Maximize Your Edge: Benchmark Against Competitors!

Competitive marketing benchmarking is the process of analysing your competitors' marketing strategies to gain insights that can inform your own. It's like peeking into a treasure chest overflowing with marketing gold!

Why Benchmark Your Marketing?

There are several compelling reasons to incorporate benchmarking into your marketing strategy:

• Identify Strengths & Weaknesses: By comparing your performance to your competitors, you can pinpoint areas where you excel and areas that need improvement. This allows you to focus your resources more effectively.

• Set Realistic Goals: Benchmarking data provides a real-world context for setting achievable marketing goals.  You can aim to match or surpass competitor performance in specific metrics like website traffic, engagement rates, or conversion rates.

• Discover New Ideas: Analysing competitor strategies can spark fresh ideas for your own marketing campaigns. You might identify tactics you haven't considered or content formats that resonate with your audience.

• Stay Ahead of the Curve: Benchmarking allows you to see what's working for your competitors. This can help you identify emerging marketing trends and adapt your strategy to stay ahead of the competition.

• Improve Decision-Making: Data-driven insights from benchmarking can inform your marketing decisions. You can allocate budget resources more strategically and measure the effectiveness of your campaigns against industry standards.

How to Conduct Effective Marketing Benchmarking

Here's a step-by-step guide to get you started:

1. Define Your Goals:

What do you want to achieve with benchmarking? Are you looking to improve website traffic, social media engagement, or lead generation? Clearly defined goals will guide your research and analysis.

2. Identify Your Competitors:

Who are you directly competing with? Consider factors like product offerings, target audience, and brand positioning. 3-5 competitors is a good starting point.

3. Gather Information:

There's a wealth of data available online and through competitor interactions. Here's where to look:

• Websites & Social Media: Analyse their messaging, target audience, visuals, engagement levels (likes, comments, shares), and website traffic (if publicly available).

• Newsletters: Subscribe to see their content strategy and promotional offers.

• Purchase Process: Test their customer journey to identify areas for improvement in your own.

• Customer Reviews: Learn about their strengths and weaknesses from customer perspectives.

• Industry Reports: Stay updated on industry trends and benchmarks.

4. Analyse the Data:

Look for patterns and trends across the data you've collected. Consider questions like:

• What language and visuals are most effective in reaching their target audience?

• Which content formats resonate best with their followers?

• What are their key marketing channels, and how successful are they?

• What are their customer service approaches?

5. Take Action & Improve!

Don't just collect data – use it to take action! Here's how benchmarking can inform your marketing strategy:

• Fill the Gaps: Identify areas where your competitors excel and adapt your strategy accordingly.

• Set SMART Goals: Use competitor data to establish Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals for your marketing efforts. Check out how to set SMART Goals here.

• Develop Unique Strategies: Learn from your competitors, but don't copy them. Use insights to create a distinct and effective approach for your brand.

• Test & Refine: Implement new tactics based on benchmarking findings and continually monitor results to optimise your strategy.

Want to understand your audience, industry and competitors better? Get started with your marketing benchmarking!