SOSTAC – Situation Analysis – What does it involve?

Author : William Royal

Situation Analysis is the 1^st stage in SOSTAC model for creating a marketing strategy.

As mentioned in the previous blog when you are completing this section for your small business think of this as an examination of where you are now?

Firstly, there are a few considerations to think of, in regards to your small business, when making a start on the situation analysis.

The Customer Context: Who are your customers? What media do they use?

The Business Context : What is our brand? Who are our competitiors

The Internal Context : Who is going to create the plan for us?

The External Context : What are the external constraints on the business, social, economical or technical?

 

Next you can break the Situation Analyses stage into 4 parts

 

1)    What is our Brand?

Branding is more than just your company name or logo, when a customer thinks of your brand you want them to think of their experience with your business. Your brand is the way a customer perceives you*

Many of the small business and start up companies that contact us neglect to spend the necessary time thinking about their brand and the impact the right brand has on their business

The best method to review your business and ensure that you are creating the perfect brand and value proposition is to do a SWOT analysis.

What is a SWOT Analysis?

SWOT Analysis no matter the size of a businesses the study taken by that business to identify its internal Strengths and Weaknesses as well as its External Opportunities and Threats

Below is an example of one of the templates we would use when completing the SWOT analysis of a start up or small business:

 

Also, should you be curious on the SWOT analysis on a major brand check out the below video created by 365careers** which provides their SWOT analysis of Starbucks

2)    Who are our Customers?

As a small business it is imperative to know who your actual customers are, so that your marketing plan is aimed at them in particular, to ensure the plan is successful as possible.

The best way to discuss and investigate who your customers are is to create a customer persona. A persona helps you understand your customers online behavior , demographic, their journey and their psycho-graphics

A great website to create your customer persona for free is HubSpot

Check out the video below with some tips how to complete this from HubSpots YouTube***

 

3)  Who are our competitors?

The foundation of any marketing strategy is to discover who your competitors are and what are their marketing tactics. With this information you will be able to differentiate yourself from your competitors

Here are 3 steps that every small business can follow to discover who their main competitors are:****

Market Research & Feedback from customers.  

As a first step review the market you are in. Check to see who else is providing the same product or service you offer. Review your sales process and check what competitors keep appearing. Plus, why not obtain feedback from customers? Ask potential customers which other businesses are they reviewing or also place this steps as part of your sales process

Review Social Media

Join Facebook groups that are related to the service or product you offer. See what people are posting in regards to your possible competitors. Check hashtag search on all social media platforms. Use a hashtag that relates to the product or service you offer. Also review your competitor’s social media accounts how active are they? Are potential customers very active on their social media accounts

Keywords & SEO Analysis

      As a final step it would be great to see how your competitors are using keywords to help them become discoverable via a google search. Feel free to contact us and we can provide you with tools that can make this analysis a lot easier for you.

      If you need help creating your own marketing strategy or would like to discuss how we can help you implement the SOSTAC model into your small business, why not drop us an email : digitalmarketingspecialists@gmail.com

Did you enjoy this blog?

Check back next week for our next blog in this SOSTAC serious or check out one of our most recent other blogs on how to get your business onto page 1 of Google : Click HERE

Reference List:

Strategy Marketing Agency : Why branding is important. Available From : https://strategynewmedia.com/why-is-branding-important/

365 Careers 2017 : Starbucks SWAT Analysis. Available from : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR9eICQJLXA&ab_channel=365Careers

Hubspot 2018 : How to make my persona : A Free Buyer Persona Generator. Available from : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsH85NiueZA&ab_channel=HubSpot

Spotlight Conductor Feb 22 2018 - by Amy Biggart : How to identity your Competitor in 6 Steps . Available from :https://www.conductor.com/blog/2018/02/identify-competitors/

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