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FIVE SIMPLE
 STEPS
 TO
 ONLINE
 MARKETING
 SUCCESS



 USING COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE IN 2010
 Brought to you by Compete.com




www.compete.com   617.933.5600   support@compete.com
For many businesses, 2010 will be a year of recovery
  and growth. Your business success begins with
  a sound marketing strategy aimed to increase
  performance and maximize ROI. Competitive
  intelligence can complement any marketing strategy and
  give you the decision support needed to move forward
  with confidence and realize the true impact of your
  efforts.
  You may think your 2010 strategy is primed for success,
  but do you really know enough about your competitors
  to make that assumption? What tactics are they using
  to drive online performance, and what are the results?
  By incorporating competitive intelligence into your
  marketing strategy, you can get the insights you need
  to stay on top of your competitors while enhancing your
  own marketing efforts for 2010 and beyond.


  Here are 5 steps to marketing success in 2010 using
  competitive intelligence:




1. Know the Competition


    Define your competitive set, learn what “normal”
                                                                         EXAMPLE:
    really is for specific metrics, and know where you
    rank.                                                                Your site may rank low in terms of
                                                                         unique visitors, but your average
                                                                         stay (users time on site) and pages
                                                                         per visit may be better than your
  How can you win the game when you don’t know the playing field?.       largest competitor. Since your
  Who are the leaders in your space? Who are the copy cats? Do           website is more engaging than
  any of your competitors do anything in particular that interests       your competitor’s site, it is safe to
                                                                         assume that your focus should be
  you? How many competitors do you think you have? Creating a list
                                                                         on driving new traffic to your site
  of the competitors in your space and indentifying why each poses       and not necessarily making on-site
  a competitive threat will be the foundation of your competitive        optimizations.

  strategy. After identifying your competitive set, start to dig deep




  www.compete.com            617.933.5600                      PAGE 1
                                                   support@compete.com                                      pg.1
and realize where you stand for metrics that matter most.
  Some competitive intelligence solutions will give you visibility into
  metrics for your competitors’ sites that are much like the ones you
  analyze using local web analytics tools. Comparing all of your
  competitors against key performance indicators such as Unique
  Visitors, Page Views, Time on Site, Average Stay, and Pages
  per Visit will give you a sense of real norms for your competitive
  landscape. This will allow you to make logical business decisions
  and maximize ROI.




2. Cover Your Search Marketing Bases


    Increase search traffic and campaign
                                                                            GO THE EXTRA MILE:
    performance through analysis of your competitors’
    search marketing trends and keywords.                                   If you are having trouble moving up
                                                                            the SERP (search engine results
                                                                            page) for a particular keyword, or
                                                                            it’s too expensive to bid in paid
  Millions of internet users let search engines decide where they           search, you can always perform a
  should go to find what they’re looking for. Clearly, it is imperative     reverse keyword search (called a
  that you control everything in your power to maximize your                Keyword Destination Report using
                                                                            Compete PRO). This report allows
  website’s search exposure and drive relevant traffic. Using your
                                                                            you to identify websites that are
  local web analytics tools, you can see what keywords are sending          getting the bulk of the traffic from
  traffic to your site, how much of that traffic is paid vs. natural, and   these keywords. You can decide to
                                                                            seek advertising opportunities on
  what percentage of traffic the individual search engines contribute
                                                                            those websites or learn from their
  to your site overall.                                                     SEO strategies to help you move
  Through optimization and testing of your paid search campaigns,           up the ranks.
  SEO keyword research, and content creation, you can maximize
  conversions and increase search ROI. However, optimization
  and testing are not guaranteed to provide beneficial results.
  Competitive search analytics tools let you quickly gain insights into
  your competitors’ search strategy so you can capitalize on their
  success. Much like you defined your competitive set in Step 1, it’s
  important to record and analyze search engine traffic, keywords,
  and performance for each one of your competitors.
  Competitive intelligence helps you grasp what search trends are




  www.compete.com              617.933.5600                      PAGE 1
                                                     support@compete.com                                      pg.2
                                                                                                              pg.1
related to seasonality and easily determine when your competitors
  make changes, like increasing/decreasing paid search spend or
  starting a new SEO campaign. Some tools will even let you dig
  deeper and allow you to see what keywords are driving traffic to
  your competitors’ site through paid and/or natural search. By
  regularly monitoring your competitive search landscape, you can
  easily find new keywords that are proven to drive performance,
  and also minimize the benefit your competitors’ are getting specific
  keywords or phrases.




