This month at Smart Insights, we’re putting a focus on industry statistics and how they help you compare your performance.
Being aware of relevant statistics and trends can help you better understand your industry as a whole, as well as allow you to benchmark your performance against that of your competitors. When it comes to your marketing strategy, they also give you some insight into what tools and techniques you should be using.
Benchmarking your performance offers a range of benefits including:
- Enables you to set performance expectations.
- Provides an understanding of how you are performing against industry standards.
- Identifies areas that need improving.
- Allows you to monitor the overall performance and manage company/strategy changes.
- Helps you develop a standard set of metrics that you use to assess performance.
- Creates a company culture that embraces continuous improvement.
- Gives you a better understanding of customer wants and expectations.
Failing to have this level of awareness can mean you miss out on opportunities, are measuring the wrong things and are putting money and resource into activities that aren’t going to provide ROI.
Keeping up to date with industry statistics, both in a broader sense and those that are related to your niche, will ensure you have the tools required to plan activities and measure the results.
Performance expectations
It’s all well and good hoping you see amazing results from a marketing campaign, but what are your estimates based on?
Past performance is only one indicator and may not be as accurate today due to changes in your sector or certain aspects of marketing. Yes, you may have had good results with a Facebook campaign previously, but are you taking into account recent algorithm changes that have resulted in a drop in organic visibility on the platform?
Knowing how other Facebook advertisers are faring and whether they are seeing better results on other platforms will allow you to set more realistic expectations of your own performance.
Industry standards
Sometimes it can be difficult to pinpoint an action that has triggered an improvement or decline in performance. Is it something you’ve done right/wrong that has caused this or is it a larger issue that is affecting others?
Getting to grips with industry standards helps you see not only how other marketers are performing but what they are doing. This enables you to compare your performance and see if you are experiencing the same rises and dips.
If you aren’t seeing similar results and your performance is below par, you know you need to do something about it. Whereas if you’re performing better than standard, this could help you get buy-in for more activities.
Improvements needed
Looking at recent statistics and benchmarking your business against them will show you exactly where you need to put more work in. For example, if social media statistics show you that e-commerce businesses are booming on Facebook and Instagram but you only see a small number of people coming to your site from these channels, your strategy probably needs to be looked at.
Getting an idea of trends and expectations within your industry will highlight areas to improve and to focus more on.
Monitor performance
There’s not much point in changing your strategy without any good reason – after all, change for the sake of it is unlikely to get the results you want. Any changes to your marketing strategy need to based on company performance, trends and competitor/sector analysis.
You can better manage your strategy and only make relevant changes by monitoring how you are performing in terms of the broader industry, as well as compared to your previous results. Looking at statistics from your sector and competitors will allow you to ensure you’re always, at the very least, on par and show you what you might need to change.
Standard metrics
We all know that there is a huge list of metrics that you can measure, which means it can be fairly easy to get lost in analytics. This also means that you can end up tracking metrics that you don’t really need to.
Benchmarking against industry standards and competitors will show you what similar companies are tracking and how they are measuring their performance. This means you can develop a set of standard comparable metrics in order to track your performance and show how you are doing against other marketers.
Culture of improvement
All too often, companies are happy to stick with certain activities and goals because they have worked well in the past. While change for the sake of it is far from beneficial, not changing can also be hugely damaging to your brand and bottom line.
Knowing what is happening within your industry and marketing will help you push for changes that matter, creating a company culture that is all about improvement. Benchmarking against the best will mean that your business has the drive to compete and become an industry leader.
Customer expectations
Industry statistics don’t just show you what other organizations are doing and how they are performing, they also help highlight what customers expect. This means that you can quickly meet customers’ needs, staying ahead of the trends and beating the competition.
For example, your direct competitors may not be making the most of video marketing, but when you take into account that 53% of customers engage with a brand after watching a video on social media, you might want to include video in your strategy.
The way that customers engage with brands, purchase and make decisions will all impact your strategy more than what your competitors are doing. This means staying on the ball and benchmarking against expectations as well as performance.
Statistic and benchmarking resources
To help you stay on top of the latest statistics and trends, as well as benchmark how you are currently performing, we’ve put together a range of resources. We’ll update this list throughout the month as more relevant resources go live so you can focus on recent statistics and benchmarking too.