Tracking and monitoring competitors’ operations can help businesses develop their own successful marketing efforts and strategies.  It’s important to look at their clients, new products/services being offered, and keep up with price fluctuations and demands within a specific market.

1. Review How Your Competitors are Reaching Consumers
“Review… the media your competition is using to reach consumers… where they are advertising and what offers are being leveraged… [for] insight on how to plan your own marketing efforts.”   — Mike Tinz, VP-Money Mailer

2. Review Competitors’ Websites
Look on competitors’ websites to see what products/services they offer, which might be different  from those your own business offers.

3. Compare Your SEO Efforts
To move your company higher in search rankings and generate more business, make sure your website keywords are current. Search Google using the keywords your customers are likely to use and note where you and your competitors are ranking.

4. Check Out Customer Review Sites and Speak to Your Own Customers
Check what others are saying by looking at review sites in your industry.  Ask your customers what they like and don’t like to learn how to improve your own business.

5. Understand Pricing and Special Offers
“Understanding the pricing and special offers that your competition is advertising will… create a compelling proposition to drive traffic [to] your business [and] help you better understand if you are under-priced or… overpriced.” — Mike Tinz, VP-Money Mailer

6. Use Google Alerts¹ to Your Advantage
Setting up Google Alerts to arrive in your inbox for a specific company/industry will ensure you remain up-to-date on any news stories related to your business.

7. Learn How Internet and Social Media are Being Used to Communicate
Use the Internet to learn how competitors are communicating with consumers.
Follow your competitors on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., to examine their strategies.

8. Buy From a Competitor
An old-fashioned way to track competition is to buy from them directly. Visit their store or website to learn about their products/services. Utilize this information to advance your business.

It’s important to stay abreast of changes in today’s competitive business landscape.Monitoring your competitors is an integral step to ensure your company progresses.

¹Google Alerts is a content change detection and notification service, offered by Google. The service sends emails to the user when it finds new results—such as web pages, articles, blogs, or scientific research—that match the user’s search terms.

Source:  Small Business Trends, Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead; Mike Tinz, VP-Money Mailer

“The power of online is in the hands of the searcher.
When someone lands on a page, they should be satisfied with the result.”
– SearchDex CEO David Chaplin

Search is important to a business’ overall success, and an essential part of the “consumer behavior funnel” Awareness-Research-Purchase-Customer Loyalty:

A SearchDex study reveals that marketers believe search is a key business strategy:

• 93% said it was “extremely” or “very” important to have high search rankings.
• 96% said an automated solution may help them keep track of their search program.
• Lack of SEO strategy may negatively impact consumer interest, loyalty, trust, and profits.

Following are 3 tips to help make search programs more valuable:

1) Recognize the customer journey. 

• Search is a top-of-funnel activity – a consumer may not purchase immediately after a search result, so it’s important to have other secondary campaigns.
• If top-funnel consumers like where the search click takes them, they’re likely to bypass the search bar and go directly to your website to purchase.

2) Maintain your brand. 

• Consumers can find whatever they’re looking for and can compare prices in an instant, so the real value a company has is its brand.
• Searchers who have an unsatisfying post-click experience may not return to make a purchase.

3) Keep content updated.

• Search is no longer simply a keyword game — Google’s algorithms are getting more sophisticated, giving more weight to valuable content.
• Whatever you put on the Internet should be useful to the consumer transaction, with content that is informative, valuable and current.

Given the importance marketers have placed on search for a company’s overall performance, it’s clear that search is still vital to any business.

Source: MediaPost-SearchInsider, Aaron Baar; SearchDex; Cahner’s Magazine

Claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing has proven to be a good way to raise your local search ranking.

Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool for businesses to manage their online and mobile presence in Google Search, Maps, Reviews and Knowledge Panel (see graphic). By verifying your business information, you help prospects and customers find you and get vital information about your business. Most importantly, businesses that verify their information with Google My Business are twice as likely to be considered reputable by consumers.1

Benefits of Using Google My Business

1. Raise Local Search Ranking
Google ranks GMB-verified businesses higher in local search, allowing small businesses to better compete with national brands.

2. Manage Your Business Information
Manage the information that online and mobile users see when they search for your business, or the products and services that you offer.

3. Interact with Customers and Prospects
Respond to reviews, post daily specials/promos, promote events and create a one-click path for purchases, reservations or other important activities.

4. Understand and Expand your Online Business Presence
Google provides insights on how people search for your business, and information about how many people called your business or received directions.

5. Mobile Enable Your Business
People searching from a mobile device can tap directly on your phone number to call,
get directions to your business, or connect to your website.

If you’re like most businesses and looking to raise your online business presence, there is no better way to start than claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing.

