How Copy.ai Uses AI for Competitive Intelligence

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The Importance of Monitoring Your Competition

Gaining an edge over your competition can be challenging. That's why a comprehensive understanding of your competitors' activities isn’t just crucial, but vital to your company's success. 

Here are a few reasons why:

• Identify Potential Opportunities: Monitoring your competitor's blog offers insights about overlooked topics, or perspectives that your target audience may find useful. 
• Learn from Others' Successes: When a competitor publishes a piece that garners positive engagement, it provides an opportunity to learn what works.
• Closing the Content Gap: As you align your content with the latest SEO trends mirrored in your competitors' strategy, you begin closing the content gap. 

But to effectively use these observations to your benefit, precision and efficiency are key. 

That's where automation comes into play. 

Up next, we'll reveal the step-by-step process on how Copy.ai uses workflows, alongside Zapier and Webflow, to transform these observations into actionable SEO optimized content.

Step 1: Triggering the Monitoring Via Zapier Scheduler

Initiating the automated process of monitoring competitors' blogs involves a critical first step: scheduling the monitoring activity. 

Here, we use Zapier's scheduling functionality to set a programming pattern that aligns with our review needs.

1. Choosing a Trigger in Zapier

When you log in to Zapier, start by selecting the 'create a zap' button. 

Then, choose the trigger option. 

After clicking this, a search bar will appear. Choose the 'Schedule by Zapier' app as your trigger. 

This feature in Zapier initiates the workflow at a frequency of your choice.

2. Setting Up the Scheduler

Once the scheduler tool is chosen as the trigger, set it to a 'Weekly' frequency. This ensures that the workflow runs weekly, giving you a regular update of your competitor's blog activity. 

In the 'Event' field, select the 'every week' option, and click 'continue.' 

For the day of the week, select any day that suits you or opt for Monday, as demonstrated. 

Follow the same process for the 'time of the day' field, and then click 'continue.' 

Subsequently, test your trigger and proceed by clicking 'continue with the selected record.'

When you’re finished, your schedule would look something like this: 

3. Custom Code for Date Calculation

Once you’ve finished with Step 2, you can “continue with the selected record.” Click on that option:

Now, a search bar will appear. 

To ensure that the workflow captures blog updates from the last 7 days, a simple Custom Code snippet is used to calculate the date 7 days prior to the current date. 

Search for 'code by Zapier.' 

For your 'event' field, choose 'Run Javascript' and click 'continue.' 

Set 'today' as the input variable and select 'Pretty date.' 

Then, copy and paste the provided code into the 'Code' field and click 'continue.' 

let seven_days_ago = new Date(inputData.today);
seven_days_ago.setDate(seven_days_ago.getDate()-7);
let past = seven_days_ago.toISOString();
let formatted_date = past.split("T");
output = [{start_date:formatted_date[0]}];

Finally, test and publish. Step 2 will look like this: 

By inserting this custom code into your Zapier action, the workflow will always target the most recent week's blog posts.

Now that the workflow is triggered and ready, we can move towards the next step: extracting the new and updated articles from the competitor's domain.

Step 2: Installing the "View Recent Page Updates" Workflow

Now that we've set up the Zapier scheduler, it's time to delve into the heart of the monitoring process. By adopting the Copy.ai View Recent Page Updates Workflow, you can seamlessly track new and updated articles on your competitor's blog over a specified timeframe — in our case, the past week.

1. Add the Workflow to Your Copy.ai Workspace

To begin, simply click this link for the workflow and then click "Try this Workflow" to install the "View Recent Page Updates" Workflow template directly into your personal Copy.ai Workspace. 

Need some more help with this step? Check out this tutorial on How to Test & Implement a Workflow Template. 

Make sure you publish the installed workflow.

2. Connect Zapier to Copy.ai

Next, you'll need to add a step in Zapier. 

Add a new step to your Zap: 

Find the Copy.ai app:

And select "Run Workflow"

Zapier will pop up a tab asking for your Copy.ai API key. 

To find your API key, you can go back to the Workflow and click on the “API” tab. Your API key will be the first thing you see. 

