If you’re in business, you know that advertising and digital marketing can sometimes feel like war-zone. The ongoing battle for customer attention, data, and sales is waging 24/7/365, and there’s never enough time in the day. So what can we do?
Here are a few ideas when you’re thinking of nefarious ways to crush the competition into oblivion:
1. Make competitive analysis part of your annual marketing plan 🔎
Start with the end in mind. You should have an annual marketing plan, complete with budget, estimates, goals, ideas, and more. But often overlooked is competitor analysis.
“Know thy enemy” to quote Sun Tzu. If you’re not watching them, they will do damage, take control of markets, and exploit any digging they’ve done on you. The 4P’s of marketing tell us to manage Product, Placement, Price, and Promotion, start there. Then do a full SWOT Analysis on your competitors. This should give you adequate information to put together a few ideas.
If you’re looking to do even more research on your competition online, leverage powerful competitor-tracking tools such as RavenTools, Moz, and SpyFu. These SEO tools grant significant access to data on competitor site performance in search engines, digital advertising placements, and much more.
2. Actively evaluate and diversify your brand’s presence and placements 🎯
Like any investment that we expect a return from, advertising is no different in that diversification can yield better, more stable results. Many businesses rush to advertise on Google Ads and Facebook Ads, and forget the rest of the potential paid placements. For example, Bing Ads, Instagram, and OutBrain are other valuable areas of potential advertising campaigns.
But also print, such as Newspapers, Signage, and Direct Mail, can reach potential customers in ways that your competition may not even be thinking about. Just make sure you’re getting this all integrated with the rest of your ongoing marketing efforts! Combine messaging efforts into a unified campaign.
This “divide and conquer” strategy can leave competitors worried and scrambled, boost brand awareness, and create more data for further evaluation.
3. Always be flexible, patient, and willing to adjust (and test!) 📅
Marketing is chaotic. You can’t always predict what the market will do, what competitors will do, so being alert but nimble can pay off. We should be quick to experiment, and determined to follow up on results, testing, and future iterations.
Changing with the times, and identifying new areas of placement such as upcoming social networks can yield big returns. If there is a tool that would greatly benefit your marketing mix, like marketing automation, it may be worth reevaluating marketing budgets and ongoing ROI.
Take small bites and you’ll eventually reach a point of efficiency. Be quick to recognize failures or mistakes and learn to not repeat them. Watching data and the results of campaigns can give us significant and valuable information for further campaigning.
Ready to get started? 🚀
V12 Marketing is a top-rated marketing agency in Concord, NH. We offer creative strategy, advertising, and technical support solutions to businesses of all kinds.
Contact our dedicated professional team to start your next project! ➡
