How to Spy on Your Local Competitors Online

Whatever kind of business you're in, you have competitors. Even if you have a business in a small town, chances are there's someone there vying for the same customers as you. Have you ever thought about how helpful it would be to know what your competitors are doing to attract customers? You can go into their business and look around, but that won't help you understand what draws customers to their door. What will help, however, is to spy on them online.

Why you should spy on the competition

Some business owners shy away from the idea of spying on their competitors. The word „spying“ can have a negative connotation, but in this situation it doesn't have to. If you had a competitor advertising on TV, you certainly wouldn't run away or cover your eyes when their adverts were broadcast. On the contrary, you would most likely watch them with great interest. You would want to know what he is saying and who he is addressing. Spying on your competitors online is no different from watching their commercials or paying attention to their adverts in the local paper. It's a way to evaluate them. Not only can it help you understand who your competitors are, but it can also help you recognise opportunities they may be missing. Let's look at an example. Imagine your competition has a Facebook page with a large following. However, when you look at the page, you notice that there are some customer service complaints that have not been addressed. What does that tell you? It means that the company is not using social media to improve their customers' experience. This observation can be an opportunity for you. Good customer service on your Facebook page can help you stand out from the competition. Spying on your competitors can not only help you identify marketing opportunities:

• Do you understand how they want to be perceived online
• How they set themselves apart from the competition (that is, from you!)
• What their future plans are
• How much traffic your website and your social media pages receive
• How engaged your customers are
• What their customers say about them

The information above can help you reach your customers better and stand out from the competition – and the only way to get it is by spying on your competitors. If you need an extra incentive, remember that there’s a good chance your competitors are already spying on you! You might as well reciprocate.

Tools to help you spy on the competition

It may seem time-consuming to spy on your competitors online, but it doesn't have to be. You can take the time to gather some basic information yourself and then utilise the dozens of useful tools available to make the task easier. Gathering basic information To spy on your competitors, you first need to gather some basic information. For example:

• The company's website URL
• The address of their Facebook page
• Your Twitter handle
• The keywords they are targeting on their website

Once you have this basic information, you can set up automatic monitoring with it. There are a variety of tools you can use, and many of them are free. Here are some of the most useful:

1. Google Alerts is a free tool from Google. It allows you to set up notifications and receive an email every time one of your competitors is mentioned online. You can also use it to monitor keywords if you wish.
2. SocialMention is a free search tool that lets you find out when your competitors are mentioned on social media, blogs, and videos. You can use it to search for your competitors' names or keywords. You also have the option to subscribe to an RSS feed for your chosen search terms so you don't miss anything.
3. Marketing Grader is another free tool that assigns a grade to you (or your competitor) depending on how successful your online marketing efforts are. It's particularly useful because it draws information from various sources to determine the grade, including blogging, SEO, and social media.
4. MonitorBacklinks It's a paid tool, but a free trial is offered. You can use it to check your competitors' backlinks – a vital tool for SEO – and while you're there, you can check your own too!
5. Topsy is a free tool that allows you to track your competitors' activities on Twitter and other sources back to 2006. There is also a premium option that allows you to monitor links, videos, photos and industry influencers.
6. SEMRush is another free tool that allows you to get a variety of information about your competitors' websites. It provides you with data on keywords, search rankings, keyword traffic, and ad performance. What's even better is that all the data is presented in an engaging graphical format, making it easy to read and analyse.
7. SpyOnWeb is a free tool that allows you to track down all your competitors' websites. Some companies have blogs or ancillary websites, and SpyOnWeb lets you track down the sites using the IP address, so you can connect the dots.

These are just some of the tools you can use to spy on your competitors. Of course, it can also be helpful to do some of your spying yourself. You can learn a lot by following your competition on Twitter or Facebook, or by subscribing to their blog's RSS feed. The most important thing is that the more information you have, the better you can differentiate yourself from the competition. As a local business owner, you know you're competing for the same customers, and sometimes you don't need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to online marketing. Sometimes You can turn your competitors' good ideas into profits for your own business with a little clever spying.