Copy and paste that into the Zapier tab.

Need some extra help? Check out this tutorial on how to find your Workflow API key.

3. Add Your Competitors

Finally, select the "View Recent Page Updates" workflow. Type your first competitor's base url domain into the URL field and find the start date from the previous step.

Duplicate this step for every single competitor you would like to monitor.

Step 3: Sending Data To Your Tools

The next action following your previously executed Copy.ai workflows should be the setting of the data output destination. This could essentially be any application or tool that your team uses for content planning and alerts, including platforms like Slack, Trello, Airtable, or even to your email.

Here at Copy.ai, we send the data to Slack. 

This allows the entire team to see what our competitors are up to and to keep an eye on them.

Harnessing the SEO Content Brief Workflow for Content Creation

With access to your competitor's most recent blogs, the next step is to leverage this information to shape your own content strategy. 

A crucial tool in this process is Copy.ai's SEO Content Brief Workflow. This automated tool provides comprehensive, actionable briefs designed to optimize blog content for SEO.

1. Install the Workflow

Simply click this workflow link and then click "Try this Workflow" to install the "SEO Content Brief" Workflow template directly into your personal Copy.ai Workspace.

Make sure you publish the installed workflow and go to the “Table” tab.

2. Input Your Keywords into The SEO Content Brief Workflow

Start by identifying a keyword or phrase from your competitor's updated or new article that corresponds with your own content strategy. 

Input this keyword into the SEO Content Brief Workflow. 

The tool then uses this keyword to read the SERP, extract H2s from the top 3 urls, then generates a slug, a few titles, a meta description, and an outline. 

Next, press the Run button to run the workflow for your keyword.

3. Take Action with the SEO Content Brief

The SEO Content Brief Workflow equips you with a strategy tailored to reap maximum SEO benefits. But how does this strategy shape your final content piece? 

Up next, we reveal how the Write Blog Post Workflow transforms these insightful briefs into ready-to-publish blogs.

Using the "Write Blog Post" Workflow

The insights from the SEO Content Brief Workflow are valuable. Now let’s leverage those insights to create blog content that not only aligns with your unique content strategy but also optimizes for SEO. 

Copy.ai’s “Write Blog Post” Workflow can generate a full 1000+ word blog post from your keyword and content brief. It's as easy as one-two-three.

1. Add the "Write Blog Post" Workflow to Your Workspace

Simply click this workflow link and press "Try this Workflow" to add the "Write Blog Post" Workflow template directly into your personal Copy.ai Workspace. 

Ensure to publish the installed workflow.

2. Feed in Your Keyword and SEO Content Brief

The "Write Blog Post" Workflow requires two inputs:

• Keyword: This is the keyword identified from your competitor’s article, which you used in the SEO Content Brief Workflow.
• SEO Brief: This is the comprehensive brief generated by the SEO Content Brief Workflow.

3. Generate a Complete Blog Post

Upon feeding these inputs, run the workflow. It will seamlessly generate a full blog post, keeping in mind the initial keyword and the insights from the SEO brief. The output will be a 1000+ word, SEO-optimized blog post which is ready to be published.

4. Connecting with Your CMS/Google Docs

To make things even easier, you can use Zapier to connect the Workflow's output directly to your CMS or to a Google Doc. 

This way, each generated blog post can be sent directly to your CMS for review and publishing, thereby saving you more time.

Now, with these steps, you have successfully transformed market intelligence into actionable content that not only aligns with your brand’s strategy, but also stays on top of market trends.

Transform Insight into Action

Navigating the intricacies of content marketing can often appear daunting, especially considering its dynamic nature. However, with the right tools and strategies, not only can you keep pace with your competitor's activities, but you can also stay one step ahead.

At the end of the day, optimal content strategy does not entail outsmarting your competitors at every turn. Instead, it's about understanding the lay of the land, recognizing the shifts, and adapting your strategy so that your message not only resonates with your audience, but also stands out in a crowded online marketplace.

So go forth, apply these learnings and tools, and watch as your content drives engagement like never before. And as always, remember to keep it informative, concise, and actionable!