1. 9/30/2011
Know Your Opponents,
Grow Your Fans
Understand what your competitors are doing
and how to improve your marketing playbook.
Information Overload
1

2. 9/30/2011
Meet Jeff
Where Jeff Should Begin
1. Find where his target
audience is located online
2. Find out what his
competition is doing
3. Put it all together and build
an online marketing
playbook
4. Use contests to blend online
marketing channels
Finding Jeff’s
Target Audience Online
35 Years or Older, with a College
Education that makes over $100k
2

3. 9/30/2011
Quantcast.com
• US Demographics
Awesome! – Get a break-
down of what types of visitors
are going to an individual site.
• Audience Also Likes
Find out what other sites a
visitor will go.
• Site Found By These
Keywords
Learn what keywords sites are
being found under.
3 Steps to Finding Your
Audience Online
1. Use Quantcast.com to find the demographics of your
website
2. Compare and match up with the demographics of top
online sites or niche networking sites
3. Find additional possibilities through Quantcast’s
“Audience Also Likes” section.
For example: Users of tagged.com also visit urbanchat.com –
which directly matches their top demographic.
Top Five Social Media Networks
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MySpace Google+
[Stats coming soon…]
3

4. 9/30/2011
Making the Cut
Facebook Twitter
• 32% are over 35 • 38% are over 35
years old years old
• 32% make $100k • 30% make $100k
or over or over
• 53% has college or • 51% has college or
grad. School grad. School
education education
Getting to Know Jeff’s
Competition
Stay ahead by figuring out what’s
working for your competition
Jeff Needs to Find Out…
• Who has the most/least traffic?
• Who has the most/least search volume?
• Who has the best success with organic traffic?
• How are people searching for the competitors?
• Are there geographical areas that are week and can be exploited?
• Are his competitors using paid search?
• What size budget is required to compete within paid search?
• Is social media working? What’s effective in this industry?
4

5. 9/30/2011
www.compete.com
MOST/LEAST TRAFFIC
Compete.com
Compare up to 5 Sites at Once
• Traffic Levels with Monthly and Yearly Change
• Number of search terms associated with site
• Other website that refer traffic
• Top destination sites
• Top tags associated with websites
Using Compete.com
5

6. 9/30/2011
Jeff finds Competitors with the
Most/Least Traffic
Most Traffic Least Traffic
1.Hilton.com 1. Sheraton.com
2.Marriott.com 2. CrownePlaza.com
Google Insights for Search
SEARCH VOLUME, TERMS
AND GEOGRAPHY
Google Insights for Search
http://www.google.com/insights/search
Compare up to 5 Keywords at Once
• Search Trends (insights)
– Seasonality
– Upward/Downward Trends
– 12 Month Forecast
• Searches by Geography
• Top Search Terms
• Breakout Search Terms
6

7. 9/30/2011
Using Google Insights for Search
Refining Search Phrases to Get Accurate Data
The search phrase we used to understand the search volume for the
hotel chain Hilton was:
hilton -prez -perez -paris -hannah -hanna -head
Why? What does that all mean? “-” means “exclude”
If we were to just search for “hilton”, we Use the minus sign in your keyword
would have search volume numbers from searches to exclude that word from the
people searching for “paris hilton”, “perez search results. The results below show
hilton”, “hilton head”, etc… this in action:
Jeff finds Competitors with the
Most/Least Search Volume
Most Search Vol. Least Search Vol.
1.Hilton.com 1. CrownePlaza.com
2.Marriott.com 2. Sheraton.com
7

8. 9/30/2011
Jeff Learns How Consumers are Searching For his
Competitors
Use these to identify how people are searching for the competition and what
search phrases are soon becoming popular.
Jeff Finds Geographical Locations where His
Company is Strong and his Competitors are Not
Crowne Plaza
Hyatt
Sheraton
Hilton
Marriott
BizShark.com | Facebook.com | Twitter.com
COMPETITOR SOCIAL MEDIA
ACTIVITY
8

9. 9/30/2011
Jeff Determines the
Effectiveness of Social Media
Jeff Views Competitors in Facebook
(2010)
Community
Page – Not
moderated
by company Company
Page –
Maintained
by Hilton
Competitors in Facebook (2011)
Great! – Had a head
start and now pushes
engagement through
Getting Better! – incentives
(giveaways)
Now a managed
page and custom
tabs!
9

10. 9/30/2011
Jeff Finds Potential
Engagement on Twitter
Tips for Advanced Searches within Twitter
http://search.twitter.com/advanced
Spyfu.com
COMPETITOR PAID AND
ORGANIC PERFORMANCE
10

11. 9/30/2011
SpyFu.com
• Paid Search History, Ad Variations
and Details
• Paid Vs. Organic Traffic Rankings
• Top Paid Keywords
• Top Paid Competitors
• Top Organic Keywords
• Top Organic Competitors
• Other Domains Owned
• Sub Domains
• Up to 3 site comparisons for:
– Paid Keyword Overlap / # of Keywords /
Paid Search Spend
– Organic Keyword Overlap / # of Organic
Results
Jeff Identifies Competitor
Paid Search Efforts 4,253 Keywords
By Targeting
these overlap between
keywords, Jeff Hilton and Hyatt
could help
keep costs
8,606 Keywords
down by only
are used by all
competing
three top
with the #3
competitors
competitor
instead of all.
20,915
Keywords
6,726 overlap between
Keywords Hilton and
overlap Marriott
between Hyatt
and Marriott
Jeff Identifies Competitor
Paid Search Efforts (cont.)
Estimated Spends:
Hilton.com
$59,650 - $77,570 / day
Marriott.com
$37,350 / day
Hyatt.com
$32,350 - $51,000 / day
This is a good indicator that Paid Search is working for
this industry.
11

