DIGITAL STARTUP SOCIETY BLOG — 30 Days to Leveraging Your Competition to Grow Your Online Business Fast

When you subscribe to your competitor’s email list, you can glean a lot of information by paying close attention to what they send, how they send it, when they send it, and more. With just a little observation, you can use this information to improve what you are doing too.    Best Day to Publish – What day does your competition send out emails? What time do they send them out? If you notice a trend in timing, they have probably researched what time is best for the audience. Try matching their day or sending yours out the night before...

One of the best ways to learn about your competition is to follow them and join them on their online communities on social media. Whether it’s a page, a group, or a discussion board – or even the comments on their blog posts – reading and learning from the engagement that happens there is educational. You’ll learn about your competition, the industry as a whole, and your shared audience.    The Channels That Get the Most Results    Knowing which platforms or channels the competition is using to engage with the audience is an excellent way to determine where you...

If you’re still not sure about collaborating with your competition, let’s discuss the reasons collaboration is better than competition when it comes to growing your online business.    Collaboration Reduces Stress   It can be stressful to go to work each day thinking about how the competition is doing this or that better or faster than you. It can also make you second guess your offers to the point that you are frozen in fear. Instead of seeing yourself and them as competitors, see each other as complementary to each other, your stress will be reduced. It’s okay if one...

Working with your competition isn’t just fun, but it really does alleviate the fear of competition. You’ll realize as you work together that you’re in this business for the same reasons – to solve problems for your customers, add value to the community, and earn a living for you and your family. By joining forces, you can boost revenue, increase goodwill, and make your work even that much more fun to do.    Fill the Gaps in Value and Service    This is especially true if you are working alone and don’t have a massive staff of people or deep...

The remarkable thing about locating and studying your competition is that you can let the competition do all your research for you. The competition is already making money and is already profitable. Therefore, the procedures, systems, and processes they use are telling for you and can help you jump ahead without spending the same time and resources to increase your business growth.    The Size of The Audience – How big is their audience? Look to the business's documentation if they’re a public business or within the “about me” section or press section of their website. You can also judge...