Do your tactics work? Do they work better than your competition? Can prospects find you? And when they do, will they convert?
In 2015, 71% of B2B customers started their research with a Google search. That number has only gone up. And that’s why it’s useful to focus your B2B competitive analysis on your – and your competitors’ – digital footprint.
Here’s how to run a digital health checkup.
B2B competitive analysis evaluates your competition against several indicators to better understand their strengths and weaknesses.
The end goal is to outflank your competition. You can only do that if you know how (if) they are reaching buyers.
Typical B2B competitive analyses include a brand audit that evaluates the messaging and positioning of known competitors.
Some of these brand measures include:
That’s all incredibly important stuff. But what about your brand’s digital health? Online, competition can come from many different directions. Seeing how you stack up against search-specific competitors (in other words, those that show up on Google search results when searching for terms related to you) are just as important as competitors you often run into (or up against) IRL.
Your website is home base for your brand and needs to stand out from the crowd. So, in addition to the more qualitative measures above, it’s important to analyze a few key measurements of digital health.
Here’s how it’s done.
This process, with a focus on the measurements of digital health, can be boiled down into a few easy steps.
There are two primary sources of competition: The ones you know about and the ones that appear in the digital landscape.
First, write down the competitors you regularly run into.
Then, search a key brand term on Google and see who comes up. Those are your “search-specific” competitors. There will likely be some overlap between the competitors you already know about and the search-specific ones. But don’t be surprised if new names pop up, too.
Simply follow the checklist below for your own company, and then compare your results to your competition.
Most of the answers can be covered by tools like Google Analytics, Lighthouse, Moz and SpyFu.
Others might require a little more digging – or some help from experts who conduct B2B competitive analyses on the regular.
You can use the following list as a checklist to measure your website and other important digital aspects against your competition.
A B2B competitive analysis is one of the first things you should do before you make any major decisions about your brand’s direction. Why? Marketing strategies must be developed based on real-world data. Otherwise, they’re just a shot in the dark—and they won’t work.
Before you can understand how to position yourself in the marketplace and create the right messaging and tactics, you have to first understand what your competitors are doing.
With these measurements of digital health in mind, you will be able to grow and strengthen your digital presence. Improving organic search visibility and implementing a strategic integrated marketing program will help you create a stronger lead funnel, get you in front of more prospects and capture more market share.
But one more quick thing: Getting prospects to your website is only the first step. Do they stay there? Do they convert? As you look to improve your digital presence, make sure you also have optimized your website for conversions.
Now, go get ‘em!
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