Research & Reverse Engineering Checklist (For more thorough details refer to your DotComSecrets: The Underground Playbook - Chapter 9) The easiest and most likely way to succeed is to research what is already working in your industry and model or “reverse engineer” it. So here is a checklist that will help you understand what your competitors are doing, where their traffic is coming from, and how to transform that traffic into your traffic. So there are three main steps that you need to take outlined below. Remember, the overarching goal with this is to gain a clear picture of at least 4 of the 5 variables in your competitor’s campaign(s): Action Steps: 1. Search for and list your direct and indirect competitors and their URLs. 2. Collect all the data that you can putting your competitors URLs into similarweb.com (see www.DotComSecretsBook.com/resources/similarweb) 3. Actually purchase your competitors’ products, notice and take notes on everything along the way. Variables: (Fill out everything that you can below) 1. Demographics - really get deep and understand who the target market is. • What do they like (pleasures, joys, hot buttons) • What do they dislike (pains, sorrows, soap-boxes) • Where do they congregate (online, offline) 2. Offer - buy their products and see what is behind the initial offer • What is the initial offer -- What is the price point • What are the upsells and downsells bumps and add-on offers -- What are their price points -- In what sequence are they offered • What are the followup emails they are sending -- What triggers them (optin, abandoning cart, buying) -- How many, how often -- Are they selling in every email or offering content/value 3. Landing Page - the page you land on right after you click on an ad • What does the page look like • What does it feel like • Who is it attracting • What can you learn about their sales copy • Is it video or sales letter or a combo • How do visitors interact with it (optin, watch, read, apply, etc.) 4. Traffic Source - getting visitors to your landing page • Where is your competitors traffic coming from? • What are the specific websites your competitor buys ads on • Does the traffic come directly from them buying it or do they use affiliates • What other sources of traffic are they tapping into 5. Ad Copy • What do the successful ads look like • What images/videos are being used • What does the headline say • What does the body copy say • What is it that’s making people click