¹Google/Oxera, The Benefits of Complete Business Listings.
Article Information Source: Google

“No longer just an interesting add-on, video has become an important feature for anyone concerned with SEO, conversion rates, or brand recognition.”

– Rob Toledo, Shutterstock

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Following are four key SEO (Search Engine Optimization) metrics outlining how to boost search engine rankings by using video in your marketing strategy.

1. Videos Rank in SERPs (Search Engine Results Page)
Web pages with video are 53 times more likely to rank on the first page of search results.¹

Best practices for video SERP:

• Keep Your Video Short: engagement rates fall after 4-5 minutes.
• Transcribe Script: transcribed text helps the search engines crawl your content for relevance.

2. Videos Increase CTR (Click-Through-Rate)
Search results with video have a 41% higher CTR than plain text.²

Best practices for high CTR:

• Embed Video Directly to Your Website: ex: on a landing page with a clear call to action.
• Add Rich Video Snippets: entice your readers into clicking with an engaging preview.

3. Videos Encourage Visitors to Engage Longer
Visitors who view video on your website stay two minutes longer and are 64% more likely to purchase.³

Best practices to reduce bounce rate:

• Embed Video “Above the Fold”: the line where you scroll to see additional content.
• Use Accurate Video Titles: don’t deceive users with sensationalized headlines.

4. Videos Build Links
People like video. A video will almost triple the average number of linking domains, leading to stronger search rankings for your own website.⁴

Best practices for link-building:

• Focus Videos on a Single Topic: niche videos get shared.
• Create High Quality Video: make videos that offer something useful to the viewer.

Video marketing will improve the way you approach SEO. Supplement your marketing strategy with video and watch your website’s search rankings climb the charts.

Source: Shawn Forno, IdeaRocket; Studies by: (1) Forrester; (2) aimClear; (3) One Comcore; (4) Moz

The Internet and technology have changed customers’ marketing interactions with businesses. Following are seven core elements of a successful marketing plan that can survive the ever-changing world of marketing channels and technology:

1) Answer the question ‘Who are we as an organization?’
Provide a clear mission, vision for the future, friendly culture, and ¹competitive analysis. Create a plan that is authentic and inspires customer loyalty.

2) Target your buyer/customer.
Speak to a specific audience: communicate who you are and what you’re hoping to promote, frequently. The narrower the focus, the more effective your marketing spend.

3) Outline big-picture growth goals and define marketing objectives.
Focus on business expansion, profit growth and customer satisfaction. ¹Provide a tactical timeline for planned actions (ex: “what by when”).

4) Define and segment your budget into three core categories.
Split your budget into three core marketing buckets: building and maintaining awareness, maintaining an internet/mobile presence, and utilizing social media. Allocate for upcoming projects and/or those already in progress.

5) Set expectations for how sales and marketing will work together.
Document a sales process for each product/service line. Outline team goals and have a plan for tracking success. Ensure constant communication between the teams. Provide a process for how a lead is transferred from marketing to sales.

6) Provide rules for how to select your marketing channels.
All marketing platforms should be considered by your target audience. Outline how often to review/refine your marketing channels.

7) Detail a marketing tracking and analysis plan.
Track your marketing efforts and key performance metrics. Review who it will be reported to, communicate any changes with your teams, and document last year’s successes and failures.

While the strategy may be done on an annual/periodic basis, the tactics that support the strategy should be reviewed and revised in real time. Strategic planning is a big-picture, long-term activity and a marketing strategy should be applied consistently over time for success.²

Source: Lauren Davenport, CEO-The Symphony Agency; ¹Ford Kanzler, Managing Partner-Marketing/PR Savvy; ²Christine R. Valeriann-MarketingProfs

When measuring the results of advertising, not all marketing efforts get credit since results are not always measurable. Sometimes the smallest understated touch points affect a consumer the most on the path to purchase.

We found you online.
The internet is today’s Yellow Pages – it’s where consumers go when ready to make a purchase, so it often gets all the credit for making the sale.

• Customers who “find you online” are likely influenced by other marketing factors first, so resist investing all of your marketing dollars online.
• Other influences result in the name of a company/product/service “jumping out” to the consumer searching for information.

It takes five touch points to internalize a marketing message.
Cultivating awareness takes approximately five touch points – the interactions between your audience and raising awareness of a company/product/service:

• These touch points can include any combination of media: direct mail, company sign, TV, business card, radio, newspaper, Chamber of Commerce literature, place-based network (ex.: gas station, DMV, elevator), word-of-mouth, etc.
• The key is that none of these can work on their own. A “media mix” delivers the best results and internalizes a marketing message.

Trust your intuition.
Advertisers should re-examine measurability and not be afraid to use intuition. Although certain touch points do not always get proper credit for final “purchasing” activity, they are critical to getting the word out.

Source: Media Strategies Inc.