This document discusses how analyzing competitors' content strategies can help improve one's own content marketing efforts. It recommends taking inventory of competitors' content across different channels, analyzing it for topics covered, quality and quantity to identify "white space" opportunities. Marketers should incorporate competitive intelligence into their content workflow, addressing gaps and differentiating by focusing on uncovered topics or distributing content in less common channels. Analyzing competitors' content over time can also provide insights into shifting strategies to react to.

1. How Your Competitors
Can Improve Your
Content Strategy
Ellie Mirman
CMO, Crayon
@ellieeille
@ e l l i e e i l l e • # C M W o r l d

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Content Marketing
has exploded in
the last decade.

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211
million
PIECES OF
ONLINE CONTENT
ARE CREATED
EVERY MINUTE
- DOMO Research

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Marketers are increasing their
investment in content
marketing
- curata
75%

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Content
marketing
drives…
SEO, Thought
Leadership,
Differentiation,
Nurturing, Demand
Gen Campaigns…
… and a lot more

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Content marketing leaders
experience 7.8 times more
site traffic than non-leaders
– Neil Patel

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But how do you
create content
marketing that
drives results?

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Marketers want to spend more
on content marketing, but are
struggling with producing
engaging content
- Top Rank Blog
60%

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Your content competes for attention

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Do you stand out?

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Your competitors push you
to be better… and give you
signs as to how

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How to get a competitive
edge in your Content
① Take Inventory of the Content Landscape
② Find the ‘White Space’ Through Content Analysis
③ Incorporate Competitive Intel Into Your Content Workflow
④ Consider Distribution for Differentiation
@ e l l i e e i l l e • # C M W o r l d

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1 How to Do a Competitive
Content Inventory
@ e l l i e e i l l e • # C M W o r l d

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Who to
Inventory:
• Your Company
• Direct Competitors
• Indirect Competitors
• Partners & Customers
• Thought Leaders

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How to
Identify
them:
• Sales Data & Feedback
• Search Engine Results
• Persona Interviews
• Partner & Customer Lists
• Social Media

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What to inventory
Blog Articles Webinars Ebooks & Guides Newsletters
Podcasts Videos Presentations

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What to inventory
Medium Description Where to find it
Blog Articles
Frequently published, short form content gives
you insight into the range and relative importance
of content topics and keywords
Company website, syndicated to Medium or
LinkedIn
Podcast & Audio Recordings
Audio content can add color to how the team
operates and thinks about certain topics
Company website Soundcloud, iTunes, and other
podcast hosting apps
Webinars
Past and upcoming webinars will often go deeper
into a topic, beyond the surface level
Landing pages on or o the company website
Ebooks & Whitepapers
From top of the funnel ebooks to deeper dive
whitepapers or research reports, long form written
content highlights key target topics
Landing pages on or o the company website
Videos
Video content can give you a thorough look into a
company’s brand and tone with visuals
Company website YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, and
more
Presentations
Presentations posted for the blog or events are
rich with thought leadership and product content
Company website Slideshare, Prezi, and other
sites
Email Newsletters
See what companies send directly to their
prospects and customers in email digests and
promotions
Email subscriptions

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Tag & Categorize
Channel Media Type Topics
Who’s Responsible for CI? Blog Article Roles, 2018 Report
How Monitor Competitors Blog Article CI Monitoring, 2018 Report
Decode Comp Strategy Blog Article Analytics, Predictions
Pricing Page Designs Medium Article Design, Pricing
Popular Career Pages Medium Article Design, Recruiting
Top Redesigns of 2018 Medium Slideshow Design
Measure Product Marketing Resources Ebook Product Marketing, Metrics
Hire Product Marketing Resources Ebook Product Marketing, Hiring
Competitive Intel Kit Resources Kit Competitive Intelligence
Must-See CI Graphs IMPACT Guest Post 2018 Report, Data

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2 Find the ‘White Space’
With Content Analysis
@ e l l i e e i l l e • # C M W o r l d

