In college it seemed like every course forced us to do put together a marketing plan, pr plan or communications plan depending on which department the plan was coming from. Fast forward nearly a decade and those SWOT analyses, analsie, analysises?! (??!???! you get the point, fast forward and the SWOT continues to be a beneficial tactic.
The online marketing SWOT analysis
The analysis has come a long way from the college days though. Today, when I do them they’re much more thoughtful and data-driven be it quantitative or qualitative. Back then it felt a bit like a whim “oh, I think that’s a STRENGTH” akin to licking your finger and sticking it in the air to detect the wind direction.
At result150 I put together a guide on how you can do an online marketing swot analysis(click here for the guide) that we have available for download for our credit unions. The info is helpful regardless of your industry however and the guide includes a template to get you started thinking about some of the themes you want to analyze and questions you want to ask about. Go ahead and download it if you’d like. I broke down themes around awareness, traffic, converting leads, being relevant, maintaining presence, and referrals.
The key is as you go through it find ways to arrive at your results through data. Whether that’s creating a formula to compare yourself to competitors in search result page rank or the relevance of a call to action. That way you have quantifiable results instead of “well it feels like we’re stronger here.”
You’ll be surprised where the data might lead you.
How do I get data from what feels qualitative?
One of the first things you’ll want to do is make a list of the things you’ll be measuring. Then think of ways to analyze them. Do quantifiable measures exist? If so create a format for measuring them. For example, if SEO is one of your categories to measure create a formula for ranking yourself and your competitors, waiting the page and position for your products and services so you can get an accurate measure. For things a bit more subjective like social media or content, you can still measure this. Create weights for things such as frequency and engagement.
Need help? Get in touch about services in online marketing and let’s talk about your projects.
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