Email Marketing Competitive Analysis: Gaining Insight from Competitor’s Email Campaigns

Friendly competition in the business world can be a good thing. Fresh and innovative ideas push organizations to strive to be their absolute best. The goal is to establish your own marketing sweet spot, not fall behind the competition, and remain on top of your marketing strategies.

Email marketing analysis of your competitors’ campaigns, in particular, is a great opportunity to learn how they are engaging with target customers and how they are positioning their brand to the market.

A competitor email analysis will also provide crucial insights into their blind spots. Looking closely at your competitors’ email campaigns will help you avoid strategies that didn’t work well.

To improve email marketing campaigns, competitive analysis is crucial.

How To Perform A Competitor Email Marketing Analysis

1. Set up a dedicated email address and inbox for competitor email analysis.
2. Take all the necessary actions to trigger action-based emails e.g. purchase information, cart abandonment, etc.
3. Use a spreadsheet to track data e.g. delivery days/times, CTAs, subject lines, use of animation, etc.
4. Sort and categorize all the emails you’re getting before getting started with the analysis.
5. Use SWOT analysis model to compare your email campaigns with theirs which you can use as a guide for your next email marketing planning and strategy.

Elements To Analyze From Competitors’ Email Campaigns

The key to running a successful business is the ability to encourage prospects to try your product/service and to make existing clients satisfied enough to be loyal to your brand.

So, what are the most effective ways to entice your target audience to choose your business over competitors? A standard for success is through email marketing. Did you know that email marketing is still the most powerful tool to get customers to do business with you? And that for every $1 you spend on campaigns, you can expect up to $51 email marketing ROI?

With that in mind, there should be a systematic approach in performing competitive analysis. These are the elements to analyze from competitors’ emails.

With that in mind, there should be a systematic approach in performing competitive analysis. These are the elements to analyze from competitors’ emails.

1. Email Templates

• Are their email templates attractive, easy to read, and mobile friendly or clunky, busy, and outdated?
• Are they full of colors and GIFs or bland and sober?
• Is the presentation similar or different than yours?

2. Email Content

• How interesting and varied are their email content? How often do they switch things up or do they just rely on the same campaigns again and again?
• Are they visually appealing and image-heavy or just mostly text-based and traditional?
• Do you have similar or different linguistic style and tone-of-voice?

3. Calls-to-Action

• Do they use text links or buttons?
• How are the CTAs positioned within the email? Do they use the same placement regularly?
• What kind of words are used for their CTAs?

4. Subject Lines

• What is the word count of each subject line? Are they longer or shorter than what you use?
• Do they contain emotions or not?
• How often do they switch up their subject lines? Do they try something new every now and then or do they stick to a few tested formula?

Conclusion

Your competition can reveal a lot about your own email marketing campaigns. Gaining insights from competitor analysis is indispensable if you want to save time figuring out how to effectively engage with your target audience. Sign up for a free trial with Riptide and let us help you take one step further to become the clear email marketing leader in your industry.