The AI-Powered Competitive Analysis: 3 Quick Ways to Score Your Brand vs. Your Competitors

It’s good to get a second opinion.

It’s laborious to see issues objectively, particularly if you’re very near it for a really very long time. Advertising and marketing is a type of issues.

It’s good to get an out of doors perspective, particularly one which has a variety of information. AI is a type of views.

Within the subsequent jiffy, you’ll learn to use AI to look at your personal advertising with an unflinching eye. We’ll present you learn how to use an AI chatbot to check your model to your rivals. We’ll do three several types of AI aggressive evaluation.

• search engine marketing and key phrase evaluation (utilizing a key phrase hole report)
• Web site and content material advertising evaluation (utilizing the sitemap.xml file)
• Messaging and positioning evaluation (utilizing screenshots of homepages)

So, a bit little bit of every part. First, right here’s a video that walks by way of every part…

1. Give AI your competitor’s search rankings

search engine marketing and key phrase aggressive evaluation

For this subsequent technique, we’ll use an search engine marketing instrument to generate a rating report, then we’ll give it to AI to make suggestions based mostly on the info. We’ll use a report that compares the key phrase rankings of our homepage to the key phrase rankings of our rivals’ homepages.

A number of search engine marketing instruments which have these sorts of aggressive evaluation reviews. Semrush has the “Key phrase Hole” report. Ahrefs has a “Content material Hole” report. I’ll use Semrush on this instance. It has a cool venn diagram that I like.

Right here’s what it appears like. You simply enter your website, choose “Actual URL” so it’s restricted to your homepage. Add your rivals. Filter to take away the knowledge intent keyphrases and any irrelevant keyphrases (i.e. “jobs”) and click on the Export button.

Open the file and take away any clearly irrelevant rows and columns. Slightly guide clean-up could make a giant distinction within the out.

Right here you’ll be able to see I take away every part however search quantity, key phrase issue and CPC. I additionally renamed the column headers. The ultimate file doesn’t have something that may distract or confuse the AI.

Subsequent, simply add the file together with this competitor evaluation immediate:

You’re an search engine marketing professional, expert at utilizing key phrase and rating information to conduct aggressive evaluation and discover sensible advertising insights.

I’m providing you with a Semrush Key phrase Hole report, which compares the key phrase rankings of your model to 3 rivals. It exhibits the search quantity, key phrase issue and CPC for every key phrase.

Your purpose is to assist your model’s homepage rank for extra of the phrases it doesn’t but rank for, however the rivals do.

Conduct an search engine marketing aggressive evaluation, which features a checklist of the extra business intent keyphrases are the perfect alternatives. Make particular, data-driven suggestions.

Within the response, the AI breaks down the steps for the aggressive evaluation. It filters the info and defines standards for choosing key phrases. Then it suggests new key phrases for our homepage. Each phrase is high-intent and we rank for none of them. It’s a listing of big-prize battles we’re dropping.

Lastly, AI makes search engine marketing suggestions. A few of them are good; others are irrelevant. However a number of are excellent. To take motion on the suggestions, you’ll be able to even have AI write new keyphrase centered sections in your homepage.

I’m providing you with the corporate homepage. [insert link, paste in text or upload screenshot]

Write three new paragraphs with subheads that align with the prevailing copy, however incorporate among the keyphrases you really helpful above. Spotlight the keyphrases inside the textual content.

How does it look? Is it on model? Or a giant bowl of copy pasta? Edit fastidiously.

This technique is a enjoyable instance of how AI could make your different instruments extra helpful. Anytime you see a report with an export button, give your reports to an AI. Ask it what sorts of research it could carry out. If the report exhibits your competitors’s advertising efficiency, do some AI aggressive evaluation.

2. Give AI your competitor’s sitemap.xml file

Web site and content material advertising aggressive evaluation

Each website has a sitemap.xml file. It helps search engine crawlers discover all of the pages, so it sits there, often at www.web site.com/sitemap.xml, ready to share details about the dimensions and form of the web site.

There may be a variety of info in that little file.

In the event you give this file to AI (or simply inform it the place to look) it could immediately glean every kind of issues a few web site, simply from the quantity and names of the URLs. In the event you give it your sitemap file and a competitor’s, it does AI aggressive evaluation and shares

• Quantity and varieties of pages
• Variations in service choices and niches
• Use of codecs equivalent to case research, webinars, whitepapers, and so on.
• Dimension and topical focus of the content material advertising program
• Native focus and geography

It’s a really broad evaluation from a really small file. This evaluation takes lower than one minute and prices nothing.

Right here is the aggressive evaluation immediate:

You’re a digital advertising strategist, extremely expert in detailed aggressive evaluation based mostly on web site construction.

I’m providing you with two sitemaps:
(Hyperlink to your sitemap)
(Hyperlink to competitor sitemap)

Carry out a aggressive evaluation that compares and contrasts these two manufacturers within the following methods based mostly on insights gleaned from the sitemaps.

1. Web site scope and depth (varieties of pages, variety of service/product pages, variations in classes and niches)
2. Content material advertising (variety of posts, case research, codecs, classes and matters)
3. Native focus (geographically particular pages)

Record energy and gaps of every competitor. Establish untapped alternatives for (your model).

