Author: Franz Malten Buemann

When my father was in college, he had a friend who was blind. His friend made a deal with him – he’d buy a car they could share. The catch? When my father’s friend wanted to take a girl on a date, my father would drop any other commitments and be their designated driver. Sometimes, just for fun, they’d go to an empty lot and his friend would drive the car – flying around at a reckless speed with only the yelling and screaming of his pals to prevent catastrophe.
Now, while we expect this kind of risky behavior in college (based on stories we’ve heard, not our own experiences, of course), flying blind is no way to run a marketing department. Thankfully, today we have access to the marketing attribution software needed to clearly see what channels, content, and campaigns are working…and which are not.
KPIs that matter
When we start our careers as marketers, we tend to jam our foot into the gas pedal and hurry straight into driving programs and campaigns. We learn how to use marketing channels. We learn about content, creative, and CTAs. In time, we master marketing metrics such as views, click-through rates, and marketing-qualified leads. Still, something eludes us. We are counting a lot of things, but none of them are what the CEO really cares about – pipeline and revenue.
For most of us, our first step into the light was single-touch attribution, often enabled by a CRM. Now we could attribute revenue credit to the single campaign which appeared to trigger an important event such as product purchase. Helpful, but also unrealistic in the context of long B2B buying journeys comprised of dozens or even a hundred or more customer touchpoints. So, about ten seconds after we started using single-touch attribution, we realized its limitations in B2B marketing. We were still flying blind.
We needed visibility to the whole journey – every buyer touchpoint, every channel, every content asset, and every campaign that made (or didn’t make) a difference. Only with this complete picture could we hope to optimize our marketing mix across every buying stage in order to grow the business. And, of course, we needed to be able to do this in a modern and automated way that didn’t involve spreadsheets and weekends.
Multi-touch attribution challenge
Led by Marketo (now Marketo Engage), marketing automation providers began to offer capabilities for taking on this multi-touch attribution challenge. In time, Bizible emerged as the leading attribution solution for B2B marketers. Bizible maintains this leadership today as a part of the Adobe Experience Cloud where it can take advantage of native integrations with Marketo Engage and other Adobe software.
So, what’s the value of not flying blind? What’s the value of knowing what’s working and what’s not? As it turns out, the value is immense. We see it with our Bizible customers every day and as we work with prospects to construct financial business cases for Bizible, we regularly come to ROI figures that are as compelling as you will find for any type of software. It makes sense when you think about it. As marketing teams grow in maturity and have gotten good at the mechanics of buyer engagement, there is really nothing more valuable than insights that help you tune that engagement for maximum impact and ROI. As one Bizible customer succinctly put it, “Bizible helps us understand where to put our marketing dollars.”
The financial value of an investment in attribution software
While we love to share customer success stories and create business cases with individual Bizible prospects, we know many marketers are seeking a more general description of the potential financial value of an investment in attribution software. To do this, we commissioned Forrester to perform a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study. Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a proven, industry-recognized approach for assessing the value of technology investments. Results are based on customer interviews and Forrester’s own independent analysis and expertise. In this case, Forrester interviewed five Bizible customers ranging in size from a $50M/year US company to a $52B/year global enterprise.
So, what did they find? What is the ROI of an investment in modern B2B marketing attribution? Forrester found an almost 4x return on investment in Bizible with a payback period of less than one year. Marketing teams were able to generate 15% more qualified leads and millions of dollars in incremental pipeline and revenue while also saving time thanks to Bizible automation. Meanwhile, marketing cost per sales opportunity was reduced by 17%, freeing up money to drive even more growth.
Forrester TEI of Bizible
Ultimately, it’s no wonder so many B2B marketing leaders consider Bizible a part of their playbook for professional success. While flying blind can be thrilling, there comes a time for every marketer and marketing team to graduate to what comes next. Those who do wonder how they ever did their jobs any other way. The B2B marketing attribution software exists today to understand the complete B2B buyer’s journey and link marketing to pipeline and revenue. With the new Forrester TEI study of Bizible, marketers now have a powerful new way to communicate that value to stakeholders and budget owners within their companies.
Check out the complete Forrester Total Economic Impact of Bizible report.
The post Modern B2B Marketing Attribution: Making the Business Case appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog – Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

