How do you compare your marketing standards to peers?

1 Why compare marketing standards?

Comparing your marketing standards to peers can help you improve your marketing operations in several ways. First, it can help you measure your progress and achievements against realistic and relevant benchmarks. Second, it can help you identify areas of improvement and prioritize your actions accordingly. Third, it can help you learn from the successes and failures of others and adopt best practices that suit your goals and context.

2 What are marketing standards?

Marketing standards are the guidelines, policies, processes, and metrics that define how you plan, execute, and evaluate your marketing activities. They can cover various aspects of marketing operations, such as strategy, budget, campaigns, content, data, technology, analytics, and reporting. Marketing standards can vary depending on your industry, market, size, and maturity, but they should align with your overall business objectives and customer needs.

3 How to find industry standards?

One way to compare your marketing standards to peers is to look for industry standards that represent the average or best performance of similar organizations. Industry standards can be found in various sources, such as reports, surveys, benchmarks, frameworks, and models. For example, you can use the Marketing Operations Maturity Model (MOMM) to assess your level of maturity across four dimensions: alignment, accountability, agility, and automation. You can also use the Marketing Performance Management (MPM) framework to evaluate your ability to plan, measure, and optimize your marketing outcomes.

4 How to find peer groups?

Another way to compare your marketing standards to peers is to find peer groups that share similar characteristics or challenges as you. Peer groups can be found in various ways, such as networking, events, communities, forums, and platforms. For example, you can join a marketing operations group on LinkedIn, attend a marketing operations summit, or participate in a marketing operations benchmarking platform. Peer groups can help you exchange insights, feedback, and advice with other marketing professionals who understand your context and goals.

5 How to compare marketing standards?

Once you have found industry standards and peer groups, you can compare your marketing standards to peers using different methods and tools. For example, you can use a SWOT analysis to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to your peers. You can also use a gap analysis to determine the difference between your current and desired state and the actions needed to close the gap. You can also use a dashboard or a scorecard to track and visualize your key performance indicators (KPIs) and compare them to your peers.

6 How to act on the comparison?

Comparing your marketing standards to peers is not enough. You also need to act on the comparison and implement changes that will improve your marketing operations. To do that, you need to set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) that reflect your desired state and align with your business objectives. You also need to create an action plan that outlines the steps, resources, and timelines needed to achieve your goals. You also need to monitor and evaluate your progress and results and adjust your plan as needed.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?