Do you know what your competitors are doing online? You may be surprised who your true online competitors even are. In the digital space, a competitor can be anybody who takes visibility away from your online properties regardless of the services they offer or products they sell. Today more than ever it’s important for business owners and marketers alike to be aware of the competition—who they are, what they’re doing, and where they’re doing it. We’ll teach you how to stay on top of your competitors by leveraging today’s tools and technology.

1. Competitive
Intelligence for
Dummies Geniuses
Presented by:
Hallie
Janssen(@hallie_janssen)
CEO
Anvil Media, Inc.
503.595.6050 ext 221
hallie@anvilmediainc.com

2. About Anvil Media
Anvil Media, Inc. is a digital marketing agency specializing in search engine
marketing services, including search engine optimization, analytics, pay-per-
click management, online reputation management, mobile & social media
marketing services.

3. Some of Our Clients

4. Anvil Key Differentiators
100% of account team Google AdWords & Analytics
certified
100% of account team published and spoken in the
industry
High client & employee retention
Founding member of SEMpdx trade association
Social Media & PPC Training partner with OMI &
Wharton
Expertise in technology and entertainment
Majority of clients come from word-of-mouth and
referrals
Award winning: PBJ Fastest Growing, Inc 5,000, AMA
MAX

5. Agenda
• What is Competitive Intelligence?
• Why is Competitive Intelligence Important?
• Who are my Competitors?
• Where is the Competition Active?
• How is Tactical Competitive Intelligence
Conducted?
• Resources & Q&A

6. What is Competitive
Intelligence?

7. Definition
Competitive Intelligence-
“An analysis of the online presence and
strategies of key competitors in order to
better understand their marketing
objectives, competitive strengths &
weaknesses, and areas of opportunity.”

8. Factors Involved
Online Competitive Offline Competitive
Intelligence Intelligence
On Site Traditional Ads
Paid Media Ads Pricing
Search Visibility Location
Product/Service
Social Media
Key Differentiators

9. Factors Involved in Online Competitive Intelligence
On Site: Search Visibility:
Volume, Month-Over- Target Keywords, Link
Month Trends, On-Site Profiles, Link Anchor Text
Engagement, Conversion
Optimization, Mobile Site
Competitive
Intelligence
Social Media: Profile
Paid Media: Target Development, Fan
Keywords, Spend, Ad Counts, Levels of
Creative, Channels Engagement, Campaigns

10. Why is Competitive
Intelligence Important?

11. Importance of Competitive Intelligence
• Complements any marketing strategy
• Gives the decision support needed to move forward with
confidence and realize the true impact of marketing
efforts
• Gives businesses insights to stay on top of the competition
while enhancing their own marketing efforts for the
future

12. Who are my competitors?

13. “Old School” (Traditional) Advertisers

14. “New School” (Online) Advertisers

15. “Old School” Advertiser vs. “New School”
Advertiser
“Old School” “New School”
Website, PPC, Display Ads,
Marketing TV, Print, Radio, Direct
Social Sites, Review Sites,
Mail, Billboard, Store
Coupon Sites, Forums, Blogs,
Channels Display
Organic Search
Flexible – with the right
Operating knowledge, making/maintaining
High – traditional types of
a website and online presence
advertising are costly
Budget can be much more affordable
than traditional advertising
Difficult – companies often think
they know who their competitors
Distinguishin Easy – marketing
are, but they actually might not
channels are limited, so
g finding competitors
be competing with them online,
depending on the search results
Competition requires little effort.
from various keywords.

16. SEO Competitors
Wikipedia is
occupying
SERP space.

17. Paid Search Competitors
Paid Search
Competition.

18. Where is the Competition
Active?

19. Where is the Competition Active
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Profile
Social Development, Fan Counts, Campaigns,
Levels of Engagement
On- Traffic Volume, Month Over Month Trends,
On-Site Engagement, Conversion
Site Optimization, Mobile Site
Search
Target keywords, Link Profiles, Link Anchor
Visibilit Text
y
Paid Target Keywords, Spend, Ad Creative,
Channels
Media

20. How is Tactical Competitive
Intelligence Conducted?

21. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+
SOCIAL

22. Social: Facebook
Jaguar USA has a well
developed, customized
Facebook presence:
• 124,000+ Fans
• Videos
• Video Chat
• Frequent/Relevant Wall
Posts
• Models page
• Special offers incentivizing
Likes

