Month: January 2020

Track website changes to build a strategic competitive advantage

January 29, 2020 No Comments

There are many “to do-s” on the list when creating a business, but there are also a couple of key points that are vital for brands in today’s digital marketplace, and the most important one is to position the brand online.

A website helps companies to build their online identity and credibility, allows them to reach their audience, and sets up the business on the online market. Moreover, from a company’s website, you can find out quickly who they are, what’s the company’s mission, what services they offer, at what prices, and more.

Before making a purchase or signing up for a service, consumers scroll the internet for their best fit option so that they might pop up on different websites. Your brand’s website, visual identity, and content say a lot about your company and your services – so it can encourage conversions and help consumers to go for your service/product.

Why monitoring competitors’ websites matters

Besides the typical info that a company’s website is proving at a glance distance, the website can be a valuable source of gathering insights into the brand’s business strategies – especially when you’re looking closely into your competitors’ websites.

Not only does your website give you advantages in front of your target public, but it also helps you to differentiate your brand’s identity from the competition. Keeping an eye on your competitors’ website changes and updates and being aware of each competitor’s move on their website will help you to spot new opportunities for your brand, it will uncover new directions on how you can set your business’ website apart from your competitors’ ones, and it will give you an idea of the website tactics that your competitors are using, and that might work for your case too.

Websites can highlight significant company changes as product and pricing updates, visual updates, messaging changes, and key updates that can help you to get deeper into their strategies and gather data so that you can build a strong competitive advantage for your website.

For example, if your top competitor announces a particular new feature that is requested by the customers, then you might want to think about it and try to implement it, too, especially if your target audience demands it.

Let’s get deeper into the topic and discover some examples of website changes and updates that can help companies to build a strategic competitive advantage while gathering competition updates.

Types of website changes to track on competitors’ websites

As already mentioned above, a website can be a source of valuable insights into a business’s strategy and can uncover the company’s values, product/services offer, price details, brand’s visual identity, and more. Tracking all competitors’ websites moves automatically, with an online monitoring tool, allows marketers to have a better overview of competitors’ website updates, saving time, and resources.

Plus, receiving notifications each time when a competitor makes a change on its website keeps companies aware of competitors’ actions in real-time, so they can focus on finding opportunities to overcome competition and improving their strategies.

  1. Changes to Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons

    Changes to CTA buttons/wording can have a significant impact on conversion and can influence the possible customer’s behavior on the website. “View a Demo” was changed to “Get Started” in the example below – attracting customer’s curiosity to click and see what’s behind the red button and how he can get more of what the company offers.

    In this case, “View a Demo” is a clear and effective CTA that no additional argument about it is necessary. But to spark customer’s curiosity and to make them part of the company’s services discovery.

    & New Call-To-Action Buttons

  2. Pricing changes

    Your competitor is changing its pricing strategy – I bet this is an important update for your business’ strategy, and you might want to keep up your competitor’s pricing updates and know each time when a new change appears. To not be caught in a risky position, opt to receive notifications each time when competitors change prices so you can quickly plan your future steps to maintain a competitive price for your service.

    In the end, price is one of the first things that a consumer is interested in when searching for a product/service, so keeping up with competitors’ pricing strategies is crucial for your business’ success.

  3. New features/integrations updates

    Staying up to date with your competitors’ new features and uncovering all their customers’ advantages and benefits helps you to plan how you can further develop your service/product by staying relevant to the competitive market.

    Each new change or update that your competitors are making for their services/products should be a piece of valuable information for your business strategy and product development, not only a curiosity. Being aware of what new integrations are your competitors launching for its users, for example, gives you insights about your latest opportunities on the market and show you what your customers might want too and what you should implement next.

  4. Company’s updates/Jobs Offers/ Team updates

    When automatically tracking competitors’ websites, you can get to know whenever a competitor makes a change on its website, from CTA buttons, as seen below, to Terms changes. Discovering your competition changes regarding their Privacy Policies, Data Protection, GDPR makes you aware of their activity and underlines what you might be missing out from your Policies and Terms.

    Many signs can uncover your competitors’ plans only by having a closer look at their website. Stay up to date with your competitors’ movements on their website, and you can quickly discover when a company launches job offers. Opening a job position means opening new paths for developing their service/product, so you should be aware of their plans. As seen above, IFTTT is currently looking for a “Customer Success Manager,” – which means they will start focusing and dedicating more resources on their customers’ experience – so you should be aware of that and be prepared.

    By keeping an eye on competitors’ website changes, you can be informed when a new member joins the team, and you can make an idea of your competitors’ team and roles – so you’ll get to know their resources focused on developing the service/product.

