Do you know what strengths your business has? What about the weaknesses? How about opportunities and threats? If not, then you need to do a swot analysis.

Before we do this it is important to identify specific marketing objectives you want to reach. For example, a realtor using social media might want to connect with one new client every quarter. Once you have your Marketing Objectives, your SWOT Analysis enables you to choose a path that best fits your company’s marketing resources and skills. Below we discuss how to use SWOT to help your business grow online.

SWOT Analysis Breakdown

So, what is a SWOT Analysis? SWOT stands for your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to your digital marketing plan.

• Strength- What do you do better than everyone else in your industry? What makes you different? What advantages do you have over your competitors?
• Weaknesses- On the reverse side, what are you lacking in the industry that other companies have? Where you do fall behind other companies? How can your competitors beat you?
• Opportunities- How can you create additional profit sources for your business? What can you do to build your sales?
• Threats-Do you have any competitors that could destroy your business? What about technologies that disrupt your business?

Understanding a SWOT Analysis will help your business know-how to position your products through social networking, and also begin marketing your services more effectively than previously.

SWOT Examples

Strengths– Think about how Apple has a devoted fan base. Very few Apple users switch back to Microsoft after coming to Apple, because their strength is in the community and devoted service they provide to their customers.

What is your greatest strength in business? How can you strengthen this model, so you can continually build your brand and sales?

Weaknesses– Think about the recent real estate crash. As a former mortgage broker and real estate investor I got a front-row seat to this disaster. One of the funny terms that came out of the disaster was “Too big to fail”.

Essentially, the government picked which banks to support because they were too essential to the economy. While the process was pathetic, the idea that one bank brought more value than another is very important. The other weaker banks dropped like flies.

Opportunity-My company has recently had a few opportunities. One of them has been to started doing search engine optimization for other companies. It is a way to naturally extend my brand into a similar field. Updated 1/29/15: Another opportunity is writing blog posts. After we wrote AndyNathan.Net for a sustained period of time, we were barraged with requests to write content for other businesses.

Threats– Newspapers have been losing market share over the past years, as bloggers have disrupted the traditional media model. Threats can come from a number of sources, including technology, new competitors, new offerings, or just outdated models of business.

By evaluating threats ahead of time, you can reduce their impact on your business model.

A SWOT Analysis is a great tool to understand how to position your brand and get your promotion mix out correctly. Make sure that you do your SWOT Analysis today?

Let us know what you find when doing a SWOT Analysis of your business?

Was the SWOT analysis a game-changer, or confirm what you thought previously? Additionally, how have you then put your SWOT analysis into use for your business? Let us know in the comment area what questions you have about SWOT analysis for your business.

Do you need help with your SWOT Analysis? Then schedule a free 30-minute consultation at SmartAtTheStart.Com.