When my father was in college, he had a friend who was blind. His friend made a deal with him – he’d buy a car they could share. The catch? When my father’s friend wanted to take a girl on a date, my father would drop any other commitments and be their designated driver. Sometimes, just for fun, they’d go to an empty lot and his friend would drive the car – flying around at a reckless speed with only the yelling and screaming of his pals to prevent catastrophe.
Now, while we expect this kind of risky behavior in college (based on stories we’ve heard, not our own experiences, of course), flying blind is no way to run a marketing department. Thankfully, today we have access to the marketing attribution software needed to clearly see what channels, content, and campaigns are working…and which are not.
KPIs that matter
When we start our careers as marketers, we tend to jam our foot into the gas pedal and hurry straight into driving programs and campaigns. We learn how to use marketing channels. We learn about content, creative, and CTAs. In time, we master marketing metrics such as views, click-through rates, and marketing-qualified leads. Still, something eludes us. We are counting a lot of things, but none of them are what the CEO really cares about – pipeline and revenue.
For most of us, our first step into the light was single-touch attribution, often enabled by a CRM. Now we could attribute revenue credit to the single campaign which appeared to trigger an important event such as product purchase. Helpful, but also unrealistic in the context of long B2B buying journeys comprised of dozens or even a hundred or more customer touchpoints. So, about ten seconds after we started using single-touch attribution, we realized its limitations in B2B marketing. We were still flying blind.
We needed visibility to the whole journey – every buyer touchpoint, every channel, every content asset, and every campaign that made (or didn’t make) a difference. Only with this complete picture could we hope to optimize our marketing mix across every buying stage in order to grow the business. And, of course, we needed to be able to do this in a modern and automated way that didn’t involve spreadsheets and weekends.
Multi-touch attribution challenge
Led by Marketo (now Marketo Engage), marketing automation providers began to offer capabilities for taking on this multi-touch attribution challenge. In time, Bizible emerged as the leading attribution solution for B2B marketers. Bizible maintains this leadership today as a part of the Adobe Experience Cloud where it can take advantage of native integrations with Marketo Engage and other Adobe software.
So, what’s the value of not flying blind? What’s the value of knowing what’s working and what’s not? As it turns out, the value is immense. We see it with our Bizible customers every day and as we work with prospects to construct financial business cases for Bizible, we regularly come to ROI figures that are as compelling as you will find for any type of software. It makes sense when you think about it. As marketing teams grow in maturity and have gotten good at the mechanics of buyer engagement, there is really nothing more valuable than insights that help you tune that engagement for maximum impact and ROI. As one Bizible customer succinctly put it, “Bizible helps us understand where to put our marketing dollars.”
The financial value of an investment in attribution software
While we love to share customer success stories and create business cases with individual Bizible prospects, we know many marketers are seeking a more general description of the potential financial value of an investment in attribution software. To do this, we commissioned Forrester to perform a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study. Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a proven, industry-recognized approach for assessing the value of technology investments. Results are based on customer interviews and Forrester’s own independent analysis and expertise. In this case, Forrester interviewed five Bizible customers ranging in size from a $50M/year US company to a $52B/year global enterprise.
So, what did they find? What is the ROI of an investment in modern B2B marketing attribution? Forrester found an almost 4x return on investment in Bizible with a payback period of less than one year. Marketing teams were able to generate 15% more qualified leads and millions of dollars in incremental pipeline and revenue while also saving time thanks to Bizible automation. Meanwhile, marketing cost per sales opportunity was reduced by 17%, freeing up money to drive even more growth.
Forrester TEI of Bizible
Ultimately, it’s no wonder so many B2B marketing leaders consider Bizible a part of their playbook for professional success. While flying blind can be thrilling, there comes a time for every marketer and marketing team to graduate to what comes next. Those who do wonder how they ever did their jobs any other way. The B2B marketing attribution software exists today to understand the complete B2B buyer’s journey and link marketing to pipeline and revenue. With the new Forrester TEI study of Bizible, marketers now have a powerful new way to communicate that value to stakeholders and budget owners within their companies.
Check out the complete Forrester Total Economic Impact of Bizible report.
The post Modern B2B Marketing Attribution: Making the Business Case appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog – Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