  5. Content Changes/Updates

    Being aware of what your competitors are posting on their website makes you aware of their content and marketing strategies – do they have a Case Studies page? How frequently are they posting new case-studies? Which are your competitors’ customers? From which domains? Uncovering your competition content strategy on the website gives you hints of what you should focus on, too – in the end, you’re sharing the same target audience, and your service/product is similar, right?


    Getting to know your competitors’ type of articles published on their blogs gives you valuable insights into their content strategies, but also their SEO efforts. On Competitors App, for each competitors’ marketing channel, you can analyze engagement details, frequency of posts, and get to know all competitors’ articles – so you can start planning your strategies and craft content that attract the audience and educate the public.

  6. SEO Changes

    Keep an eye on your competitors’ SEO efforts and spot whenever your competitors make some change that will affect their SEO – like changing blog post title or focusing another keyword. Activate notifications for this feature to be the first to know about it so that you can improve your SEO efforts too!

  7. New Web-Pages


    Companies create new pages for their website – dedicated pages for features, FAQ, and more. Scrolling on your competitors’ website to discover the new pages, from time to time, can be a challenge, so using competitive intelligence tools can facilitate your search. You’ll get notified each time a competitor creates a new web page for its website.

  8. Press Releases & Announcements

    Companies are using their official website to share the company’s news, press releases, and announcements. Tracking competitors’ websites help you to easily spot their new releases, annual reports, and the launching of new collaborations/partner programs.

  9. Customers Testimonials Updates

    Customer testimonials are one of the most powerful trust weapons, and each site has (or should have) a powerful testimonial or review page. Dedicating a testimonials page on your website guides potential customers, helps them to overcome objections, and builds instant credibility for the brand’s services/products.

  10. Sales and offers updates

    Get on your email all competitors’ offers and sales even before their customers! Understanding your competition sales and marketing strategies allows you to spot your strengths and weaknesses. What is their discount policy? Do they create more attractive offers? What can you do to overcome competitors’ sales strategies?

    You need to know what competitors are bringing to the market, and, especially when they create unique offerings that might attract your audience or even your customers.

In conclusion, monitoring competitors’ website changes and analyzing their updates will help you identify your competitive advantage. Maybe it’s the interactive design on the landing page that attract new customers –  may be the login process is easier than in your case – may be the new customers gets quicker from your competitor website what his tool does than on your website — the goal is identifying the competitive advantage that will help you to create the right websites’ messages, content, and image for your brand.

ℹ️Start your FREE TRIAL on Competitors App and track all competitors’ website changes to identify your websites’ strengths and weaknesses.

Trello vs. Asana Marketing Strategies

January 20, 2020 No Comments

There’s a big chance to come across Trello and Asana while haunting for the best-fit project management tool for your tasks, isn’t it? Choosing the right project management software for your business can be a challenge, especially in such a competitive market.

Still, today’s goal is not diving deeper into the importance of keeping your team connected and productive with online collaboration tools as Trello and Asana, but to analyze the digital marketing strategies of these two main brands that are competing on the digital stage.

We’ll get a close look into Trello and Asana marketing activities on their websites and Social Media channels to figure out each content marketing strategy, type of posts, and frequency. Also, we will be uncovering Trello and Asana newsletters to see exactly what users are receiving from each brand, and what’s each brand’s focus on Newsletters. At the same time, we’ll get to know how often are Trello and Asana advertising on Google and Social Media and more.

Let’s start to discover and analyze the gathered data!

Trello vs. Asana Website Strategies

Monitoring a website doesn’t have to be a challenge or a time-consuming task – nowadays, with automatic online software, the process of tracking sites and spying on competitors’ changes made on their websites is easier than ever.

When it comes to Trello and Asana’s websites, we analyzed the primary type of website changes that impact the customer experience and bring value to the brand. Those website changes are key updates that can be easily applied to any other website to boost conversion, build brand trust, offer a smooth onboarding process, and more.

Asana focuses on brand trust

Brand trust is a big deal for marketers, especially in 2020, and companies bring on first-line what customers say online about their product or service. According to reports, 91% of people regularly or occasionally read online reviews, and 84% trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation – so Asana is focusing on gathering happy (and very well-known) customer’s comments on a dedicated page, “Who uses Asana”, underlining the advantages of using the tool.

Trello keeps it simple

While analyzing Trello’s website, the main updates are related to text and changes in SEO elements. It’s clear to notice that the brand wants to “keep everything simple” by delivering their message fast and precise, in as few words as possible.