12. 9/30/2011
Jeff Identifies Competitor
Organic Search Efforts
Hilton may be
spending
more in paid
search,
because
Marriott is
generating
more results
organically
Jeff is able to pick and choose the organic words
from the overlap chart that only competes with one of
the competitors instead of all three.
Google External Traffic Estimator
DETERMINING PAID SEARCH
BUDGET SIZE
Google External Traffic Estimator
Compare multiple Keywords at Once
• US Search Volume
• Estimated Cost-per-click (CPC)
• Estimated Ad Positions
• Estimated Daily Clicks
• Ad Competition / Keyword
• Daily Summary (CPC, Clicks
and Total Cost)
12

13. 9/30/2011
Using Google Traffic Estimator
Leave Blank
to estimate for
the #1 thru #3
spots
Jeff Determines Budget Requirements
for Paid Search on Google
Keyword Comp. Est Avg. CPC Est Ad Pos Est Daily Clicks Est Daily Cost Local Monthly Searches
hilton 100% $1.63 1.56 6,450 $10,525.58 13,600,000
marriott 100% $1.54 1.26 4,278 $6,678.23 9,140,000
sheraton 100% $2.72 1.6 2,460 $6,705.90 2,740,000
hyatt 100% $1.95 1.53 1,877 $3,653.25 4,090,000
crowne plaza 100% $2.19 1.52 697 $1,524.90 1,000,000
Estimated Total Search Volume: 30,570,000
Summary of Collected Data
UNDERSTANDING WHAT IT
ALL MEANS
13

14. 9/30/2011
Data Summary
Most/Least
Most/Least Search Terms,
Search
Search Traffic Geography
Volume
Most Traffic Most Volume Search Terms
• Hilton.com • Hilton.com • Hotel name
• Marriott.com • Marriott.com • Loyalty programs
• Job postings
• Locations of Hotel
• Types of Hotels
Least Traffic Least Volume Target Geography
• Sheraton.com • CrownePlaza.com • Pacific Northwest
• CrownePlaza.com • Sheraton.com • Midwest
Data Summary (cont.)
Social Organic Paid Search
Paid Search
Media Search (cont.)
Leverage paid search Competitor Search
Plenty of engagement All competitors are
while organic results Budget Range:
possibilities on Twitter using paid search
grow $6K - $81K
Facebook will require: Target keywords that
• Managed business page are used by one or Target keywords used Estimated Daily
• Good Content none of the by only one or zero Budget to Compete
• Direct dialog with users competitors but still competitors that have with all:
• Cross promotion with other have high search high search volumes $23K - $35K
marketing channels volumes
Jeff Builds a Marketing
Playbook
There’s more data than ever out there.
Knowing how to use it, test concepts and
track performance are now core skills.
14

15. 9/30/2011
Playbook Strategy
SELF-PROMOTING CONTEST
Combining Contests, Email
and Word-of-Mouth
• Jeff chooses Blazon to automate a majority of the contest creation
tasks:
– Creating a landing page
– Picking a winner
– Managing multiple contests at once
– Contestant management, filtering and email communication.
• Creates widgets for entry forms, contest activity and sponsorship
widgets that can be placed in multiple locations online.
• Bridges the gap between email and social media.
Using Blazon
15

16. 9/30/2011
Jeff Defines His Contest Parameters
• Prize: Two nights in the
Presidential Suite
• One entry for each field
completed on the entry
form
• Two month duration
• Maximum spend of $5,000
Playbook Strategy
PAID SEARCH CAMPAIGNS
Google Paid Search Targeted by
Keywords and Geographical Location
• Promoting the hotel group and the contest.
• Run for at least eight weeks to gather the necessary data to allow
for educated business decisions on continuation of the campaign.
• Include a budget of $5,000 per day. This will provide enough room
to test out various ads and keyword combinations within the eight
week pilot.
• Target major metros in the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest.
• Tracked through Google Analytics + AdWords reporting to ensure
that the traffic generated is quality.
16

17. 9/30/2011
Facebook Paid Search
Targeted by Demographics
• Run for at least eight weeks to gather the necessary
data to allow for educated business decisions on
continuation of the campaign.
• Include a budget of $1,000 per day. This will provide
enough room to test out various ads within the eight
week pilot.
• Target by age and education level
Playbook Strategy
SOCIAL MEDIA
Playbook Strategy: Social Media
Content Ideas
1. Sales 9. Videos
2. Promotions 10. Commercials
3. Sponsorships 11. Events
4. Random 12. Changes Happening
Occurrences
13. Parties
5. Happy Customers
14. Awards
6. Unique Products
15. Employee Favorites
7. Sneak Peeks
8. Fun Things About
Your Brand
17

18. 9/30/2011
Overall Playbook Process
1. Understand the environment before
jumping into campaigns
2. Start small and test the waters (find
out what works first)
3. Maximize the effective strategies and
minimize the ineffective
4. Track Everything
5. Rinse and Repeat (things change
quickly, make sure you stay on top of
what is going on out there)
The Campaign is a Success
JEFF ROCKS
Jeff Defeats Info Overload
• Understands what the marketing
environment is like out there
• Found out where he could be most
effective
• Leveraged contests to build a direct
communication database
• Identified how to track and improve
• Started a marketing playbook that will
continue to change and increase
efficiencies
18