The response will summarize the variations between the companies. It’s an on the spot glimpse into their digital technique and the way it differs from your personal. And it’s a view you’ll be able to’t actually get as a human, shopping round their website.

A few of the evaluation will probably be apparent, however look intently. Chances are you’ll discover a number of priceless insights. A few of the suggestions will probably be overly broad, however don’t be too dismissive. Ask the AI for extra particular enter and methods

That is additionally a great time to ask for a visible. Who has extra of what sorts of pages? Who has extra posts? Extra case research? Ask AI to attract you a barchart.

Create a bar chart evaluating the variety of pages of assorted varieties on the 2 web sites.

Right here’s the barchart that AI drew after evaluating my sitemap to the sitemap of a competitor. The primary one was small, so I requested it to broaden on the classes.

Look intently and also you’ll see an search engine marketing technique. The insights are clear: I ought to make extra business pages and geographically particular pages. Additionally, I would want extra case research.

Corey Northcutt, Chief Optimization Officer, Orbit Media “On massive enterprise websites particularly, be sure you’re contemplating all of the domains that you simply personal! It’s widespread to re-launch a big company website completely, solely to overlook dozens of different domains collected by way of M&A and adjoining advertising campaigns that not redirect correctly. It’s additionally oddly uncommon that advertising is stored up to the mark on the complete stock of those property.”

3. Give AI your competitor’s homepage

Messaging and positioning aggressive evaluation

Writing a homepage is without doubt one of the all-time nice advertising challenges. Greater than some other URL, it must encapsulate the model and messaging.

Give AI two homepages of manufacturers in the identical vertical and it’ll evaluate their messaging. It should distinction how the 2 manufacturers place themselves available in the market. It received’t be excellent, however it’s going to positively be fascinating.

We’ll give the AI full-page screenshots of the homepages. That is one of three ways to give AI a page, and it’s the fitting method proper for this technique. AI will see (and never simply learn) the web page, so visible components (photographs, belief seals, and so on.) will probably be included within the audit.

To get the full-page screenshot, use a Chrome extension equivalent to GoFullPage. Or get Snagit by Techsmith which is an influence instrument for screenshots and markup. I exploit it day by day.

Seize screenshots of your homepage and a number of other rivals. Then add all of them to your favourite LLM together with this immediate. Notice: in the event you use ChatGPT, you’ll want the “Plus” account to add photographs.

You’re a model messaging and positioning professional, expert at understanding the place of a model inside a market based mostly on the homepage of that model.

I’m providing you with two dwelling pages of manufacturers in [industry vertical]. Examine and distinction the messaging and positioning of those two manufacturers. Establish the important thing themes of the positioning of every. Embrace an in depth however concise abstract.

Chances are you’ll be shocked at how briskly and correct the market positioning evaluation is.

However actually we should always have AI evaluate the messaging within the context of the audience, as a result of the variations actually solely matter within the thoughts of your prospect.
For this subsequent immediate, you’ll must add your persona or ICP (ideally suited consumer profile). In the event you don’t have that helpful, you’ll be able to rapidly generate one with an AI persona prompt.

Use the identical dialog with the AI, so it already has the homepage screenshots. Add a PDF of your persona together with the next immediate:

Now I’m providing you with a persona. Create a desk displaying the extent to which the messaging of every of those manufacturers aligns with the knowledge wants of this persona.

Within the left column, checklist the personas prioritized info wants. Create a column for every model on the fitting. Throughout the cells beneath these columns, fee the extent to which the messaging aligns with the personas pursuits and issues.

[Attach persona]

Now you’ll be able to see the comparability within the context of your prospect. If the persona is correct and the homepages actually do replicate the model’s messaging, the abstract will probably be helpful.

On this instance, the AI used star evaluations.

In case your prospect is probably going to have a look at a number of websites (possibly they’re clicking by way of varied search outcomes?) you can provide all of them to the AI for broader competitor analysis. Right here’s a immediate that expands the aggressive panorama within the evaluation.

I’m providing you with two extra homepages. Create a coloration coded heatmap displaying the extent to which the messaging of all 4 of those manufacturers aligns or doesn’t align with the questions and issues of the persona.

The output ought to present that your model does the perfect job of talking to the persona. Right here’s what I received after I gave the AI my homepage, my persona and the homepage for 3 rivals:

If certainly one of your rivals’ homepage messaging aligns higher with the wants of your persona, use this guide for homepages and let this evaluation information the strategic choices about your messaging.

All is honest in love and advertising

Aggressive evaluation is finest executed by a talented, human advertising strategist. However synthetic intelligence is sweet for fast aggressive intelligence (and every kind of market analysis) for a number of causes. It’s good at this type of market analysis as a result of:

• It understands language (model messaging)
• It may possibly course of massive quantities of knowledge
• It has a recent, unemotional perspective

We will’t see our rivals’ Analytics or gross sales reviews, however we will see their advertising messages, their sitemap file and their search rankings. It’s a great begin.

AI is without doubt one of the finest competitor evaluation instruments for fast insights when you’ve got the fitting prompts. And now you could have the prompts. Go get the insights!