Competitive Content Audit Examples

“Professional gossiping about the competition”

Anyone who’s worked with me before knows I love a good content audit. I learned to love them when I worked at Mailchimp, and the UX content strategy team often conducted them ahead of key nomenclature decisions. When I later joined Podium, I carried that same energy with me.

Why I Love Audits

(This list is not exhaustive by any means, ofc.)

  • They offer an opportunity to make informed decisions about the content experience 

  • They provide insight into industry standards and trends, which is a huge advantage in creating content that meets user expectations and matches their mental model.  

  • They can help us identify gaps in our own content, including unclear nomenclature, misaligned tone/audience, and problematic/outdated content.

  • It’s basically “lurking” on your competition but with a purpose!

Audit Thought Process

Step 1: Identify relevant competitive peers.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Step 2: Screenshot everything.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Step 3: Write notes and free thoughts.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Step 4: Extract insights and themes.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Step 5: Share insights and discuss.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Step 6: Identify action items and principles.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Audit Example #1

CRM Messaging Audit

Goal: To understand industry nomenclature, common marketing narratives, and available features of X industry peers and X “aspirational” companies.

At the time, Podium was investing heavily in the possibility of competing in the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) space. I was working closely with the PM and Product Designer on our latest CRM features, including contact status, custom profile fields, and more, and we needed to make recommendations to our Chief Product Officer about how we would talk about them both in-app and on our marketing site. 

What We Learned

Here are some high-level insights we walked away with and integrated into our content strategy.

  • “Contacts” are the most often used term for “people objects.” We needed an industry-agnostic term that could apply to customers across home services (clients), retail (customers), healthcare (patients), and more.

  • “Filtering” and “segmentation” are talked about in terms of marketing (i.e. targeting the right customer with the right message at the right time). Interestingly, not all platforms flaunted robust marketing features other than segmentation. This signals to us that Podium has an opportunity to step up with key text marketing and AI-powered messaging.

  • Many of our “textable” industry peers marketed that they can integrate with popular CRMs, indicating that they weren’t prioritizing CRM features themselves. This also gives us a window to integrate well while also providing more advanced contact management features.

Audit Example #2

AI UX Language Audit

Goal: To understand how companies are communicating AI interactions in UX flows across consumer web/mobile apps.

As with hundreds of other companies at the beginning of 2023, Podium was eager to take advantage of the AI boom. Product teams hit the ground running, ideating how ChatGPT3 could make our users' lives easier and our platform more effective. At the same time, there were so many questions about how we were going to talk about it to our users. No one really had answers—so we turned to the tech community and the pioneers ahead of us to learn how peers were introducing, onboarding, and educating users about this new “techy” thing. 

What We Learned

Here are some high-level insights we walked away with and integrated into our content strategy.

  • Icons, particularly ✨sparkles and 🪄wands, have been popular to distinguish AI features from non-AI features.

  • Continued education post-activation, like tooltips or easy-to-reach settings, is very common, probably because of how “techy” or “complicated” AI features tend to look and feel.

  • As for landing pages on marketing sites, they’re treated differently both visually and verbally. Darker background colors, gradients, and animations were often used to convey the “magic” and “intrigue” of AI.

Other Audits I’ve Led and Executed

(These are just a few of my faves.)

  • Content Style Guide standards, nomenclature, and IA (Mailchimp and Podium) 

  • The name of a new appointments/bookings feature (Mailchimp) 

  • Installation flows for web widgets across website builders (Podium)

  • Phone/calling feature names and marketing narratives (Podium)

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