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What are your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses?
How does your company stack up against them, are you falling behind in some areas?
How are other companies responding to the latest industry trends?
If you don’t have the answers to these questions, it means your competitive landscape is a bit foggy at the moment.
But, you can clear it with the help of competitive benchmarking.
When done properly, competitive benchmarking brings a treasure trove of benefits to the table, helping you gain a competitive edge over your competitors and establish a better market position.
In this article, we’ll go into detail about some of the major benefits of competitive benchmarking that you can take advantage of.
Competitive benchmarking is a type of external benchmarking and the process of comparing your company’s performance to the performance of industry competitors.
We do this by using specific metrics that are related to the department we want to compare (finance, sales, management, marketing, etc.).
Through competitive benchmarking, companies can determine their market position, find the best and worst-performing areas, and identify some new practices that they can implement.
But we’ll get into these specific benefits in a lot more detail in just a few seconds.
You should keep in mind that benchmarking isn’t a one-time thing. Industries are constantly changing and so is your market position along with it.
There’s a constant influx of new competitors, the old ones might slowly fade away, trends are changing non-stop… you need to keep an eye on all of these things.
The popular TV show “Silicon Valley” can serve as a great example of how competitive benchmarking works.
In the series, a startup company called “Pied Pepper” is launching a new and improved compression algorithm, but they’re struggling to establish themselves on the market due to the huge competition.
This changes when Richard Hendricks (the main character) starts reverse-engineering the algorithm of their biggest competitor (Hooli).
He finds that even though their product is faster, it’s significantly less efficient in terms of storage options.
By identifying this weakness, Pied Pepper now manages to improve their algorithm and make it both faster and more efficient, giving them a huge competitive advantage in the market.
To learn more about benchmarking in general, here is a 101 benchmarking guide that will help you get started.
Now that we have the basics covered, let’s go through some of the biggest advantages of competitive benchmarking.
Business owners usually have a good idea of how their company is positioned in the industry, but they have a hard time taking a step back and analyzing the situation objectively.
To eliminate any risk of clouded judgment, you’ll want to arm yourself with relevant data that shows you exactly how things stand.
And competitive benchmarking is one of the best ways to obtain this data.
You get an objective view of where your company is at and how it stacks up against similar-sized competitors or set industry standards.
And as we mentioned above, due to constant shifts in the market, it’s extremely important that you’re making decisions based on real-time data.
With the help of our Benchmarking tool, you can do just that.
Not only can you access real-time benchmark data, but you can also get more granular by preselecting conditions such as company size, revenue, industry, and more.
While there are some tools on the market that do give this kind of insight as well, they only focus on a single area of your business.
We can give you a completely objective view of your performance, with KPIs from every department in your company (marketing, finance, sales, HR, and more).
From uncovering some new best practices that you can implement to figuring out which areas need to be optimized, competitive benchmarking gives you a ton of actionable data.
And if you take action on this data, well, your company’s performance will also see a boost. This later leads to more sales and more generated revenue, right?
For example, if you’re analyzing your competitor’s product and find a few new ways to make yours better, then more people will buy it.
Or, if you’ve optimized your customer support, then customer satisfaction will be higher, and you’re likely to get more referrals.
No matter how you spin it, taking action on the insights you get from competitive benchmarking leads to better performances, improved sales, and more profit.
Another great way to make use of your benchmark data is to share it in your content (e.g. blog posts or informational videos).
Readers respond to data-driven statements and you can use it to build a compelling narrative or story.
You can also use benchmarks in case studies, research reports, sales and demo materials, and several more mediums.
Some companies use them in investor pitches to showcase their results and pinpoint the exact areas in which they’re outperforming the competition.
And if you’re using Databox for reporting, you can connect the relevant benchmarks directly to your dashboard. This makes the entire process more time-efficient and understandable for the audience.
This again correlates to the importance of working with real-time data in your benchmarking process.
Even if you currently have some sort of competitive edge in the market, your competitors aren’t going to sit around with their arms crossed – they’ll be coming up with new ways to outperform you.
And occasionally, they might end up with a strategy that lets them do just that. Or a new competitor with a better product will arrive.
Whatever the scenario, you need to stay on top of what they’re doing and keep tabs on their latest strategies.
After analyzing them for longer periods, you’ll also be quicker to understand why a certain strategy is helping them… and use that to your advantage as well.
