What Can Your Competitors Teach You About Branding?
Although the branding for your company should be unique and individualized, there is a lot you can learn from competitors in your industry if you take the time to look. Your competitors may just be the key to remaining a step ahead in the stampede that is marketing in today’s world. Keep this in mind next time you are wondering why your website or latest campaign is failing to draw the attention you anticipated.
Your competitors are more than likely targeting the same audience and advertising on similar platforms. As a digital marketing agency, we sat down to compile a list of popular branding aspects that you can improve by learning from your competitors. Make sure you pay close attention to find the good, the bad, and the ugly within their marketing strategy, taking care to avoid the same mistakes and to make note of the successes.
Rebranding or Refreshing
If you are on the fence about whether your business needs a full rebrand or even just some renewal, your competitors might just offer the push you need. You may begin to see them modernizing their business with a new logo, new website, or revitalized social media campaign. Over time, you don’t want to be the only business in your area with an outdated brand as it will make it quite difficult to attract new customers. Big name companies like Pepsi and Coca-Cola do it all the time.
Handling Reviews
In 2017, it has been reported that 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses and a huge portion of that hold them as high as personal recommendations. You may be glued to your own reviews, but have you taken the time to look at the competition’s? Whether you receive your reviews on Google, Yelp, or Facebook, you should be sure to check out how other businesses in your industry are handling both positive and negative feedback. If there was a negative situation that they responded to, were the customers eventually satisfied or were they still upset? This is a simple way to make sure you stay away from poor customer service.
Managing Social Media
Nobody said maintaining a fluid and effective social media presence was going to be easy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pull inspiration from others and learn what works. Take the time to compare your social platforms to those of your competitors, looking at design, content, and frequency of posts. Do consumers interact with their posts? Engagement is important and something you should be striving for when it comes to your own business. What did they do to build a loyal following? Content should be varied and trustworthy, not misleading. Who are they targeting? Knowing your audience is just as important as what you post. Social media is a huge player in the field of digital marketing and not something to push to the side.
Outranking Them
When you Google your own services or products, what do you find? Are you at the top of the local results or are your competitors outranking you? Make sure you have a Google+ set up for your business that allows you to create a Google Business page. Once this is verified, your business will be displayed in relevant searches, including an updated address and list of services.
This brings us to our next point involving organic searches and paid campaigns. If you find your competitors ranking higher than you organically, you should probably put your SEO strategy into overdrive. Make sure your website is optimized and find out which keywords they outrank you on so that you can make improvements on your end. This will take some time to see optimal results, so try running a PPC campaign in the meantime.
Targeting
When you have the same target audience as your competitors, it may be difficult to constantly keep their attention, especially if you are working with a lower budget. That is why looking closely at the competition’s audience can help you find your own niche market separate from the rest. Look at who they are either failing to target or simply have no interest in catering to. This allows you to bring in consumers without the constant pull of the competition. Just make sure that this audience is still adequately in need of your product or service.
Kraus Marketing is a full-service marketing agency based in the heart of Morristown, NJ. Kraus Marketing’s full range of services includes responsive websites, branding, social media marketing, SEO & PPC, and everything in between. With a talented team and a lot of hard work, Kraus Marketing produces high-end marketing projects that produce the best ROI for you and your business. Contact us today to find out more about our core services and how we can help take your marketing to the next level. Call our agency at (973) 998-5742.