3. Copying is a Sign of Flattery


    Identify what websites are sending your
    competitors traffic and get in on the action.




  As the population continues to move everyday activities online,
  competition for web traffic will continue to grow. Just like there are
  a few keywords that drive most of the traffic to your site (the head)
  and thousands of other keywords that drive a little (the long tail),
  traffic to websites works much in the same way. There are millions
  of websites out there, however only a small percentage account
  for the bulk of traffic. The relationships you forge with other online
  businesses can determine the fate of your marketing success.


  By analyzing referral (upstream) and destination (downstream)
  traffic for your competitive set you can easily identify new affiliate
  websites, business relationships, and link-building opportunities.
  If your competitors are receiving traffic from specific sites, it may
  be worth reaching out to those sites to see how your business
  can benefit. Plus, you can vet potential websites you would like to
  advertise with and see who they are sending their traffic to.


  Using your competitive intelligence tools, create a list of websites




  www.compete.com             617.933.5600                       PAGE 1
                                                     support@compete.com   pg.3
                                                                           pg.1
that send traffic to your competitors. Exclude websites that you are
  already working with. You can then determine which sites you want
  to reach out by analyzing how much traffic these websites receive.
  At first, this may seem like a daunting task, however over time you
  will notice only a handful of new sites that pop up. Analyzing traffic
  referral reports is a great way to generate new relationships and
  increase your online reach with minimal effort.




4. Fix Your Leaky Bucket


    Retarget users that leave your site and capture
    lost conversions.




  Your local web analytics tools will let you identify which websites
  are sending traffic to your site. Based on page views, bounce
  rates, and conversion rates you can easily identify which websites
  deliver the most benefit. Think of your website as a bucket. Using
  various marketing tactics you can scoop up site visitors that may
  be interested in your products or services. Then by creating
  conversion funnels, you attempt to lead your users to perform a
  specific action. In an ideal situation, all of the users would stay
  in your bucket until they performed the desired action, however
  in reality, your bucket may be large and strong, but it will most
  certainly have leaks.


  Using destination or downstream traffic tools, you can easily
  see where your users go when they leave your site. Are they
  going directly to a competitor, a search engine, or back to their
  favorite social network? Maybe they are searching for coupons
  on their favorite deal sites or conducting research before they
  decide to purchase your products or services. Regularly perform
  a destination traffic report on your website and easily find
  opportunities to quickly patch the holes in your leaky bucket.




  www.compete.com             617.933.5600                      PAGE 1
                                                    support@compete.com    pg.4
                                                                           pg.1
                                                                           PAGE 1
5. Stay on Top


    Monitor, set benchmarks, and realize how your
    site enhancements and marketing strategies
    impact your competitors.


  In order to stay on track and continue to grow your business, you
  need an online marketing strategy that can adjust to ever-changing
  economic, technological, and social environments. Incorporating
  competitive intelligence into that marketing strategy can give
  you the critical information you need to minimize risk and ensure
  success.


  Monitor your competitive set and use your competitive intelligence
  tools on a regular basis. You will find much of the information
  you collect to be critical in making decisions about your overall
  marketing strategy. Then, set benchmarks and monitor changes
  across your entire competitive set. Only then will you realize the
  true impact your of your efforts.


  Over time your online competition is only going to heat up. Adding
  competitive intelligence to your day-to-day marketing strategies
  will ultimately give you the upper hand and allow you to accurately
  forecast recovery, growth, and success in 2010 and beyond.




  www.compete.com            617.933.5600                      PAGE 1
                                                   support@compete.com   pg.5
                                                                         pg.1
                                                                         PAGE 1
Compete harnesses the online behavior of millions of consumers to help hundreds


of clients improve their marketing effectiveness. Offering a robust suite of products


coupled with deep vertical industry insights, Compete provides custom consultative


services alongside powerful competitive intelligence tools delivered via


compete.com. The results, used by some of the world’s biggest brands, drive more


effective online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns.




