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Superman vs. Lex Luther.

Batman against the Joker.

Pepsi against Coca-Cola.

Burger King v McDonald & # 39; s.

Chick-Fil-A vs. Popeyes.

Every good story is associated with an old-fashioned competition. And as a society we are grateful for that. How else would we have spent hours of our time if Popeye hadn't sold chicken sandwiches last year and we had to call all over town to find out where they were still available?

No? Only we…?

The point is that a little competition is good for everyone. That keeps things interesting. In fact, some of the best marketing campaigns have emerged from these known enemies.

Everyone remembers these ads from the 90s, and we can all say that we have experienced the pain associated with freezing the PC. So these commercials were pretty accurate. (So ​​you can't say I'm on #teammacforever)

Do you remember when Burger King became a villain and started giving away Whoppers for geolocating McDonald's restaurants? That was one thing that happened.

"Genesis does what Nintendon doesn't do." I am not a gaming expert, but I know that this clash was definitely a classic frenemies situation.

The competition promotes ingenuity. That's why you should celebrate when your top competitor makes a big profit. And you should always be on the lookout for other companies that do what you do, even if they do what you do a little better than you are sometimes.

We all feel the effects of a crowded market and our initial instinct is to use our old strategies and game books. Throwing things like a lot of money into the same Facebook ads that worked great the previous year, pumping a lot of (boring) content (which no one is likely to read) into a blog, or sending way too many emails.

I know because we were at DigitalMarketer.

That's why we freed ourselves from the chains of these habits at the end of last year.

* que hold on by wilson phillips *

In early November, we divided the company into teams to compete against each other in a competitive analysis challenge. We wanted to delve deeply into everything our competitors did (and everything we didn't). The challenge took on a life of its own, because we have already mentioned … Competition promotes ingenuity. ☝️

Each team included a member from the areas of marketing, content, design, customer care and product. The goal was to do a full analysis of our top 5 competitors across each channel to see what they did right and where we could improve. Each team had to analyze and present a "keep, start, stop" that is simply 5 things to do, 5 things to start and 5 things to stop. It took us a month to complete the project and in the end we had a good indication of our gaps in all categories.

The key to making your business frenemies your best friends is to use your competitors and find out what makes your brand or product unique and use that information to innovate in the market.

You need to find out how different you are and show the world how these differences make you amazing.

Think of the ads above. What do they all have in common? First of all, everyone points out something that they can offer that their competitor cannot offer:

Mac cannot catch a virus.

Burger King has whoppers.

Sega has Genesis.

Every company has its whopper.

Find something that stops people and think: Hey, I need it. In copywriting we call this a "catch". What will make someone stop in their tracks and review your product? And frankly Not have to be revolutionary.

Take Boie, for example, a brand that has recently scaled its marketing campaigns across the board.

Would you like to know something that isn't really a secret? There is Nothing particularly unique to Boie. See what happens when I type "silicone face washer" into Amazon …

Yes, there are approximately 1,345,238,361 of the exact same product. Why exactly did I buy THIS product? (Yes, I actually bought it). At first they found the right audience in me. I am a millennial who likes colorful skin care products. But even after reaching the right audience, there was a lot more (but not too much) that inspired me to buy.

Boie also told me that her product was antimicrobial, which sparked my interest because my dermatologist told me that sponges and soft-bristled brushes can absorb a lot of bacteria.

Then they told me that my new silicone face washer was recyclable and BPA free. Only criminals and puppy haters don't want to help the environment.

And then came the kicker: I learned that this product can last up to 6 months, and knowing that I usually have to replace my loofah every few months, this seems like a decent deal, especially for $ 10 .

I bought it. Like any good puppy-loving, environmentally conscious, budget-conscious millennial who likes to take care of their skin.

But here's the thing: Are the above “other” products likely also recyclable? Yes. They are made of the same material.

Does this mean that they will also take more than 6 months? Probably…

What Boie did that the other companies didn't use was to use the main selling points to market their little face washers. Boie turned these selling points into ads and tracked their target audience online to make buying more convenient than ever.

This tactic works for a reason. For this reason, I recommend you do a competition analysis now (yes, today) … because frenemies, right? What makes Frenemies important is that you can evaluate both their strengths and weaknesses, and then use these insights to learn and pan about your business. Use your competitors to improve!

In the SEO world, this is known as a “skyscraper strategy”, in which the idea you learn from your competitors is played out and then built on in the search results. It is also widely used in the creative industry. Have you ever heard the quote "There is no new idea"? In a sense, it's true. New and creative ideas usually come from an old and outdated idea that someone has revised and refreshed.

To put it bluntly, I'm not asking you to steal all of your competitors' content and blame us if you are charged with copyright infringement. But I say, take advantage of your competitors' good ideas and develop them so that they can work for YOUR company.

If you focus on what your company can offer, you will find your niche.

We only did that last month at DM. You may remember when we opened DM Lab for free most of March? Would you like to know why we made this decision? First of all, we wanted to find a way to help our church. We had nothing physical to offer during a global pandemic, so our leaders tried to find a way to give something back. We knew we had the training and tools to help people start over and start new careers, and we knew that these skills would be of great importance to workers in a crumbling economy.

But do you want to know what else we noticed? No one in our industry offered free marketing training or support. To be fair, we know that many companies may not have the funds or funding to give away a product for free, and they may have had difficulty getting through.

But we saw that there was a gap in the relief efforts (so to speak). So we wanted to step in. And even though we knew that we wouldn't get much sales in March, we also knew that in a highly competitive market we could take the pressure off small businesses or someone who needed to make a change in their careers.

So we did it. And people noticed. In fact, so many people noticed that we generated over 60,000 new (free) accounts on our platform this month. We have also added more than 3,000 people to our private online community. While we were unable to increase sales in March, we were able to increase our audience and reach exponentially, which will certainly help us in the future. There were many factors behind it, but it started simply because we saw a hole that needed to be filled in the current environment.

We have seen a way we can be different. And we went with.

No matter how you swing it, competition and frenemies will always be there. There will always be a Pepsi in your Coca-Cola, but that doesn't mean it's time to give up. It's time to get creative!

These past months have triggered a revival of creativity in our world. We see more linchpins than ever before, from artists to companies. It is something special that is happening.

So if you are a bit stressed and not sure where to go, contact your neighbor (physical or business) for help. Find out what people are working on and try something different. Take a big risk. Start a product that you never thought you would do.

Would the Big Mac ever have been created if there had been no whopper? The world may never know.