Know and Monitor Your Competition
Avoiding contact with your competitors may seem prudent - especially if you want to stay under the wire to avoid to be noticed. If you are new to a market - chances are your competitors already know you are there and aware of your business, have researched your website, products and probably much more. More than likely, they have been one of your first customers.
The purpose of exposure and traffic on the internet is to get noticed and you can't do this if you are trying to hide. Rather than hiding, actively research the competition.
- Discover your competitions unique selling proposition. Are you both using the same approach? Can you change your position to make your offer more attractive to potential customers?
- Find niche markets whose needs are not being met. Is part of your target market being ignored by your competitors? Start capturing those potential customers that are being ignored.
- Avoid being caught off guard and left obsolete. Watch your competitors closely. Are they developing a new product or service that could damage your sales? Take immediate action to strengthen your position.
If you don't know who your competitors are - find out! Search for your top keywords in the search engines. Visit ALL the sites and learn their strengths and weaknesses. Compare their site and record the similarities and differences.
Become your Competitors Customer
To familiarize the strategies of the enemy you must learn how they think. The same applies to competitors. Familiarize yourself with their products and sales process. This may seem a big expense, but the strategic information you gather will enable you to position yourself to capture a greater share of the market.
By purchasing their products you will experience your competition from the side of the customer - products, customer service and operations. With this information, you will be able to sell your product more effectively by targeting features that your competition neglected or did not offer. Becoming their customers allows you to discover their weaknesses.
Some competitors may process sales manually so it is wise to disguise yourself when gathering information. Using your spouse's name or an alternative name will allow you to receive various offers and products without revealing who you really are.
Free emails are another excellent idea [You can get one through yahoo.com, mail.com or hotmail.com] when subscribing to a competitors mailing list. If you competition filters their lists removing competitors names you will still be able to receive their promotions.
Competitive intelligence is the art of staying one step ahead by gathering information about your competitors operations. It is critical to have an up-to-date accurate picture of who are your closest competitors and what they are doing.
NOTE: Have a friend call your competitors posing as a satisfied customer interested in learning about products or services they may be developing in the future.
Monitor the Internet for mentions of your name.
There are free and paid services to monitor newsgroups, discussion boards, web sites, and search engines for mentions of your name or product.
For example, if you register the name of your products and business with one of these services, each time it is mentioned, you are instantly notified. Giving you this competitive edge is extremely powerful.
Any time a competitor tires to badmouth you or your product you can be there within hours to defend yourself and set the record straight. The power behind this is your competitors may think twice about badmouthing you if you are there to respond every time. If you appear to be watching them 24/7/365, caution would be taken on what they said about you in the future. Also, wouldn't your competition be dumbfounded as to why you are one step ahead of them?
Bad news travels faster than good news. Dissatisfied customers will tell ten people about their experience. A satisfied customer may tell one or none. All it takes is a few postings of dissatisfied customers t lose a lot of business.
Publicly take care of customer service problems and soothing customer complaints will strengthen your position in the market. Seeking out and responding to criticism ultimately makes you and your product look better.
Monitoring services make promoting your business through newsgroups less time intensive. They automatically look for keywords and notify you when they appear - allowing you to easily take advantage of posting opportunities saving your hours of time and research.
For example, if you sell a product related to telphones and use one of these services, you would be notified each time keywords, such as cellular or at&t were mentioned.
Site that provide services to track what people are saying aobut your or your business on the internet:
- Google News Alerts [http://www.google.com/newsalerts] free service monitors online news sites
- Tracerlock [http://www.tracerlock.com] $4/month with 30 day trial
Monitors news sites, online trade journals and ezines. Notification via email of new instances of your targeted keywords. They do not send information about existing links or references.
- eWatch [http://www.ewatch.com] price ranges from $2000 to $17000 annually
Monitoring service of new sites, writers covering your industry, consumers and investment community.
- CyberAlert [http://www.cyberalert.com] price varies
Monitors the Internet and sends email daily when mentions of your or your company are found. Several pricing options and will allow you to set your own price depending upon level of service you need.
Obviously, for this to work you need to choose specific keywords and phrases. Otherwise you will be inundated with emails to make it worth your time.
Keeping tabs on the thousand of news groups, search engines, websites, etc individually is not feasible. Ignoring them is not an option either. This is where a third party service is beneficial.
Undercover Honesty
To obtain an honest opinion about your product or service is by posing as a regular consumer in newsgroups, discussion boards or chat rooms.
Choose an obscure user name, keep a low profile and when appropriate ask questions.
"I have This and This problem. Does anyone know of a product that could help?"
"Have you tried this product, what did you think of it?"
Listen carefully to the answers you receive. Never try t sell people your product or services - this will blow your cover and hurt your reputation.
Start with Google Groups [ http://groups.google.com ] as a start when looking for discussion boards or newsgroups related to your industry. Search engines should also provide quality boards and chat rooms to visit.
Customer Reviews
People visit customer review sites to rave about products they love - and products they hate! This makes review sites a good source to discover what the public really thinks about you and your competition. Use this critical information to improve your customer service, angle, web site, or product.
Delete Your Competitors from your Mailing Lists
If you are watching your competitors you can bet they are watching you. Stay one step ahead by collecting the names and emails of your competition and removing them from your email database.
Keep all your competitors in a separate file. With a few clicks automated email solutions, like Mailloop, by Marketing Tips, will extract unwanted emails from your subscriber database.
It's surprising how many competitors you will find signed up to receive your promotional emails, newsletters and updates. By taking them off your list you will make it harder for them to keep track of what you are doing.
Researching your Competition will enbale you to stay one step ahead of the game. Don't fall short of success by burying your head in the sand. Active find out what services are not being met and meet them!
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