Okay, okay, so SWOT analysis might not give you super powers, but it will give you a better picture of your business, market and strategy. So, just what is SWOT analysis? How can you use a company SWOT analysis to understand your small business marketing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? Let’s get started!
What Is SWOT Analysis
A company SWOT analysis is simply a small business marketing, and overall business planning tool to help you better understand your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
A simple way to create an informal company SWOT analysis is to take a piece of paper and write strengths in the upper left quadrant, weaknesses in the upper right, opportunities in the lower left quadrant and threats in the lower right. Now, let’s fill out the SWOT analysis for your small business marketing.
What Is SWOT Analysis – The Four Key Areas
Strengths
Write down all strengths your business has, or areas that can be perceived as a strength in marketing your small business. For example, an easy strength might be that your employees have over 50-years of combined experience in your industry, or, your central business location makes service calls quick and easy. Really think about your strengths and what customers would view as a strengths. The following are all strengths in your company SWOT analysis and can be used effectively in small business marketing.
- Do you offer a unique product or service competitors don’t?
- Do you hold special patents?
- Is your process for identifying customer problems and solutions better than the company down the street?
- Can you turn things that might be viewed as a negative into a strength; such as your company’s small size allowing you to provide very, very tight relationships and customer service?
Weaknesses
Make a list of all of your business weaknesses and perceived weaknesses in your company SWOT analysis. Much like strengths, a lot of areas can be viewed as a potential weakness. Try to pick out the most important weaknesses that not only you see, but what customers, lenders and the community might view as a weakness. The following are a few questions to get your mind rolling while creating your company SWOT analysis.
- Have you been in business for a very short time, so nobody has heard of you?
- Do you have a rather sparse track record with customers or no customers at all yet?
- Can people easily understand a need for your products and services, or is there a learning curve?
- Is your small size a problem for fulfilling large orders, providing additional services that the big guys offer, or make your stability and longevity questionable?
Opportunities
What opportunities do you see on the horizon? Write down a list of opportunities you can take advantage of when marketing your small business. It’s always good and fun to dream big, so really open up the throttle while creating your company SWOT analysis. The following questions should help point you in the right direction and get you thinking about viable opportunities for your small business.
- Are you targeting a unique product in a market or industry that is underserved?
- Can your product or service be modified for other similar markets?
- What larger businesses in your industry or related industries can you partner with to gain market share?
- How can you “spin” your products and services into prepackaged solutions for your target market, or other new markets?
Threats
Threats to your small business marketing success can come in many forms. Preparing a company SWOT analysis will help you see potential pitfalls before they’re on your doorstep so that you can plan accordingly to counter those threats. Below are a few questions to get your thinking cap on.
- Is your industry relatively new, or with one or two dominant players with a track record of failure for new entrants?
- Is the market already overcrowded for your products and services?
- How tight are profit margins? Will marketing yield a solid return on your investment, or are you facing decreasing margins over time?
- Can your product or service be easily replicated or dominated by the sudden entrance of a much larger company?
The above should have helped answer what is SWOT analysis? Keep in mind that a company SWOT analysis can be rather simple if you’ll be the only one using it, or, more formal if you’ll be including the SWOT analysis in an official small business marketing plan. If possible, ask your friends, family and close confidants for their input while preparing your company SWOT analysis. More brains are always better than one – even if you don’t always use the extra guidance!
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