If you ever asked yourself:
Databox Benchmark Groups can finally help you answer these questions and discover how your company measures up against similar companies based on your KPIs.
When you join Benchmark Groups, you will:
The best part?
When it comes to showing you how your performance compares to others, here is what it might look like for the metric Average Session Duration:
And here is an example of an open group you could join:
And this is just a fraction of what you’ll get. With Databox Benchmarks, you will need only one spot to see how all of your teams stack up — marketing, sales, customer service, product development, finance, and more.
Sounds like something you want to try out? Join a Databox Benchmark Group today!
Market trends can change in a blink of an eye, which is why competitive benchmarking is such an invaluable tool to help you maintain or improve your company’s current position.
Real-time benchmarking helps you stay on top of all the latest market changes and you’ll be able to react to new trends immediately.
One great example of this is the COVID-19 pandemic. The companies that adapted the best to the lockdowns and new state of things were the ones that anticipated the need for remote working opportunities, new messaging, etc.
Sure, the global pandemic is a black swan event, but even drastically smaller changes can have a huge impact on your company if you’re not ready for them and aren’t preparing in advance.
Although similar to trends, market shifts refer to the major changes in the market and can have a significant impact on your business.
These major shifts aren’t as common as trends, but when they do occur, there’s usually some sort of opportunity that you can take advantage of and boost your company’s performance.
These changes can be caused by a number of factors, including changes in consumer behavior, technological advancements, or changes in government regulations.
And while benchmarking can be of huge help here, most companies have a hard time finding appropriate benchmarks for their specific industry, especially if they specialize in a very narrow niche.
For example, while you might be able to find benchmarks for software businesses, it’s a lot harder to find proper ones for health tech (e.g.).
That’s another thing we had in mind when creating Benchmark Groups.
We already have hundreds of pre-built groups in the product and you can niche them down even further with criteria like company size, revenue, business type, and industry.
And if you want to go even further or can’t find a specific group that matches your business, you can contact our team and we’ll build one just for you for free.
Benchmark data can be extremely valuable during monthly or quarterly meetings where you need to showcase your results to clients or company shareholders.
You can use the data to show where you’re company is outperforming the rest of the industry, which areas have been improved, and recommend new projects.
The idea is to show where you are now and where you can be by taking a certain action.
Once you have all this information, setting realistic and actionable goals becomes a whole lot easier since you’ll have a set standard you’ll be aiming for.
Related: Benchmark Reporting: How to Prepare, Analyze and Present a Good Benchmark Report?
What are your competitors doing really well? What are their biggest weaknesses and are there any major gaps in their business that your company can fill?
These are some of the major questions that competitive benchmarking will help you answer.
And don’t forget to check out these same things in your own business, you don’t want to miss out on any potential opportunities for improvement.
As Sun Tzu said in Art of War, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
Benchmarking metrics are the reference points you will use for comparisons, and they can come from any business department.
Finance, sales, marketing, HR… each of these departments comes with dozens of metrics specific to them that you can benchmark.
Because of the sheer volume, it might be hard to find a place to start.
If that’s the case, here are a few commonly used competitive benchmarking metrics to help you get started:
Databox’s Benchmark Groups has 100+ free open groups and you can join as many as you want at the same time, as long as you meet the group criteria with corresponding data (e.g. you’re a small eCommerce business).
As we mentioned before, you can make the groups a lot more specific by using the four criteria – company size, revenue, industry, and business type.
And if you can’t find a group that matches your specific needs, our support team will create one just for you. It’s completely free, all you just need to reach to us in chat and share the relevant details.
Here are some examples of groups you can join right now:
Viewing benchmark data can be enlightening, but seeing where your company’s efforts rank against those benchmarks can be game-changing.
Browse Databox’s open Benchmark Groups and join ones relevant to your business to get free and instant performance benchmarks.
Who is this group for: Ecommerce businesses
Which metrics can you compare: Clicks, impressions, CPC, conversions, CTR, and other Google Ads performance benchmarks.
Join the group here.
Who is this group for: SMB businesses (company size between 1-250 employees)
Which metrics can you compare: Impressions, clicks, CPC, conversion value, conversion rate, CTR, average CPC, and more.
Who is this group for: B2B companies
Which metrics can you compare: Emails sent, emails delivered, emails clicked, emails opened, new email subscribers, and more.
