Marketing

How To Do a Competitor Content Analysis

Retaining and increasing market share depends largely on your understanding of your competitors. A competitor content analysis is one way to see how other industry leaders are doing. 

What content strategies are they using to generate leads? Which content resonates with your target audience and why? A competitor content analysis can answer these questions and help your business grow.

Want tips on how to stay ahead of your competitors? Keep reading below or call 888-601-5359 to speak with a specialist about performing a content analysis! 

What is a competitor content analysis?

A competitor content analysis involves researching the content plan your competitors use systematically. The goal is to compare strengths and weaknesses to identify where your business has a competitive advantage.

Conducting a content analysis on your competitors involves an in-depth examination of every project they publish across various platforms. You can look at: 

• Their website content
• Social media accounts
• Email newsletters

A competitor content analysis ensures that your strategy is on par with theirs. If not, you have a diagram for making necessary changes. 

Why should I do a competitor content analysis?

There are many benefits to benchmarking yourself against industry rivals. The primary benefit of a competitor content analysis is creating better, more valuable content for your target audience. You can also accomplish the following goals. 

Improve your existing content

Regularly publishing timely and relevant information is a cornerstone of content marketing. Creating it takes time. So, refreshing current content is practical for better performance. 

Examining how your industry peers approach their topics and the keywords they use can help you put a new spin on your existing content. Is there a natural place to use a keyword you hadn’t thought of before? Does their podcast spark a new angle you could add to a published post to improve search engine optimization (SEO)?

Scan their content for structure, too. Your existing projects should be easily digestible, so consider adding interesting visual elements. Or, rewrite a section with a better answer and score the valuable featured snippet real estate.

Discover new opportunities

When you deconstruct your opponents’ strategy, you can pinpoint what’s working for them and use this information to create your plan. Knowing what formats and channels your audience prefers helps you publish better content and save time on underperforming pieces.

A competitor content analysis also reveals knowledge gaps around a topic of interest to your audience. Your business can fill these gaps with valuable content that drives traffic and generates leads. You can even uncover content partnerships through your analysis!

How do I do a competitor content analysis?

Let’s walk through the content analysis process one step at a time. 

1. Itemize their content

Go through your competitors’ channels and catalog each piece of content, from blog posts to podcasts and learning resources. Although each will be different, they all point to your competitor’s strategy.

Note the length of each piece. The time and money they invest in different projects can reveal the marketing plan significance and highlight where you should focus your efforts.

As you go through, record each piece’s general topics or themes, including: 

• Content type
• Length
• Multimedia factors
• Topics
• Location

This step will help you organize them into relevant groups later.

2. Evaluate from the customer’s perspective

Content marketing is successful is that it’s persuasive. One of the easiest ways to influence a customer is through evoking emotion. That means speaking to their pain points and using the right tone of voice.

Ask yourself the following: 

• How does their content accomplish these goals? 
• What emotions do you feel from a customer’s perspective? 
• What specific language uses emotional appeals? 

Core each piece on how effectively they leverage these factors. If their weaknesses align with your strengths, you can do it better!

3. Rate their content objectively

Much of what you need for this step is at your fingertips. Online evaluation tools can help you see how much traffic a page gets, what keywords they rank for and their backlink profile.

You can use the following tools to check the engagement levels on their content:

• SEO.com
• SEMRush
• Google Analytics
• Ahrefs

While using these tools and conducting your research, also note:

• Engagement: How many shares or comments does each piece have? You’ll see in a glance what is resonating so you can better move on to the “why?” 
• Content quality: Is the content clean and concise, or is there a lot of filler? Is it consistent with the business purpose and user expectations? 
• Keyword usage: How are the keywords integrated into the piece? Are they missing related topics? You can brainstorm keywords they haven’t targeted when evaluating your strategy.

4. Probe your findings

Now that you have an overview of your competitor’s strategy, you can start analyzing their approach.

Organize your data by topic and channel. You can spot trends and see what areas your competitors are targeting most, like blog content or social media. This step will also reveal topics you should avoid for over-saturation — you can come up with blog post ideas from thin content areas.

Be sure to look at their success, too. See what areas are popular and make sure you are present there. For example, if your competitors target a certain social media site, it’s time to make an account and interact with your audience!

Trust a professional for competitor content analysis

Understanding your peers’ strategy is essential to your content marketing success. You’ll be able to create unique, valuable content for your users based on a data-driven approach. If the task seems challenging or time-consuming, a professional agency can help. 

WebFX comprises an award-winning team of full-service digital marketers that delivers real results. When you work with us, you have access to experts in competitive content analysis, search engine optimization, web design, and content strategy. 

Call us today at 888-601-5359 or request a custom proposal to get started!

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