Anvil recommends the following:

Update list of organic target keywords Mine BMW’s referring domain data for link development

targets Keep an eye on competitors’ paid search data for new

keyword niches to be added to campaigns, as well as inspiration for fresh ad copy

Pay particular attention to Jaguar & Audi as they appear to be the sharpest in terms of social media

Implement on-site SEO improvements

Sample Action Items

RememberIt’s very unlikely that all

competitors will be doing everything well.

By looking at everything that your competitors do, you can pick out the best pieces, tweak them, and then use that to develop the best online marketing strategy you can.

• Competitive intelligence should be a part of every marketing

strategy

• When done correctly, it provides confidence in decision making and

helps businesses stay on top of their competition

• There are many useful tools to help:

• AdBeat (http://www.adbeat.com)

• Compete (http://compete.com)

• Open Site Explorer (http://www.opensiteexplorer.org)

• SEOMoz (http://www.seomoz.org)

• SEMRush (http://www.semrush.com)

Summary

ResourcesArticlesCompetitive Intelligence: Purpose & Processhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/competitive-intelligence-purpose-processWebsite Analytics vs. Competitive Intelligence Metricshttp://www.seomoz.org/article/search-blog-stats8 Brilliant Ideas on Competitive Intelligencehttp://imediaconnection.com/content/20044.aspSEO Competitive Intelligence Strategyhttp://www.seobook.com/seo-competitive-intelligence-strategyFree Internet Marketing & Search Engine Competitive Research Toolshttp://tools.seobook.com/competitive-research-tools/

Whitepapers5 Simple Steps to Online Marketing Success: Using Competitive Intelligencehttp://media.compete.com/site_media/upl/img/Five_Simple_Steps_to_Online_Marketing_Success_Using_Competitive_Intelligence_White_Paper.pdfThe Marketer’s Guide to Optimizing Your Web Content for Search Engineshttp://www.anvilmediainc.com/search-engine-marketing-resources/free-white-papers/seo-white-paperThe Advanced Guide to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketinghttp://www.anvilmediainc.com/search-engine-marketing-resources/free-white-papers/advanced-pay-per-click-marketing-white-paper

Q&A & Next Steps

Hallie Janssen CEO Anvil Media, Inc.310 NE Failing StreetPortland, OR 97212O: 503.595.6050 x221M: 503.502.9562hallie@anvilmediainc.comTwitter: @hallie_janssen LinkedIn: halliejanssen

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Competitive Intelligence services

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