Kids all across America sat glued to their radios (and later their
televisions) in the 1940's and 1950's, listening to the weekly adventure
episode of Captain Midnight and his Secret Squadron sponsored by
Ovaltine.
The
Captain Midnight Decoder Badge was as coveted then by kids as it
is today by adult collectors. Why, with your decoder badge and sufficient
practice, you could decipher secret messages from the Captain and
your friends that no one else could read. Wow zee! Those
same detective skills that were practiced as a youth now prove quite
useful as you work to discover ways to outmaneuver your business
competition. Replacing
the simple decoder badge is the Internet: a powerful tool in our
discovery of competitor information. Using the simple four-step
system outlined in this article, you'll use your detective skills
to uncover bits and pieces of vital details about your competitors.
GETTING
THE SCOOP You
need business intelligence. It allows us to make more informed decisions
for our healthcare organizations. It gives us an edge. The
Internet places new techniques and tools at our disposal that allow
us to sift through a greater amount of information with equally
great precision. SIFTING
THROUGH COMPETITIVE INFORMATION You
should know, however, that this detective work can be time-consuming.
It must be done frequently and with regularity. But thankfully,
there are many tools to automate the gathering of information that
I'll tell you about. Now
let's take a closer look at the four steps, complete with the online
techniques for accomplishing them. STEP
1 -- MONITOR THE NEWS SOURCES You
may already be clipping newspapers for mentions of your competitors
in articles, editorials, profiles, job listings, social announcements,
and more. Now
you'll use the Internet to perform extensive searches for information
in dozens or hundreds of news sources. What's more, information
regularly appears online before it appears in the print version
of the publication. Take
note of the tone of the articles about the company. Catalog the
emphases in the articles -- fiscal responsibility, community activities,
clinical services, patient care, research, fund-raising, administrative
announcements. Does it appear that the organization has a well-defined
plan for media placements? Consider
these tools for news gathering: 's
their PR Counsel? Ask O'Dwyers Find
out the name of your competitor's PR firm (sometimes the same as
their advertising firm). Use the free search feature on the O'Dwyers
site. Also check the recent news of new client wins, campaign launches,
and success statistics that firms may be touting. See at: http://www.odwyerpr.com
Electric
Library This
searchable database of 150 full-text newspapers, 800 full-text magazines,
and thousands of transcripts, books and photographs offers a free
two-week trial. Searching is free. Full-text retrieval is fee-based,
but the date of publication is given so you may be able to track
down the publication text elsewhere or as a periodical in your library.
http://ask.elibrary.com CyberAlert
CyberAlert
is an automated Internet monitoring and Web clipping service. It
searches a selection of Web publications, other Web sites, message
boards, and Usenet news groups to locate mentions about a company.
You can specify how often you want the searches to run and report.
Fee-based. http://www.cyberalert.com Press
release distribution services Companies
may submit news releases for distribution that never get picked
up by the media. Search for them at: Business Wire (http://www.businesswire.com/)
and PR Newswire (http://www.prnewswire.com/) STEP
2 -- VISIT THE COMPANY Visiting
the company for information and insight takes several forms. Perhaps
you've actually walked through the facilities of a competing hospital
or medical practice office. Maybe you've "checked them out" at a
trade show or health fair. The best online way of "visiting" the
company is perusing their Web site. What's
the look and feel of their Web site? Is it professional? Slick?
Amateurish? Patient-oriented? "Me"-oriented? Is it a marketing vehicle?
A patient education tool? Simply a brochure? Does it change frequently?
Do they have tools or features that improve customer service and
patient care? Is it valuable for current and prospective patients?
Here
are a few techniques, tactics, and suggested tools:
Cloak
your IP address No
sense tipping off your competitors that someone from your organization
is visiting their Web site. You can hide your real identity so your
company's domain name doesn't show up on their server logs by using
a tool such as Anonymizer. Go to the anonymizer.com Web site and
type in the Web address that you want to visit. Voila! You're incognito.
http://www.anonymizer.com Things
to do at their Web site While
you're surfing on a competitor's site, there are several additional
things to watch out for. For example, do they have publications
for employees, medical staff, or investors available? If so, take
a look. Look for the press release archives on the site. See what's
important to the organization. Look
for executive profiles. See the type of executives they recently
hired. What are their strengths? Be sure to subscribe to any and
all e-mail newsletters -- using your free e-mail address, of course
(such as Yahoo or HotMail). Search
for specific file types Using
WebCopier, you can crawl a competitor's Web site looking just for
specific types of files, such as documents. These can be PowerPoint
presentations, Adobe PDF documents, Microsoft Word Documents, Excel
spreadsheets and more. You
may find marketing materials, brochures, and a wealth of other information
that could help you get a picture of your competitor's overall strategy
and positioning. Get WebCopier at Download.com. http://download.cnet.com
What
did their site look like? Ever
wonder what your competitor's site used to look like? Has their
strategy changed over time? Maybe some materials used to be on their
Web site and have now been removed. Want to take a look at them?
Well you can, thanks to The Internet Archive -- also known as "The
WayBack Machine." The
Wayback Machine makes it possible to actually surf pages stored
in the Internet Archive's web archive. Visitors to the Wayback Machine
can type in an URL, select a date, and then Begin surfing on an
archived version of the web. http://www.archive.org What
other domains have they registered? Discovering
the various domain names that your competitor has registered can
be eye opening. Maybe they've registered a domain name on speculation
for some future project or service launch. It might also tell you
where they'll soon be putting their strategic emphasis.
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Kevin Richardson is a healthcare marketing consultant, executive
coach, and writer who provides fresh perspectives and expertise
about online healthcare marketing. Subscribe to his "MedRocket Ezine"
newsletter and discover how to profitably attract and serve healthcare
consumers online. Subscribe free: http://www.medrocket.com
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