Digital marketing agency: One of the first steps in developing a successful Fiverr marketing strategy is identifying and analyzing your fellow competitors. You can do this through detailed market research. If you do not know who your competitors are, it is likely that someone else will gain a competitive advantage. For example, someone may have a more user-friendly website or offer the same product at a lower price. After you have identified your competitors, you must stay current on their offers and products, in order to stay competitive in your business.
Read on: 23 Fiverr Social Media Videos Building Tips
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1. Take stock of your primary products or services. You will compete for consumers with other companies on these products. List the products in a column on a spreadsheet and piece of paper. While you may have some tangential products or services that boost your sales, you are not in competition with other companies that sell those.
- For example, you may include complimentary key chains with your company name in every order of t-shirts you ship. This is a nice bonus for the customer, but it doesn’t put you in competition with office supply stores.
- More generally, let’s say you have a pizza restaurant. You sell pasta, but this is a very small portion of your profits. Pizza is where you make most of your money. You are not in competition with Italian restaurants that specialize in pasta dishes, but other pizza restaurants instead.
2. Find companies that sell that product or offer that Fiverr service. Pretend you are a consumer. Search for those products or services using a phone book, an internet search on more than one major search engine, on online marketplaces, and through social media sites. Write five to 10 names of competing businesses in the rows on your paper or spreadsheet. Even if you deal primarily in local business, anyone who sells a product is in competition with internet sellers.
- Looking in the phone book may help you identify local competitors. Looking on social media accounts will help you to identify new, emerging competitors.
- It is important to search both locally and nationally. With the rise in the global economy, there may be a company in another country that offers the most similar product to your own. You may not be able to compete with the low prices of an offshore manufacturer, but knowing they exist can help you focus your local marketing campaign.
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3. Identify your competition. The kind of product or service you offer determines who your competitors are. This is divided into your industry, market and strategic group. Your industry is made up of business that offer the same or a similar service. Your market is made up of the locations where your product and services can be bought and sold. Your strategic group is made up of businesses that share a similar business model with your business. You may have competitors in more than one of these areas. You need to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of all these companies when assessing key competitors.
- You can determine industry competition based on your service, such as supplying foreign tea imports.
- You can determine your market based on tea sellers in your area.
- You can determine your strategic groups as all stores offering the same prices and marketing strategies to sell their tea.
- You should also consider your demographic or geographic market. Your demographic market is made up of people of different ages, socioeconomic classes, and genders. Your geographic market is made up of people from different cities, states, regions, and countries.
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4. Do word-of-mouth market research. Ask consumers in your area as well as your own customers who they buy from or which services they use. Word-of-mouth is often the best way to tell the success of other businesses. Ask friends and family, and then consider employing a market research firm to survey a wide array of people.
- This may reveal customers’ logic behind choosing your product or service in one situation, and someone else’s in another.
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5. Do a simple survey. It is important to survey not only your customers, but your competitors’. Try to get a list of your competitors’ customers, even a partial list is great. Asking your competitors’ customers instead of yours shows you why people chose others’ products or services over your own. It also shows you what you can focus on in marketing to win over new customers. There are a few main areas to craft surveys around:
- Customer satisfaction
- Competitor’s performance
- Customers’ expectations and desires
6. Determine if your market or industry is growing or shrinking. It is important to figure out not only how well your company is doing, but all companies like yours. Knowing this will tell you whether or not the product or service you offer is stable enough for you to reach into adjacent markets to look for more sources of profit. You may also need to redesign the products and services you offer if they are becoming obsolete.
- Stay on top of local and national news. Read the business section of the newspaper. There should be articles from time to time about your market or industry sector.
- Check with the US Bureau of Labour Statistics for data. They compile and publish a huge amount of data about all areas of the American economy.
- Read history books. If your business sells a product or service that has been available in its basic form for a long time, you can learn general trajectories, slumps, and spikes in sales from knowing your history.
