As a digital marketing agency owner, you know that staying competitive is essential to your clients’ success in their industries. But this same theory translates to your success as a digital marketing agency.
You must understand how your services and strategies compare to your competitors’ to then know how you can outperform them. And a SWOT analysis could provide you with that essential information.
Learn the answer to “What is SWOT analysis?” and how to use this data to understand your digital marketing competitors.
What Is SWOT Analysis?
A SWOT analysis is a digital marketing competitor analysis; it’s an in-depth look into your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to shape your business model. During a SWOT analysis, you’ll research your competitors and identify information about their:
- Strengths: How are competitors currently outperforming your business?
- Weaknesses: What areas are they lacking expertise?
- Opportunities: What gaps are your competitors trying to fill?
- Threats: What new strategies do you need to keep an eye on?
Mapping out the SWOT framework for your direct competitors can give you an overarching picture of your market landscape and key you into your own company’s performance relative to the competition. You can use this data to develop a business strategy that capitalizes on opportunities, responds to threats, fills in gaps, and builds new strengths within your agency.
How To Conduct a SWOT Analysis
Now that you know the answer to, “What is SWOT analysis?” it’s time to get started.
The method for conducting a SWOT analysis depends largely on the level of information you hope to glean. Generally, the more time you spend gathering information about the competitors, the more data you’ll have, meaning you’ll be able to make even more informed business planning decisions.
Step 1: Identify the Competition
Your first step is to make a list of the competitors you’ll want to analyze using the SWOT matrix. It’s best to have at least five competitors on your list for a full-scale SWOT analysis, but if you just want to analyze a competitor or two, you’ll still extract some valuable information.
Start by looking for direct competitors, which are businesses offering similar services in your same niche. If your marketing agency services a specific geographical area, look for competitors in that area as well.
Then, expand your search to indirect competitors, which are agencies that offer different services that solve the same problem. These may include marketing automation solutions or software companies, for example.
You can find competitors by conducting an online search, reviewing market surveys and industry reports, or even looking at the other businesses your customers have mentioned in reviews.
Step 2: Collect SWOT Information
Next, take one agency at a time and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Start by looking at all of the following elements:
- Website design
- Search engine rankings
- Average ratings on Google and Yelp
- Social media profiles
- Key elements in customer reviews
Make a bullet list of any observations you have about each company. For example, you may notice that a competitor’s web design is lacking, but they have overwhelmingly positive reviews. Or you may see that an agency is expanding into a new market that your business hasn’t touched yet.
Step 3: Create a SWOT Matrix
Finally, break down the subjective data you obtained in the previous step and turn it into objective, concrete data that you can easily compare across competitors. To do this, you’ll need to create a SWOT matrix, which is a table that enumerates strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for each business.
You can structure your table like so:
| Company | Strengths | Weaknesses | Opportunities | Threats |
| Company A | ||||
| Company B | ||||
| Company C | ||||
| Company D |
This format will enable you to quickly evaluate each company on its own and compare each SWOT factor across competitors. For example, you may notice a strength that overlaps with all your competitors, indicating a key element you need to be working on as well.
Outperform Your Marketing Competitors
As an agency owner, you’re constantly competing for business with the other agencies in your niche. You need to capitalize on the newest trends and ideas in the digital marketing sector to stay on top of the competition and establish your agency as the top choice. Understanding “What is SWOT analysis?” is a great first step.
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