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Did you know that email marketing consistently delivers the highest ROI for marketers? But how can you ensure youremail marketing campaigns are hitting the mark? One crucial element is understanding what your competitors are doing. It’s not about copying, but about gaining insights to refine your own strategy. So, how do you check competitor’s email marketing? Let’s dive in.
Why Spy on Your Competition’s Inbox?
Think of it as market research, but specifically for email marketing. By observing your rivals’ email campaigns, you can:
Identify industry trends and best practices.
Uncover gaps in their strategy that you can exploit.
See what offers and messaging resonate with their audience (and potentially yours).
Avoid making the same mistakes they do.
Get inspiration for your own campaigns.
How to Effectively Check Competitors’ Email Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide
Here’s a detailed guide on how to peek into your competitors’ email marketing world, legally and ethically, of course.
1. Become a Subscriber: The Front Line
The simplest and most direct method is to subscribe to your competitors’ email lists.
How to do it:
1. Visit their website and look for signup forms – they’re often in the footer, header, or as a pop-up.
2. Sign up for everything: newsletters, special offers, product updates, and even their blog subscription.
3. Create a dedicated email address specifically for competitor analysis. This keeps your primary inbox clean. Something like competitoranalysis@yourdomain.com will work.
What to look for:Frequency: How often do they send emails?
Content: What topics do they cover? Are they product-focused, educational, or promotional?
Design: How are their emails designed? Are they visually appealing and mobile-friendly?
Offers: What types of discounts, promotions, or freebies do they offer?
Segmentation: Can you identify different email segments they are targeting (e.g., new customers, existing customers)?
Call to Actions (CTAs): Are their CTAs clear, compelling, and easy to find?
Personalization: How personalized are their emails? Do they use your name or other personal information?
2. Leverage Email Spying Tools
Several tools are designed to help you monitor competitor email marketing. These tools offer more in-depth insights than simply subscribing to their lists.
Some popular options:Mailcharts: This is a powerful tool built specifically for email marketing competitive analysis. It lets you track competitors’ email campaigns, analyze their strategies, and benchmark your performance.
Owletter: Provides insights into email marketing trends and allows you to monitor multiple competitors simultaneously.
SimilarWeb: While not solely focused on email, SimilarWeb can give you an overview of your competitor’s website traffic, including how much traffic comes from email marketing.
How to use them:
1. Sign up for a free trial or demo.
2. Enter your competitors’ website URLs.
3. The tool will then start tracking their email campaigns and providing you with data.
4. Analyze the data to identify trends, best practices, and areas where your competitors are succeeding (or failing).
3. Social Media Monitoring
Email marketing and social media often go hand-in-hand. Check your competitors’ social media pages for clues about their email marketing strategy.
What to look for:Promotions: Are they promoting email signup on their social media channels?
Content: Is the content they share on social media similar to what they send in their emails?
Engagement: How are people responding to their social media posts? This can give you an idea of what topics and offers resonate with their audience.
Ads: Pay attention to social media ads related to email marketing campaigns.
4. Review Sites and Forums
Customer reviews and online forums can provide valuable insights into your competitors’ email marketing practices.
What to look for:Complaints: Are customers complaining about the frequency of their emails, the content, or the offers?
Praise: What are customers praising about their emails?
Feedback: Are customers providing suggestions for improvement?
5. Analyze Publicly Available Information
Check your competitor’s website for information about their email marketing strategy.
What to look for:Privacy policy: This may contain information about how they collect and use email addresses.
Terms of service: This may contain information about their email marketing practices.
Blog posts: Do they have any blog posts about email marketing?
Case studies: Do they have any case studies about their email marketing campaigns?
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Copying Directly: Don’t just copy your competitor’s emails. Use their strategies as inspiration, but create your own unique campaigns.
Ignoring Your Own Audience: What works for your competitor may not work for your audience. Always test and optimize your own campaigns.
Being Too Aggressive: Don’t bombard your competitors with fake signup requests. This can be seen as spamming.
Neglecting Ethical Considerations: Only gather information that is publicly available. Don’t try to hack into your competitor’s systems or steal their data.
Key Takeaways
Monitoring your competitor’s email marketing is vital for refining your strategies and maintaining a competitive edge.
Subscribe to their email lists, utilize specialized tools, and scrutinize their social media activity.
Remember to customize your approach, respect ethical boundaries, and adapt insights to suit your audience.
FAQs About Checking Competitors’ Email Marketing
How can I check competitors email marketing without subscribing to their list?
While subscribing is the most direct way, you can also use tools like Mailcharts or Owletter, which gather data from multiple sources. You can also monitor their social media and look for publicly available information on their website.
Is it legal to check competitors email marketing?
Yes, as long as you are only gathering publicly available information and not engaging in unethical or illegal activities like hacking or stealing data.
What metrics should I focus on when analyzing competitor emails?
Focus on email frequency, content types, design elements, offers, segmentation strategies, and the effectiveness of their CTAs.
How often should I check competitors email marketing?
Regularly. At least once a month, but ideally weekly, to stay updated on their latest campaigns and strategies.
Can I automate the process of checking competitor emails?
Yes, tools like Mailcharts and Owletter offer automation features to help you track and analyze competitor emails on an ongoing basis.
Recommendation
Email marketing remains a powerful tool, and understanding your competitors is paramount to success. But merely observing isn’t enough; you need to interpret these insights and apply them creatively to your own strategy. For instance, I once noticed a competitor consistently offered free shipping in their email campaigns. While we couldn’t match that across the board, we introduced a “free shipping weekend” based on their strategy, which significantly boosted our sales.
Want to elevate your email marketing? Sign up for a free trial of our platform and learn more about effective email strategies!
Additionally, Stay updated on the latest email marketing trends by reading articles from reputable sources like the Marketing Land or resources from the Content Marketing Institute.