Crafting a concise but comprehensive way of describing a product/service will help the possible customer to get a quicker idea of what your product/service does.

Also, when it comes to creating the right message for an audience, focusing on your user/customer and underling its main advantage to using your tool will help him to make a final decision and to figure out that actually, your product will satisfy his needs.

As you can see in the example below, “Trello Your Way” – where the focus was more on the brand/tool to was changed to “See What Trello Can Do For You”, focusing 100% on the user’s possible benefits of using the software.

Another insight detail gathered while monitoring a website, in this particular case, spotted on Trello’s website, allowed us to keep updated with the changes regarding the process of logging in on their website. Those kinds of changes are essential in every competitive research – it’s crucial to understand how your competitors are structuring their “Login” process, so you’ll spot the possible changes that you might be missing out to facilitate the onboarding of your possible future users/customers.

 

As mentioned before, monitoring a website, especially a competitors’ website, can be a source of information for your further steps. Getting to know competition most recently added features, but also pricing changes allow marketers to act quickly to fill an existing gap between the company and its competitors and to build a strong competitive advantage.

In the example below, Trello added new features focused on creating personalized onboarding and priority customer support – features that might not impact the product/service itself. Still, for sure, it has a significant impact on users and future customers.

Trello vs. Asana Social Media Strategies

Analyzing Trello and Asana Social Media activity on different channels gives a better insight into their type of posts, frequency, and detail engagement. As we can notice from the below graphic, over the last four weeks, Twitter is the Trello and Asana’s number one favorite Social Media channel, followed by Facebook and Instagram.

Twitters – most used Social Media channel

When it comes to analyzing the engagement details, Instagram has the most engagement for Trello and Asana, followed by LinkedIn in Asana’s case, and Twitter in Trello’s case.

Let take a closer look and see precisely what Trello and Asana are posting on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

With more than +83 Twitter posts over the last four weeks, Asana makes its followers part of their journey by sharing the team’s activities. Building a “familiarity feeling” by getting to know trough Social Media pictures the members of a team, in our case Asana’s team, helps to make a connection between the brand and the user/customer, but also builds trust.

Speaking about building a connection with their followers and users – on Twitter, Asana is actively engaging with the audience by replying to feedback, comments, and often offering support.

When it comes to Trello, with an average of 22 Twitter posts per week, the brand “keeps it simple”, concise and funny. Overall, Trello has a clear brand image – and when people already know what your service does, then you can “play” on Social Media as you wish, without the constant need to focus on your product specifications or to remember your public what’s your brand’s goal.

As in Asana’s case, Trello uses Twitter to direct its users to set up their profiles, personalize notifications. Plus, Trello always uses GIFs and emojis to express their messages visually – which makes communication effective, modern, and catchy.

On Instagram, Trello has the most engagement, with an average of seven posts per month – compared with Asana’s activity on Instagram, 21 posts during the last month. The post below was the most viral Instagram Trello’s posts over the previous four weeks. With more 450 likes and 12 comments, Trello succeeds in engaging with its audience by focusing on general situations and contexts applying to a broad public, not only Trello’s users.

The success’s receipt in the post below? A famous quote by a famous philosopher, a general truth with whom many people can “click,”; a question, and a picture that looks like a cozy break in the middle of the week.

Also, on Instagram, Trello shares the team’s moments, but in a quite different way, as seen for Asana’s case. If Asana’s team is more “open” when it comes to publishing pictures of the team’s members, Trello is keeping things more private, by choosing suggestive ways to build a connection with the audience.

Trello vs. Asana Ad Strategies

Uncovering a business’ Ads. is not an impossible task – moreover, digital marketers should use automatic tools to discover each time when competitors are launching new campaigns on different channels, as Facebook, Instagram or Google, so they know exactly how to overcome competitors or how to take advantage of their gaps by planning better PPC campaigns.

Trello’s Ads. on Facebook are short, catchy, and don’t make you think about Trello as a tool to use only for professional purposes, but also for … let’s say more enthusiastic goals as a “trip of a lifetime”. By addressing a general and vast context, there are high chances that a higher public will connect with the Ad. and the end with the tool.

On the other hand, Asana focuses on Facebook Ads. with a personal and familiar touch, by underlining the advantage of using their software.

Tracking competitors’ Ads. allow marketers to discover competitors’ keywords and ranking for each Ad. Having a closer look at Asana’s Google Ads. uncovers the brand’s efforts to rank a higher position for certain keywords, as “best project management platforms” or “easy project management tools”.

