The explosion of online data combined with AI-powered technology paves the way to gather competitive intelligence programmatically and help companies extract actionable insights in ways that were previously impossible.

1. HOW TO BUILD AN AI-POWERED
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY
Ellie Mirman
CMO, Crayon
@ellieeille @crayon

2. Businesses today have
great internal visibility
Visits
Leads
Customers
@ellieeille #MAICON19

3. But they struggle to
understand what's
happening externally
YOU
Competitors
Industry category
Industry organizations
Customers
Journalists &
thought leadersPartners
SEO terms
Key trends
Executives
Analysts
@ellieeille #MAICON19

4. 10 years ago...
Website
@ellieeille #MAICON19

5. News & PR
Website
Content
Campaigns
Reviews
Social media
Forums
Product
Team & Company
FilingsHomepage
Landing Pages
Blogs
Resource Pages
Partner Directories
Product Pages
Pricing Pages
Case Studies
Help & Support
Trust Sites
Today...
@ellieeille #MAICON19

6. 6 STEPS TO BUILD A
CI STRATEGY
Identify your competitors
Map competitors' digital footprints
Track competitors' every move
Analyze & identify trends
Share intel & drive action
Measure results
1.
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6.
The CI & Sales Enablement Playbook@ellieeille #MAICON19

7. Three types of competitors
STEP 1: IDENTIFY YOUR COMPETITORS
Direct
Those in head-to-head
sales opportunities
Indirect
Partners & companies
in tangential industries
Aspirational
Leading companies in
the broader industry
@ellieeille #MAICON19

8. Categorize & prioritize
competitors by relevant
dimensions
5 DIMENSIONS
TO ORGANIZE
COMPETITORS
Direct vs. Indirect vs. Aspirational
Sales Competitiveness Tiers
Vertical / Industry Focus
Company Stage
Types of Solutions
@ellieeille #MAICON19

9. STEP 2: MAP EACH COMPETITORS'
DIGITAL FOOTPRINT
News & PR
Website
Content
Campaigns
Reviews
Social media
Forums
Product
Team & Company
Filings
Homepage
Landing Pages
Blogs
Resource Pages
Partner Directories
Product Pages
Pricing Pages
Case Studies
Help & Support
Trust Sites
#MAICON19

10. The role of artificial intelligence & how to augment with
human intelligence
STEP 3: TRACK EACH COMPETITORS'
EVERY MOVE
Capture data
at scale in
real-time
Add offline
intel from the
field
Structure &
categorize
data
Identify
meaningful
changes
@ellieeille #MAICON19

11. Benefits of leveraging AI
for tracking competitor
movements
BENEFITS OF AI
Track 100x the data in a fraction of
the time
Capture subtle changes hard to
discover by a human
Separate signal from noise to focus
on meaningful changes
Surface intelligence in real-time to
drive immediate action
@ellieeille #MAICON19

12. Three layers of analysis
STEP 4: ANALYZE & IDENTIFY TRENDS
Is this change
meaningful?
Was a typo fixed or
pricing changed?
How important
is it?
Does it critically
change the competitive
environment?
What does it
mean?
What's the strategy
behind the change, &
what's its impact?
@ellieeille #MAICON19

13. Small website change reveals pricing shift
@ellieeille #MAICON19

14. Small website change reveals pricing shift
@ellieeille #MAICON19

15. Small website change reveals pricing shift
@ellieeille #MAICON19

16. New job opening reveals marketing investments
“Define and oversee all paid
key digital acquisition
channels…
…Paid Social, Paid Search,
Display, Direct Mail, Affiliate,
Native, and other paid media
channels...
…Hire and manage a team of
media traders”
@ellieeille #MAICON19

17. Content marketing activity shows change in blog strategy
@ellieeille #MAICON19

18. Content marketing activity shows change in blog strategy
New top keywords:
Feb-Apr:
Getting Started
Configuration
Implementing
Maintaining
Supporting
May 2019:
POS
Restaurant
Construction
Business
@ellieeille #MAICON19

19. Benefits of leveraging AI
for analyzing competitor
intelligence
BENEFITS OF AI
Process infinitely more competitor
data in real-time
Identify trends and anomalies to
surface meaning in large datasets
Programmatically structure
unstructured data to make analysis
possible
Prioritize human analysis time for
more contextual evaluations
@ellieeille #MAICON19

20. CI
Sales
ExecutivesProduct
Marketing
Deliver relevant insights
to each stakeholder in the
organization
STEP 5: SHARE
INTEL & DRIVE
ACTION
@ellieeille #MAICON19

21. Leverage a combination of deliverable formats
to serve each audience
5 TYPES OF CI DELIVERABLES
Always
up-to-date
resources
e.g. battlecard
CI workspace
for CI leader
e.g. competitive
dashboard
Urgent
announcements
e.g. email alerts
Updates
on key changes
e.g. newsletter
Long term
analyses
e.g. product
deep-dive
@ellieeille #MAICON19

22. Tips for working with
each stakeholder
BEST PRACTICES
Talk with them to learn their current
priorities & challenges
Identify recipients & their preferred
channels of communication
Ask what's on their CI wishlist to
provide quick wins
Get feedback on deliverables sent
@ellieeille #MAICON19

23. Benefits of leveraging AI
for sharing relevant intel
to each stakeholder
BENEFITS OF AI
Automated delivery of relevant
intelligence
Suggest relevant insights for
different audiences
Provide intelligence in a timely
manner to allow for action
Calculate usage and engagement
with shared intelligence
@ellieeille #MAICON19

24. Measure impact on the
organization
STEP 6:
MEASURE
RESULTS
Top metrics for measuring CI impact:
Revenue
Sales win rate
Marketing campaign results
Usage of CI materials
Brand awareness
Market share
Executive understanding of market
Source: 2019 State of Competitive
Intelligence Report
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@ellieeille #MAICON19

25. "Our competitive win rates have increased as
much as 59% since rolling out Crayon
Battlecards.”
- Product Marketing Manager, Klaviyo
CASE STUDY
@ellieeille #MAICON19

26. "We save 32 hours per month by using the
Crayon platform. That translates to massive
savings based on the efficiency gains alone."
- VP Market Research, Global HCM Company
CASE STUDY
@ellieeille #MAICON19

27. "Crayon enables us to leverage larger scale
intelligence and cut through the noise other
tools have presented. Crayon also finds
intelligence we never would have found before.
- Sr. Dir. Product Marketing, Fuze
CASE STUDY
@ellieeille #MAICON19

28. 6 STEPS TO BUILD A
CI STRATEGY
Identify your competitors
Map competitors' digital footprints
Track competitors' every move
Analyze & identify trends
Share intel & drive action
Measure results
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The CI & Sales Enablement Playbook@ellieeille #MAICON19

29. Ellie Mirman
CMO, Crayon
@ellieeille @crayon