Compete’s services are supported by industry-leading data, management, and


technological innovation. Our consumer behavioral data is drawn from multiple


sources and comprises the largest active consumer database in the industry,


unmatched in depth, quality, and integrity.




Contact us for more information.




www.compete.com                    617.933.5600                        PAGE 1
                                                           support@compete.com          pg.6
                                                                                        pg.1
                                                                                        PAGE 1

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5 Simple Steps to Online Marketing Success

  • 1. FIVE SIMPLE STEPS TO ONLINE MARKETING SUCCESS USING COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE IN 2010 Brought to you by Compete.com www.compete.com 617.933.5600 support@compete.com
  • 2. For many businesses, 2010 will be a year of recovery and growth. Your business success begins with a sound marketing strategy aimed to increase performance and maximize ROI. Competitive intelligence can complement any marketing strategy and give you the decision support needed to move forward with confidence and realize the true impact of your efforts. You may think your 2010 strategy is primed for success, but do you really know enough about your competitors to make that assumption? What tactics are they using to drive online performance, and what are the results? By incorporating competitive intelligence into your marketing strategy, you can get the insights you need to stay on top of your competitors while enhancing your own marketing efforts for 2010 and beyond. Here are 5 steps to marketing success in 2010 using competitive intelligence: 1. Know the Competition Define your competitive set, learn what “normal” EXAMPLE: really is for specific metrics, and know where you rank. Your site may rank low in terms of unique visitors, but your average stay (users time on site) and pages per visit may be better than your How can you win the game when you don’t know the playing field?. largest competitor. Since your Who are the leaders in your space? Who are the copy cats? Do website is more engaging than any of your competitors do anything in particular that interests your competitor’s site, it is safe to assume that your focus should be you? How many competitors do you think you have? Creating a list on driving new traffic to your site of the competitors in your space and indentifying why each poses and not necessarily making on-site a competitive threat will be the foundation of your competitive optimizations. strategy. After identifying your competitive set, start to dig deep www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.1
  • 3. and realize where you stand for metrics that matter most. Some competitive intelligence solutions will give you visibility into metrics for your competitors’ sites that are much like the ones you analyze using local web analytics tools. Comparing all of your competitors against key performance indicators such as Unique Visitors, Page Views, Time on Site, Average Stay, and Pages per Visit will give you a sense of real norms for your competitive landscape. This will allow you to make logical business decisions and maximize ROI. 2. Cover Your Search Marketing Bases Increase search traffic and campaign GO THE EXTRA MILE: performance through analysis of your competitors’ search marketing trends and keywords. If you are having trouble moving up the SERP (search engine results page) for a particular keyword, or it’s too expensive to bid in paid Millions of internet users let search engines decide where they search, you can always perform a should go to find what they’re looking for. Clearly, it is imperative reverse keyword search (called a that you control everything in your power to maximize your Keyword Destination Report using Compete PRO). This report allows website’s search exposure and drive relevant traffic. Using your you to identify websites that are local web analytics tools, you can see what keywords are sending getting the bulk of the traffic from traffic to your site, how much of that traffic is paid vs. natural, and these keywords. You can decide to seek advertising opportunities on what percentage of traffic the individual search engines contribute those websites or learn from their to your site overall. SEO strategies to help you move Through optimization and testing of your paid search campaigns, up the ranks. SEO keyword research, and content creation, you can maximize conversions and increase search ROI. However, optimization and testing are not guaranteed to provide beneficial results. Competitive search analytics tools let you quickly gain insights into your competitors’ search strategy so you can capitalize on their success. Much like you defined your competitive set in Step 1, it’s important to record and analyze search engine traffic, keywords, and performance for each one of your competitors. Competitive intelligence helps you grasp what search trends are www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.2 pg.1
