To succeed in email marketing, creativity and innovative solutions alone are not enough. An important element of success is analyzing the actions of your competitors. This tool allows you not only to track the activity of competitors, but also to find new ways to develop your business.
You notice that one of your competitors regularly shares closed advice from the company’s management in emails. Agree, this attracts the attention of subscribers and increases brand loyalty. Why not use a similar approach – record video messages from your top managers?
Or another case. Your main competitor practices email exclusives, providing subscribers with unique discounts and special offers. This helps him retain customers and attract new ones. You can also implement a system of email privileges to strengthen audience loyalty.
Competitor analysis in email marketing is a key tool that will help you not only monitor your competitors’ actions, but also find new, effective ways to develop your business.
The main thing is to learn how to use it. In this article, WGG email marketing agency will prove to you that it is not difficult at all.
Step 1. Identify your main competitors
The first thing to do is to outline the circle of main rivals. And here various tools come to the rescue.
To find competitors, head to the vastness of social networks. There you will find profiles of similar companies. Their products / services are clearly in demand, judging by the number of likes and comments. So, these guys are definitely part of your narrow circle of competitors.
For a more complete picture, use special services that automatically find sites operating in a similar niche. And now you have a list of 20 competing firms.
Carefully study their websites, services and prices. Divide everyone into three key groups:
Large companies with a wide range of services and high prices.
Mid-range players with more affordable rates.
Small local businesses.
This segmentation will allow you to understand the positioning and price offers of your main competitors. You will see what key aspects they rely on to attract customers.
Finding and initially classifying your main competitors is the foundation for a successful analysis. How thoroughly you approach this stage directly affects whether you will be able to get ahead and bypass your competitors in the future.
Step 2. Analyze contact collection forms
Contact collection forms on competitors’ websites can vary widely, from classic static subscription forms to more advanced and creative solutions.
Basic options are simple fields for entering an email address, placed in the header or footer of the site. Such forms are familiar and familiar to most users, so they often show good efficiency. However, they risk getting lost among other content, not attracting due attention.
More effective are pop-up windows. These are dynamic forms that appear on top of the current page. With their help, you can demonstrate a special offer or call to action and, thus, better convert traffic into subscribers. But here you need to take into account that these windows do not irritate users with their intrusiveness.
An interesting alternative could be separate landing pages entirely dedicated to collecting email addresses. Here you have the opportunity to focus visitors’ attention as much as possible on the conversion action, offering them some valuable content or a bonus in exchange for a subscription.
Many companies implement interactive quizzes and lead magnets on their websites. For example, the user is asked to take a short survey, after which he receives personalized recommendations. Such solutions not only help to collect contacts, but also provide valuable information about the audience’s requests.
Analyze your competitors’ email collection formats. This will give you a lot of ideas for optimizing your own subscription forms.
Step 3. Subscribe
Now is the time to take a closer look at what content and offers your competitors are delivering.
Imagine that you are the owner of a small online store selling designer furniture. Your main competitors are two large brands that also sell furniture online and actively use email marketing.
You sign up for their main newsletters to receive regular updates on new products, promotions, and special offers. This will keep you up to date with current trends and marketing activities in your niche.
Competitors probably send out other, more targeted emails. For example, you may notice that one brand often sends out announcements of sales and special seasonal collections. But the second competitor goes even further – it sends its subscribers not only product news, but also regular digests with useful tips on home improvement and interior design trends.
Look how interesting it turns out: one of the brands places a special emphasis on exclusive offers and promotions for subscribers, while the other focuses more on expert content and inspiring ideas for the home. Agree, this is valuable information about the positioning and marketing priorities of your competitors.
By studying the structure and design of these letters, you will gain insights to improve your own email communications. Perhaps it is worth launching a thematic content digest or developing more attractive visual layouts for promotional offers?
What else to look at
Now that you have a general picture of your competitors’ email marketing, it’s time to move on to a detailed analysis of their mailings.
Let’s start with tone-of-voice.
Let’s say you own a cozy cafe specializing in homemade baked goods. Your main competitor is a chain of family restaurants that also actively uses email marketing. Studying their newsletters, you immediately notice that their communication with subscribers is distinguished by its formality and corporate nature. They use a lot of dry wording and cliches, and their letters seem somewhat impersonal and detached.
Your letters can stand out with a warmer, more “homey” tone. Instead of dry reports on new products, you can share sincere stories from the life of your cafe, tell about the secrets of making your favorite desserts from the chef, or just casually communicate with subscribers. This approach will help you establish more trusting relationships with your audience and differentiate yourself from the faceless mailings of your competitors.
Let’s take a look at email design.
You notice that the same restaurant brand uses standard email templates with large blocks of text and minimal illustrations. Sure, it looks solid, but at the same time it can seem boring and uninteresting to the modern user.
In turn, your letters can be given a more creative and engaging design. Bright, appetizing photos, thoughtful animated elements, interactive blocks – all this will make email communications truly memorable and inspiring.
We also pay attention to the mechanics that our competitors use.
Perhaps they offer subscribers exclusive promo codes or special insider offers. Or maybe they organize regular drawings of valuable prizes among active recipients of the newsletter. All these techniques can serve as a great source of inspiration for developing your own interesting mechanics.
They may use advanced platforms with advanced analytics and flexible personalization tools, or, on the contrary, they prefer simpler and more cost-effective solutions.
Basically, that’s all.
But why, exactly, do you need to spend time and resources on a meticulous study of your competitors’ activities?
First of all, such analysis will give you a deep understanding of the market situation. By studying what topics, formats and mechanics your competitors are using, you get a full picture of what interests and motivates your target audience. You will see what is already working for other players, and you will be able to use this to improve your own email communications.
In addition, a detailed analysis of competitors’ mailings will allow you to optimize the content of your letters. By analyzing how they build a dialogue with subscribers, what messages and offers they address them with, you will be able to create a more relevant and effective content plan for your mailings. This, in turn, will increase audience engagement and loyalty.
Studying competitors’ practices will help you identify new, previously unused opportunities for developing your own email marketing. It is possible that you will discover interesting mechanics that are not yet used, or notice promising niches for thematic mailings. All this will give you a wider field for experimentation.
As a result, a comprehensive analysis of competitors’ email activities will allow you to create a real competitive advantage for your business. You will not simply copy other people’s ideas. You will create unique solutions for effective email communications.
Use the data you receive wisely, and it will definitely bring you significant dividends. Better yet, be sure to contact the team of professionals at the email marketing agency in Dubai.
Also Read: Email Marketing: The Secret Sauce for Small Business Growth
