A SWOT analysis is a great way to get an overall picture of your standing as a company. You can complete a SWOT analysis on any area of your business or the business as a whole. A project, department, campaign, or new idea may warrant completing a SWOT analysis. 

There are 4 aspects of a SWOT Analysis that will allow you to better understand your company or project.

Completing a SWOT Analysis will help you to gain a better understanding of your market at large. If completing an analysis for a full scope marketing plan, this analysis will shine a light on the areas of your business that are doing well; where your competition may be outperforming you; where there may be opportunities for your company to get ahead; and threats in the industry that you will want to keep an eye on. 

This will also allow you to analyze your project or marketing plan. For example, you may realize that there is heavy competition or that some of your company’s weaknesses need to be strengthened for you to be able to compete and stand out among your competition. That’s exciting because that’s where the growth happens! You can start thinking through training, hiring, or outsourcing these pieces to ensure your success.

Ready to dig in and get the insight you’ve been craving? It may seem daunting, but when broken down into segments, you’ll find more information than you thought possible!

1. 1. The first thing to do is to have a clear idea of what you will be researching. Check in internally to define your scope. Are you analyzing your full marketing capabilities? Are you looking specifically to kickstart a new effort or campaign? Make sure you have a clear idea of the project so that you focus your research in the right direction.
      
   2. Next, determine who your competitors are. If your research is for your full scope of marketing capabilities, you likely know who your main competitors are. Keep those competitors in mind, but also run an audit in your favorite SEO tool (We like SEMRush!) to see if there are any newcomers in the market to include in your competition. It’s always a great idea to keep an eye out for changes—consider scheduling a report weekly or monthly with this data so you can continue to grow and pivot as the market does!
      
   3. Finally, it’s time to get into the nitty gritty of it: completing each analysis. For each section, review the questions below as a guideline for where to start. For strengths and weaknesses, you’ll focus your research internally. Opportunities will include internal and external research, and your Threats will come from external sources, including your competition’s website(s), market research and reports (there are many specialized market research companies as well as free information available across the internet), and Google Search Trends. If your company subscribes to any industry publication, this would also be a great resource!

As you begin your analysis, you’ll come up with additional ideas, thoughts, and questions. Include them in your analysis! Our following factors are a jumping off point, not an end all, be all!

Internal Factors

• • What internal efforts are you running that are performing well?
  • In what areas does your company or team excel? 
  • Is there a particular aspect that brings in more conversions (sales, leads, traffic, or any other Key Performance Indicators) for your company? 
  • What are your key distinguishers that set you apart from competitors?

Internal Factors

• • What internal efforts are taking more time because they’re not optimized? 
  • What is not performing well?
  • In which areas do you see that your team isn’t properly trained? 
  • Is there a position you need filled immediately?
  • What are your team’s pain points?
  • What internal obstacles do you face?

Internal Factors

• • What strengths, if any, aren’t being used to their full potential? 
  • What great ideas have you and your team been mulling over that haven’t come to fruition yet? 
  • Do you have yearly goals to meet that can be met through identifying new opportunities?
  • Is there something your consumer has been asking for that you could provide?

External Factors

• • What areas of the market aren’t being served?
  • What is the current landscape of the market? Review industry reports to identify the pain points that you may have not yet considered. For example, are manufacturing costs estimated to increase? Is the supply chain facing weaknesses?

Internal Factors

• • Is your company prepared to take on the extra orders, leads, or other business that you are working to achieve?
  • Is the market saturated? How much work will it take for you to compete in the arena?

External Factors

• • What areas of the market aren’t being served?
  • What is your competition up to—and what are they doing well?

A common visualization tool for a SWOT analysis is to include all of your information in a matrix. This matrix is a simple 2×2 grid layout of these categories to help you analyze, at a glance, where you may have matches in your strengths and opportunities, as well as in your weaknesses and threats. This allows you to note areas where you can quickly take advantage of the market and your skills as well as areas where it will be important for you to grow and track your competition. Below, you’ll find an example of a completed matrix. This visualization may help you to identify trends that are working well for your marketing plan or areas where your plan may not be working as you strategically intended. Reading across rows will help you to clearly see your internal or external factors, while reading down columns will quickly identify areas to focus on marketing efforts or strengthening your team.

If you are working on a marketing strategy for a burger company, your SWOT Analysis for marketing may look like this:

From your SWOT matrix, you should be able to—

• • look down the left column and see that customers are looking to buy a product at a higher price, like a grass-fed burger. That would provide insight that your product and offerings are in line with the market—this is a great marketing opportunity to promote the high quality and sustainability of your grass-fed beef! 
  • look at the right column and see that you only offer 3 types of burgers, and supply chain shortages may cause a problem here, leaving you with only 1 type of burger left to sell! Knowing this up front offers you the opportunity to grow: you could make a Plan B, source alternate products/suppliers, or consider diversifying your menu in these situations.
  • look at the top row and see that your staff is great but thin. Make a plan to round this out before your marketing plan gets into high gear! 
  • look at the bottom row and see that the market is pushing towards a higher quality product and is willing to pay more—which is great, since the cost of the product is increasing. Make moves now to increase your prices to gain the ROI that you need! 

Other insights you may glean from your analysis—

• • Once you convert a lead into a customer, they are loyal. Consider a rewards program to lower your cost per acquisition.
  • Cost per acquisition is high, and prices in the industry are rising, which indicate that your competition will also be preparing to spend more per acquisition. Consider alternate ads/spends that target an untapped market.
  • Your team is a key selling point. Promote your team and their unique value to the marketplace!

As your marketing strategy grows and evolves, use a SWOT analysis to gain a better understanding of your marketing plan, its effectiveness, the market, and areas where it may be necessary to pivot. Your SWOT analysis will provide an effective and simple way to quickly identify your marketing’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats! If you’d like more insight into your marketing efforts and to complete an audit of your marketing situation, Root & Roam can help. Complete the form below, and we’ll be in touch!