Competitive Intelligence: Steal Everything

Editor's Notes

• #2: Do you sell via the web? Do you have any idea how much search traffic your competitors are attracting? Are you being out-ranked in Google, even for keywords where your site is invisible? During this webinar, I can teach you how to perform competitive market research to identify your competition’s most productive keywords, and point out how to create content to outrank them.
• #3: Challenge listeners to steal… Keywords. PPC Ads. PLA data. Popular content. Technical weaknesses. Link sources. Steal your competitor’s Clients and Prospects. Steal the entire Inc. 5000 AdWords expenditure by industry and individual co. Steal entire international Markets. Steal 6 months FREE SEMrush Guru or an upgrade
• #4: Crowdsource No One of Us is as Smart as All of Us. The value of keyword research lies in the incredible ‘big data’ accumulation of trillions of human interactions, reaching out to find… something. All we want is our share of that pie. And maybe a bite of yours.  
• #5: Stand Upon the Shoulders of Giants… then, eat their lunch right off their plates. Save yourself the time and money invested in experimentation by seeing and seizing the successes of those on the ‘bleeding edge’.
• #6: Humble Thyself Even a fool can teach a wise man new tricks, if the wise man is open and receptive. Allow yourself to be jealous. Then, get over it. Feeling like, “Damn, I wish I did that” is a sign that you should try and emulate some marketing. But, pick your targets. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Flatter the best.  
• #7: Steal Competitors’ Keywords – Unbranded Assess the Competition – identify Google SERPs competitors – use the right tools to reveal their strengths, weaknesses, perform gap analysis to identify keyword opportunities to exploit, discover popularity threats to defend. Find your overlaps or ‘common’ keywords – these are your battleground, but be sure there is sufficient Monthly Search Volume to make the targets worthwhile Find ALL Keywords across up to five competitors, export that list and sort your brains out, to find the competitions’ most-productive keywords, or get an idea of your own organic share of your “wordspace’s” traffic Compare the competitions’ keywords against each other AND your own.
• #8: Steal Competitors’ Keywords – Unbranded Examine each Competitors’ Keywords VS your own Find your Uniques – these are your Strengths Find their Uniques – these are your Weaknesses
• #9: Steal Competitors’ Keywords – Unbranded Run your own SWOT Analysis for Organic, using Domain VS Domain Examine each Competitors’ Keywords VS your own Common Keywords: which are working harder for your competition and which are likely to have the most ability to bring high-converting traffic? Organic: Look for High Monthly Search Volume and Low Competition PPC: Look for High Commercial Intent (High Search Volume, High CPC, High Competition)
• #10: Steal Competitors’ Keywords – Unbranded Run your own SWOT Analysis for Organic, using Domain VS Domain Examine each Competitors’ Keywords VS your own Find your Uniques – these are your Strengths Find their Uniques – these are your Weaknesses Keywords Unique to Competitors, Not performing for you are a weakness that you can respond to
• #11: Steal Competitors’ Keywords – Unbranded Run your own SWOT Analysis for Organic, using Domain VS Domain Examine each Competitors’ Keywords VS your own Export the list into Excel or CVC and Sort by High Search Volume, then by Competition – valuable, easy wins Sort by CPC or SE Traffic Price, and the most commercially-effective keywords (transactional intent and closest to conversion) are likely to be at the top.
• #12: Steal Competitors’ Keywords – Unbranded Run your own SWOT Analysis for Organic, using Domain VS Domain Examine each Competitors’ Keywords VS your own Find their Uniques – these represent Opportunities for you to exploit
• #13: Steal Competitors’ Keywords – Unbranded Chart it, and click on the diagram section that suits you best to see that for export. Find your Uniques – these are your Strengths Find their Uniques – these are your Weaknesses Find your overlaps or ‘common’ keywords – these are your battleground
• #14: Steal Competitors’ Keywords – Unbranded Steal big. Embezzle small. Steal when you are confident that you can meet the budget requirements and competition levels to win. Embezzle from big competitors by nibbling away at their share for high-search-volume keywords. Keep monitoring the keywords of competitors on a periodic basis, as you would any other value chain task.
• #15: Steal Competitors’ Keywords – Branded Using a competitor’s trademark in your AdWords ad copy may result in a violation, However, it is not against the rules to run on your competitor’s terms if you use generic ad copy or your own branded terms. Thanks or the images, Meagan French, the founder of Lotus Growth
• #16: Steal Competitors’ Keywords – Branded Be informative in a “My Brand VS Brand Y” way. Run these ads effectively by Retargeting your domain visitors. Land them on a page that serves the prospect’s desire to qualify brands as part of the “consideration” phase of their Buyer Journey (thanks Larry Kim of WordStream). The effectiveness of running a search network PPC campaign on your competitor’s keywords is eroding. Impressions fall as Google wants to serve the most relevant ads. Remember that the Google Display Network (GDN) http://www.google.com/ads/displaynetwork/) can help you ramp up “branded” and “competitor” campaigns in more places. That can help strengthen your brand over the competition. Thanks Pauline Jakober on SearchEngineLand
• #17: Steal from the Rich – Find Out Who They Are Export the Winners and Losers Report and find your competitors. If they are gaining keywords, they are gaining strength, especially if this is occurring in their Ads Keywords.
