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Benchmarking: How Do You Know How Well You’re Doing?

Article by John Landsman CATEGORIES: Benchmarking, Trends & Analysis TAGS:

Would you ever imagine introducing a new product into the market without thoroughly evaluating your competition? Or would you ever consider changing your pricing strategies or model without full insight to what your competitors are doing, including visibility into what works, what doesn’t, and where opportunities exist?

Obviously the answer is no, and none of us could even fathom such an approach. Yet if this is true, why do so many email marketers still create and send email campaigns with little to no competitive intelligence?

Unfortunately, most simply don’t have enough insight into real-world, “outside” data. Whether that is what their competitors are doing, industry benchmarks or trends, best practices to implement, or mistakes to avoid.

As a result, they are essentially flying blind. They keep doing what they’re doing and continue to hope for the best. But like the old saying goes, hope is not a strategy.

Gain actionable insight

When it comes to email marketing, it’s critical to know as much as possible, especially related to your competitors’ efforts. For example, if you can learn what they’re doing – all the way down to the tactical level – you can implement these proven best practices to boost your campaign’s success.

Such insight really becomes a significant competitive advantage. For example, according to a new research paper from The Relevancy Group, “The Value of Competitive Intelligence,” marketers using competitive intelligence solutions enjoy three times more email revenue than those marketing teams that don’t. To learn more, please download this free report on our website now.

To understand the full value of competitive intelligence, just think how much more successful you would be if you had unparalleled visibility into:

  • What strategies your competitors are using with their email campaigns
  • How these activities perform relative to your own email marketing
  • How this performance translates into potential new results
  • Actions or best practices you can implement to achieve these gains

 

Having such insight really becomes a win-win. Not only do you get extremely detailed information to know exactly how you measure up, but you become aware of those strategies and tactics that will move the needle.

For example, eDataSource client, Staples, relies on eDataSource’s competitive intelligence solutions to see comparisons of various email campaigns to best identify what’s working, what could be improved, and how they can improve results in this year’s holiday season.

The eDataSource advantage

eDataSource solutions, such as Competitive Tracker, deliver just this level of insight. Using information from actual consumer inboxes over time, our solution returns the market intelligence you need quickly, so you can compete more effectively. You can see and understand everything about your competitor’s email marketing campaigns, including:

  • All emails sent to all subscriber segments
  • Subject lines, campaign creative, promotion strategies, and more
  • Mailing volumes, depth of file, frequency, segmentation, and triggered messaging schemes
  • Inbox placement by campaign
  • Open and delete rates

Competitive Tracker

 

For maximum flexibility and productivity, Competitive Tracker gives you the ability to search by keyword, set up configurable alerts, and access fully customizable charts and reports. You can even use our Brand Compare feature to get on-demand, tailored reports comparing a benchmark brand of your choice against as many as three other brands. Choose the timeframe you wish to examine and save your report to view the latest data again and again.

Brand Compare

 

When it comes to knowing exactly where you stand – and learning what it takes to improve – don’t continue to operate in the dark and hope you’re doing the right thing. Gain valuable insight into the marketing strategies and tactics that are proven to produce real results.

 

This article is the first in a blog series intended to give today’s email marketers best practices and real-world examples to improve marketing effectiveness and results. Stay tuned for future articles to learn more.