23. Social: Facebook
Screen Shot 1.12.2012 Screen Shot 1.13.2012
Increase of 1,234
Facebook
Likes in one
day!!

24. Social: Twitter
• Both Jaguar and Audi have very clean Twitter layouts that are visually
pleasing
• Audi has more followers at 183,000 compared to Jaguar’s 17,000. Audi is
also following 13,000 users compared to Jaguar following only 117
• Jaguar has limited their updates to only one per day compared to Audi’s
average of 10 tweets per day

25. Social: YouTube
• Jaguar has the most carefully managed YouTube channel, with custom
layout, easy navigation, and professional videos
• Surprisingly, BMW’s view totals and other metrics are much greater than
any competitors.

26. Social: Google+
• Audi, BMW, Jaguar and Infiniti all have Google+ Business pages
• Audi has the most +1’s at 2,510 compared to Jaguar’s 173 +1’s
• The main find here is that they all have Google+ profiles. This is an
important factor as Google is starting integrate their own social network into
their search results

27. Traffic Volume, Engagement, Conversion Optimization, Mobile
ON-SITE

28. On-Site: Traffic Volume
• BMW is the distinct winner for visitors, but Audi is keeping up and ever
surpassed BMW in early 2011
• Jaguar has obviously been making a push since the end of 2011 and their
efforts are paying off.
Tool Used:
Compete

29. On-Site: Traffic Volume
Tool Used:
Compete

30. On-Site: Engagement
Traffic is only part of the story of the success of a website. Metrics such as length of
average visit, visits/person, and pages/visit provide a more complete picture. (Top
performers highlighted)
Audi
BMW
Infiniti
Jaguar
Tool Used:
Compete

31. On-Site: Conversion Optimization

32. On-Site: Conversion Optimization

33. On-Site: Conversion Optimization

34. On-Site: Conversion Optimization

35. On-Site: Conversion Optimization
• How well a site converts can only be
determined internally
• The important thing here is to review what
your competitors are doing in this area and
test something on your site if you think it
will benefit your conversions

36. On-Site: Mobile
Mobile sites
ensure more
users can access
your site.
Tool Used:
Mobilizer

37. On-Site: Mobile
Nice use of
images and
navigation
optimized for
mobile.
Tool Used:
Mobilizer

38. On-Site: Mobile
Good call to
action that keeps
mobile site
interactive and
not just static.
Tool Used:
Mobilizer

39. Target Keywords, Link Profile, Link Anchor Text
SEARCH VISIBILITY

40. Search Visibility: Target Keywords
• BMW currently ranks for 11,733 keywords and ranked for as many as 13,589
in November 2011
• Jaguar currently only ranks for 1,117 keywords
• Knowing how many keywords and what keywords your competitors rank for
is important because their results occupy the Search Engine Results Page
Tool Used: SEM
Rush

41. Search Visibility: Link Profile - Quantity
The most important factors in organic search engine ranking are the quantity
and quality of inbound links to that domain or page.
Audi had dominated all categories.
Tool Used: SEO Moz – OpenSiteExplorer.o

42. Search Visibility: Link Profile - Quality
Looking closer at the quality of links:
• Follow v. nofollow: “Followed” links explicitly allow search engine spiders to
follow them; and “nofollow” links, while still potentially valuable, do not provide
the same SEO value.
• Internal v. external: While internal linking structure (links from page-to-page
within the same domain) is important for helping spiders discover and
understand the content of a site, external links (from other sites) provide
much greater SEO value. Note Jaguar’s off-balance internal v. external
profile.
Tool Used: SEO Moz – OpenSiteExplorer.o

43. Search Visibility: Link Anchor Text
Number of Linking Root
Number of Links Containing
Anchor Text Domains Containing Anchor
this Anchor Text
Text
bmw 619 2797
bmwusa.com 303 72312
bmw usa 205 7904
www.bmwusa.com 197 593
bmw of north america 129 519
<i>[No Anchor Text]</i> 105 314
http://www.bmwusa.com 62 177
bmw north america 59 2886
bmw of north america inc 46 58
bmw of north america llc 42 1273
http://www.bmwusa.com/ 39 59
bmw 38 324
usa 20 1576
<i>[No Anchor Text]</i> 14 17
bmwusa 12 1394
bmw usa 10 46
visit bmw usa bmw is the ultimate
9 1368
driving machine
bmw north america llc bmw north
7 12
america
bmws 6 11
website 5 14
Tool Used: SEO Moz