Related: 57 Fiverr Best Selling Gigs
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7. Determine their competitive advantages. Go down your list and use the market research you have done to determine competitive advantages. Some may offer promotions, bundles, free shipping, extra services and more. You should have a good idea of whether these competitors offer exactly the same thing, or a slightly different product. Knowing your competitive advantages and weaknesses relative to your key competitors gives you a leg up in crafting your local marketing campaign.
8. Investigate your competitors’ sales process. This is important in determining how their entire sales process works. In some businesses, such as retail merchandise, this will be easier than others. If you do not have the option to analyze the competition from website through sale, then you should read reviews and peruse the Better Business Bureau website.
9. Use internet business software to track your competitors’ success. There are numerous web tools that allow you to track how often a business gets searched for on the internet, and what people’s keywords were. Some are free, and higher powered versions cost money. It is useful to know where people are located when they are accessing your competitors’ webpages, and what time of day.
- The so-called sales process consists of determining what you will sell, the demand, the valuation, and how you will deliver the good or service. Having an idea of your key competitors’ thought process at each stage of the sales process helps you determine your and their competitive advantage.
- If you are looking at local companies that offer the same thing, you may be able to call them and inquire about their sales practices. Do not to mislead them into thinking you are a buyer, as this is considered a somewhat unethical business practice.
- Look at your competitors’ social media pages to get an idea of their marketing strategies. Your competitors may advertise specials and give people a chance to tell them what they liked and didn’t like. Since this is a platform intended for anyone to use, there is not anything unethical about doing this kind of research.
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10. Sign up to receive your competitors’ catalogs, mailings or e-newsletters. It is important to be well versed on your competition at all times, since businesses are always changing and growing. If you can mention what other companies offer, and how your business does it better, it is likely to help during the sales process. This will keep you up to speed on what kind of specials and other advertising campaigns they make use of.
- This is not necessarily unethical since you are getting a letter that is sent out as common knowledge to anyone who submits their email address. However, if you are contacted to ask about your interest in the company, don’t lie or mislead them.
11. Compare yourself to your competitors. Put your strengths and weaknesses next to each of the competitors you have researched. Be honest with how well you compete against your competition, so that you can strengthen your weaknesses and thus your marketing strategy. You will want to target customers based on your competitive advantages, and spend less effort on the areas in which you have a disadvantage.X
12. Look for companies with a competitive advantage. Your key competitors are the ones who take your customers, even if those companies do not sell the same exact product or service as you do. Before you begin developing print and online advertising campaigns that highlight an advantage or unique service, make sure you are the only business, or original business, providing that advantage or service.
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13. Determine if you have any barriers to competing with others. There are many different types of barriers to business. Take stock of your business and identify any potential barriers. For example, is your location a potential barrier? Do you have the appropriate licenses to do business? Are there any potential issues with your supply chain?14. You will also need to look for ways to overcome your barriers. For example, if your location is a barrier, consider moving to a new location or look for ways to bring more customers to you. If you lack a necessary license, find out what you need to do to obtain it. If you are having problems with one of your suppliers, contact them about the problem you are having or find for a new supplier.
15: Be smart with content marketing
Content marketing is essential these days. Whether it’s through blogs, YouTube videos, or infographics, businesses are using content marketing to attract more customers and engage with current ones. But creating content will only benefit your business if it’s unique, high quality, and helpful to customers. If your customers can get the same tips and information elsewhere, your content is redundant.
When you create content, teach your customers something new, and use your expertise, including as much unique research as possible. Make your content one of a kind – your customers will reward you with their loyalty.
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16. Choose your partners carefully
Online partnerships often involve linking from one website to another and Google considers such links to be a recommendation from website A to website B. The stronger and more authoritative the source of the recommendation is, the bigger the impact it will have.
For example, which recommendation would you consider to be more reliable and trustworthy: ESPN’s website that recommends another sports website or a small website unrelated to sports that recommends a sports website? Obviously, the bigger and more authoritative the websites you’re connected to, the higher your Google ranking can get.
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17. Make your website mobile friendly
Mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular. In fact, nearly 60% of searches are now made from mobile devices. In November , Google announced its “mobile first indexing” a new Google algorithm that bases your ranking on the mobile version of your website.
