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Analyzing Your Competitors For E-mail Marketing

by GGpaul
11 replies
Hi, I'm doing a competitive analysis report for e-mail marketing. Basically taking notes as to what my competitors are doing so I can get a better understanding before I start doing e-mail marketing.

My question for you guys is what are some things you are looking for when you research your competitors?

So far I have

Welcome message received date | Does welcome e-mail include incent/discount? | Inboxing (Is the email sent through inbox, junk folder etc) | Subject line | Messaging | E-mail received | Frequency.


Is there anything else that you're researching for? Thanks.
#analyzing #competitors #email #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author romesaranto
    Yeah you should take note of the copy of the email. Depending how your market responds take note if they speak to their audience in a personal tone or more of a business tone.

    Not sure about you but I really get tired of larger companies beating their chest with how great they are in the first few sentences rather than recommending how they can help me/their potential customers.

    Not sure if that helps, just saying.
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    • Profile picture of the author GGpaul
      Originally Posted by romesaranto View Post

      Yeah you should take note of the copy of the email. Depending how your market responds take note if they speak to their audience in a personal tone or more of a business tone.

      Not sure about you but I really get tired of larger companies beating their chest with how great they are in the first few sentences rather than recommending how they can help me/their potential customers.

      Not sure if that helps, just saying.

      Thanks bud.
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      RIP Dad Oct 14 1954 - Mar 14 2015.

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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        One thing to keep in mind...

        Don't assume that your competitors are doing everything right every time. Some of them (probably most of them) will be doing the wrong thing at least half of the time.

        Either they are incompetent, or they are testers and you may or may not be seeing the winning variant.

        Monkey see, monkey do only works if you're watching the right monkey.

        That said, since I am my market in most of the niches I'm in, I apply the GAS test. Reading the emails, do I Give A Shit? In other words, do the emails make me want to know more, opt-in, buy or whatever?

        If yes, look at what they did to bring that about. If no, where did they fail?

        If you are your market, that alone will give you a leg up on those competitors. Do what works on you and avoid what doesn't.
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        • Profile picture of the author Bill Jenkins
          Banned
          The main thing I look for when entering a market is what level the competition is operating at. Are they clearly noobies with little skill? Are they pretty decent with a few major contenders? Or is the market full of rabid high level marketers with big gun copywriters on staff?

          Everything you mentioned can certainly be helpful, but the main thing to deduce about your competition is how good they are. Then you can calibrate your actions accordingly.

          Bill
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        • Profile picture of the author GGpaul
          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

          One thing to keep in mind...

          Don't assume that your competitors are doing everything right every time. Some of them (probably most of them) will be doing the wrong thing at least half of the time.

          Either they are incompetent, or they are testers and you may or may not be seeing the winning variant.

          Monkey see, monkey do only works if you're watching the right monkey.

          That said, since I am my market in most of the niches I'm in, I apply the GAS test. Reading the emails, do I Give A Shit? In other words, do the emails make me want to know more, opt-in, buy or whatever?

          If yes, look at what they did to bring that about. If no, where did they fail?

          If you are your market, that alone will give you a leg up on those competitors. Do what works on you and avoid what doesn't.
          I get that. But what I'm doing is taking notes, and from there on I get to decide what am I going to do and what am I going to do to make it better. I can take bits of pieces from each company and utilize it to whatever I want.
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          RIP Dad Oct 14 1954 - Mar 14 2015.

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          • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
            Originally Posted by GGpaul View Post

            I get that. But what I'm doing is taking notes, and from there on I get to decide what am I going to do and what am I going to do to make it better. I can take bits of pieces from each company and utilize it to whatever I want.
            Since you're looking at proven competitors, I take back the "incompetent" part of my comments. Without access to their back end, my comments about seeing the wrong end of a split test are still valid. Maybe moreso.

            If you have the manpower/budget, you may want to get on their lists multiple times, from multiple ISPs and locations, and look at things cumulatively.
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            • Profile picture of the author GGpaul
              Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

              Since you're looking at proven competitors, I take back the "incompetent" part of my comments. Without access to their back end, my comments about seeing the wrong end of a split test are still valid. Maybe moreso.

              If you have the manpower/budget, you may want to get on their lists multiple times, from multiple ISPs and locations, and look at things cumulatively.
              No worries. I am signed up to all of their lists. With different e-mails and what not.

              I've been collecting data as far as what I mentioned earlier, how often they send e-mails, the type of e-mails, subject line, welcome e-mail, incentive e-mail, do I receive the e-mails in the inbox, promotion or junk mail, etc. etc.. I have different e-mails with gmail, hotmail, yahoo as well. But I was wondering what else should I look for if there is anything else?

              Thanks again boss.
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              RIP Dad Oct 14 1954 - Mar 14 2015.

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        • Profile picture of the author Hartmann
          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

          One thing to keep in mind...

          Don't assume that your competitors are doing everything right every time. Some of them (probably most of them) will be doing the wrong thing at least half of the time.
          That's a good point, the old authority trap...just because someone's wearing a white coat and has a stethoscope draped round their neck doesn't mean they are a doctor.

          I sign up to a few newsletters of people in my niche and see what they are doing. Even as an affiliate, I can see what they are promoting and how they are doing it. Test out what they are doing and make it your own...I think that's called innovation.
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  • Profile picture of the author GGpaul
    I know these companies are good, they're our TOP competitors in the industry. This isn't regards to the online marketing niche. These are multi-million dollar companies.

    Basically I'm doing research for the company I work for as well. (Revenue $110 mill a year, 300 + employees).

    And I"m researching other companies that have a higher annual revenue. So there are things that they're doing that the company I work for can learn from and utilize. And do more than what others have done.
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    RIP Dad Oct 14 1954 - Mar 14 2015.

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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Hess
    Another way you can "spy" or "swipe" is by placing certain GetResponse and Aweber strings in Google. For example if you wanted to see who mailed for a particular product in your niche:

    Enter this into Google:

    site:http://archive.aweber.com/ "product name"
    site:http://www.getresponse.com/archive/ "product name"

    Of course this doesn't reflect everyone who has mailed since some marketers won't use product names in emails, but it can give you some ideas...

    Also, just entering different general keywords inside the quotes can produce some interesting results...
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  • Profile picture of the author GGpaul
    For sure. Thanks Mark.
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    RIP Dad Oct 14 1954 - Mar 14 2015.

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