44. Target Keywords, Spend, Channels, Ad Creative
PAID MEDIA

45. Paid Media: Target Keywords
• Tools like SEM Rush will not only tell you how many keywords your
competitors are paying for but they will also tell you which keywords they are
paying for
• BMW is obviously bidding on the most on keywords at about 29,000
Tool Used: SEMRush

46. Paid Media: Spend
• SEM Rush will also tell you how much your competitors are paying on Paid
Search
• Even though BMW is bidding on a significantly larger number of keywords
they aren’t paying much more than Audi
Tool Used: SEMRush

47. Paid Media: Channels
Tools like Adbeat will show you where your competitors are advertising.
Tool Used: Adbeat

48. Paid Media: Channels
Adbeat will also show you what creative your competitors are using.
Tool Used: Adbeat

49. Paid Media: Ad Creative
Targeted Keyword better
Stronger Call to Action
Use of Site
links

50. Where do we go from here?
NEXT STEPS

51. Sample Action Items
In order to capitalize on the findings in this competitive
analysis, and to continue to monitor the online strategies
of competitors, Anvil recommends the following:
 Update list of organic target keywords
 Mine BMW’s referring domain data for link development
targets
 Keep an eye on competitors’ paid search data for new
keyword niches to be added to campaigns, as well as
inspiration for fresh ad copy
 Pay particular attention to Jaguar & Audi as they appear
to be the sharpest in terms of social media
 Implement on-site SEO improvements

52. It’s very unlikely that all competitors
will be doing everything well.
By looking at everything that your
competitors do, you can pick out
the best pieces, tweak them, and
then use that to develop the best
online marketing strategy you can.

53. Summary
• Competitive intelligence should be a part of every marketing strategy
• When done correctly, it provides confidence in decision making and
helps businesses stay on top of their competition
• There are many useful tools to help:
• AdBeat (http://www.adbeat.com)
• Compete (http://compete.com)
• Open Site Explorer (http://www.opensiteexplorer.org)
• SEOMoz (http://www.seomoz.org)
• SEMRush (http://www.semrush.com)

54. Resources
Articles
Competitive Intelligence: Purpose & Process
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/competitive-intelligence-purpose-process
Website Analytics vs. Competitive Intelligence Metrics
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-blog-stats
8 Brilliant Ideas on Competitive Intelligence
http://imediaconnection.com/content/20044.asp
SEO Competitive Intelligence Strategy
http://www.seobook.com/seo-competitive-intelligence-strategy
Free Internet Marketing & Search Engine Competitive Research Tools
http://tools.seobook.com/competitive-research-tools/
Whitepapers
5 Simple Steps to Online Marketing Success: Using Competitive Intelligence
http://media.compete.com/site_media/upl/img/Five_Simple_Steps_to_Online_Marketing_Success_Using_C
ompetitive_Intelligence_White_Paper.pdf
The Marketer’s Guide to Optimizing Your Web Content for Search Engines
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/search-engine-marketing-resources/free-white-papers/seo-white-paper
The Advanced Guide to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/search-engine-marketing-resources/free-white-papers/advanced-pay-per-
click-marketing-white-paper

55. Q&A & Next Steps
• Read Anvil’s blog, articles & white papers
• Subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on
Twitter
• Contact us with questions about our
Competitive Intelligence services
Hallie Janssen CEO
Anvil Media, Inc.
310 NE Failing Street
Portland, OR 97212
O: 503.595.6050 x221
M: 503.502.9562
hallie@anvilmediainc.com
Twitter: @hallie_janssen
LinkedIn: halliejanssen

56. Upcoming Anvil Webinars
Feb 15th, 2012 – 10am PST
Lead Generation and Lead Nurturing
March 21st, 2012 – 10am PST
Local SEO
April 18th, 2012 – 10am PST
Site Search
May 16th, 2012 – 10am PST
Advanced Analytics
Find Out More and Register
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/search-engine-marketing-
webinars