In today's digital marketing world, competitive intelligence often takes a back seat to all the key performance indicators (KPIs) on which marketers are focused—open rates, social engagement metrics, lead-to-sales opportunity conversion rates, etc.

That inward focus on how well you are doing with your revenue-driving marketing tactics is critical. But it can lead you to celebrate the wrong things. Don't let your KPIs overshadow the importance of knowing exactly how your digital marketing strategies are performing in relation to your peers who are competing against you in the market.

If you forget to look at the bigger picture, you'll miss a perspective that, well, separates the best marketers from the mediocre ones.

You can easily keep tabs on how your campaigns measure up against others in your industry without hiring an expensive third-party research firm. Of course, there may be times when you do need customer research and use a fancy detailed matrix of your competitors for in-depth analysis for identifying new products or for market sizing.

But I'm talking about a quick and easy dashboard that measures you, the marketer, against your competitors.

Why Spy?

Competitive intelligence helps you...

• Increase your chances of winning in the marketplace
• Shape the development of your digital marketing strategy
• Create a strategy for new product launches
• Uncover threats and opportunities
• Establish benchmarking for your analytics

Most businesses do not have the luxury of having a dedicated employee, let alone a dedicated team, to gather and analyze gobs of data. However, you can easily track basic KPIs to inform decision-making at your company.

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