beating your competition

8/3/2019 Beating Your Competition

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[B]eating Your Competition

Written by Andre LeBlanc


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[B]eating Your Competition 2

2011 RivalEater Inc.

Creative Commons

Written byAndre LeBlanc

Please eel ree to post this on your blog or pass it on towhomever you think could benet rom it!

Tank you!
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[B]eating Your CompetitionWritten by Andre LeBlanc

5 01 - UNDERSTANDING YOUR PROSPECTS6 The Consumer Decision Process

7 Awareness

8 Inbound Marketing

9 Awareness - Revisited

11 Food for Thought:

12 Research

16 Food for Thought:17 Engagement

18 Decision

19 Discuss

20 Bond


22 02 - THE WINNING SOLUTION23 Plan of Attack24 Build the Foundation

25 Attract Visitors


29 Generate Leads




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38 Improve Over Time


41 03 - GET STARTED42 Get Started


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01 - UNDERSTANDING

YOUR PROSPECTS


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01 - UNDERSTANDING YOUR PROSPECTS 6

The Consumer Decision ProcessRevealing how prospects become customers.

o market your company eectively (and beat your competition), you have tounderstand how your prospects make decisions.

In a nutshell, your prospect starts this process by becoming aware o the needyour company addresses. Ten your prospect begins to research their needand compare the available solutions [you + your competitors]. Once yourprospect has ound a suitable option, theyengage that option. Ten yourprospect makes a decision to purchase or not to purchase. Aer the decisionhas been made, theydiscuss it with their riends, amily, and increasinglyonline. In a successul scenario, they will orm a bond with the brand andlikely purchase rom the brand again. In an unsuccessul scenario, they willre-enter the research stage looking or other options.

Lets take a closer look at each stage to see how your prospects are ormingtheir options and how your brand can inuence their decision (and ultimately,beat your competition).

ENGAGEMENT

DECISION

DISCUSS

LOYALTY

LOOP

AWARENESS

RESEARCH

CONSUMER

PROCESSDECISION MAKING

BOND

NO BOND

Inspired rom the Harvard Business Review


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AwarenessYour prospect needs to know you exist.

Te awareness stage begins with your prospect recognizing their needor your product or service. It is critical that the prospect makes contactwith your company during this stage. In order to do business with yourcompany, they rst have to know you exist.

Tis is the primary target stage o traditional marketing strategies.Commercials, billboards, cold-calling, print advertising, radio, tradeshows, and yes...even skywriting are traditional ways o raising awareness

o your company.

For a long time, these traditional advertising techniques were the onlyway to advertise to your prospects; and urthermore, they were eective.But, the days o your prospects only having a ew channels and watchingthe commercials died with the disco. Even during the Superbowl,commercials are being ignored more than ever.

Tese strategies are like a shotgun approach to marketing your company.Tey interrupt your prospect and try to gain attention by being loudenough to distract them rom what they are doing. Teir is little

targeting, so the goal is to spread your campaign wide enough that youhit something.

Your prospects have become desensitized to this kind o marketing. Ithis shotgun approach to marketing isnt working anymore, then what is?

[drum roll please]


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Inbound MarketingA smarter, cheaper, more efficient approach.

In todays world, people are looking or what your company provides. When they recognize theirneed, they immediately begin looking or potential providers to ll that need. Tey are able tocompare products, access expert reviews, poll their riends, and engage with providers all rom theconvenience o their computer laptop, tablet, smartphone, hologram, etc.

Inbound marketing is about ipping the strategy. Instead o shotgunning people that may or maynot be interested or even have the need or the service/product you provide, its about targetingthe people that are actively looking or a provider o the need that you ll. Its a much more costeective way o marketing because youre not wasting your campaign ammo on unqualied anddisinterested people.

Now, to be air to our old riend raditional Marketing, inbound marketing wasnt around inthe 60s. In act, its only really started to take root with the growing popularity o the internet,specically due to new developments like social media and search engines. Furthermore,traditional marketing is not dead, it still can be eective, but the most eective traditional

marketing campaigns send the interested prospects online to engage with the company urther.

Tis makes your online presence the place to start.

In bound Mar ket ing. . .-noun

Any tactic that focuses on engaging

interested people rather than blindly

building awareness.

If you have more money than brains you

should focus on outbound marketing. If

you have more brains than money, you

should focus on inbound marketing.-Guy Kawasaki


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Awareness - RevisitedWhere your prospects are looking.