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Finding the right person whose familiar with the platform is tough.
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In the history of B2B marketing, account-based marketing (ABM) programs are still fairly new. According to the sixth State of Marketing report, 64% of them were started in the past five years. And they’re gaining in popularity because they generate results. New ABM research shows that most ABM programs generate greater return on investment (ROI) than other types of marketing. In 2020, three quarters of programs cited higher ROI, and about one fourth cited significantly higher return. 
Even better: these results aren’t only for seasoned ABM practitioners. They include companies that are just getting started on their ABM journey.
Businesses typically use ABM for one or both of the following reasons:

They have a limited addressable market
They find the Pareto Principle applies: 80% of revenue comes from the top 20% of accounts, and they want to implement a more targeted approach to nurturing high-value customers

ABM moves away from a broad-based lead generation method and assumes a more strategic focus on key account growth. With this approach, account-based marketing is used to grow revenue by increasing your conversion rate and your average deal size. We can model this as:
↑ Conversion Rate x ↑ Average Deal Size = ↑ Revenue
Is ABM Right for You?
More and more marketers are moving to an ABM approach because it works. Most marketers say that ABM delivers higher ROI and improves win rates and customer lifetime value. However, that doesn’t mean it’s automatically the right approach for every business. For example, a company that offers a low-cost product and has a large addressable market might want to use a broad-based marketing approach to cast a wider net over their target market.
So how do you determine if ABM is right for you? The first step is starting a conversation with your internal stakeholders. Make sure to include key players across marketing, sales, demand generation, operations, and even your top-performing sales reps.
Next, walk through this simple checklist to evaluate whether or not ABM is right for your organization:
The ABM Checklist

Do you have a B2B sales function?
Do you have a limited addressable market?
Do you have a large average deal size?
Do you value lead/account quality over quantity?
Does your product/service have a long sales cycle?
Do your customers demand a high level of personalization throughout the sales cycle?
Are several buyers typically involved in a purchase decision of your product/service?
Do you have high potential for upsell and cross-sell opportunities?
Does sales focus on a limited number of top accounts?
Is aligning your internal sales, marketing, and service teams a priority for targeting key accounts?

If you answered yes to two or more of these questions, your business may benefit from an ABM strategy. If you answered yes to all of them, ABM is a must!
Getting Started with ABM
It might be intimidating to think about launching an ABM strategy, but it doesn’t have to be. These resources can help you get started:

Podcast Series – How to Speak ABM: Target the right accounts and build strategies for successful ABM

How-To Guide – The B2B Marketer’s Guide to ABM: Learn how to put your customer at the center of every interaction

On-Demand Webinar – Pivot from Leads to Buying Groups to Win in 2021: Outperform Your Competitors and Achieve the Best ROI with ABM

This blog post was originally written and posted by Daniel Newman in 2018 and updated January 2021 by Jozi Hall.

I´m trying to include an “add to calendar” button in my Active Campaign account, so when a webinar attendee registers, he receives an automatic email with the add to calendar button (and he can add the webinar to his Google, Outlook or Yahoo calendar) It doesn´t look like there is a native way of doing it with Active Campaign. I´m looking at Addevent and Eventable, but I was wondering if there was a way of just doing it with code? As I have all needed fields in Active Campaign (date, time, name, URL, etc) If anyone knows a method and could share it, I would appreciate it a lot! For your info, I´m using WebinarGeek and sending all the webinar info to Active Campaign through Zapier (if anyone is interested, I can share some info on this, as I found quite tricky to find a proper webinar marketing automation method)
submitted by /u/1984ya [link] [comments]

Ever wake up on the wrong side of the bed?
Of course you have. We all have.
Ever wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and then have to be cheery? Like, interact in social media? Write an engaging blog post? Put together a lovable email marketing campaign?
Ugh. Those are the times you wish you could shut out the world, or at least channel a little of your inner snark. Well, the good news is you can do that once in a while, and your marketing results may even thank you for it! Sometimes, it’s good to embrace a little bit of the negative. (Trust me — this will all make sense in a second.)
So, here we go … if you ever wake up wanting to shut out the world, here’s how you can take it out (positively!) in your marketing.

