Let's be honest – you're probably getting bombarded with competitor emails right now. Your inbox is probably flooded with their newsletters, promotional campaigns, and automated sequences. But here's the thing: instead of just deleting them or feeling overwhelmed, you should be studying them like a detective looking for clues.
I've been helping businesses like Casey's SEO analyze their competition for years, and I can tell you that most companies are missing huge opportunities simply because they don't know what their competitors are doing – or more importantly, what they're NOT doing. That's where competitor email marketing analysis comes in, and trust me, it's a goldmine if you know what to look for.
Think about it this way: your competitors are spending serious money and time on their email marketing. They're testing subject lines, crafting content, and building automation sequences. Some of it works, some of it doesn't. By analyzing their approach, you get to see their successes AND failures without spending a dime on testing yourself.
Here's what really gets me excited about this process – you're not just looking at what they're doing right. You're hunting for what they're doing wrong. Those gaps in their strategy? That's where you can swoop in and capture their audience's attention.
According to recent industry data, email marketing continues to deliver an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent in 2024. But here's the kicker – most businesses are only capturing about 30% of their potential email revenue because they're missing key automation opportunities and content gaps that their competitors haven't filled either.
Before we dive into analysis, you need to become a subscriber to your competitors' email lists. I know, I know – you're thinking "Great, more emails to clutter my inbox." But this is research, and good research requires getting your hands dirty.
Here's how I set up my competitor monitoring system:
Create dedicated email addresses for competitor research. I usually create something like "research@yourdomain.com" or use Gmail aliases. This keeps your main inbox clean and makes it easier to organize the data you're collecting.
Subscribe at different points in their funnel. Don't just sign up for their newsletter from their homepage. Download their lead magnets, abandon a cart if they're e-commerce, sign up for webinars – basically, trigger as many different automated sequences as possible.
Use different personas. If you're targeting both B2B and B2C audiences, create different subscriber profiles. A small business owner in colorado springs might get different emails than a corporate executive in Denver.
Document everything from day one. I use a simple spreadsheet to track when I subscribed, what I signed up for, and when emails arrive. This helps you map out their automation timing and frequency.
Now comes the fun part – dissecting those newsletters like you're preparing for an exam. But don't just skim through them. You need to analyze them with the eye of a marketer who's trying to understand the strategy behind every decision.
Subject Line Patterns: Are they using urgency, curiosity, or personalization? Do they stick to a formula or mix it up? I've noticed that many local service businesses, including those competing with Colorado Springs local SEO services, tend to use the same boring subject lines week after week. That's a gap you can exploit with more creative, attention-grabbing approaches.
Content Themes and Topics: What are they talking about? More importantly, what are they NOT talking about? If all your competitors are focused on industry news but nobody's addressing common customer pain points, you've found your opportunity.
Call-to-Action Strategy: How many CTAs do they include? Where are they placed? What's the primary action they want subscribers to take? I've seen newsletters with seven different CTAs – talk about confusing your audience.
Content Format and Structure: Are they using mostly text, images, or a mix? How long are their emails? Do they have a consistent template or does every email look different? Consistency matters more than most businesses realize.
Personalization Level: Beyond just using the subscriber's name, are they segmenting content based on behavior, location, or preferences? Most small to medium-sized businesses are barely scratching the surface of email personalization.
This is where things get really interesting. Automation sequences reveal a company's email marketing maturity level and their understanding of customer psychology. Most businesses have terrible automation – or worse, no automation at all.
Start by categorizing the automated emails you receive:
Welcome Series: How many emails are in their welcome sequence? What's the timing between emails? Do they introduce the company, provide value, or just ask for a sale immediately? A shocking number of businesses send one welcome email and call it a day.
Educational Nurture Sequences: Are they teaching subscribers something valuable, or just pitching constantly? Educational content builds trust and positions them as experts, but many companies skip this entirely.
Behavioral Triggers: Do they send different emails based on what pages you visit, what content you download, or how you interact with previous emails? Advanced segmentation is where most competitors fall short.
Re-engagement Campaigns: What happens when you stop opening their emails? Do they try to win you back, or do they just keep sending the same content? Win-back campaigns can recover 15-20% of inactive subscribers, but most businesses ignore this opportunity entirely.
Sales Sequences: How do they shift from nurturing to selling? Is it smooth or does it feel like a slap in the face? The shift from value to sales is where many email marketers lose their audience.
After a few weeks of monitoring, patterns start to emerge. You'll notice topics that everyone covers and topics that nobody touches. Those untouched topics? That's your golden opportunity.
