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 Back in the olden days when I started in marketing, there were agencies that spent their time preparing reports for companies about competitive activity. In those days it was an extremely time-consuming business as it meant driving round to see what posters they were putting up, or tracking which TV ads they were running in different territories around the country.
Even in the days of direct marketing, it was still very hard to make test purchases in order to see what sort of follow-up letter you were sent. So smaller companies often ended up relying on their instincts about what competitors were doing, and missed a big trick as a result.
In the world of online marketing there are few secrets - if you subscribe to the right services you can find out exactly which search keywords are being bid on and how much Web traffic is being generated as a result. And you generally don’t need to spend any money to find out what email your competitors are sending: you can just sign up and watch the messages roll into your inbox.
So far, so simple. But with a bit of extra organisation you can transform this exercise from something that fills up your inbox, to a system that can inform both strategic and tactical marketing activity. Here are my suggestions:
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Set up a shared mailbox (if not on a public folder in your corporate system then just set up a webmail account and provide the login details to everyone on your marketing team).
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Draw up a map of all your competitors. Many companies use a two-dimensional matrix so that they can plot where their own products sit in relation to others.
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Now sign up to your competitors' email marketing programs. Set up folders in your shared mailbox so you can sort the messages as they arrive.
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Look out for things like welcome programmes - how are your competitors handling that crucial initial period just after someone signs up to a list?
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Periodically go through the messages to look for good tactical ideas - interesting subject lines, effective design and use of images, and so on. Record them in a shared document so everyone can use this as a resource for ideas. Resist the temptation to copy the exact ideas - instead use the information as a resource when you’re planning your email campaigns.
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If you have a team of people involved with producing email campaigns then make sure that everyone takes a turn reviewing the competitive email marketing. Get as many perspectives as you can.
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Every three months update your competitor map using the email messages you’ve received to see whether the position has changed. Is one company sending out lots of special offers that might signal that they’re looking to reduce their prices? Has another organisation moved up market with the images they are using?
It may seem like a lot of work, but I really think it will be worth the effort if you can implement a bit of structure to the information that your competitors are kindly sending to your inbox. Just remember that they’re probably doing the same with your email marketing program...
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About the Author
Kieran Cooper is a senior account manager for Lyris' UK office. Located in London, he is responsible for account management, implementation and support of Lyris online and email marketing solutions.
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