Keep in mind, however, that negative marketing shouldn’t be deployed simply because you want to be cranky. Instead, it should be implemented strategically with one (or more) of these goals in mind: 

Empathizing with customer struggles 
Differentiating your brand with that of competitors, especially those who may not be willing to take a stand or acknowledge certain truths in the industry
Cutting through the noise of “neutral” messaging that might not be resonating

If you’re successful, the end result causes you to stick in your audience’s mind, which gives you the bandwidth to prove your brand as a superior alternative.
How to Be Negative in Your Marketing
So how do you implement this tactic successfully? Here are some opportunities to be “more negative” in your marketing.
1. Create negative, or exclusionary, personas.
Let’s start with something a little bit easier to swallow than just being a total grumpy pants: exclusionary personas. Exclusionary personas, sometimes also referred to as negative personas, are kind of like the opposite of buyer personas — they’re the personas of the people you do not want to target in your marketing.
This is about more than just recognizing that not everyone in the world is a potential future customer — it’s about recognizing that your marketing attracts certain types of people who totally clog up your funnel, waste your sales team’s time, and will never become customers.
Why won’t they ever become a customer? Could be a lot of things — they don’t have the budget, or they’re just fans of your content or social media presence. Or maybe they do become customers, but they cost you a ton of money; for instance, they could have a high acquisition cost or a high propensity to churn.
In this case, it behooves you to identify who these folks are so you can ensure you either 1) stop creating content that draws in the wrong people, or 2) let them keep reading and engaging with your content to help you spread your reach, but keep them from getting rotated to sales reps using methods like assigning them a low lead score.
2. Leverage a little exclusivity.
This is the VIP, red-carpet tactic we all know and love (or love to hate). When you tell someone they can’t have something or what they want is scarce, it often makes them want it more. You know, the whole “playing hard to get” thing.
This just so happens to be a common sales tactic, but marketers can use it, too. Tell prospects they can have an offer … but only for a limited time. Or only for the first 10 that respond in social media. Heck, you don’t even always have to tell them what it is.
This tactic is particularly popular with savvy ecommerce shops, too — ModCloth, for instance, frequently sends me emails letting me know that an item I like is so popular, it’s almost out of stock. “Oh no! Everyone else is snagging it! I have to get it before I’m left out!”
The moral of the story? Leave people out once in a while. If everyone gets something, it’s not as special. And when you go VIP, the ones who do get it feel uber-special. (There… we just turned a negative into a positive. See?)
3. Craft “negative” headlines and titles.
I don’t know what this says about human nature, but there’s an undeniable correlation between page views and negativity. Consider some of these titles you might find on a news site like CNN:

What you get wrong about BBQ
Could our favorite flavorings be damaging our DNA?
Beware the parental overshare

These are about clicks. No question about it. We all know the news has gone the negative route for years, and — for better or worse — they do it because it is effective at grabbing attention.
Now, you absolutely shouldn’t throw out some inflammatory headline just to get clicks — if you’re going to get negative with your titles, you have to back it up with some solid content that actually merits that title of yours. Here are a few examples that worked out extremely well for us:

15 Things People Absolutely Hate About Your Website
10 Cliché Marketing Taglines We Should All Stop Using
13 Hilarious Examples of Truly Awful Stock Photography
17 Sales Closing Mistakes That’ll Stop a Deal in Its Tracks

