The Competitor Trail

Description

GOAL
Build a workflow that fetches new posts from the RSS feeds of defined competitors every day, analyzes the content by AI for topic, positioning, feature and format, aggregates trends across multiple posts, and generates a structured competitor report at the designated storage location. Optionally, an alert should also be triggered in the team chat for particularly relevant findings.

Adapt the structure to the concepts of your automation tool (for example nodes, steps, zaps or agent actions). While doing so, preserve the trigger logic, the sequence and the data flow.

TRIGGER
Type: time based, daily at 9:00 a.m., alternatively weekly.

STEPS (sequential)
1. Fetch RSS feeds: load all configured competitor feeds, filter for posts from the last 24 hours, and remove duplicates based on URL or title.
2. AI step: content analysis and trends. Insert the working prompt "Content Analysis and Trends" exactly as given (see the Working Prompts section). Result: a structured report with top insights including a relevance score from 1 to 5.
3. Save: file the report with the date in the title at the designated storage location (Notion, Drive or Confluence).
4. Branch (optional): if the report contains an insight with a relevance score of 5 out of 5, also send an alert to the team chat with the top findings and the link to the report.

PROMPT GUIDANCE
There is a fixed working prompt for the analysis step, see the Working Prompts section. Insert it unchanged and in full into step 2.

DATA FLOW
Step 1 to step 2: deduplicated posts (title, source, link, teaser or full text) as input for the feed items placeholder in the working prompt.
System to step 2: the current date as input for the corresponding placeholder in the working prompt.
Step 2 to steps 3 and 4: the finished report and the relevance scores it contains, as the basis for the optional alert branch.

ERROR HANDLING
No new articles: validate the feed URLs or extend the time filter to 48 hours. On days without new posts, file a short notice report instead of aborting the run without a result.
Duplicates distort the trends: enforce deduplication from step 1, based on URL or title.
Paywalled sources: analyze only the title and teaser, and mark the affected finding in the report as limited.
Analysis too shallow: refine the focus areas in the working prompt or choose a stronger model. Filter out pure PR updates without substantive content.
Report not saved: check the write permissions at the storage location.

PLACEHOLDER CONVENTION
All placeholders in square brackets in the working prompt are variables. The feed items and the current date are mapped dynamically, as described in the data flow. The three focus areas are not dynamic: set these yourself as the strategic areas of observation before activation. List all placeholders that require manual configuration separately at the end.

SELF CHECK BEFORE COMPLETION
Check, before you report the workflow as finished:
1. Are all steps connected correctly, including the 24 hour filter, deduplication and the optional alert branch at a relevance score of 5 out of 5?
2. Is the working prompt inserted in full and unchanged, and are the placeholders for feed items and date mapped correctly?
3. Is the report filed with the date in the title at the correct location?
4. Are all points listed that require manual configuration: the source list including monthly maintenance, the storage location with write permissions, the alert channel, the three focus areas and the LLM access?

Working prompts

You are a strategic content analyst. Analyze the following new articles from competitors and create a structured report. Where sufficient information is not available for individual points, mark the affected statement as an assumption instead of presenting it as established fact.

New articles from the last 24 hours:
[RSS_FEED_ITEMS]

Analyze the following aspects:
1. Main topics and content focus areas
2. New product features or announcements
3. Recognizable content strategies and formats
4. Industry trends and market developments
5. Tone and target audience approach

Create a report with the following structure:

Competitor Content Report, [DATE]

Top Insights: the three to five most important findings as bullet points

Topic Overview: categorized listing of the main topics

New Developments: product announcements, features, strategic moves

Identified Trends: overarching patterns and industry trends

Recommendations: concrete suggestions for the content team

Focus on:
[FOCUS_AREA_1]
[FOCUS_AREA_2]
[FOCUS_AREA_3]

Rate the relevance of each insight on a scale of 1 to 5 and prioritize the report accordingly.

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