In Trello’s case, with only two Google Ads over the last month, the brand succeeds to assure the first position on Google with keywords as “Trello”, but still, trying to touch the first Google position with keywords as “live chat software”.

Trello vs. Asana Email Marketing Strategies

Uncovering competitor email marketing strategies help marketers to know accurately what users/customers receive in their inbox – from discounts, guides, updates news, and more. Asana, for example, sends newsletters regarding the state of tasks, a daily and friendly “Update” to keep you focused on your performance of duties.

Asana sends a daily update of tasks

Trello focuses on onboarding and features

When it comes to Trello’s newsletters, the brand’s email marketing strategies are quite different from Asana’s actions on email. Trello focuses on getting users onboard quickly by providing resources to make sure the new user doesn’t miss a thing of the tool. At the same time, Trello’s newsletters have an educative role, proving tips and tricks on productivity and more.

In conclusion, Trello and Asana are focusing on providing value and building brand trust. There are many techniques to earn your targeted public attention, and all the strategies should be adapted to your own brand identity. Even if your competitors are not using the same path to reach their goals, monitoring their online actions it’s a must –  it helps you to seize the opportunities, fill the gaps and build a strong competitive advantage.

Uncover your competition actions and get to know what you could do better for your digital plans, so you’ll reach your goals before your competitors’ will arrive at the top. SIGN NOW FOR A 15 FREE DAYS TRIAL

 

How To Build a Competitive Digital Marketing Strategy in 2020?

January 8, 2020 No Comments

More than 290,000 published statuses and more than 136,000 photos are uploaded on Facebook every 60 seconds. More than 500 million people post on Instagram Stories every day, over 350,000 tweets are tweeted every minute, and more than 40,000 people are searching on Google each second.

Without any doubt, a tremendous amount of content is created daily and delivered via Social Media, Blogs, and other online channels. Apart from that, the competition is becoming intense to get visibility and to rank high on search engines.

Why is Digital Marketing More Important Than Ever?

With so much content marketing material published online every day, it’s necessary to start developing plans on how to craft the best digital marketing strategies to highlight your business and overcome competition. In the end, digital marketing plays a crucial role, no matter the industry or the size of the company – it’s the way to build and grow a business, so mapping an effective Internet marketing strategy should be a priority since the beginning of each business journey.

Of course, creating a strong digital marketing strategy is a multiple steps process that requires time and resources. The process should be strongly correlated with your business’ core and identity so that your digital marketing goals could be achieved.

To keep up with digital and industry trends, companies need to figure out which digital strategies are best for their business and still relevant to consumers in 2020. Nowadays, more than ever, businesses and, in particular, digital marketers have to adjust to new ways of “doing things online” even from one year to another. Moreover, in today’s digital world, it’s not anymore about merely being present on different online channels – but on building qualitative content and creating a unique identity. That’s the reason why businesses have to stay connected to the digital transformation that the online world is experimenting in recent years and figure out which are the directions to follow to develop their brands.

The digital marketing scene is the roughest ocean, and to learn to sail through, you need to make sure that you’re using the right and relevant digital marketing tactics that will guide you in the right direction. Shortly, it’s essential to have a proper digital marketing plan and to focus on what’s relevant for your industry and business. Otherwise, you’ll get lost in trying different digital marketing strategies technics that don’t apply to your business – while wasting resources without any result. 

So, nowadays, if you’d like to make the most of your digital marketing efforts, then one of your focuses should be on the fact that the online world is extremely competitive and business from all industries are more aware than ever that digital marketing is a path that directs towards success if it’s done right. 

Here are top 8 powerful digital marketing strategies that businesses can follow to achieve their digital marketing goals. The following steps help marketers to create a solid digital footprint by underling the digital marketing trends for 2020.

Let’s dive deeper into details and see exactly what to do when it comes to creating a competitive digital marketing strategy. 

Top digital marketing strategies for 2020

RESEARCH AND EVALUATE YOUR COMPETITORS

 

  1. Identify and evaluate the competition

    Researching your competition will provide you valuable insights into what your next steps should be. Analyzing competitors’ online presence will help you to underline their weaknesses, but also their strengths. Also, it will help you to focus on your opportunities on the market, based on their results – you can always learn from your competitors fails, success and you can identify what to do to improve your strategies.

    Identify your top three direct competitors (direct competitors provide similar product/service as you do; share the same audience as you) and start monitoring their activity to better understand your position on the market.

  2. Use competitor monitoring tools to track competitors marketing strategies

    Figuring out what marketing strategies are your competitors applying online will help you to differentiate your business strategies and to create a unique approach. Gathering information about all your competitors’ online actions can be a hard task. Still, fortunately, you can use monitoring tools that do the job for you, saving you time and resources.

