What’s the first step to creating unique, differentiated content? Analyze the content created in your market. You need to know what your neighbors, friends, and competitors are publishing to ensure that you’re creating the most engaging, differentiated content. Completing a competitive content analysis helps you stay one step ahead in your content marketing strategy and use your competitors’ efforts to your advantage.
To do a competitive content marketing analysis, take a list of your content marketing competitors and follow these three steps:
Step 1: Take inventory of your competitors’ content
Catalog each content medium and each content site. In other words, capture everything from blog articles to videos on and off their website. Each content type gives insight into the level of content investment, the format types their audience enjoys, and the range and relative importance of topics and keywords. Content types include:
- Blog articles: Frequently published, short-form content gives insight into the range and relative importance of content topics and keywords.
- Podcast and audio recordings: Audio content can add color to how the team operates and thinks about certain topics.
- Webinars: Past and upcoming webinars will often go deeper into a topic of particular interest to the audience.
- E-books and white papers: From top-of-the-funnel e-books to deeper-dive white papers or research reports, long-form written content highlights key target topics.
- Videos: Visual content can give you a more thorough look into a company’s brand and tone.
- Presentations: Whether SlideShare posts or another format, presentations are rich with thought leadership and product content.
- E-newsletters: Emails reveal what content companies think is most valuable to send directly to their prospects and customers.
Step 2: Evaluate content quantity and quality
Once you’ve inventoried your competitors’ content, it’s time to evaluate it. It’s important to understand the extent of the focus each type of content receives from your competitors and how the audience receives it. Take stock of how many types…