Revisiting the awareness stage with our inbound marketinggoggles on, the prospect has recognized their need orsomething. As an example, lets say our prospect is in themarket or a new car.

In todays world o inormation readiness, the prospect islikely to start by searching through a search engine likeGoogle or Bing.

Tis is the results page or the search phrase I need a newcar. Tese results pages return what the search engine ranksas the most relevant results or the entered search phrase.From here our prospect will likely click one o the top ewresults.

Search Phrase

Paid AdsOrganic


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Youre Company Can Get Found Online

I your company wishes to get trafc online, and what company doesnt,then perorming well here should be a key component to your marketingstrategy.

With 3 billion searches a day and only 25% o them going past the rst

page, it is easy to understand why positioning your company on the rstpage or key search phrases is integral to your companys success.

o get ound online, your company should implement strategies that ocuson generating trafc. Tese tactics include (but are by no means limitedto): Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, and SearchEngine Marketing. We will cover these strategies in a little more depth inthe next section.

Lets continues our prospects journey by entering the research stage.

WORLDWIDE WE CONDUCT

SEARCHES ON GOOGLE PER MONTH

88,000,000,000

THATS...

PER SECOND 34,000

PER MINUTE 2,000,000

PER HOUR 121,000,000

PER DAY 3,000,000,000

Stats: Hubspot


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Food for Thought:-How is your company currently building awareness?

-Is it working?-What are your prospects searching or?-Does your company have a presence in these results?-Do you know what steps to take to position your company better?-Do you know how to optimize your results or higher conversion?


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ResearchSocial Media + Online Community = Modern Word of Mouth

Once your prospect has become aware o their need, they are going to begin researching theiravailable options.

Te research phase has long been a weakness o traditional marketing. Tat weakness iseven more emphasized now than ever. With the availability o inormation on the internet,your prospects can get more details and inormation than ever beore. Using only traditionalmarketing, it is very difcult to target and inuence your prospects during the research stage.

Tis is not the case with inbound marketing. You can specically target your prospects in thestage and inuence their decision. Lets take a look at some methods to accomplish this.


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Social Media Makes Cents (sorry, I had to).

A likely place or your prospects to research their need andyour company is through social media sites like witter,Facebook, and LinkedIn. On these sites they will ask theirriends and colleagues or recommendations and suggestions.Te key is to have an active social presence and be listening orbrand, company, and industry mentions.

Following our example, you can see that when perorming thesearch on witter or Car Recommendations the top resultis a prime example o someone who is asking their riendsor recommendations. Te second result is a good example osomeone using blogging as an eective inbound marketingtechnique that would probably result in a clickthrough romour prospect.

A provider, a car dealership or manuacturer in this example,by listening or this phrase could quickly respond directly to

this interested prospect. In addition, this prospect will likelyeel the love because a company was listening to them and ableto promptly reply.

Lead Opportunity

Likely Clickthrough


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Comparison Sites

Another way your prospects will research their options, is by comparing their ...ehem... options. Sites like CNE and Consumer Reports are devoted to

comparing products, collecting consumer reviews, and providing expert opinions.

Following our prospect on their car buying journey, they have ound a couple o dierent car comparison websites where they can easily compare the carsthey are interested in side-by-side. A smart provider will monitor the consumer reviews or insightul eedback. In addition, they will encourage their satisedcustomers to leave reviews on these sites.

An interesting thing to note, is the site on the right has provided an opportunity or car manuactures to advertise their car in the side-by-side comparison.Tese types o opportunities exist in your industry too, you just need to know where to look.


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Beating your competitors.

Your company can also inuence this comparison dance by tailoring yourinormation and content to show why your company is so much better than thatother company. You can even run ads targeting your competitors name and brandsand show a comparison o your solution versus theirs.

For instance, 3D Cart, an eCommerce system, is using this tactic or the searchphrase Volusion, a popular competitor. When you click on their ad it takes you tothis special landing page which compares Volusions eatures to their own.

Tis comparison chart visually contrasts 3D carts strengths to Volusionsweaknesses. Tis is a smart tactic because it targets a prospect that is not only awareo their competitor, but likely considering using them.

Tese specic examples are good demonstrations o how smart companies havedeveloped strategies to leverage this research stage. Once you know how your

prospects are researching, you can also develop strategies to inuence yourprospects in this phase.


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Food for Thought:-How is your company inuencing prospects in the research phase?-Is it working?-Where are your prospects going to research your companys product/service?-What are you doing to make the results they nd better?-What are your competitors doing?


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EngagementLead nurturing is key to effective engagement.

