| A small business marketing approach can encompass | | | | rankings and that can help you decide on an |
| many aspects of trying to appeal to your customers. | | | | appropriate approach. |
| One area you should definitely look at is competition. | | | | -Gather market intelligence on the reputation of your |
| Chances are that you are competing with someone | | | | competitors. If you can figure out what their |
| for market share either online, in your locale, or both. | | | | weaknesses are, you can do a better job in those |
| Competitive analysis can help you improve your | | | | areas and when people go looking to buy your product |
| business and help you reach customers by figuring out | | | | or service online, they can find out that you are the |
| what your competition is doing…and then doing it too, | | | | expert in a particular area. |
| only better. | | | | It used to be that larger businesses kept a lot of their |
| Small businesses can benefit from gathering market | | | | marketing secrets under wraps and it was difficult for |
| intelligence. And with the advent of the internet, it's | | | | their competitors to find out those secrets. But the |
| easier to do that than ever. You can analyse a | | | | internet makes a lot of marketing facets very |
| competitor's business model from afar and use this | | | | transparent and that can work to your advantage, |
| information to the distinct advantage of your business. | | | | especially if you are just starting out as you can |
| You can do this reactively and even more important | | | | benefit from someone else's hard work. |
| than that: you can do it proactively as well. | | | | Not only can you see who is leading the pack in your |
| Things you can analyse from a competitive analysis, | | | | niche for organic search engine traffic but you can |
| include: | | | | also carefully dissect those results and use them to |
| -Determine which keyword phrases your competition | | | | your advantage. Many small business marketing |
| is ranking for within top search engines, such as: | | | | consultants make competitive analysis a service |
| Google, Bing, and Yahoo! If they are successful, it can | | | | offering and there are tools you can use to help you |
| be quickly evident whether or not those rankings are | | | | gain insight into your competitor's business and |
| helping them and you can figure out how they went | | | | marketing model that will help you find ways to |
| about attaining those spots. You might be surprised to | | | | surpass their success. |
| find out that some of your competitors are at the top | | | | You'd better believe that once you achieve success (if |
| spot by default or fluke. Very little effort on your part | | | | you aren't already there), your competition will be |
| could de-throne them. | | | | looking closely at your marketing techniques and |
| -Check page rank and source of incoming and | | | | strategy. Small business marketing is vital for success |
| outgoing links. You can gather reporting to help you | | | | in today's economy and the web provides some great |
| measure how your competition is gaining online | | | | tools, allowing you to gain a competitive advantage. |