Get to know your competition by conducting a benchmark

Benchmarking: The Key to Understanding Your Competitive Position

Conducting a benchmark, or benchmarking, is a comparative analysis process that allows you to assess your standing against your competition. With this technique, you can closely study the distinguishing characteristics and factors of your direct competitors and market leaders, such as:

• The strategies they are using.
• The tools they employ.
• Their chosen positioning.
• The results they have achieved.

By analysing what others are doing well (or poorly), you can improve your own performance.

 

Comparing your performance with that of your competitors will help you better understand your position in the market and discover what unique and additional value you can offer your customers. But that's not all – benchmarking offers significant advantages, especially for small businesses and the self-employed who may not have the same resources as larger companies.

Let us explain!

Advantages of Benchmarking

Do you need a reason to use this technique? Below, we highlight its main advantages and benefits:

• Better knowledge of your business: This analysis will help you better evaluate your company, identifying areas where you excel (your strengths) and those where you need improvement (weaknesses).
• Better understanding of the market: You won’t only be conducting an internal analysis of your company, but you’ll also gain insights into the latest trends and the characteristics or preferences of your target audience. This will enable you to set realistic and achievable goals.
• Saving time and resources: By identifying strategies that have proven effective in your sector, you can reduce the need for trial and error. Plus, by applying this to future scenarios, you can anticipate the future needs of your audience.
• Continuous learning: Benchmarking is an ongoing study that should be conducted regularly to stay up to date with market changes. This allows you to continuously monitor your business, ensuring you always make the best decisions.

You’ll also be able to answer questions like: What is my competition doing that I am not? Are there customer segments in the market that are being overlooked and to whom I can offer something? What types of services are my competitors providing?

However, despite recommending benchmarking, there are some challenges you might encounter. For example, the initial cost in terms of time and resources. Additionally, you should be careful not to lose sight of your company's direction and essence by constantly comparing yourself to the competition. Now that you understand what benchmarking is, as well as its benefits and challenges, let us explain how to carry one out.

How to Conduct a Benchmark from Scratch

Although the steps may vary depending on your business needs, the basic framework can be summarised as follows:

1. Define your objectives: What will be the focus of your analysis? Are you looking to improve customer experience, enhance production processes, increase your online and social media presence…?
2. Choose which competitors to analyse: Select direct competitors or market leaders who have strong strategies in the area you wish to improve.
3. Decide what you will measure: You will need to select the most relevant metrics and conduct a detailed study of the data you choose to collect.
4. Compare the results: Evaluate the data obtained against your company's performance. This will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.
5. Develop an action plan based on the results: Set new strategies and objectives according to the processes you do well and those that need improvement. You should also establish indicators to measure the new results and ensure continuous improvement.

Finally, there are many tools available to help you carry out this study. Here are a few:

• SimilarWeb: A platform focused on analysing and monitoring websites and competitors. Discover how it works here.
• SEMRush: Analyse your competition by focusing on their online positioning. Although it is a paid tool, there is a free version available.
• Google Trends: This Google tool allows you to see what users are searching for, helping you identify behavioural patterns. Learn more about it here.

As you can see, conducting a benchmark is essential for staying competitive in the market. With this analysis, you’ll not only be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses but also adapt your competitors’ best practices to your own business. Don’t fall behind – start benchmarking your business today!

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