4. Create a bond over a shared negative experience — but don’t dwell.
Alright, now we’re getting warmed up! So you’re throwing out some negative titles, but have you considered drawing that negativity into your content? When you draw on a negative situation in your content — particularly right in the beginning — it can actually help reader retention and engagement. Some marketers are afraid to stir up negative feelings in their reader, but it can actually create a shared experience and tap into a level of emotion that some may not expect to get while reading marketing content, particularly if you’re a B2B marketer.
I mean, that’s why I started this post the way I did — getting up on the wrong side of the bed is an experience everyone I know can relate to. And sometimes, it’s easier to form a bond with someone over a shared negative experience than something warm and fuzzy.
But be forewarned — once you have a bond with the reader based on a shared negative experience, it’s crucial to shift the mood to something more positive and solution-oriented. People like to know they’re not alone (misery loves company), but most don’t like to dwell on the negativity.
5. Cast some villains.
Just like we can all bond over a shared negative experience, so too can we bond over a common enemy. Casting a villain has been a common marketing tactic for years, and I’m not just talking about the Hamburglar. Villains can take more subtle forms, playing on common tropes — the jerk boss, the slob roommate, bureaucratic drone.
These take common experiences and personify them in order to elicit a feeling in the consumer, and help tell the story you’re trying to tell. A great example of this is Genesis’s “Going Away Party” commercial where they use the “stuffy” party trope and the “villains” within it to demonstrate that luxury doesn’t have to be stuffy.

 
6. Take a stand for something you believe in, even if it’s controversial.
If you feel confident about your brand, your PR team, and your position on an issue, you can take a controversial stance on a popular topic. Controversial marketing is a risky play because, in many cases, your brand could be seen as capitalizing on an issue just to peddle your products. However, when done well, your brand could be seen as socially responsible. 
Controversial marketing can also do a few other things for your marketing:

Position you as a thought leader (only if your thought was a good one — so try to make sure it is)
Help you define your brand in the eyes of consumers and what it stands for
Drive natural publicity
Elicit strong emotions from audiences, both positive and negative

That last one is what I want you to pay the most attention to. When you take a staunch position on a polarizing issue, you will have people who like you less for it. You will also generate some seriously ardent supporters. If you’re going to play the controversy game, be prepared to deal with both, because while some results could be really exciting for your brand, some backlash will inevitably come with it.
7. Use data to build a case study around why something stinks.
Let’s start off with an example: [New Research] It’s Official — Lots of Salespeople Hate Their CRM. It gets props off the bat for its grabby negative headline, but it’s also full of interesting statistics like this one:
50% of sales leaders say that their CRM is difficult to use, and 18% say this has caused them to lose opportunities or revenue.
You build a case around why one thing stinks (traditional CRMs) so you can show why something else is awesome (the new HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise).
This can be made even more compelling if you have two data points that demonstrate a stark contrast; the juxtaposition of positive and negative paints a pretty dramatic picture in readers’ minds, and the succinct data points make it easy to quickly demonstrate the bad versus the good.
8. Poke some fun at your competitors.
This is perhaps what most people think of when negative marketing is discussed, but it’s rarely executed because of how delicate the situation can be. On one hand, a little healthy competition can be a good thing, especially if you want to position yourself as a better option. However, if done poorly, your audience may actually think less of your brand for “playing dirty” or being too low-brow. In addition, if you leverage false claims, you could be asking for legal trouble.
There are two types of negative marketing with regard to your competitors: 

Attack: Focuses on the negative sides of your competition’s offerings. 

Contrast: Focuses on the positive sides of your offerings and establishes the gap. This is more subtle but still highlights what your competition may lack.

Typically, it’s easier for larger brands to engage in negative marketing with their competition because they’re already well-known, so the reward can be greater than the risk to highlight value propositions.
Pepsi has a famous “attack” ad in which a child dispenses two Coca-Cola cans from a vending machine and stands on them in order to reach the Pepsi button. 
Bud Light uses the more subtle “contrast” approach in their “Special Delivery Corn Syrup” ad: 

This ad works because it’s a light narrative and doesn’t engage in serious mud-slinging (it merely highlights a differentiator).
Nonetheless, controversy brewed even in this case as the company was sued for potentially misleading consumers by not acknowledging the difference between corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup, which demonstrates exactly why this tactic is risky.
If your brand isn’t a household name, it may be better to highlight value propositions and differentiators in less risky ways.
For example, some brands engage in competitor criticism without mentioning any names. Doing this ensures you’re not giving your competition free airtime while you capitalize on ideas your consumers know to be true. For example, Domino’s does this in their “Designed to Be Delivered” ad, which doesn’t mention a single competitor (but does imply them):