• #18: Steal from the Rich – Find Out Who They Are Export the Winners and Losers Report and find your competitors. If they are gaining keywords, they are gaining strength, especially if this is occurring in their Ads Keywords.
• #19: Steal from the Rich – Steal from the Triple-Witchers A Triple-Witching effect occurs when Ads Keywords, Ads Traffic are both rising, while Ads Traffic Price falls. This likely indicates a competitor experiencing success among their Groups and adding new Keywords to those Groups. When this coincides with Price declines, it may be ascribed to improved CTR and Conversions sufficient to better Quality scores and thereby better bid rates. A formidable competitor, indeed. But, a wonderful target to emulate, steal new keywords from, and steal calls to action, risk reducers and offers or pricing from in order to improve your own results.
• #20: Steal from the Rich – Steal from the Triple-Witchers A Triple-Witching effect occurs when Ads Keywords, Ads Traffic are both rising, while Ads Traffic Price falls. This likely indicates a competitor experiencing success among their Groups and adding new Keywords to those Groups. When this coincides with Price declines, it may be ascribed to improved CTR and Conversions sufficient to better Quality scores and thereby better bid rates. A formidable competitor, indeed. But, a wonderful target to emulate, steal new keywords from, and steal calls to action, risk reducers and offers or pricing from in order to improve your own results.
• #21: Steal from the Rich – Steal from the Triple-Witchers A Triple-Witching effect occurs when Ads Keywords, Ads Traffic are both rising, while Ads Traffic Price falls. This likely indicates a competitor experiencing success among their Groups and adding new Keywords to those Groups. When this coincides with Price declines, it may be ascribed to improved CTR and Conversions sufficient to better Quality scores and thereby better bid rates. A formidable competitor, indeed. But, a wonderful target to emulate, steal new keywords from, and steal calls to action, risk reducers and offers or pricing from in order to improve your own results.
• #22: Steal from the Rich – Steal from the Triple-Witchers A Triple-Witching effect occurs when Ads Keywords, Ads Traffic are both rising, while Ads Traffic Price falls. This likely indicates a competitor experiencing success among their Groups and adding new Keywords to those Groups. When this coincides with Price declines, it may be ascribed to improved CTR and Conversions sufficient to better Quality scores and thereby better bid rates. A formidable competitor, indeed. But, a wonderful target to emulate, steal new keywords from, and steal calls to action, risk reducers and offers or pricing from in order to improve your own results.
• #23: Steal PPC Ads text, history, seasonality and trends. Ads History is a rich source of jealousy and coveting. Preach Commandments:   Thou shalt covet thy SERP neighbors… but covet the right ones  
• #24: Steal PPC Ads text, history, seasonality and trends. Ads History is a rich source of jealousy and coveting. Preach Commandments: Covet Competitors’ Ability to write concise, customer-centric ad copy complete with keywords, motivational, emotional desire triggers, unique selling points, value propositions, risk reducers and killer offers. Steal their ad text – and rewrite it.
• #25: Steal PPC Ads text, history, seasonality and trends. Ads History is a rich source of jealousy and coveting. Preach Commandments: Steal their Groups for better organization – see hints of that among the blue rectangles in Ads Copies presentation – how many ads link to that same URL. If those numbers are large and growing, they are beefing up their groups, and you could steal their best performing new additions. Without having to pay for the experimentation.
• #26: Steal PPC Ads text, history, seasonality and trends. Steal their trash. Look for signals of which keywords to abandon over time as evinced in Ads History. Use that to clear the cruft out of your own AdWords and thereby improve your Quality Score. Covet Competitors’ Clever use of Trends to detect the decline of keywords that have exhausted their appeal and are exiting the lexicon. Steal away from keywords with declining monthly searches. Stop throwing good money after bad. Use Google Trends to review some history and make projections. Bring Related Searches terms and Phrases Report phrases into there to trial them.
• #27: Steal PPC Ads text, history, seasonality and trends. Covet Competitors’ Crafty use of seasonality to focus spend on shorter, more productive periods. Sell coats when it’s cold… in particular locations! (Position Tracker) Steal their Seasons – or, at least nick a few.
• #28: Steal First-in Advantage Carry over your competitors into New & Lost Keywords WHY: Google says 15% of Searches each day are for completely new terms. Use Trends, social messages, inbound E-mails, customer service call transcripts or conversations to find out how prospects and customers are referring to your products or services. Use those terms first to steal first-in advantage.  
• #29: Covet Competitors’ Creative use of Phrase Report and Related Keywords to discover the emerging public use of new bracketing phrases in mid- and long-tails, and to gain “AHA!” insights into queries that may be part of a sequence, downstream from the original keyword, and therefore closer to conversion. Steal What’s Next to gain the ‘first in ‘ advantage.
