Your company's product competitors are not the same as content competitors. Two companies can sell similar products but produce very different content. We recommend doing a content analysis.

What is a competitive content analysis?

You want to find companies that provide content for your same target audience. Those companies are your content competitors. You may sell different things, but your audience is the same. These businesses and your direct competitors can help you create your content marketing strategy.

Where do you start?

Start by making a list of content and direct competitors. We want to see what content they have on their websites.

To seek out content competitors, you must get a little more creative and think outside the box. Think about what other businesses would have the same target audience as you.

You can use website analyzers (you may have to pay for this information or sign-up for a free trial) to look at the website's traffic. This can give you an idea of what to expect within that industry. You'll be able to see the website's number of visitors and what percentage of traffic is organic, paid, or branded.

You can also determine the quality of the visitor's experience on the website. How long are people spending on the website? How many pages are they looking at? What's the amount of people leaving the site without interacting?

The answers to these questions will help you determine if a competitor's content is engaging. If visitors aren't sticking around or engaging, you can assume the content isn't relevant to the

Once you've reviewed the competition and evaluated their sites, let's audit their content. Pay attention to things like:

• The length of their blogs or articles, are they short and sweet or long and drawn out?
• How many images do they use? What quality?
• How strong are their calls to action?
• Do they have good testimonials?
• Do they provide courses, webinars, etc.?
• How often are they publishing on their platforms?
• Are they publishing only on their website or across all social platforms as well?

Check out their socials.

Their social media accounts show you how people interact with that business. What companies are they collaborating with? Are users responding on socials? Liking, sharing and commenting on content? Complaining? How often and at what times during the day/week are they posting?

The answers to these questions tell you what works for them and if people are happy with their services.

Facebook Ads Library 

The Facebook Ad Library allows you to find competitors' ads and search for ads by category or by business name. From there, you can see how you and your competitors are similar but different also what works and what doesn't.

You'll want to make ads that capitalize on your differences. Every company is different, so focus on what you have to offer that your competitors can't.

Now that you have done your research, you're equipped to make content that creates results.

Researching allows you to stay relevant and competitive within your niche. Keep all your findings in a spreadsheet. Use this as a reference point to keep track of the information for future reference.

Spend time every couple of months revisiting the competition. You need to stay up to date on your industry. The more you know about your audience, the easier it is to position your product/service as a solution to a problem they're dealing with.