 
9. Make fun of yourself.
Another less risky way would be to turn that negativity inward. A little self-deprecation can be fun for others, makes you seem more human, and actually might make you feel better about your slip-ups. After all, we all have them, and it’s important to learn how to make light of your mistakes. Speaking of Domino’s, one of the best examples of recent self-deprecating advertising is when Domino’s admitted their pizza tasted like cardboard and what they’re doing about it:

 
When Negativity Backfires
All this being said, it’s important to always consider whether your negativity is going to backfire. Are you being an unadulterated jerkface? Is this negativity going to be lost on your audience? Does your buyer persona really hate this kind of stuff?
For instance, something that almost always comes off as totally petty and unnecessarily negative is bickering with competitors. I mean, think about how annoying political ads are; you certainly don’t want to come off like that. I think one piece of advice from my childhood can sum up how you should approach bickering with competitors:
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Yes, even if they started it.
It’s also important to remember that any negativity you draw on needs to be tempered with some positivity. 
Finally, I think striving to be inspirational should always be an aspiration for marketers. There’s no question that marketers capable of inspiring people see unbelievable success from their efforts. In fact, I think if you’re able to inspire people in your marketing, the effects last much longer and are much stronger than any of these negative tactics.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

As your business grows, you face more obstacles, challenges, opportunities, and projects in general. It’s a good and natural part of scaling an organization, but how do you determine your priorities? Which initiatives should you execute on first, and which challenges should you address right away?
Enter the SWOT analysis, a framework that can help you develop a roadmap for moving forward with your business, maximizing opportunities and minimizing roadblocks along the way. 

While it may seems simple on the surface, a SWOT analysis allows you to make unbiased evaluations on: 

Your business or brand
Market positioning
A new project or initiative
A specific campaign or channel

Practically anything that requires strategic planning, internal or external, can have the SWOT framework applied to it, helping you avoid unnecessary errors down the road from lack of insight. 
Importance of SWOT Analysis
You’ve noticed by now that SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threads. The framework seems simple enough that you’d be tempted to forego doing using it at all, relying instead on your intuition to take these things into account. 
But you shouldn’t. Doing a SWOT analysis is important because: 

It gives you the chance to worry and to dream. Adding the SWOT analysis as an important step in your strategic process, you’re giving yourself the space to dream, evaluate, and worry before taking action. Your insights in this regard then turn into assets as you create the roadmap for your project or initiative.

It forces you to define your variables. Instead of diving head first into the planning and execution, you’re taking inventory of all your assets and roadblocks. These can help you create a more specific and effective roadmap.

It allows you to think more critically and account for mitigating factors. As you identify weaknesses and threats, you’re better enabled to account for them in your roadmap, improving your chances for success.

It helps you keep a written account. As your organization grows and changes, you’ll be able to strike things off your old SWOTs and add new things as the industry changes. It can be illuminating to look back to where you started as you look ahead at what’s to come.

Here, we’ll tackle how to best do a SWOT analysis, provide you with a SWOT analysis template, and conduct SWOT analyses on major brands Apple and Starbucks. When you’re done reading, you’ll have all the inspiration and tactical advice you need to tackle a SWOT analysis for yourself.
How Do You Write a Good SWOT Analysis?
There are several steps you’ll want to take when evaluating your business and conducting a strategic SWOT analysis.
1. Download HubSpot’s SWOT Analysis Template.
There’s no need to start from scratch for your analysis. Here, I’ve created a sample using a free, editable template — feel free to use the model yourself, or create your own as it suits your needs.

