How to Outsmart Your Competition (Without Spending a Lot of Money)

To some degree, competition is good for your business. It pushes you to be the best you can be. It ensures that you don’t get lazy or complacent. But the most fun comes from stealing business away from your rivals. The right advertising methods are helpful in getting your brand noticed and making this happen.
Some people think that the most logical way to beat their competitors is to spend more. However, this isn’t exactly effective. You could end up throwing out more money than necessary, and your spending could overshadow your creativity. Instead, outsmart your competition with quick thinking and savvy marketing that actually wins you the business you deserve.
In this article, we are going to discuss some of the ways that you can set yourself apart from competing businesses, particularly when you don’t have the money to outspend them.

Target Facebook users that have interest in your competitors.

Since your competition offers a similar product or service to yours, their audience is also similar. Facebook Ads has a feature called interest-based targeting that can help you discover people who are interested in your competitors.
To use the feature, all you have to do is place your competitor’s name as the specific interest you want to target, and you will be given a list of people who fit your search criteria. Interests range from general to specific, so take your pick!
Remember to try different keyword combinations, such as the brand name of your competitor or the keywords that the audience might be searching for. Essentially, their audience is your audience, so you want to find the best ways to reach these potential buyers.

Disrupt your competitors’ videos with your ads.

Imagine someone watching one of your competitor’s videos. They obviously have some interest in what they’re watching, otherwise they wouldn’t be watching it. So right there, you are targeting a person who has a genuine interest in your product or service. And you have their attention.
If the person is in the research phase, another brand jumping in to show what they have to offer is sneaky smart. You might have seen this done between rivals AT&T and Sprint or U-Verse and Xfinity.
Disrupting a competitor’s video is easy. Target your YouTube video ads so that when someone searches for your competitor’s videos, they see your ads first. In fact, they might choose to watch your ad instead of your competitor’s, which means you get the brand awareness and the business!

Use Gmail Ads to target your competitors’ emails.

Another sneaky way to outsmart your competition is by using their emails against them. What this means is that you target people who have shown interest in the products and services that your competition sells.
Gmail Ads appear at the top of the Promotions tab in a user’s inbox, and you can do keyword targeting on your competitors’ brand terms.
Let’s say that you sell trendy clothes and compete with the store Gap. You can target the brand name Gap as part of your Gmail ad campaign so that every time a Gap email arrives in someone’s inbox, the ad from your brand ends up there as well. Make sure that you use compelling subject lines that draw attention to your ad.
The best part about Gmail Ads is that you might see a reduced cost because the person is already interested in your solution and more likely to click.

Use the Google Display Network to reach your competitors’ audiences.

The Google Display Network (GDN) has many cool features, and one of them is the custom affinity audience feature. Affinity audiences lets you target an audience that you have pre-selected based on how likely they are to see your ads. This can get expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing, however.
To make the most of this technique, start by targeting the home page of your competitor. Let AdWords determine the brand trademarks and behaviors of the people who visit or search for related content. This helps you get in the limelight and share what your product has to offer to people who have a need for it.
Using affinity audiences won’t make you rich overnight, but it will help you gain some new traffic, interest and sales. The key is getting the right message to the right audience and moving them toward your brand versus your competitor.

Target the Twitter followers of your competitors.

It’s generally not recommended to buy Twitter lists, but in this case, it’s a ridiculously smart thing to do. You’re not buying lists to get more followers, per se, but rather to find people to advertise to. Various tools are available to download the lists of your competitors’ Twitter accounts, and prices usually aren’t too steep.
When you generate your report, you can upload the Twitter handles to Twitter Ads. This will take some time, and you want to make sure that you hit the option to “add tailored audiences.” Once everything is uploaded, you can create ads for this new audience. If they’re looking for a switch or open to something new, your ad will come at the right time and the right place.

Summary

Being competitive is how you stay ahead of your competition and secure new business on a regular basis. But to be successful, you must be alert and constantly thinking ahead. It can also help to partner with a digital marketing agency like WSI Net Advantage.
We will study your business, your competitors’ businesses and how to gain the competitive edge using tactics like the above. Call us today at 510-687-9737 or fill out our short contact form for your FREE, no obligatory consultation and let’s learn together!