Benchmarking is the process of comparing your company with other competitors using a set of specific KPI’s appropriate to your industry or strategy. This is used to measure a company’s strategy and compare it to other similar companies over a given period.
This often also includes looking at the actions behind these metrics. This means that companies can seek to define “best practices” for specific metrics and compare them to their own methods. This is also an important step in benchmarking analysis.
The benefits are clearly obvious.
Not only will you get an organized overview of your company and how you are doing at different levels, but you will also be able to remain competitive. Benchmarking means you can easily detect when your competitors are doing well or when they are starting to struggle, which are the best times to evaluate your own strategy.
Competitive benchmarks can be tailored to your business and your industries, and can be as broad or granular as you like. There is no set way. It all comes down to achieving your goals and what areas are important to you.
Choosing your competitive benchmark
With so many variables to include, how do you choose your ideal benchmarking?
Of course, your pre-existing KPIs are a good start, but this could be an opportunity to expand. First ask yourself what you are looking for. Make an assessment of which metrics can be indicators of scalable results over time.
For example, if your SEO is dropping and your competitors are in first place, it means it’s time to dig into the problem. Either you have a problem or your competitors have a virtue. Whatever it is, you need to figure it out anyway.
How to choose a competitor as a benchmark
There are many different approaches. Competitors and your relationship with them can vary widely, so who you can include depends on what you need from them.
One option is to compare it to the closest competitor. Probably those that are most similar to you in size and success. This gives you a clear picture of the companies you compete with directly and who are most likely to follow.
This is an excellent option for planning and taking advantage of immediate short and medium term opportunities. You can see that the SEO performance of your main competitors has been on a downward trend in recent months. This could mean planning your own SEO efforts to compensate for the loss of traffic and ensure that the same thing doesn’t happen to you.
Of course, it’s possible that you have ambitions to go beyond your closest or smallest competitors and are looking to resemble a larger one.
In this case, comparing them can give you an idea of how to achieve their success. We know these numbers may seem depressing at first, but with the necessary research, you’ll see common approaches among great companies, or areas where you’re particularly weak compared to them.
Obviously, it’s not as simple as simply mimicking the aspects they do better than you, but it can give you valuable insight into how they operate. It also gives you an idea of how they lay the groundwork for future work and projects.
Another way is to look down the table. There are always smaller companies. In an era of disruption of entire industries, it would be a mistake not to focus on the little guys.
Benchmarking the smaller ‘players’ on the board can pay off. It means you can see who is doing well and how well they are doing. That way, you’ll be ready when they are more successful and catch up. This should help you avoid being caught off guard.
Ultimately, the purpose of the benchmarking will determine who is included. Remember that lumping everyone together, big or small, will cause your report to lose focus. Segment your competitors into separate reports to suit your expected results.
How to measure your comparative metrics within the benchmark
Here we have a problem. You have access to all your information, but what about other companies? Some data is easier to access than others.
SEO metrics are easy to get. There are tons of tools that can tell you how a website is performing. This data is all public, so there is no problem with accessibility with minimal knowledge on the subject.
Continuing with public data, share of voice can be measured through online channels and social media metrics. This is where Atribus comes in. Our platform allows you to track a large number of KPI’s, both your own and competitors’, on any topic you are interested in.
Private data is more difficult to obtain. Companies can be very cautious about the data they publish. Obviously, you can’t just call your competitors and ask them for all the data you want.
That doesn’t mean you can’t get some. Do your research. Check sales reports, news articles and press releases for company information (you can also use Atribus). If you can find publications, you probably have something to use for your benchmarks. There are also companies like Nielsen that conduct research for benchmarking and research purposes.
Another option is to conduct your own market research and benchamrk from this. A competitive intelligence tool like Atribus allows you to do one-click market research in a simple and automatic way.
