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		November 2007, Issue 45

Spotlight on Benchmarking
Benchmarking 101: All Benchmarks Are Not Created Equal
(Part 2 of 3)
By JT Buser, Manager of Analytics, Bulldog Solutions

Welcome back to the Benchmarking 101 series. In Part 1 of the series, I discussed the who's, what's and why should I care's? of benchmarking. To recap briefly, benchmarking means different things to different people. For the purposes of this series, I'll venture my own definition: Benchmarking is taking previous data and calculating a value to which we want to hold ourselves using any new data on the same metric. According to the 2007 Bulldog Solutions Lead-Generation Survey, 61% of sales and marketing professional we surveyed use benchmarks. Why? Benchmarks have been proven to help companies plan and improve their marketing initiatives.

We've already covered the who's, what's and why's. In Part 2 of this series, we'll cover the where's. Where on earth can these magical benchmarks be found? First, there are two different general categories for benchmarks: internal benchmarks and third-party benchmarks. Let's begin with a look at the benefits of each.

Internal Benchmarks

Internal benchmarks are the easiest and most cost-effective way of benchmarking. Simply put, we take our success metrics and calculate a benchmark based on past performance. We already have the data, so we can calculate the value pretty easily. So, what good is this? It gives us an indication of how well we are doing compared to our past history—and therefore gives us a starting point to plan for future events. For marketers, it can tell us how our current campaign is doing compared to our previous campaigns, ultimately allowing us to set expectations for and plan improvements to future initiatives.

For example, if we know what our typical cost per lead is, we can use this benchmark to predict our budget for our media buys based on the number of leads we need. This is great information! The downside: Because internal benchmarks rely on previous data, they are not as useful for any new initiatives in new markets. This is where it's beneficial to turn to benchmarks from a third party.

Third-Party Benchmarks

External benchmarks can fill in the gaps that internal benchmarks leave behind. They can help by telling us how our current initiatives stack up against our competitors'. A common misconception is that benchmarks are not really important as long as we know we're making money. Frankly, this couldn't be further from the truth. Sure, progress is good, but if we have no idea how our competitors are doing, we could be way behind (although still profiting) or way ahead. Using benchmarks will help us determine what actions to take and how to prioritize them. Even more important, external benchmarks can help us plan new initiatives in a new but proven market by using industry standards. Global benchmarks, on the other hand, can help us draw a line in the sand for any new but unproven market.

By using both internal and third-party data sources, we get the best of both worlds. When we asked the same 61% of marketers I mentioned above how confident they were in their use of benchmarks, we found that those who rated their ability as "excellent" were also most likely to be using both internal and third-party sources.

So, where does one find reliable third-party benchmarks? Some companies spend a lot of resources attempting to find these benchmarks themselves, often resulting in dead-ends, because their competitors are not likely to divulge this information. For those in BtoB marketing, there are some reputable third parties that offer solid, reliable benchmarks. Some are better than others, and for more information on which ones are best, stay tuned for Part 3 of the Benchmarking 101 Series.

In the meantime, visit The Bulldog Index and take a look around. This site discusses in-depth some of the concepts I have covered here.

JT Buser is manager of Analytics at Bulldog Solutions, the lead-generation optimization and management company. Visit www.bulldogsolutions.com to learn more.

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Marketing Watchdog Journal is a monthly newsletter from Bulldog Solutions, a lead optimization and lead management company dedicated to helping our clients generate more, better leads and turn them into revenue. We welcome your feedback on this newsletter's content and design, and encourage you to share your ideas for topics you would like us to cover in future issues. Please send your comments or questions about Bulldog Solutions to Amy Bills, senior manager of Field Marketing.