Te engagement stage is where your prospect actually starts to take interestin your company. At this point, they have researched their available optionsand are looking to take their relationship with your company to the next level.Tey arent ready to commit yet, but they want to test the waters.

Tere are a lot o way to engage your prospects. One o the most eectiveorms o engagement is through advanced content (eBooks, videos, demos,trials, interactive media, etc.) Te important thing to remember is, the ollowup is just as important as the content itsel.

Following up quickly is proven to increase lead to customer conversion rate.Te most eective way to accomplish this is through an automated leadnurturing campaign.

Automated Lead Nurturing Campaigns are email campaigns that areautomatically sent when a lead is acquired. When your prospect engagesyour company, have an automated email campaign that is sent as soon as theprospect engages.

Our prospect has chosen to engage Jeep through theirBuild Your Own app.

(Who doesnt love Jeeps)


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DecisionThe start of something beautiful...maybe

Tis is where all that hard work pays o.

Because your company did such an awesome job o:

1) Showing that your company provides what your prospects need.2) Doing the best dance during the comparison dance.3) Lovingly engaging and nurturing your prospect when they reached outto your company.

Now, your prospect has become your customer...or at least, thats how itssuppose to go.

Your marketing strategy doesnt end here though. Satised or not (and

even customer or not), they are going to talk to about it.


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DiscussThe power to speak life or death...too dramatic?

Te discussion phase is perhaps the most important stage in theprocess (besides making the sale o course).

Your customer is going to talk about your company and theirexperience with it. While they are doing this they are going to

inuence other prospects in the awareness and researches stages.Tis eectively turns your customers into brand evangelists.

What your company needs to be careul o is the prospects thathave decided not to purchase your product and customers thathave become dissatised. As they will also inuence your prospectseectively turning into brand devangelists (the opposite o anevangelist).

Te discussion can occur in many dierent places across the web:social media, shopping sites, comparison sites, orums, etc. Tey key

to owning the discussion is to be listening. Tere are many dierentservices that make this possible and we will talk more about that inthe next section.


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BondGetting return customers.

In order to establish a loyalty loop where your customers keep comingback or more (and market you to their social circles), you need toorm a long lasting bond with them.

Tis is another area where social media can really come in handy.Trough providing interactive content, updates, and useulinormation, you can establish a culture and community around yourcompany.

Honda and Jeep have both done an excellent job at this. Tey both

have over 1 million ans (on Facebook alone) that are actively engagingwith their brands and sharing the brands with their riends. Tis is theessence o viral marketing.


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Food for Thought:-Is your company satised with your visit to lead ratio? (Do youknow your visit to lead ratio?)-Are your companys leads converting into customers?-What are people saying about your company?-Is your company getting return customers?-Is your company getting reerrals?


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02 - THE WINNING

SOLUTION

2


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02 - THE WINNING SOLUTION 23

3 GENERATE LEADS

1 BUILD THE FOUNDATION

2

ATTRACT VISITORS

5 IMPROVE OVER TIME

INCREASE SALES4

INTERNET MARKETING

IN 5 STEPSPlan of AttackIn five easy steps!

Te game winning plan is pretty straight orward, its not about building the most ashy website, orhaving the most ollowers on witter (though both may help); its about building a system ocused onthe bottom line, SALES!

Its certainly great to have the most modern website coded with HML 5 and CSS 3 (which oursare), but is that really going to make the dierence in acquiring a new customer...probably not. Whatis going to make the dierence, is a system that captures your prospects, has been built to orm arelationship with that prospect, and will nurture them into a conversion.

Tats how you beat your competition!


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Build the FoundationWeb Design

Good internet marketing starts with creating a strong oundation thatcaptures your brand and makes it eective online. Tis starts with a websitethat is attractive, exible, blog-enabled, socially integrated, technicallysound, uture ready, and ...um... re proo.

For more inormation about web design,visit our website.
http://www.rivaleater.com/?utm_source=Web%2BDesign%2BSection&utm_medium=eBook&utm_campaign=Beating%2BYour%2BCompetitionhttp://www.rivaleater.com/?utm_source=Web%2BDesign%2BSection&utm_medium=eBook&utm_campaign=Beating%2BYour%2BCompetition


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SOURCE:HUBSPOT

Attract Visitors

Once you have the oundation built, you need to attract people; preerably qualied,interested people. Tis can be accomplished through a number o ways including Blogging,Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Search Engine Marketing, and other uture

industry buzz words.

