Source: blog.sweetiq.comA few weeks ago we discussed recently released research findings from the Content Marketing Institute which gave insight into the state of content marketing strategies for 2015.
While the survey results covered many facets of content marketing, the key takeaway from them was the consistent correlation between companies that document their content marketing strategies and companies that are more successful and effective overall.
Based on the statistics presented, there is no doubt that this is the first and foremost step that should be taken, but what about your competitors?
If you can successfully track competitor content marketing, you can find out what is working for them, create more comprehensive marketing insights and tailor your strategy with maximum agility going forward.
The Old Fashioned Way
Source: thepigroup.comThere are a few simple steps you can take to track competitor content marketing.
- Go to their website and do some on-the-ground analysis
- Dig into search engine results to see what content of theirs/yours appears more prominently
- Follow them on social media to see what content is shared
- Set up Google Alerts to get notifications on competitor news
While these methods are a good start - they are only scratching the surface for efficiency and potential insights. If your organization is serious about this and can devote some resources, there are a few tools out there that can really boost your tracking effectiveness.
Online Tools to Track Competitor Content Marketing
Buzzsumo
Source: clarityqst.comThis service offers general content insights into what content is most shared across social sites and who thought leaders are, but it also has significant competitor analysis capabilities:
- Brand alerts: Track when a competitor's brand is mentioned in an article or blog post
- Domain alerts: Be notified every time new content is published on a competitor's website
- Link alerts: Know whenever someone publishes a link to your competitor's website
- Competitor comparison: See how you stack up overall in terms of content production, sharing, etc.
- Shared content: View what content is most shared and who is actually sharing it
Buzzsumo is just one of many services out there that are tailored specifically for content/competitive analysis, so be sure to do some research and shop around if you decide you want to go this route.
Hubspot
Source: under30ceo.comIn contrast to Buzzsumo and its competitors, Hubspot is a much more comprehensive marketing service which has gained a lot of success in recent years - in fact they just filed for an IPO not to long ago.
As part of Hubspot's marketing services they offer a Competitors report to allow you to monitor up to 20 of your competitors (10 for trial accounts) and their online content. Some of the data points they provide are:
- Marketing Grade: Measures you and your competitor's overall online presence
- Traffic rank: Shows how a site compares in total traffic to millions of other sites
- Linking domains: Gives the number of domains linking to a particular site
- Keyword rankings: Tracks overall Google presence, gives alerts on keyword rank changes and helps with targeting new keywords
- Social media followers: Track how many followers you and your competitors have on Facebook and Twitter
The Bottom Line
Documenting and tracking your own content strategy is priority #1, but if you want to gain a true competitive advantage the #2 priority needs to be doing the same for your competitors.
By doing this you will have the ability to generate multifaceted insights that can take your content marketing strategy to the next level. We have given you an overview of two prominent marketing tools that will help enable this, but the reality is there are numerous other options available.
Take the time to weigh these options, start some free trials and determine what works best for your business and your budget.
What marketing tools have you used to track competitor content marketing? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!