Therefore, make sure that every page on your website is mobile friendly using the Google Mobile Friendly Test. Know that having a mobile friendly website is very important, and if your website doesn’t incorporate mobile responsiveness, you need to change it so it does.
18. Measure your performance
SEO takes time and so you probably won’t see the results of your work for 3-6 months. At the same time, it’s important to know where you stand before you start. Google Analytics and Search Console are two crucial tools that provide great information about your website. Make sure to use them both and then monitor the following items:
Google Analytics:
- Monthly organic Google traffic to your website
- Monthly organic Google traffic to each page
- Main sources of web traffic, such as organic Google searches, Facebook, email newsletters, referrals, and so on
- The most effective landing page for conversion
- Desktop traffic vs. mobile traffic and their performance (i.e. exit rate, conversion rate, average session duration)
Google Search Console:
- Top keywords that lead from Google to your website
- Brand keywords vs. non-brand keywords (i.e. keywords including your brand name vs. those that don’t)
- Average keyword rankings.
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19. Define your strategy
First of all, research what your competitors are doing:
- What keywords are they using?
- What messages do they use?
- What words do they mention in their ads?
- What locations do they target?
- What does their landing page look like?
You can research both your direct competitors and bigger companies in your field. It’s a smart move to imitate a competitor’s strategy at first, because chances are good that they’ve already tested different messages and are currently running optimized ads, so you’ll have a starting advantage. From there you can optimize your own campaigns by tweaking them to best capture your audience’s attention.
20. Establish clear KPIs
Understand your KPIs and what you’re trying to achieve with your campaign so that you are using your resources wisely. Don’t simply spend money to get traffic to your website, because traffic alone is not what you need. You need to have a clear KPI that will show the return on your investment and help you engage with your audience and build a long-term relationship with them.
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21. Test for quality and effectiveness
Just as with Facebook, when you begin your first Adwords campaign, do a QA test to make sure your tracking works. Find your Adwords ad by searching it on Google, clicking it, and making sure it directs you to the right page and prompts you to do whatever you’d like your users to do. Also make sure that your ad appears in the Adwords tracking system.
22. To save money, run long tail campaigns
You can still run Adwords campaigns even if your budget is tight, but they’ll work differently than big budget ones. When your budget is small, you don’t want to use common or generic keywords that signal low purchasing intent. Instead, use long tail (longer) keywords that signal bigger purchasing intent.
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23. Segment your audience
Facebook gives you the ability to target different users with different ads. This can be used to your advantage if, for example, your business targets both men and women who vary in geographic location and in age – a 20-year-old European woman will notice different ads than a 45-year-old American man. Segmenting your audience will allow you to show the most persuasive ads and images to the different segments of your target audience.
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24. Run a simple quality test
When you begin your Facebook campaign, take few minutes to make sure your tracking works. Find your ad on Facebook, click on it, and verify that the ad does what you’d like it to do. For example, you wouldn’t want to spend money on advertising without being able to count your paying customers.
25. Optimize with oCPM targeting
When you run Facebook ads, there’s usually an action you want users to take, such as register on your website, submit a form, or buy your product. If you notice that some users are taking action you’re aiming for while others aren’t, you can start optimizing your campaign to prompt more of your target audience to carry out the desired action.
26. Get straight to the point
People don’t log into Facebook with the intention of finding your product or clicking on your ads. So if you want to capture their attention, you need to do it with a clear message. If your message is too sophisticated or uses elaborate metaphors or complicated explanations, you risk losing your audience.
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27. Try out several images to find the most effective one
With Facebook advertising, image is everything and will make or break your success. So make sure that you test as many different images, colors, and shapes to find out which type of image best draws and keeps your audience’s attention.
28. Find relevant partnership opportunities
Study your target audience and discover their needs so that you can then understand what queries they’re searching for (answerthepublic.com is very helpful for this). Next, search these queries on Google and try to see if you can partner with the websites listed on the first page of search results.
These websites are getting the most traffic, so if they agree to promote you on their website, you’ll soon find more customers.
