Have you ever thought about how your competitors can help YOU?
Probably not. Most people are afraid of competition and would love for it to just go away.
Well your competitors aren't going away any time soon. But that's a good thing because your competition can be a real source of leverage for you.
Here's what I mean.
Think about your best competitors. What do they have that could benefit you?
They have traffic, top search engine rankings, a large email list, lots of sales and most likely they dominate social marketing.
Why compete with that?
I say use those things to your advantage.
Hot, competitive niches are booming with opportunity — for YOU!
So how do you use those things to gain the competitive edge and boost your business?
Here are 5 strategies to leverage the power of your competition. Instead of breaking your back competing against your competition, use them to expand your reach, improve your rankings, build a following and expose your brand.
1. The Search Engine Pounce
Your competitors that have top search engine ranking are reaching your target audience. It might take you a long time to reach that kind of top ranking but you can certainly benefit from their rankings by being featured on their page.
Start by looking at the top 10-20 search engine results for your best keyword phrase. Look at each of the pages that come up carefully. Examine who those pages link to. For example, do they link out to reviews, testimonials, tips, or other resources.
Now think about what content you could contribute that could be included on that page. Contact the site owner and sell them on the benefit of using your recommended content.
Look also for listings that have articles, blog posts and forum posts that you can easily contribute to. If you answer a forum question or contribute useful information on a blog comment you'll now be featured on that page with a link to your site or profile.
2. The Guest Blogging Flogging
You're probably busy every week figuring out our next blog post and writing the best post you can.
That's a great strategy but along with that weekly planning try to slip in an extra post or two that you can submit as a guest post.
Start by finding popular blogs in your niche and get to know the blog owners personally. Sign up for their newsletter, follow them on social media and comment on their blog posts. Help them get to know you. While they may be a competitor of yours you can easily swoop in with the one thing all bloggers need and that's fresh content.
Make an offer to guest post with a topic that you know would fit their blog and their audience would appreciate.
Guest blogging is an ideal way to expand your reach and increase traffic to your site.
3. Social Media Attack
If your competitors are smart they are well immersed in social media. And that's a good thing. They've done all the work for you.
Find your competitors on your favorite social media sites and join their networks, join their groups and get involved in conversations.
Friend them, like them and comment on their content. This will give you exposure to them and their networks.
And here's why this is so important. It has the potential to open doors for future opportunities like joint ventures, newsletter features, guest posting and all kinds of exciting opportunities.
4. List Swapping Blast
All great competitors have email lists and chances are they are large, healthy lists. Once again use this to your advantage.
Find publishers and bloggers in your niche with large mailing lists and subscribe to these lists yourself. Find out what kinds of content they publish and what their email subscribers like.
Get creative and offer them something they would appreciate for their newsletter. Perhaps a product review for a product or service they promote, a case study or maybe an interview.
The benefit for you is that many email services offer an RSS feature which means their emails are also online. This gives you a direct inbound like to your blog or web site.
5. The Joint Venture Adventure
Your direct competitors aren't the only people you can benefit from. Think about the people who market to your audience indirectly.
For instance, if you sell baby clothes you could assume that diaper services are in front of your target market as well. Or if you sell domain names you know that web hosting services are also in front of your target market.
Now you need to think about what related products and services your ideal customer buys and who are they buying from.
When you figure that out contact them directly and tell them you are willing to offer their visitors a special offer or an exclusive coupon code on your product. They will most often accept your offer as it's on a non-competing product and of course who doesn't love offering their visitors something special?
You've helped them and they've helped you.
Work together, NOT Against Each Other
I believe that there's enough business to go around for everyone so why not work together to help each other.
Not every competitor will be receptive to your offers of working together but that's OK, find others that will. It's certainly more profitable than fighting each other for market share.
I scratch your back you scratch mine.
Who would argue with that logic when it brings you both more market exposure and market share?
Have you worked with your competitors lately? What experiences have you had?
Recommended Reading:
- The Guest Blogging Survival Guide
- Email Marketing Blueprint – The Ultimate Guide to Building an Email List Asset
- Ten Things Every Successful Entrepreneur Knows that the Rest of the World Doesn't