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The ‘white space’ is
your holy grail as
a content marketer

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look for
uncharted
waters
in your
content map
Understand where
there is a lot of activity
and where there is
opportunity to explore

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Analyze
Quantity
• Total Published by Channel
• Frequency of Publishing

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Analyze
Quality
• View/Download Count
• Social Shares
• Subjective Judgment

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Analyze quantity & quality
Company Channel Quantity Frequency Quality Quality Detail
Competitor A Blog 200 Posts 3 Posts/Week Medium
500 words/post <5
comments 20+
shares
Competitor A Medium 20 Posts 1 Post/Month High
1200 words/post
200+ shares ~10
comments
Competitor A Ebooks 15 Ebooks 1 Ebook/Month Medium 20+ Pages
Competitor A YouTube 5 Videos Infrequent Low
Poor video quality
<50 views
Competitor A Webinars 8 Webinars 1/Quarter Medium 1 hour with Q&A
Competitor A SlideShare 1 Presentation Infrequent Low
Old presentation
<100 views
Competitor B Blog 120 Posts 1 Post/Week Medium
700 words/post <5
comments
Competitor B Ebooks 10 Ebooks 1 Ebook/Month High
20+ Pages
Multimedia
Competitor B Webinars 15 Webinars 1 Event/Month High
Deep Topics Expert
Speakers

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Companies report their video
marketing budget is increasing
- Ascend2 study
69%

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Compete on a different
playing field

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Content Marketing Activity Among
Customer Service Software Companies
Freshdesk Intercom Oracle Service
Cloud
ServiceNow Zendesk
Blog Articles 46 41 23 20 51
Medium Post 6 1 18 0 7
Ebook/Guide/
Whitepaper
0 0 0 5 1
Webinar 0 5 1 1 8
Video 9 4 116 48 6
Podcast 0 5 1 1 8
Last Two Months of Content

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Building a Brand & audience

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Tag &
analyze
topics
• Look at quantity and
quality by topic
• Analyze by overarching
theme or top keywords

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Graph coverage by Topic
Look for opportunities
where topic coverage is
scarce or existing
content is lower quality

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Differentiation through
content focus

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Restaurant POS company
blog Content
Revel Systems
Blog Content Last 90 Days, made in WordClouds.com
Toast Upserve

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3 Incorporate Competitor
Intel into Your Workflow
@ e l l i e e i l l e • # C M W o r l d

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Duplicating content
recently published by
competitors mutes the
impact of your work

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Before creating new content
Review the competitor content inventory to see if
you should:
– Cover a different topic – this idea is repetitive and
your piece would not stand out
– Tweak or shift approach – to keep your content
differentiated
– Go forth! – you found the white space

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Before creating new content
1. Keyword Research
2. Check Inventory
3. Adjust As Needed
“abandoned cart”
lots of content on
“abandoned cart
automation”,
“abandoned cart
messaging”
“abandoned cart tips
for ecommerce”

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Fill content gaps (full Review)

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Fill content gaps (Highlights)
Topic
Covered by Us
(Existing Content)
Covered by Competitors (Highlights) Content Gap Analysis (Opportunities)
Topic A
•Ebook: Topic A Best Practices
(Oct ‘16)
•Step-by-Step Blog Post (Oct ’16)
•News Update Blog Post (Jan ’17)
•Deep Dive in Topic A (Competitor
A, Jan ’17)
•Webinar on Best Practices
(Competitor B, Nov ’16)
•Ebook with Thought Leader
Quotes Topic A (Competitor C, Mar
’16)
• Niche angles and news updates -
lots of content exists today, only
update with news or specific sub
topics
Topic B • 3-Blog Article Series (Mar/Apr ’16) • None
•Explore sub topics - initial content
completed, more exploration
needed
•Deep Dive Content
Topic C
• Blog Article Marketing Angle (Dec
’16)
• Blog Article Leadership Angle
(Mar ’17)
• Blog Article General Summary
(Competitor C, Oct ’16)
• Video Content - only short form
written content currently
Topic D
• Webinar How to Tackle Topic D
(Jan ’17)
• Blog Article Intro to Topic D (Jan
’17)
• None
• Deep Dive Content - very minimal
coverage today
Topic E • None
• Blog Article General Summary
(Competitor A, Feb ’16)
•How to Content - opportunity to
get the baseline content
•Deep Dive Content - full range of
content opportunities

