Benchmarketing and benchmarking: What can they contribute to your digital strategy?

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Benchmarking ? Yes, another English word for the collection. Pay attention.

The word Benchmarking comes from benchmark, that is, reference point in English.

This concept has its origins in the financial world, where the term benchmark is used to designate the reference point that will indicate whether an investment is profitable or not.

For example, if we use the Ibex-35 as a benchmark for an investment, we will consider it a success if it exceeds the revaluation of this index or if its losses are less than its devaluation.

And what does this have to do with marketing and my digital strategy ?

A little patience, we're not done yet.


Definition of benchmarking
If you've been paying attention, you've noticed that benchmarking is all about comparison . Right?

That is, an investment is good or bad depending on whether it is above or below the results of the designated benchmark or reference point.

Well, that's what benchmarking is all about .

If we limit ourselves to applauding our successes and looking at our navels, it art director email database will be difficult to improve, so from time to time, it is necessary to take external references that offer us new perspectives .


Do you get it?

Wait, we'll leave you our definition of benchmarking , just in case:

“ Benchmarking is an analysis process within the area of ​​business marketing where the errors and successes of other processes , companies or business models are taken into account in order to extract ideas to improve one's own .”

Or, in other words, benchmarking is about applying the experience of others to improve your processes and results.

That's important! It's not about copying, but rather about improving what already exists and looking for new ways to differentiate yourself from the competition.


Types of benchmarking
Depending on the value we establish as a reference point, we will be talking about one type of benchmarking or another. In addition, depending on the objectives we want to improve in our marketing strategy, we will apply one type of benchmarking or another.

Definition of benchmarking

Internal benchmarking
It is not always necessary to look at the competition. Sometimes, we have great success stories in our own country and that is also a reason for analysis.

For example, when a large company has a branch that works wonderfully, it is advisable to analyze it in order to model the processes and techniques that lead to those results and thus be able to replicate them in the rest of the branches.

Competitive benchmarking
When we go beyond the walls of our company to look at the results of our competition , we start talking about competitive benchmarking .

For example, if a company wants to improve its website traffic, it can carry out keyword research , that is, an analysis of the keywords for which its competition is positioned to reinforce the most competitive ones or focus on those that are not being attacked.

Generic Benchmarking
There are times when we may be interested in a more global view of a specific process. In these cases we will use generic benchmarking .

For example, if you want to open a Spanish restaurant in China, you can look at the opening hours of other types of restaurants to implement your own. They will give you a fairly accurate view of local customs and the demand of your audience.

International benchmarking
This type of benchmarking involves looking at companies from other countries to be able to detect trends and fads before your direct competition.

In the case of fashion, for example, this is very obvious. That is why the entire industry closely follows what happens on the big catwalks in Milan, Paris, London or New York.

Functional Benchmarking
But it doesn't end here. We can surely find good examples of communication, logistics or any other process that different industries share in companies from other sectors, right?