There are many things in life that are easier said than done. One example of that is one of the most powerful marketing concepts you could ever come across, it’s the idea of reverse engineering. It seems like every experienced and effective marketer that I have come across loves saying the phrase “reverse engineering”. All the gurus go on and on, how this is the missing link to getting tons of traffic, tons of conversions and is the secret that nobody knows about. Yes, I agree, 100%. Without question it’s incredibly powerful when it comes to generating real numbers and data with respect to traffic, conversions and optimization. However, that last part, about it being this “big secret”, well, that’s not so accurate. A lot of strategies out there are tapping into this process, a lot of marketing agencies are deploying this concept to any business owner who will listen. In the digital marketing world, it’s a known thing and make no mistake about it, it works. If you really want to create stellar content that can compete and surpass your competitors, be a strong player in your niche, so you can achieve better results, you need to reverse engineer.
The problem is, the more people keep repeating it and using it frivolously because it’s what they think might be impactful in the moment and it’s what people want to hear… the less clear it becomes and the more adapted versions it inherits. Equally frustrating, there are some out there who dabble in crossing that line of what’s ethical and it starts to give it a negative connotation. But in fact, when it’s done the right way, with integrity… when you drill down, put in the work and utilize this strategy in it’s truest form… it allows you to get an ethical, upper hand and can produce massive results.
First let me say, there is a LOT to it and there’s only so much you can squeeze into a quick blog post, so keep that disclaimer in mind as you read. But I’ll say this, when working with a client I wouldn’t even dream about doing a single stitch of digital marketing or implementing a single morsel of strategy without diving into some competitor analysis and layers of data research, all focused on providing me with all the information, data and laser focus that’s needed to really utilize “reverse engineering”. I have some systems in place that I go through and processes in place that I have spent loads of time establishing. It’s a big, important piece to the puzzle.
For starters, you’ll want to take a look at your competition’s home online, their website. There’s one tool I tend to use most SEMrush. You can start by simply entering their website address and it will spit out a full report. You’ll be able to get a view and understanding how they are competing in the market and how their website is performing.
Next, if you look at Google Trends & Analytics, Keyword Softwares, etc… you can begin to uncover the themes that are hot in your niche. If you noticed that your top ten competitors keep talking about the same topic and might be even willing to pay for some of that exposure in the form of Google Ads and Keyword Blog driven SEO, you know pretty well that somehow, some way the target audience that you were trying to reach out to is interested in those topics. Why? If your competitors don’t talk about them, then it means that their market is not interested enough. There’s a reason why all your competitors seemed to talk about that same stuff because there’s enough built-in demand for it. This is how you begin to build on what they are doing right. NOT COPY. Your just evaluating the playing field and seeing what the established rules are. In a way, you’re making your competitors do your homework by reverse engineering them by simply observing them and paying attention to patterns. Again, you are NOT COPYING. Your just gathering info. By connecting the dots, you are able to build on your strengths of how you can compete while avoiding the weaknesses that may hurt you and cause you to lag behind.
One of the best ways to build on strengths, is to improve your own content based on, or pivoting off of your competitors’ content. How do you go about doing this? How do you come up with content that is so compelling that it will draw visitors away from your competitors and shift them to your site or social media pages?
Tell you what… check back in a few days… I’ll still be writing all the methods and strategies… no really. There’s a whole bunch to it, to put it mildly. Additionally, you really need to factor in your niche, product or service, who your ideal customers are, etc, etc…. The list goes on and on.
But in short, here’s a few quick points to consider and will help to get you going in the right direction.
You can improve content by making it longer. There are tons of short descriptions of photos. Make sure that your photos are up-to-date, this doesn’t require much effort. Also, make sure that the landing page content that you feature has multimedia content, for example, when you’re drawing traffic from Facebook or Instagram you’re dumping all that traffic to a page, at the very least, include some photos and videos… and also offer some guided direction. Don’t just bring them to a page that makes them feel like they landed in a big plate of spaghetti, with numerous options and rabbit holes to get lost in. I’m not saying don’t empower them, let them control their own destiny, they should have choices to learn and explore. But you need to be the tour guide to their experience so it keeps them on track and more importantly keeps them moving in the big picture direction you ultimately want them to go. Make sure your stuff is easy to understand. You have to remember that consumers can be counted on to do nothing if they are a little bit confused. Do not confuse them, avoid that problem. Finally, format your content to be read. You have to feature a very easy to process format, which involves better pictures, fonts and better spacing. Lastly, learn to share this new and improved content… post on your social networks and ask for feedback. Get people engaged, people enjoy being heard.. Make them the experts and ask for their opinions.
Lastly, you’ll notice that your competitors often circle the same groupings of influencers. You can and should be paying attention to the hashtag reverse engineer tendencies you are seeing, this is a great place to start. When I say start, I mean do not end with them. Use them as starting points. You will quickly realize that some similar hashtags end up producing more traffic. Increase your visibility by branching out from the initial pool of hashtags that you reverse engineered from your biggest competitors. These are jumping off points, where you can take it, is all up to your creativity and innovation.
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