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Just as you are
constantly adding to
your content arsenal,
so are your competitors

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Analyze trends over time
What does this say
about their content or
company strategy?

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How would you react if you
competed with Kayak?
3 of the last 7 posts
were about booking
vacations at work

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How would you react if you
competed with Kayak?
a) Beat them to the punch with a
similar announcement
b) Repromote similar content to
drown out theirs
c) Create differentiated content
around different theme
d) Partner with them on that topic

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Increase in “SaaS” leading up to
billing product launch

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Increase in SaaS Content à
adjust your content strategy

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4 Consider distribution
for differentiation
@ e l l i e e i l l e • # C M W o r l d

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Content is king, but
distribution is queen.
And she wears the pants.
- Jonathan perelman,
buzzfeed

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Who shares content

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Who links to content

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Create a content influencer
relations list
Name Role Organization Background Interests History
First Last Reporter NYT
Wrote about Hooli’s
launch
Gadgets, Widgets
Reached out 1/5 re:
2016 report
First Last Reporter WSJ
Covered M&A in our
industry
Finance, Startups
First Last Reporter CNBC
Covered Hooli’s
funding news
Startups, Widgets
Covered funding in
roundup 12/5
First Last CEO Acme 50k Twitter followers
Widget Industry, AI,
Investment
Following our CEO,
retweeted
First Last CEO Initech
40k Twitter
followers, writer for
Entrepreneur
Widget Industry,
Leadership
Following our
company & CEO
First Last CIO Initech 12k Twitter followers
Widgets, Data
Storage
First Last CTO Globex 17k Twitter followers AI, Data Storage
First Last Blogger bestblog.com
50k subscribers,
weekly articles about
AI
AI, Startups
Reached out 1/5 re:
2016 report
First Last Blogger betterblog.com
90k subscribers,
daily posts on AI
AI, Startups
Reached out 1/5 re:
2016 report

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Differentiate through
channels
Competitor A Competitor B Competitor C
Medium Active No Account No Account
SlideShare Active Active Inactive
Prezi No Account Active No Account
YouTube Inactive Inactive Active
Vimeo Inactive Inactive Active
Twitter Active Inactive Inactive
Facebook Active Inactive Active
Instagram Active No Account Active
LinkedIn Inactive Active Inactive

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Differentiate through
channels

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Content Marketing Activity Among
Customer Service Software Companies
Freshdesk Intercom Oracle Service
Cloud
ServiceNow Zendesk
Blog Articles 46 41 23 20 51
Medium Post 6 1 18 0 7
Last Two Months of Content

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Venture into uncharted waters…
there may be big returns
Launch Video (March 2012):
25M views to date
~60 YouTube videos published
Most have thousands of views

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Let’s recap
@ e l l i e e i l l e • # C M W o r l d

55. @ e l l i e e i l l e • # C M W o r l d
Content
marketing
has exploded
in the last
decade.
You need to
have an
intel-driven
strategy to
stand out.

56. @ e l l i e e i l l e • # C M W o r l d
How to use your competitors
to improve your Content
Take inventory of your competitors’ content
Analyze the quantity & quality of the content
Tag & analyze the content topics
Evaluate the inventory before creating new content
Monitor changes in competitors’ content focus
Identify influencers who share content
Find opportunities to differentiate via channel selection

57. THANK YOU
Ellie Mirman
CMO, Crayon
@ellieeille @crayon
www.crayon.co
@ e l l i e e i l l e • # C M W o r l d