  • 4. related to seasonality and easily determine when your competitors make changes, like increasing/decreasing paid search spend or starting a new SEO campaign. Some tools will even let you dig deeper and allow you to see what keywords are driving traffic to your competitors’ site through paid and/or natural search. By regularly monitoring your competitive search landscape, you can easily find new keywords that are proven to drive performance, and also minimize the benefit your competitors’ are getting specific keywords or phrases. 3. Copying is a Sign of Flattery Identify what websites are sending your competitors traffic and get in on the action. As the population continues to move everyday activities online, competition for web traffic will continue to grow. Just like there are a few keywords that drive most of the traffic to your site (the head) and thousands of other keywords that drive a little (the long tail), traffic to websites works much in the same way. There are millions of websites out there, however only a small percentage account for the bulk of traffic. The relationships you forge with other online businesses can determine the fate of your marketing success. By analyzing referral (upstream) and destination (downstream) traffic for your competitive set you can easily identify new affiliate websites, business relationships, and link-building opportunities. If your competitors are receiving traffic from specific sites, it may be worth reaching out to those sites to see how your business can benefit. Plus, you can vet potential websites you would like to advertise with and see who they are sending their traffic to. Using your competitive intelligence tools, create a list of websites www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.3 pg.1
  • 5. that send traffic to your competitors. Exclude websites that you are already working with. You can then determine which sites you want to reach out by analyzing how much traffic these websites receive. At first, this may seem like a daunting task, however over time you will notice only a handful of new sites that pop up. Analyzing traffic referral reports is a great way to generate new relationships and increase your online reach with minimal effort. 4. Fix Your Leaky Bucket Retarget users that leave your site and capture lost conversions. Your local web analytics tools will let you identify which websites are sending traffic to your site. Based on page views, bounce rates, and conversion rates you can easily identify which websites deliver the most benefit. Think of your website as a bucket. Using various marketing tactics you can scoop up site visitors that may be interested in your products or services. Then by creating conversion funnels, you attempt to lead your users to perform a specific action. In an ideal situation, all of the users would stay in your bucket until they performed the desired action, however in reality, your bucket may be large and strong, but it will most certainly have leaks. Using destination or downstream traffic tools, you can easily see where your users go when they leave your site. Are they going directly to a competitor, a search engine, or back to their favorite social network? Maybe they are searching for coupons on their favorite deal sites or conducting research before they decide to purchase your products or services. Regularly perform a destination traffic report on your website and easily find opportunities to quickly patch the holes in your leaky bucket. www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.4 pg.1 PAGE 1
  • 6. 5. Stay on Top Monitor, set benchmarks, and realize how your site enhancements and marketing strategies impact your competitors. In order to stay on track and continue to grow your business, you need an online marketing strategy that can adjust to ever-changing economic, technological, and social environments. Incorporating competitive intelligence into that marketing strategy can give you the critical information you need to minimize risk and ensure success. Monitor your competitive set and use your competitive intelligence tools on a regular basis. You will find much of the information you collect to be critical in making decisions about your overall marketing strategy. Then, set benchmarks and monitor changes across your entire competitive set. Only then will you realize the true impact your of your efforts. Over time your online competition is only going to heat up. Adding competitive intelligence to your day-to-day marketing strategies will ultimately give you the upper hand and allow you to accurately forecast recovery, growth, and success in 2010 and beyond. www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.5 pg.1 PAGE 1
  • 7. Compete harnesses the online behavior of millions of consumers to help hundreds of clients improve their marketing effectiveness. Offering a robust suite of products coupled with deep vertical industry insights, Compete provides custom consultative services alongside powerful competitive intelligence tools delivered via compete.com. The results, used by some of the world’s biggest brands, drive more effective online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns. Compete’s services are supported by industry-leading data, management, and technological innovation. Our consumer behavioral data is drawn from multiple sources and comprises the largest active consumer database in the industry, unmatched in depth, quality, and integrity. Contact us for more information. www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.6 pg.1 PAGE 1