29. Find your competitors’ partnerships
Search Google for your competitor + review or any other business related to your niche + review. This search will reveal the websites that wrote reviews about your competitors or similar businesses. These reviews may also link to your website. In order to have a positive online presence, you need to get involved as much as possible with the websites that write reviews about you. First, make sure the reviews are positive. Second, get a link from the review back to your website.
This link will help get you business, because users who searched for your brand + review are potential customers who are most likely to buy if they see positive reviews about you.
30. Content, content, content
When partnering with other companies, content usually works better than banners. Why? If a banner doesn’t help with conversion, it’s useless. But content is education, branding, and information. It informs users about you and your business, even if the user doesn’t buy your product or service right away.
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31. Ensure mobile responsiveness
Nowadays, over 70% of users open their emails on their mobile devices. One of the most important aspects of email marketing is to ensure your emails look good on mobile devices. There are several free email tools that allow you to preview how your email will appear on a generic mobile device.
To make sure your email looks perfect across all devices (iOS, Android, Outlook mobile, etc.) check it live on a few different operating systems, especially on Android and iOS.
32. Avoid SPAM words
Certain words are constantly flagged as spam and will condemn your email to the SPAM folder. The best practice is to avoid these words completely, so make sure you are aware of SPAM words particular to your industry (examples include “affordable,” “cheap” and “lowest price”) and remove them from all of your communications.
33. Celebrate your brand’s magic moments
In every life there are “magic moments” that should be celebrated. For Fiverr users, these “magic moments” could include the first time a seller opens his Gig or makes a sale. Take time to map out these moments and celebrate them with your customers. These emails tend to have a much higher impact than regular newsletters or offers, as they relate to an action the customer performed while engaged with your product.
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34. Test Different Messages
When you sell a product, you can promote it by:
- Emphasizing your customer’s needs and how your product answers them
- Emphasizing the features and functions of your product
- Emphasizing the advantages of your product compared to your competition
It’s a good idea to test which of these messages are the best at convincing your customers to buy your items so that you can focus on the one that is most effective in bringing in sales.
35. Test whiteboard and explainer videos
If you’re running Facebook and Adwords campaigns, add a whiteboard or explainer video to your landing page and see if you get more clicks, leads and registrations. There’s a good chance that your audience would prefer watching a short and funny video about your product instead of reading about it.
36. Optimize loading time
Slow loading time is a major reason for exit rate. Especially on mobile, every extra second you make users wait you lose more users. If you use paid advertising, make sure your loading time is no longer than four seconds on mobile – fixing your loading time will optimize your conversion.
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38. Make your forms easy to use
If your landing page contains a form, there are two ways you can go about optimizing it:
- Minimize the number of fields as much as possible – short forms usually have better completion rates.
- Add two fields at the beginning of your form that ask users easy questions they’ll be happy to answer. This way, you’ve already prompted the user to start your form. When users start a form, they’re more likely to finish it.
Compare the completion rate of these two options, and see which type works best for you.
39. Add Urgency To Your Copy. ASAP.
The longer your customer waits before taking an action, the less likely this action will happen. One way of incorporating urgency in your copy is attaching a specific timeframe or deadline to your messages i.e. short-term promotions. Some options:
40. Make It Rhyme
The easier something is to read, the easier it is to believe. The more your customers believe you, the more they are persuaded to buy. To keep it short “if it’s like a song, it can’t be wrong.” Rhymes are also easier to remember. At the end of this blog post, see what lines stick out.
My guess is “If it’s like a song, it can’t be wrong” will be one of them. The more your users remember you, the higher the chances they will choose your product over competitors.
41. Ask and you shall receive
Whether it’s in a Landing Page Header, a Facebook Ad, or a subject line for a retention campaign, asking questions that get your readers saying “yes” increases the probability they will say “yes” again. This is especially true for direct response campaigns. If you want a direct response, give your customers a question to respond to. Try to stay away from open-ended questions. To keep it simple, stick to asking Yes/No questions.
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Note that If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs. Fiverr companies include ClearVoice, CreativeLive, Working Not Working, SLT Consulting and Stoke Talent. Don’t get left behind – come be a part of the future of work by visiting fiverr.com, read our blog or Sign In to Fiverr