“The Semrush toolkits give us a complete and consolidated interface to do keyword research, while also analyzing our competitors’ traffic data. With the Traffic & Market Toolkit, we can gauge where we stand in the market, how much market share we can win, and whether the work that we’re doing is effective in winning market share and traffic from our competitors.”

Tom Clarke, Head of Marketing and Content at Frootbat.com

Challenge: Diversify products (sell more tequila)

In mid-2022, Frootbat, the online specialty liquor marketplace, realized their business relied heavily on one particular product–American whiskey. Of course, the company was initially aware of this potential bottleneck, but seeing Semrush Traffic & Market data really clarified the need to diversify their keyword portfolio.

Beginning with the Traffic & Market Traffic Overview dashboard, they saw the impact of the organic search channel driving traffic to competitor sites. After direct traffic, which is the most robust channel in their market, organic search drove the most traffic.

They dove deeper into competitors’ organic search traffic using the Organic Search dashboard. Here, they were able to explore:

Competitors' top pages attracting organic traffic
Top sources for organic search traffic
Top keywords driving organic search traffic to these domains

The Frootbat team set out to grow their online presence (and with it, revenue) in categories such as tequila (fastest growing), scotch, and cognac–categories dominated by their competitors (as proven by Semrush). So winning market share in these areas was crucial to their success.

“Our niche is very competitive,” shares Tom Clark, Head of Marketing and Content at Frootbat. “No one really monopolizes the rare spirits industry, particularly in the United States. So, having the ability to assess our competitor’s activities while optimizing our own business has been beneficial.”

As a result of their SEO campaign, Frootbat not only gained relevant traffic in existing categories but also grew their product offerings using insights provided by Semrush Traffic & Market.

Read on to learn how they did it.

Step 1: Replicate competitor's best practices

Frootbat’s SEO journey started with top-level competitor research. While exploring SERP rankings for their core keywords, Frootbat began to reevaluate who their largest competitors were:

“Semrush was a big influence on our understanding of who was actually the most impactful in our niche. We previously regarded some competitors as small fish, when in fact they're much larger and rank for more high-volume keywords than we assumed,” Tom explains.

The Market Overview report was a huge help here, especially the Semrush Growth Quadrant, which revealed top players and the fastest growing domains in the organic search channel.

The team decided to dig deeper into their strategy to replicate and surpass their success.

According to Clarke, “The Market Overview Dashboard and the Traffic Overview Dashboard have been the most insightful features for understanding how our competitors drive traffic and acquire customers.”

Organic search proved to be the leading channel (second to the direct channel) for most Frootbat’s major competitors:

Competitor traffic data compared to Frootbat’s stats in the Traffic & Market Organic Search dashboard was key in understanding how others in the space drive traffic and acquire customers, as well as contextualizing who those customers are and how to best approach them.

Step 2: Optimize product pages for top keywords

Next, Frootbat did a competitor keyword analysis using Semrush Keyword Gap. By just entering several domains in the tool, the team got a list of keywords that brought thousands of users to their site but that Frootbat was missing:

The team began targeting these terms in their own marketing efforts, and their organic search traffic has increased by 49%, up strongly from the baseline traffic growth trend of 22.6%. They are projecting a 2X increase in revenue for the associated products.

For example, using these gap insights, the company expanded its product lines and successfully launched new ‘craft’ and ‘artisan’ lines in the bourbon whiskey and tequila spaces.

Additionally, one of Frootbat’s core best sellers was marketed using a specific product name. This product title was driving good traffic results, however, keyword gap research revealed new opportunities to expand their reach and capture more market share.

Step 3: Establish ongoing competitor monitoring

After the initial discoveries, the team wanted to continue tracking patterns in competitor behavior, spotting new trends, and analyzing where their portfolios are moving.

When it comes to watching competitors on an ongoing basis, Semrush’s EyeOn tool provided Frootbat a “behind-the-scenes look” into what some of the bigger players in the space were doing. The tool revealed other marketing channels and revenue streams they may not have otherwise explored.

Frootbat uses EyeOn’s weekly reports to monitor where things are going in their market. They watch competitor marketing activity, track new competitor campaigns, and pinpoint keywords and category niches competitors are pushing on a weekly basis.

An example of a weekly competitor update email

With timely data on competitor activity, Frootbat has become prone to acting quickly in response to competitor moves. The weekly reports make it easy to pinpoint competitor actions and respond within 7 days. This is a massive advantage in an industry where new products or categories begin trending quickly, leading the market to engage in a volatile manner.

“Making sure we’re trending across as many topics as possible is paramount to the business,” says Clark.

In terms of the company’s revenue, staying on top of trending topics has shown huge results. By tracking competitor campaigns and identifying their big investments, Frootbat can engage competitively by undercutting competitors' prices or focusing on certain verticals where opportunities exist.

Key Takeaways

Monitoring rivals and tracking emerging market trends allows companies to stay one step ahead of the competition. To replicate Frootbat’s success:

Identify trending products, expand your catalog, and promote through the most impactful channels. Find these insights using Semrush.Trends.
Gather timely competitive intel and counter competitor strategy shifts swiftly. Use tools like Semrush EyeOn to get a weekly summary of your competitors’ campaigns and keywords.
Broaden your reach with marketing targeted toward trending topics.

As Frootbat’s success shows, fast reactions to sudden shifts in markets and competitor strategies can produce big results. To achieve a similar level of success, ongoing competitor monitoring and regular market research are key activities to place at the forefront of your strategy.

Want the same success? Free trial here