BloggingBloggingis the backbone o generating trafc. Its benets include:building content (useul or building a bond with your prospect/customer), establishing you as an industry thought leader, and boosting

your search engine ranking.

Blogging begins by scheduling and creating blog entries that maximizeyour trafc generation and engage your audience.


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Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process o getting trafc romsearch engines, like Google and Bing, or the words and phrases thatpeople are using to search or your business solution.

SEO starts by perorming keyword research to determine what thosekeywords and keyphrases are. Aer that your company should optimizecontent, increase link generation, monitor user engagement, and tweakother vital metrics to boost your ranking.

Social Media

Social Media is becoming an ever more powerul marketing tool or both B2Bsand B2Cs alike. It is a great resource to monitor brand sentiment, listen orbrand mentions, scout leads, build relationships, keep prospects engaged, andinteract with your community.

Social networks like Facebook, witter, and LinkedIn, are platorms to build aloyal an base, encourage interaction, and turn your ans into brand evangeliststhat will share your company. Tey key to social media is to engage yourcommunity wherever it exists. (Even i thats not Facebook or witter)

75%OF USERS NEVER SCROLL

PAST THE FIRST PAGE

OF RESULTS

SOURCE: MARKETSHARE.HITSLINK.COM

SOURCE:HUBSPOT


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Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are targeted campaigns that drivenew, qualied trafc to your site. Te most common orm o SEM arePay-per-Click campaigns, but there are other equally eective ormsincluding Search Retargeting.

Te idea behind Search Engine Marketing is to make your companymore visible in searches and the sites that your prospects are visiting. ohave eective SEM your company needs to determine what keywordsand keyphrases to target. In addition, your company needs to optimizeyour campaigns to maximize their reach and eectiveness.

SOURCE: MARKETINGSHERPA


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Food for Thought:-Does your company have control over the amount o trafc its websitereceives.-What are you doing to get more trafc?-Are you active in social media? I so, how are you measuring ROI.-Do you know what words people are using in search engines to nd a productor service like yours.


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Sales Funnel

Developing a Sales Funnel will help you identiy your audience andwhat kind o content and oers appeal to them.

Creating content or every level o your sales unnel will maximize

your marketing eorts and help your company generate leads moreeectively.

Generate LeadsOnce you have trafc, you need to generate leads. Leads can be on amicro-conversion level (like getting someone to like your Facebook anpage) or on a macro-conversion level (like getting someone to ask ora consultation or buy a product). Simply having a contact button is notgoing to generate the amount o leads that your company is looking or.

Te best tactics to generate leads is to combine solid oers with customlanding pages and eective calls to action across all o your marketingmaterials.

L

EADS

SALES


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Landing Pages

argeted Landing Pages dramatically increase visit to lead conversionratio. A landing page has one purpose (sell a single product, acquirelead inormation, etc) and should reect how the visitor arrived at yoursite (Search Engine, Facebook, etc).

When used in conjunction with other marketing services, such asSearch Engine Marketing, these targeted landing pages are veryeective at converting your prospects into leads (or sales).

Advanced Content

Advanced Content includes inormation such as E-books, webinars, podcasts, etc. It ispremium content that your prospects nd relevant and interesting. Te goal o this contentis to build a bond with your prospects and establish your company as an industry expert. Inexchange or this content, they will excitedly become leads in your sales pipeline.

DEDICATED LANDING PAGES

SOURCE: MARKETINGSHERPA

92%OF USERS AGREE, TARGETED

LANDING PAGES

ARE EFFECTIVE

INSTRU

CTION

MANU

ALS

ADVANC

ED

CONTENT

BLOGS

PRESS

RELEAS

E

ARTIC

LESVID

EOS

WEBIN

ARS

WHITE

-

PAPER

SE-B

OOKS


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Offers

Ofers are a great way to get your audience to engage your brand andare a key in generating leads. Te key is to develop oers that appealto your prospects. I done eectively, your oers will capture leads andresult in urther interactions.

Calls to Action

Calls to Action are appropriately placed, well timed calls (graphics,links, instructions, etc) that encourage your prospects to take an action.Giving your prospects an easy and obvious way to complete the desiredaction is crucial to generating leads.


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Social Proof

Social Proois ormed rom the public eedback the comments andreviews o your customers.

Your company should encourage satised customers to leave reviews

o your company on relevant sites and communities. In addition, yourcompany should listen or negative reviews to both directly addressdissatised customers and learn where your company may have roomor improvement.

