Competitive benchmarking can help your business better strategize and grow. Through savvy research and careful analytics, competitive benchmarking can give you the edge you need to take on your competition and your industry. But what exactly is competitive benchmarking and how do you do it? Here’s a primer on competitive benchmarking: what it is, why you should use it, and how you can go about using it to better your business.
Competitive benchmarking is the act of holding up your company metrics against those of your competition. It helps companies lock down best industry practices, evaluate their performance, and stay ahead of the competition.
In terms of digital marketing, the role of competitive benchmarking is to aid the effectiveness of your own digital marketing strategies based on the insight gained from your competitors. It’s essentially using your competition against them. You’re able to measure key metrics and compare them to your own efforts to gain better insight into successful tactics and movements that can boost your business’ edge in the market.
There’s a fine line that delineates competitor analysis from competitive benchmarking. Though they’re similar in a lot of ways, competitive analysis and competitor benchmarking serve two separate purposes:
Competitive analysis gives you a detailed overview of your competitors. You essentially scrutinize your competitors’ tactics and strategies to gain insight into their operations.
Comparatively, competitive benchmarking provides a top-down view of your competitive overview. It’s a high-level approach to work out your competition’s long-term strategies, wherein you attempt to gain insights into their actions over a given time period and lockdown general market trends.
With competitive benchmarking, you’re able to get a clear understanding of your position in the market. It also allows you to uncover potential opportunities.
There are three different sorts of competitive benchmarking and thus three ways companies can make gains in the market through using this method:
The metrics you’re comparing when it comes to competitive benchmarking ought to be carefully considered. When it comes to key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals you should keep your metrics simple to ensure you’re able to properly track them over time.
Some KPIs you might consider include:
Competitive benchmarking can give your business just the edge it needs to succeed in your industry. Through measuring your successes and failures against your competitors, you’ll be in a better place to strategize down the track.
Now you know everything there is to know about competitive benchmarking.