Download a free, editable SWOT analysis template.
2. Arrange each section into a table with four quadrants.
Whether you use the template above as a model or create your own to suit your needs, it can be helpful to start in table format to visualize your SWOT analysis. This can be done by arranging each of the four sections into separate quadrants.
3. Identify your objective.
Before you start writing things down, you’ll need to figure out what you’re evaluating with your SWOT analysis. Be specific with what you want to analyze. Otherwise, your SWOT analysis may end up being too broad, and you’ll get analysis paralysis as you are making your evaluations.
If you’re creating a social media program, you’ll want to conduct an analysis to inform your content creation strategy. If you’re launching a new product, you’ll want to understand its potential positioning in the space. If you’re considering a brand re-design, you’ll want to consider existing and future brand conceptions. 
All of these are examples of good reasons to conduct a SWOT analysis. By identifying your objective, you’ll be able tailor your evaluation to get more actionable insights.
3. Identify your strengths.
“Strengths” refers to what you are currently doing well. Think about the factors that are going in your favor as well as the things you offer that your competitors just can’t beat.
For example, let’s say you want to use a SWOT analysis to evaluate your new social media strategy.
If you’re looking at a new social media program, perhaps you want to evaluate how your brand is perceived by the public — is it easily recognizable and well-known? Even if it’s not popular with a widespread group, is it well-received by a specific audience in particular?
Next, think about your process: is it effective or innovative? Is there good communication between your marketing and sales to ensure both departments use similar vocabulary when discussing your product?
Finally, evaluate your social media message, and in particular, how it differs from the rest of the industry. I’m willing to bet you can make a lengthy list of some major strengths of your social media strategy over your competitors, so try to dive into your strengths from there.
4. Identify your weaknesses.
Similarly to your strengths, what are the roadblocks hindering you from reaching your goals? What do your competitors offer that continue to be a thorn in your side. This section isn’t about being a Negative Nancy. Rather, it’s critical to foresee any potential obstacles that could mitigate your success.
When identifying weaknesses, consider what areas of your business are the least profitable, where you lack certain resources, or what costs you the most time and money. Take input from employees in different departments, as they’ll likely see weaknesses you hadn’t considered.
If you’re examining a new social media strategy, you might start by asking yourself these questions: First, if I were a consumer, what would prevent me from buying this product, or engaging with this business? What would make me click away from the screen?
Second, what do I foresee as the biggest hinderance to my employees’ productivity, or their ability to get the job done efficiently? What derails their social media efforts?
5. Consider your opportunities.
This is your chance to dream big. What are some opportunities for your social media strategy you hope, but don’t necessarily expect, to reach?
For instance, maybe you’re hoping your Facebook ads will attract a new, larger demographic. Maybe you’re hoping your YouTube video gets 10,000 views, and increases sales by 10%.
Whatever the case, it’s important to include potential opportunities in your SWOT analysis. Ask yourself these questions: What technologies do I want my business to use to make it more effective? What new target audience do I want to reach? How can the business stand out more in the current industry? Is there something our customers complain about that we could fix with our social media strategy?
The opportunities category goes hand-in-hand with the weaknesses category. Once you’ve made a list of weaknesses, it should be easy to create a list of potential opportunities that could arise if you eliminate your weaknesses.
6. Contemplate your threats.
It’s likely, especially if you’re prone to worrying, you already have a good list of threats in your head.
If not, gather your employees and brainstorm: What obstacles might prevent us from reaching our social media goals? What’s going on in the industry, or with our competitors, that might mitigate our success? Is there new technology out there that could conflict with our product?
Writing down your threats helps you evaluate them objectively. For instance, maybe you list your threats in terms of least and most likely to occur, and divide and conquer each. If one of your biggest threats is your competitor’s popular Instagram account, you could work with your marketing department to create content that showcases your product’s unique features.
SWOT Analysis Examples
The template above helps get you started on your own SWOT analysis.
But, if you’re anything like me, it’s not enough to see a template. To fully understand a concept, you need to see how it plays out in the real world.
These SWOT examples are not exhaustive, and I’m sure you could add some yourself, but hopefully, it’s enough to inspire you as you do your own SWOT analysis.
Apple’s SWOT analysis
Here’s how we’d conduct a SWOT analysis on Apple.