I love _______ .[YOUR COMPANY]-Happy Customer

_______ is awesome.[YOUR COMPANY]-Brand Evangelist


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Food for Thought:-When someone comes to your site, what is your company hoping they do?-How many leads does your company want to receive online?-Are your companys oers bringing you leads?-Does your company know how to improve lead generation?


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Increase SalesConverting those leads into sales is a process that takes time.Developing automated lead nurturing campaigns and a nely-tunedsales process can make this process more automatic.

Email Marketing

Email Marketingis a great way to periodically communicate with yourleads or current customers. Te more targeted your email campaignsare, the more eective they will be.

Your company should plan and create email marketing campaigns thatleverage your lead data to maximize sales.


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Automated Lead Nurturing

Automated Lead Nurturingare automatic email campaignssent immediately aer your prospects contact your company andsubsequently at scheduled intervals. Tis quick communication iseortless (once setup) and is proven to increase sales conversions.

For the best results, setup these automatic campaigns and makeimprovements by monitoring their success.

Lead Segmentation

Lead Segmentation separates your leads into dierent groups basedon their source and what actions they have taken. Tis enables you totarget your leads better during email campaigns, phone calls, etc.


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CRM Integration

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Integration providesyour sales team the maximum eectiveness in tracking leads rom your

inbound and outbound marketing sources. It will help them determinewhat leads to pursue and even grade them based on interaction. Inaddition, it will help in measuring the eectiveness o your sales unnel,perormance o your sales team, etc.

Integrating your sales platorm with your marketing strategies simplymakes sense. It allows you to target qualied leads, customize yourpresentation, and nurture them into customers.


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Food for Thought:-Does your company have a strategy to convert your leads into customers?-Is your system customized to target leads in their specic stage o the process?-Does your company have a way o tracking your leads?


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Improve Over TimeSuccess is great, being more successul is ...more great. In order to improveyour results over time you need to monitor your successes and ailures. Yourcompany needs to track what campaigns, keywords, oers, etc. are not onlybringing trafc, but which ones are converting into leads and sales.

Your company should also be perorming A/B tests on all o your marketingmaterials to improve them and see what your prospects respond to better.

A/B Tests

A/B ests use two or more dierent versions o the a page, orm, etc. to determine

which is better and what improvements can be made to increase eectiveness.

o maximize your internet marketing eorts, your company should constantly berunning these A/B tests to determine how it can improve its marketing.

A Bor


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In-Depth Analytics

In-Depth Analytics are critical to understanding and measuring marketing perormance.Start by measuring how many visits, leads, and customers are coming rom each source.Ten measure which o these sources are converting into sales, which sources are assistingin the process, and which sources are not converting. Tis will reveal the value o thesources and be useul in deciding how to best apply marketing eorts.

Regular Analysis

Regular Analysis by your team is critical to improving the eectiveness o yourstrategy. Inbound marketing is not a one-time expenditure, it is a constant activity...

i you want it to be the most protable. Tis is why good analysis is the oundation toimproving results.


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Food for Thought:-Is your company tracking the success o individual campaigns?-Is your company testing campaigns, pages, keywords, etc. against each other tosee which is more eective?-Is your company planning how to improve your results?-Is your company staying current with changing trends?


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03 - GET STARTED


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03 - GET STARTED 42

Get StartedWe can help!

Start getting leads and sales rom your online marketing strategy today! oget started, we recommend ollowing the steps outlined in Te WinningSolution section. I you need help getting started we would love to be oassistance.

RivalEater Inc. is a creative internet marketing agency. We are experts ininternet marketing and branding.

I you would like a ree consultation to evaluate your current marketingstrategy and begin discussing how we could improve it,visit our websitetoday.
http://www.rivaleater.com/?utm_source=Free%2BConsultation&utm_medium=eBook&utm_campaign=Beating%2BYour%2BCompetitionhttp://www.rivaleater.com/?utm_source=Free%2BConsultation&utm_medium=eBook&utm_campaign=Beating%2BYour%2BCompetitionhttp://www.rivaleater.com/?utm_source=Free%2BConsultation&utm_medium=eBook&utm_campaign=Beating%2BYour%2BCompetitionhttp://www.rivaleater.com/?utm_source=Free%2BConsultation&utm_medium=eBook&utm_campaign=Beating%2BYour%2BCompetitionhttp://www.rivaleater.com/?utm_source=Free%2BConsultation&utm_medium=eBook&utm_campaign=Beating%2BYour%2BCompetitionhttp://www.rivaleater.com/?utm_source=Free%2BConsultation&utm_medium=eBook&utm_campaign=Beating%2BYour%2BCompetition

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