Who is this group for: Small companies (1-50 employees)
Which metrics can you compare: CTR, reach, frequency, CPM, CPC, amount spent, purchases, ROAS, purchases conversion value, and more.
Which metrics can you compare: Bounce rate, sessions, pageviews, average session length, new leads, new MQLs, new opportunities, deals created, and more.
Who is this group for: Any business type that has a Youtube channel (B2B, B2C, Ecommerce, Mobile, Marketplace, ISP, Enterprise, and SaaS)
Which metrics can you compare: Views, watch time, likes, average view duration, subscribers gained, and other YT-related performance metrics.
Who is this group for: Ecommerce or marketplace business types who use Klaviyo for email marketing
Which metrics can you compare: Opened email, clicked email, received email, marked as spam, subscribed to list, dropped email, and more.
Who is this group for: Businesses that operate in the real estate industry
Which metrics can you compare: Sessions, users, bounce rate, average time on page, average session duration, new users, and more.
Who is this group for: B2C companies
Which metrics can you compare: Sessions, users, bounce rate, unique pageviews, average session duration, average time on page, and more.
Which metrics can you compare: Impressions, new followers, total followers, clicks, likes, reactions, updates, company home page views, and more.
Who is this group for: Companies of any size (1-100k+)
Which metrics can you compare: Sessions, engaged sessions, active users, new users, engagement rate, events per session, and more.
Who is this group for: Companies of any size in the education industry
Which metrics can you compare: Reach, impressions, profile visits, new posts, new followers, text message clicks, website clicks, email clicks, and more.
Who is this group for: B2C businesses with 1-50 employees and $0-$10M in revenue.
Which metrics can you compare: Searches, phone calls, total reviews, average rating, sessions, pageviews, bounce rate, and more.
Who is this group for: Mid-sized B2B companies in the consulting and professional services industry, with annual revenue under $10M.
Which metrics can you compare: Impressions, average CPC, clicks, cost from Google Ads, amount spent from Facebook Ads, average session duration, users, bounce rate, and more.
Who is this group for: Mid-sized companies in the marketing and advertising industry, with less than 50 employees and annual revenue under $10M.
Who is this group for: Financial service companies (asset management, banking, insurance firms, investment banking, investment management, and similar financial industries)
Which metrics can you compare: Users, sessions, average session duration, pageviews, pages per session, bounce rate, goal conversion rate, goal completion, and more.
Who is this group for: Companies that operate in the information technology and services industry, with annual revenue between $10-$50M.
Which metrics can you compare: New users, Users, average session duration, bounce rate, pageviews, sessions, pages/session from Google Analytics, impressions, cost from Google Ads, and more.
Competitive benchmarking can bring some major benefits to your company and it’s one of the best ways to make sure you’re on top of the latest industry trends and competitor strategies.
But for proper competitive benchmarking, you need accurate performance metrics and real-time data from your competitors… which can be a bit hard to come by.
That is unless you’re using Databox’s Benchmark Groups.
Benchmark Groups allows you to instantly compare your company’s performance against cohorts of similar companies.
You can filter these groups by industry, company size, and revenue, to find a group that’s the most relevant to your business.
Most benchmarking tools you can find nowadays only focus on one specific area, but with our product, you get a complete 360° view of all of your departments – from finance to sales and marketing.
It’s simple, intuitive, instant, and, most importantly, it’s a completely free tool.
The data shared is 100% anonymized, for both you and your competitors, and you can opt-out at any moment.
Instantly access 1,000+ benchmarks and put them to work immediately.
And as a cherry on top… you also get access to a free Databox account that will help you monitor and report on your performance.
Sign up for free and check out how easy benchmarking can be when you’re not doing everything manually.
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Are you maximizing your business potential? Stop guessing and start comparing with companies like yours.
At Databox, we’re obsessed with helping companies more easily monitor, analyze, and report their results. Whether it’s the resources we put into building and maintaining integrations with 100+ popular marketing tools, enabling customizability of charts, dashboards, and reports, or building functionality to make analysis, benchmarking, and forecasting easier, we’re constantly trying to find ways to help our customers save time and deliver better results.
Filip Stojanovic is a content writer who studies Business and Political Sciences. Also, I am a huge tennis enthusiast. Although my dream is to win a Grand Slam, working as a content writer is also interesting.
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