In my last post, we started talking about the third key element to your positioning for your educational consulting business: your competitors. And today, we’ll start the process of really nailing down your list by doing some basic competitor keyword research.
Why is it so crucial for you to not only be aware of who your competitors are, but actually know them as well as they know themselves?
Well, imagine that you’re planning on starting your very own Friendly Neighborhood Grocery and Retail store in your town. But you never take the time to look at what other similar stores already exist in the area, what they’re selling, and what their prices are.
In addition, you completely ignore all the ads in the papers and the stories on the local news about the new Wal-Mart Superstore that’s about to move into town. Ooops!
In such a scenario, I’m willing to bet that your new store is going to have a very short shelf-life (heh).
Don’t fall into this trap with your consulting business!
You need to understand who your closest competitors are, who they serve, what problems they promise to solve, how much they charge, and many, many other details about them.
Armed with this data, you can then intelligently position yourself as the leader in a unique niche within your field. Or, as I said in my last post, you can become “a category of one.”
But without this data, you’re just guessing and hoping. And as I’ve said before…
Hope is NOT a strategy!
OK, with that necessary warning out of the way, let’s talk about HOW you get started doing competitor keyword research and how you can use what you learn to position yourself to win.
Basic Competitor Keyword Research: Step One
Today we’ll start easy with the most basic keyword research.
And then, in each of my upcoming posts in this series, I’ll give you another easy action step to do.
Follow along, and in a matter of weeks, you’ll know exactly who you’re competing against, and better, you’ll know how to slice off a big piece of the consulting market pie in your field.
OK, here’s your action step for today:
Step One–Start a new database in Excel or Google Sheets where you can keep your competitor keyword research. Name it something that makes sense, like…I don’t know…”Competitor Research.” 😀
You’ll want to have columns for the competitor’s business name, the URL of their website, the site owner’s name, and any contact info you find. You might also choose to add a column for “Category” if it makes sense to categorize your competitors into groups in some way.
Step Two–To get things rolling, populate your database with the competitors you already know off the top of your head. These will probably be the “top dogs” in your field, as well as some peers who are at roughly the same authority level in your field as you are. It may be others who have presented at the same conferences at which you’ve presented. Look these people up online and fill in the appropriate columns in your database.
After doing this, you should feel good that your database is no longer empty. That’s a good start!
Step Three–Next, generate off the top of your head a short list of the most obvious keywords you think your ideal client would be typing into Google to search for solutions to his problems. You can just write these down on paper or create a Word or Google doc to make your list.
For example, if your Ideal Client Avatar is a Math Curriculum Director looking for math training for their teachers, you might type in things like “math consultant,” “math training,” and “math workshops.”
Now, type each of these keywords, one at a time, into the Google search bar and see what suggestions Google generates in the drop-down menu that automatically pops up. Add any of these suggestions that look good to your list.
For example, when I typed in “math workshops,” some of the choices in the drop-down menu were “math workshops for teachers,” “math workshops for schools,” and “math workshops for primary school.” I would add those to my list.
Then, in turn, type these keywords into the search bar and see what other suggestions come up. Repeat these steps two or three times until you’re satisfied with your “starter list.” Shoot for at least 20, but see if you can push for 50. 100 isn’t even out of the question.
OK, that’s where we’ll stop for today. You should have a good starter list of keywords related to the work you do to solve your Ideal Client Avatar’s problems.
In my next post, we’ll take your starter list and use it to take your competitor keyword research to the next level (so keep it handy).
Till then…
To Your Success,
Willy