Strengths
First off, strengths. While Apple has many strengths, let’s identify the top three:

Brand recognition
High prices
Innovative products

Apple’s brand is undeniably valuable, and their business is considered the most valuable in the world. Since it’s easily recognized, Apple can produce new products and almost ensure a certain degree of success by virtue of the brand name itself.
This degree of recognition lends itself to Apple’s ability to sell products. For instance, in 2019, Apple sold 72.9 million iPhones compared to 70 million Galaxy phones by Samsung. This is despite the price disparity between the two (the flagship Galaxy phone is $100 cheaper). Often, people don’t care about price as much as they care about brand recognition.
Lastly, their innovative products: Apple didn’t earn its reputation for nothing. They create highly innovative products, which are often at the forefront of the industry.
Weaknesses
Next, let’s look at three of Apple’s weaknesses.

High prices
Closed ecosystem
Lack of experimentation

While the high prices don’t deter Apple’s middle and high class customer-base, they do hinder Apple’s ability to reach a lower-class demographic.
Apple also suffers from its own exclusivity. Apple controls all its services and products in-house, and while many customers become loyal brand advocates for this reason, it means all burdens fall on Apple employees.
Ultimately, Apple’s tight control over who distributes their products limit their market reach.
Lastly, Apple is held to a high standard when it comes to creating and distributing products. Apple’s brand carries a high level of prestige, but that level of recognition inhibits Apple from taking risks and experimenting freely with new products that could fail.
Opportunities
Now, let’s take a look at opportunities for Apple.
It’s easy to recognize opportunities for improvement, once you consider Apple’s weaknesses. Here’s a list of three we came up with:

Expand distribution options
Create new product lines
Technological advancement

One of Apple’s biggest weaknesses is its distribution network, which, in the name of exclusivity, remains relatively small. If Apple expanded its network and enabled third-party businesses to sell its products, it could reach more people globally, while alleviating some of the stress currently put on in-house employees.
There are also plenty of opportunities for Apple to create new products. Apple could consider creating more affordable products to reach a larger demographic, or spreading out into new industries — Apple self-driving cars, perhaps?
Finally, Apple could continue advancing its products’ technology. Apple can take existing products and refine them, ensuring each product offers as many unique features as possible.
Threats
Finally, let’s look at threats to Apple.
Believe it or not, they do exist.
Here are three of Apple’s biggest threats:

Tough competition
Lawsuits
International issues

Apple isn’t the only innovative tech company out there, and it continues to face tough competition from Samsung, Google, and other major forces. Many of Apple’s weaknesses hinder Apple’s ability to compete with the tech corporations that have more freedom to experiment, or that don’t operate in a closed ecosystem.
A second threat to Apple is lawsuits. Apple has faced a bunch of lawsuits, particularly between Apple and Samsung, and so far it has only won one case. These lawsuits interfere with Apple’s reputable image, and could steer some customers to purchasing elsewhere.
Finally, Apple needs to improve its reach internationally. It isn’t number one in China, and doesn’t have a very positive relationship with the Chinese government. Then, in India, which has one of the largest consumer markets in the world, Apple’s market share is low, and the company has trouble bringing stores to India’s market.
If Apple can’t compete globally the way Samsung or Google can, it risks falling behind in the industry.
Starbucks SWOT Analysis
Now that we’ve explored the nuances involved with a SWOT analysis, let’s fill out a SWOT template using Starbucks as an example.
Here’s how we’d fill out a SWOT template, if we were Starbucks:

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Dine-In Thai Restaurant SWOT Analysis
Some small-business marketers may have difficulty relating to the SWOT’s of big brands like Apple and Starbucks, so here’s an example of how a restaurant might visualize each element:

While a Thai or any other restaurant might not be as worried about high-level lawsuits like Apple, the small business might be more worried about competitors or disruptors that might enter the playing field. 
Local Boutique SWOT Analysis
In another small-business example, a local boutique might be well known in its neighborhood, but it also might take time to build an online presence or get its products in an online store. Because of this, some of its strengths and opportunities might relate to physical factors while weaknesses and threats might relate to online situations.

When to Use a SWOT Analysis
Ultimately, a SWOT analysis can measure and tackle both big and small challenges, and opportunities, and both big and little strengths and weaknesses.
While the examples above focus on businesses in general, you can also use a SWOT analysis to evaluate and predict how a singular product will play out in the market.
Hopefully, our SWOT template will supplement your market research and business analysis, and provide fair insights into how to optimize your products for bigger payoffs, and less hurdles.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May, 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.