Spying on the Competition: A Competitor Monitoring & PR Strategy
Client: A mid-sized B2B software company in a highly competitive niche.
Challenges We Faced
The client’s marketing was stagnant. They had no idea what their competitors were doing or where the market was going:
“Operating in the Dark”
They had no Competitor Analysis process and were constantly surprised by rivals’ new features and PR.
Losing “Share of Voice”
Their brand’s “share of voice” (total mentions) was <10% compared to the top 3 competitors.
Missing PR Opportunities
Competitors were getting featured in top industry blogs, but the client didn’t know how.
Losing Keyword Rankings
Rivals were building new, authoritative links and taking their top keyword spots.
No Central Market View
Data from SEO, PR, and competitors was spread across tools, making trends hard to spot early.
Outsmart Your Competition
“Tired of being one step behind? Our Competitor Monitoring services give you the actionable insights you need to win.”
Our Approach – How We Solved These Challenges
Competitor Monitoring
We set up a deep Competitor Benchmarking dashboard. We used Ahrefs to monitor all new backlinks and new keywords their top 3 competitors earned, in real-time.
News & PR Monitoring
We used Cision and Google Alerts to track every time a competitor was mentioned in a news article, blog, or press release.
Actionable Insights
This was the key. Our brand monitoring services didn’t just report data; we analyzed it.
Insight 1: We saw a competitor get 3 new links from “podcast interviews.” We built a podcast outreach strategy for our client.
Insight 2: We saw a rival ranking for a new “informational” keyword. We created a 10x better article to outrank them.
Unlinked Brand Mention Monitoring
We used Ahrefs to find 20+ “unlinked” mentions of our client’s brand and reached out to those sites to get a link, an easy “quick win.”
Results
| Metric | Before | After | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share of Voice (vs. Competitors) | 10% | 25% | +150% |
| “Unlinked Mentions” Converted to Links | 0 | 22 | N/A |
| New High-Authority Links (from “stolen” ideas) | 5/mo | 20/mo | +300% |
Free Competitor Analysis
“Not sure what your competitors are up to? Request a Free Competitor Analysis and let our brand monitoring company find their strategy!”
Advice for Marketers & Brand Owners
- Stop just monitoring your brand; monitor your competitors. Competitor Monitoring is the best way to find new, proven-to-work strategies.
- Use Ahrefs to find new competitor links. This gives you a real-time list of link-building targets.
- Monitor for unlinked brand mentions. This is the easiest backlink you will ever get.
- Brand monitoring services are your R&D. See what’s working for your rivals, and then do it better.
Extra Factors That Made It Work
- The Actionable Insights were the real value. We turned data into a “to-do list” for the client.
- The “unlinked brand mention” campaign was a fast, easy win.
- The “competitor-driven” PR strategy (replicating their podcast tour) was a massive success.
