Hello, B2B marketers! Today, we’re going to talk about 3 B2B market research tools that we use every day here, at Directive Consulting. Let’s explore this topic.
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B2B Marketing Research Tool #1: SEMrush
The first tool we want to talk about is SEMrush. We absolutely love this tool for a couple reasons. Reason #1: You can actually get some pretty good free data.
Now, they do gate a lot of the juicy details that you’re going to really want — but the good news is that it’s not really that expensive for a license and we really encourage you to get even just the basic plan so that you have more access to the suite of tools rather than the dashboard, audits, and reports. You really just want access to the tools.
One of our favorite tools in SEMrush is looking at the keywords that you rank for — but more importantly, for the market research side of it — We love looking at what competitors rank for. So, my second favorite hack for SEMrush is being able to check out information on the biggest competitor in your space.
For example: Let’s pretend you’re a boating site. You’re going to want to take the biggest person — West Marine — and by using the advanced filters in SEMrush, you’re going to look at all the keywords that they rank for.
Let’s say you want to specifically sell anchors. You’re going to search for all the keywords that West Marine ranks for that have “anchors” in it.
Then, take all of the “long tail keywords” — keywords that have more than 3 words.
Lastly, because we know it’s hard to get a lot of traffic from a keyword if you don’t rank in the top 5 — narrow that list to all of the long tail keywords that West Marine ranks for worse than 5th.
Again, those steps are:
- Take your competitor’s URL
- Using the advanced filters in SEMrush, search for a specific keyword
- Choose all of the long tail keywords that are more than 3 words
- Make sure that your competitor isn’t ranking in the top 5 for those keywords
Now, you’re going to have all sorts of long tail content ideas that can guide your strategy. This is just one amazing way that you can use SEMrush for B2B market research.
B2B Marketing Research Tool #2: SpyFu
Knowing how much your competitors spend on AdWords is a pretty important piece of information.
Our 2nd B2B market research tool, SpyFu, allows you to see the competitive landscape for your ads as well as that of your competitors. SpyFu even estimates monthly clicks and cost so you can see — on average — how much your competition is spending.
Now, with SEMrush and SpyFu, you don’t get what I call absolute data. Instead, you get relative data.
In other words, if SpyFu says someone is spending $20,000 a month — they may not be. I found the data to be not quite accurate — Absolutely — But relatively it can be very accurate.
So, what I would do is I would put your domain in first and see what they’re projecting your spend to be. Then compare their results to your actual spend in AdWords.
What that allows you to do is come up with a metric or a percentage of what you’re actually spending to what they’re saying you’re spending. Then, when looking at the competition, you can use that metric and have a more accurate projection of what they’re actually spending.
This is an invaluable B2B market research tool that can help you better dictate your spend.
Imagine if you haven’t even launched a campaign yet. You’ll be able to see all of the keywords that the competition is bidding on and then choose to go after those keywords or even get your creative juices flowing by crawling their keywords in SpyFu.
It’s a really special B2B market research tool.
B2B Marketing Research Tool #3: BuzzSumo
Now, the last B2B market research tool that we’re going to look at today is called BuzzSumo.
Content marketing is a cornerstone of the future of what we’re doing digitally whether it’s SEO, PPC, or content. You need to have the right content, but even more critically, you need to make sure your content is consumed or read.
What BuzzSumo allows you to do is see which channels are performing best for you and your competition. So, in other words — Are you getting more shares from Facebook or LinkedIn?
This information can help you better allocate your spend and resources to the channel that your own personal audience is most likely to consume your content from.
BuzzSumo provides really specific insight. It also tells you:
- Topics that your competitors have shared most
- Types of content that are shared most
- Average share count
- Average word count
BuzzSumo can give you a lot of detail that can competitively empower you to beat your competition and take valuable insights from their data to drive your own personal strategy forward.
Must-Have Tools for B2B Market Research: Takeaways
- SEMrush is great for gathering keyword data and looking at the competition
- SpyFu is amazing for helping you understand spend and keywords that the competition is targeting on the paid side
- BuzzSumo can help you to understand your competitors’ and your own content strategy
All 3 combined can help accelerate your growth by harnessing the best tools for B2B market research.
Thanks for your time today and make sure you subscribe to our channel and leave a comment below. Have a great day!