• #30: Steal affiliates – see the full URLs of the Google Search Network Ads by hovering over the link in the depiction of the Ad. Who is the competition paying for performance? Continued reliance on a particular network that repeatedly appears as impressions for popular keywords (SEMrush’s forté) may indicate a prospective affiliate to drive you traffic… or, a firm whose tactics are worth emulating – I mean, stealing.
• #31: Steal Prices using PLAs. NEW! Recent buzz is that Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) have been sporadically delivering clicks to Google Shopper results pages, and NOT to the advertiser’s own page. BOO! But, E-Commerce is in love with PLAs’ high CTRs and high Conversion Rates. On average, 15% of E-Commerce ad budget goes to PLAs and is rising. I’ve met some who spend more on PLAs than on AdWords. Survey the competition’s visibility in PLAs, even at the overview. Why Steal Price intel? Low price is a factor in PLA visibility. More urgently, PRICE is KING. Consumers on the point of purchase may rely on this most. Some E-comms will spend thousands each month and review this data several times daily to gain competitive edge. SEMrush gathers price data on a daily basis for millions of the most popular keywords.
• #32: Steal the Competitions’ most popular content Are you tired of your competition outranking you? Do they rank for keywords for which you’re invisible? Neil Patel (CrazyEgg, QuickSprout) has used this effective approach, and wrote on his blog about it, “This approach is so effective that by leveraging it on Quick Sprout over the last 12 months, I’ve been able to increase my search traffic … 119,655 more visitors a month. Or 74% more search traffic per month.”
• #33: Steal the Competitions’ most popular content Are you tired of your competition outranking you? Do they rank for keywords for which you’re invisible? Neil Patel (CrazyEgg, QuickSprout) has used this effective approach, and wrote on his blog about it, “This approach is so effective that by leveraging it on Quick Sprout over the last 12 months, I’ve been able to increase my search traffic … 119,655 more visitors a month. Or 74% more search traffic per month.” http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/09/15/one-insanely-actionable-content-marketing-strategy-that-will-generate-more-search-traffic-today/
• #34: Steal link sources Now – identify the highest-ranking and historically-durable domains from which to seek links. Use the link audit tool in SEMrush at no additional cost. Add the facet of Trust (link proximity to the internet’s most-trusted sites) using MajesticSEO or Moz (now an SEMrush data partner). Then, use another method to append the contacts and reach out to build relationships with your new best friends. They can be your friends, now, too, even if you had to kidnap them!
• #35: International SEO - know before you go. If you are in foreign markets, then get native-speaker lingual help. Your need is both cultural and semantic. Use SEMrush to discover your competitors in national Google databases in 25 of the most developed nations with the highest internet penetrations and the highest per capita incomes. Steal their Keywords Nation by Nation. Pay close attention to their most-productive Keywords. Monitor constantly. Don’t let a local bit of slang or dialect or pop cultural reference escape you – that could cost you millions, as it did for one intellectual property licensor. People started to call their product by another name. Only when an SEO consultant investigated this client’s worries about losing market share, did they discover that the simple emergence of a new name for their products had been exploited by the competition, unopposed, for 18 months.   Steal your competitor's clients. If you know one of their clients, you can detect more, because they will be that client’s competitors. Use Overview reports for Sales Support. Demonstrate effectiveness of your agency’s efforts for one domain, against those of another by illustrating multiple competitors’ organic or AdWord traffic history at once in Charts.   Steal a Bigger Budget for Yourself Speak of revenue by multiplying traffic X average revenue per visitor (calculated from your Analytics) (or multiply traffic at the prevailing conversion rate X avg. revenue per transaction. When clients make more, they should spend more, to accelerate growth.   Steal Some Respect See the ‘Cost’ of organic traffic, what it would have cost to pay for ads to generate that volume of visitors via Ads. Let SEMrush extol for you the exponential benefits of being number one in Search, and set a dollar value on your successful efforts each month.   Steal Prospects - steal clients before competition can even get their hands on them… use Custom Reports to identify top PPC spenders (by category in new report). This means that whether you do this for clients, or for your own business, the data in SEMrush can be a great source of leads. In fact, enterprises use reports for this express purpose, including: one of the top 3 social networks, Europe’s largest all-in-one host, one of the largest PPC agencies.
• #36: NOTE: Hanapin Marketing partnered with Semrush for data used to create an infographic of the Inc 5000 AdWords budgets. That #inforgraphic and the free spreadsheet details ad spends by industry. Since new domains may have to buy their traffic while they achieve SEO value. this peek at ad budgets by industry can be an invaluable aid to planning a launch, or setting a marketing and advertising budget,   And that list of Inc 5000 doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of deep data available – SEMrush gathers data on 40M keywords and 11.3M U.S. domains alone. And, for those new, or more obscure sites or local results, there is Position Tracker.
• #37: Random drawing winners
• #38: Thanks