This document appears to be a presentation given by Jake Aull of Zen Fires Digital Marketing on analyzing competitors' digital marketing strategies. The presentation discusses analyzing competitors' keyword competitiveness, paid search spending, website size and backlinks, social media presence, and differentiating one's own strategy. As an example, it analyzes the industrial supplies company Grainger, noting that 42% of its traffic is branded searches, leaving opportunities for non-branded keyword optimization. The presentation recommends competitors analyze each other on tools like SEMrush, KeywordSpy and Alexa to identify strengths and weaknesses to improve their own digital strategy.

1.
A
B2B
Camp
Atlanta
Presenta0on
|
October
23,
2015
Jake
Aull
|
Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
404.259.5550
|
ZenFires.com
|
@jakeaull
How
to
Analyze
&
Iden0fy
your
most
Compe00ve
Digital
Marke0ng
Strategy
or
How
to
Defeat
a
Digital
Goliath
1

2. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
2
Jake
Aull
|
Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
SEO
&
Digital
Consul0ng
Services
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Thanks
in
advance
for
giving
my
name
in
referral,
&
please
check
out
my
book
WordPress
SEO
Success!
JAKE
AULL
|
ZEN
FIRES
|
DIGITAL
MARKETING
SEO,
SEM,
Social
Media,
WordPress
&
Websites
404.259.5550
|
jake@zenfires.com
|
@jakeaull
Please
post
+
reviews:
Facebook.com/ZenFires
Jake
Aull
is
principal
of
Zen
Fires;
an
SEO,
web
designer,
branding
digital
strategist
&
good
guy
if
I
say
so
myself.
I
write
digital
marke0ng
books
for
Pren0ce
Hall,
teach
social
media
marke0ng/SEO
at
Georgia
State
University
part-­‐0me,
have
been
cited
in
Atlanta
Business
Chronicle
&
am
Chair
for
Atlanta
Interac0ve
Marke0ng
Associa0on
Search
Marke0ng
SIG.

3. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
3
Digital
Marke0ng
Observa0ons
&
Recommenda0ons
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Are
you
confident
you
have
the
best
digital
strategy
for
your
market?
Are
you
bea0ng
the
compe00on
in
the
right
places?
Are
you
over-­‐saturated
in
some
digital
channels
&
under-­‐developed
in
others?
How
to
know
what
to
do?
This
session
will
tackle
these
cri0cal
up-­‐to-­‐the-­‐minute
ques0ons
with
meaningful
analysis,
observa0ons
&
differen0a0on:
1.
Who
are
your
true
digital
compe0tors
(via
tools
like
SEMrush
or
KeywordSpy)
2.
Keyword
compe00veness
(same
tools)
3.
PPC/ad
spend
(same
tools)
4.
Size
of
site
(Google)
5.
Digital
user
engagement
&
sen0ment
(Social
Men0on)
6.
Social
ac0vity
7.
Quality
of
website
backlinks
(PR
sites,
associa0ons
&
trade
shows,
social
media,
etc.,
via
Majes0cSEO
or
Alexa
)
8.
Compe00veness
via
digital
differen0a0on
(niche
keywords,
blogging,
etc.)
9.
New
media
strategies:
“My
compe0tors
aren’t
in
Periscope
–
is
that
where
I
win?”
10.
Analy0cs:
apples
to
apples
Therefore,
let’s
analyze
the
industrial
goods
and
supplies
industry.
A
website
that
comes
up
for
keywords
surrounding
‘industrial
supply’
is
Grainger.
Google
has
indexed
9M
pages
for
Grainger,
&
the
site
goes
back
to
1996.
Therefore
how
can
we
compete…

4. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
4
Site
Analysis
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best
prac0ces
recommend
to
check
your
broken
links
periodically.
Note
that
fixing
your
broken
links
not
only
helps
your
site
in
terms
of
UX,
but
also
in
SEO.
Number
of
errors
=
13

5. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
5
Site
Analysis
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best
prac0ces
recommend
to
check
your
broken
links
periodically.
Note
that
fixing
your
broken
links
not
only
helps
your
site
in
terms
of
UX,
but
also
in
SEO.
Number
of
errors
=
13

6. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
6
Site
Analysis
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Search
marke0ng
is
the
largest
source
of
traffic
to
the
site
(perhaps
exposing
opportuni0es
from
other
channels?).

7. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
7
Site
Analysis
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best
prac0ces
recommend
to
check
your
broken
links
periodically.
Note
that
fixing
your
broken
links
not
only
helps
your
site
in
terms
of
UX,
but
also
in
SEO.
Number
of
errors
=
13

8. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
8
Site
Analysis
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Grainger’s
keywords,
for
both
organic
searches
and
PPC,
tend
to
revolve
around
their
brand
name
(42%
branded
traffic).
• This
represents
good,
posi0ve
brand
recogni0on.
• But
it
also
represents
opportuni0es
for
non-­‐brand,
product-­‐related
keyword
SEO.
• Considering
Grainger
pays
$24k
per
day
(per
day!)
to
buy
brandname-­‐related
keyword
PPC
ads,
there
is
opportunity
here.
• Grainger
should
be
achieving
everything
they
want
for
their
brand
name
from
organic/SEO
(&
their
primary
organic
keywords,
like
PPC,
do
revolve
around
their
brand
name).
• It’s
0me
to
inves0gate
keyword
strategies
around
products;
give
consumers
what
they
want,
not
just
you
and
your
brand.

9. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
9
Site
Analysis
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best
prac0ces
recommend
to
check
your
broken
links
periodically.
Note
that
fixing
your
broken
links
not
only
helps
your
site
in
terms
of
UX,
but
also
in
SEO.
Number
of
errors
=
13

10. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
10
Inbound
Link
Analysis
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Note
that
social
media
sites
like
Pinterest,
YouTube
and
Reddit
are
heavy
backlink
sources,
meaning
that
social
media
is
an
important
source
of
inbound
links
for
the
site.

11. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
11
Inbound
Link
Analysis
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Note
that
there
are
some
very
valuable
backlinks
from
news
and
government
sites;
digital
PR
works
for
Grainger.

12. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
12
Google
Page
1
SERP
for
‘cement
tesFng
equipment’
results
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best
prac0ces
recommend
to
check
your
broken
links
periodically.
Note
that
fixing
only
hel
Number
of
errors
=
13

13. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
13
Grainger
Asphalt,
Concrete
and
Pavement
Instruments
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best
prac0ces
recommend
to
check
your
broken
links
periodically.
Note
that
fixing

14. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
14
Site
Pages
Indexed
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

15. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
15
Site
Pages
Indexed
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
16
Social
Media
Drivers
to
Website
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interes0ng
that
more
traffic
comes
from
Facebook
than
YouTube
and
LinkedIn
combined.
Time
to
enhance
a
YouTube
strategy?
YouTube
is
great
for
SEO
(not
to
men0on
social
media
engagement).

17. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
17
Consumer
men0ons
about
“Grainger”
in
social
media.
If
Reddit
rules,
then
a
solid
structure
of
content
must
be
in
place
(par0cularly
with
so
many
posi0ve
men0ons).
But
the
“stock
price”
Tweets
reveal
a
lack
of
Twiyer
customer
engagement
strategy.
As
does
the
heavy
role
of
Reddit,
a
social
bookmarking
channel,
as
opposed
to
social
conversa0on
channels
like
Facebook
or
LinkedIn.
Why
not
meet
and
respond
to
customers
where
they
are
in
social
media
engagement?
(just
don’t
be
a
used
car
salesperson)

18. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
18
Social
men0ons
for
keywords:
Posi0ves
only
–
Non
related,
photobucket
mainly…

19. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
19
Keyword
Nega0ves
only
–
Non
related,
photobucket
mainly…

20. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
20
Digital
Marke0ng
Observa0ons
&
Recommenda0ons
_____________________________________________________________________________________
• Recap:
Upon
analyzing
the
industrial
goods
and
supplies
industry,
a
website
that
comes
up
for
keywords
surrounding
‘industrial
supply’
is
Grainger.
• The
site
has
achieved
long
term
accelerated
growth
in
traffic.
• Google
has
indexed
9M
pages
for
Grainger,
&
the
site
goes
back
to
1996.
• Since
size
(&
longevity)
are
major
SEO
drivers,
to
compete,
you
would
want
SEOed
pages
to
chip
away
toward
9M.
• (especially
since
search
marke0ng
is
by
far
the
heaviest
source
of
traffic
to
the
website)
• So
it's
going
to
take
a
lot
of
content
to
compete
with
the
likes
of
Grainger.
• However
Grainger’s
keywords,
for
both
organic
searches
and
PPC,
tend
to
revolve
around
their
brand
name
(42%
branded
traffic).
• This
represents
good,
posi0ve
brand
recogni0on.
• But
it
also
represents
opportuni0es
for
non-­‐brand,
product-­‐related
keyword
SEO.
• Considering
Grainger
pays
$24k
per
day
(per
day!)
to
buy
brandname-­‐related
keyword
PPC
ads,
there
is
opportunity
here.
• Grainger
should
be
achieving
everything
they
want
for
their
brand
name
from
organic/SEO
(&
their
primary
organic
keywords,
like
PPC,
do
revolve
around
their
brand
name).

21. Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
jake@zenfires.com
21
Digital
Marke0ng
Observa0ons
&
Recommenda0ons
_____________________________________________________________________________________
• It’s
0me
to
inves0gate
keyword
strategies
around
products;
give
consumers
what
they
want,
not
just
you
and
your
brand.
• As
far
as
what
SEO
keywords
are
best
for
compe0ng,
do
a
lot
of
keyword
research
to
iden0fy
the
best
long-­‐tail
(niche)
keyword
phrases
to
focus
on.
• For
example,
Grainger
sells
‘concrete
tes0ng
instruments’
and
‘pavement
tes0ng
instruments,’
but
despite
the
website’s
size
and
longevity,
it
does
not
come
up
on
Google
page
one
for
searches
for
‘cement
tes0ng
equipment.’
• Also,
Grainger
does
not
achieve
a
lot
of
web
traffic
via
social
media
customer
engagement
in
channels
like
Twiyer
or
LinkedIn.
• Why
not
monitor
keywords,
like
the
above,
in
social
media
and
engage
in
conversa0ons
regarding
cement
tes0ng?
• And
focus
social
media,
website
and
blog
content
around
such
keywords
to
come
up
in
search
results.
• How?
Some
op0mized
YouTube
video
demos
on
the
topic
would
help
in
all
spheres.
• Would
you
use
social
media
to
shop
for
cement
tes0ng
equipment?
Maybe,
maybe
not
–
but
would
you
watch
video
demos?
• Meaning,
here
is
a
niche,
or
a
long-­‐tail
strategy,
for
compe0ng
with
Grainger.

22. Digital
Marke0ng
Data
&
Observa0ons
October
23,
2015
Jake
Aull
|
Zen
Fires
Digital
Marke0ng
|
404.259.5550
|
ZenFires.com
|
@jakeaull
Digital
Analysis
for
Industrial
Goods
22