For example, when I was analyzing competitors for service-based businesses, I noticed that most were talking about their services and pricing, but nobody was addressing the anxiety and uncertainty that potential customers feel when choosing a service provider. That emotional gap was huge, and the businesses that filled it with reassuring, educational content saw much better engagement rates.
Here are the most common gaps I see:
Behind-the-scenes content: People love seeing how the sausage is made. If your competitors are all corporate and polished, you can stand out by being more human and transparent.
Customer success stories: Not just testimonials, but detailed case studies showing the journey from problem to solution. Most businesses are terrible at storytelling in their emails.
Educational content that actually helps: Too many newsletters are just thinly veiled sales pitches. If you can provide genuine value without asking for anything in return, you'll build much stronger relationships.
Local relevance: This is huge for location-based businesses. If you're targeting Colorado Springs like Casey's SEO, but your competitors are sending generic emails that could apply anywhere, you have a massive opportunity to create locally relevant content that resonates more deeply.
Timing and frequency gaps: Maybe everyone sends weekly newsletters, but nobody's sending helpful tips right after someone signs up. Or perhaps they're all going silent on weekends when your audience might actually have more time to read emails.
The automation gaps are where you can really gain a competitive advantage. Most businesses are leaving money on the table because they're not automating key touchpoints in the customer journey.
Here are the biggest automation gaps I consistently see:
Post-purchase follow-up: Many businesses stop emailing after someone buys. That's insane! Post-purchase is when customers are most engaged and most likely to buy again or refer others.
Milestone celebrations: Anniversary of signing up, birthday emails, or celebrating customer achievements. These personal touches build loyalty, but most companies completely ignore them.
Educational drip campaigns: Instead of just sending newsletters, imagine having a systematic educational sequence that teaches customers how to get better results from your service or product.
Feedback and review requests: Many businesses ask for reviews once, badly, and then give up. A well-timed sequence of review requests can significantly improve your online reputation.
Seasonal and event-based triggers: Local businesses especially miss this. If you're in Colorado Springs, you should have email sequences triggered by local events, seasons, or even weather patterns.
Before you get too excited about your competitive analysis, let's talk about the legal stuff. The CAN-SPAM Act requires that all commercial emails include a clear way to unsubscribe and your physical business address. When you're analyzing competitors, check if they're compliant – and make sure you are too.
Also, with privacy regulations like GDPR affecting how businesses collect and use email data, pay attention to how competitors handle data collection and consent. If they're cutting corners, that's not a gap you want to replicate – that's a mistake you want to avoid.
You don't need expensive tools to do effective competitor analysis, but a few simple systems will make your life much easier.
I use Gmail filters to automatically sort competitor emails into specific folders. This keeps them organized and makes it easy to review them in batches rather than getting distracted by them throughout the day.
A simple spreadsheet tracking send frequency, subject lines, and content themes will reveal patterns over time. I also screenshot particularly good (or bad) examples so I can reference them later when creating my own campaigns.
For businesses serious about email marketing, tools like Mailchimp's competitive analysis features or more advanced platforms can automate some of this tracking, but honestly, manual analysis often reveals insights that automated tools miss.
Here's where most people mess up – they do all this analysis and then... nothing. They get overwhelmed by all the information and never actually implement improvements to their own email marketing.
Start small. Pick one gap you've identified and create a simple campaign to fill it. Maybe it's a welcome series that actually welcomes people instead of immediately trying to sell them something. Or perhaps it's a monthly email featuring local Colorado Springs business tips that none of your competitors are providing.
Test your approach against what you've learned from competitors. If they're using boring subject lines, try something more creative and see if your open rates improve. If they're sending generic content, make yours more personal and relevant.
The key is to be systematic about it. Don't try to fix everything at once. Focus on one improvement at a time, measure the results, and then move on to the next opportunity.
Competitive analysis isn't a one-time thing. Your competitors are constantly evolving their strategies, and new competitors are entering the market all the time. I recommend doing a thorough analysis quarterly and keeping an eye on major changes monthly.
Set up Google Alerts for your competitors so you know when they're mentioned in the media or launch new campaigns. Follow them on social media to see how they're integrating their email marketing with other channels.
Most importantly, don't just copy what your competitors are doing. Use their strategies as inspiration, but always filter everything through your own brand voice and customer needs. Your audience chose you for a reason – make sure your email marketing reflects what makes you unique.
The businesses that win in email marketing aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the fanciest tools. They're the ones who understand their customers better and communicate more effectively. By analyzing your competitors' gaps and filling them with your own authentic approach, you'll build stronger relationships with your subscribers and see better results from your email marketing efforts.
Remember, your competitors are doing you a favor by showing you what works and what doesn't in your market. Take advantage of their testing, learn from their mistakes, and then do it better. That's how you turn competitive analysis into competitive advantage.