    Start tracking your competitors’ online activities and uncover their content strategies – identify which Social Media channels they are using more often; how frequently are your competitors publishing content, which type of material (images/video); what newsletters are they sending; what are they writing on their blogs and more. Also, you can have a closer look at how they are engaging with the audience and which are the results – the number of followers/subscribers and engagement details per post.

    Gathering all this data can help you to identify your gaps and figuring out what you should focus on from now on. Monitoring your competitors Social Media activity, analyzing their content strategies and Email Marketing strategies gives you valuable details so you won’t start crafting your strategy from scratch. Keep an eye on your competitors’ examples and learn from their mistakes or apply their version of success but in your way.

  3. Find competitors keywords

    When analyzing competitors’ content, particularly on their blogs, look for the keywords they use and see how they rank for each keyword or use an online tool to get an overview of your competitors’ keywords. 

    Uncovering your competitors’ SEO strategies will help you to see what keywords they are using for their campaigns, for what keywords/phrases are they ranking well, and you don’t, as well as the keywords your direct competitors are targeting but failed to rank for.

    Finding your competitors’ keywords allow you to plan or improve better SEO strategies for your business and gain a competitive edge in the search results.

 

OUTPERFORM YOUR COMPETITORS

  1. Know your brand and goals

    Learning from your competitors is, without doubts, a step in developing or improving your business digital marketing strategies. Analyzing your current situation and putting clear on a paper, all your weaknesses and strengths are not just steps, but the foundation of your digital success.

    After gathering competitors’ insights on their digital marketing activity, as Social Media content strategies; Email Marketing strategies; SEO strategies; Website strategies focus on your marketing efforts and analyze your digital path to understand what you’ve been missing out; what your competitors are doing better than you currently do; what you can improve or further develop. Have a realistic perspective and try to understand why customers/users could go for your competitors’ products or even why they are choosing your product.

    Also, underline your top priorities and the kind of goals you want to achieve, so you’ll know exactly which digital marketing tactics to apply and execute.

  2. Choose the right digital marketing channels

    After analyzing your competitors’ digital marketing channels, you might have an idea about which channels could be suitable for your business, too. Keep in mind that what works for others may not work 100% for you, but it’s worth giving a try.

    If, for example, your top one direct competitor is very active on Facebook, post frequently, and each post has a good organic reach, then you should focus more on this channel and try to apply his example.

    Don’t get stuck with digital trends – your business doesn’t have to be on Pinterest or Instagram if it’s not relevant for your case. Focus on relevant channels, especially on those where your targeted audience is.

  3. Focus on content

    After figuring out which digital marketing channels are a good fit for your business, and analyzing your competitors’ content marketing strategies, it’s time to focus on creating new and quality content frequently for the chosen channels.

    Also, after you’ve researched your competitors, you might already have an idea which is the type of content that you’re targeted audience is usually engaging with, which kind of articles are your competitors posting on their blogs and which are the keywords that generate traffic for your competitors. Those keywords will help you to attract more clicks to your domain, to build brand awareness, and to …

  4. Boost your SEO

    Search engine optimization is continually changing, so it’s a continual challenge to rank higher in Google. Evaluate what keywords are your competitors using and compare their list with your keyword’s list to see if you’re missing out on something that you might use. Also, frequently adding new articles on your blog, updating your homepage or landing page, or getting backlinks to your website will help you yo rank a higher position on Google.

    However, keep in mind that your focus should also be on optimizing your blog and website, delivering high-quality content to boost conversion, and gain a competitive advantage, not just ranking a high position on Google’s search results.

  5. Make it personal

    How many general newsletters are you receiving each day? How many Facebook posts catch your attention during the time you scroll on your feed? In today’s digital world, business is not seen anymore as a rigid environment – so craft a unique and personal way of communication with your targeted audience, which can help you to build authenticity and brand trust. Send a personalized video to welcome your new users; personalize each newsletter with users’ details – have a friendly way of connecting with your audience, and don’t ignore the power of personal engagement or storytelling.

 

In conclusion, in 2020, digital marketing is not just about “being online,” but about giving your business a personality and providing value while keeping an eye on the competition and staying relevant on the market.

Read other competitive articles for your business

  • Competitive Intelligence Business – Competitive intelligence (CI) is a term you may have come across before. Like many industry buzzwords, it isn’t immediately apparent what CI is and how it can be useful to your business. But don’t worry, because we’re going to explain the ins, outs, pros, and cons of CI.

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