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How to use SWOT Analysis for your Business Development?

How to use SWOT Analysis for your Business Development?

What is SWOT Analysis?

SWOT abbreviation stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This is a great type of analysis to implement in your digital marketing strategy formation. The reason is quite simple-SWOT analysis helps you plan your business communications in a functional manner.

Pre-considering how you can avoid unnecessary issues and use the best of resources will put your digital marketing strategy many steps ahead for the future goals. Clearly, SWOT is also not a one-time analysis type. Keep in mind, that digital and business environment constantly change with time and customer preferences. So, it’s rather beneficial to re-evaluate and update your analysis from time to time.

How is SWOT Analysis useful?

The SWOT analysis can come in handy in the process of presenting your brand to the world. Your customer persona and competitors watch closely for the clues for why would it be beneficial to address your company/business instead of any other.

Many of your customers might not break down their preferences according to SWOT, but basically-what they are more likely to look for is: Quality and Security (can be connected to strength); Communication Efficiency (Oftentimes a weakness for many brands if left unattended); Ideals and Concept of the product (pretty much an opportunity you give to a customer to present relative ideals into the surroundings); Problem Handling/Prevention (We can consider this as a way of avoiding at least-minimal threats for business and customers).

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Practical Swot Analysis Example

Now, let’s consider that you are starting a business selling essential oils. Also, to be more specific-these are cosmetic products-meant to be applied on skin. Before launching anything-let’s review the analysis.

  • Strength

The strength of a brand can be its availability for any type of a customer. The good thing is-essential oils don’t have to match any type of physical environments, their color and shape does not matter. It’s a fluid that disappears in air. Having at least 3-5 samples could satisfy a whole lot number of customers.

  • Weakness

If its only for cosmetic use, try to search and find adaptable uses. Customers tend to like multifunctional goods. Like, using lipstick as a blush for example.

  • Opportunities

If you happen to evolve your brand, not only can you use this product for promoting in perfumery section-you could also expand into aroma-therapy. Say, creating a whole new line of essential oils with alternative purposes. It’s also to be noted, that some potential customers could be looking for smells that repel mosquitoes for example.  

  • Threats

With essential oils-especially cosmetic ones, you have to be really careful with your ingredients. Be what you are claiming to be. Make sure to note on the package that internal use can be very dangerous if it is of course. Also, make sure it has least amount of allergic ingredients as well. Rash on skin instead of smelling divine can be quite disappointing and hurt your brand image as well.

So far, this was a sample of SWOT analysis, but clearly in professional cases it can be far more complex and detailed.

SWOT and Digital Marketing

Now that we have discussed SWOT analysis in general and production wise, it’s far simpler to understand how Digital Marketing implementation can benefit our business. In fact, SWOT can be conducted for not just digital marketing strategy as a whole, but separately for brand image making, communications, digital services, Social Media Marketing and many other aspects separately.

 As a conclusion, we must say, that attitude towards these elements of success can play a huge role as well. It’s important to not overrate our strengths, avoid weaknesses, miss opportunities or get scared of threats instead of facing them and finding prevention or possible solutions.

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For more similar articles make sure to scroll through our Publications on Edana. And, don’t forget to check our services for Expert-Level assistance from your Swiss Digital Agency. Our expertise includes Business Planning Services and many more. Feel free to contact us anytime!

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Digital Consultancy & Business (EN) Featured-Post-BusinessModel-EN

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP), the Secret to Getting Your Product Out Faster

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP), the Secret to Getting Your Product Out Faster

In the business world, new ideas come up all the time. Some work, some don’t. This is precisely why the concept of MVP (Minimum Viable Product) was created, which is simply the test version of a project.

If you have never heard of the MVP, you should know that it is one of the most used methodologies of the digital age when it comes to developing new products.

It is no coincidence that the MVP avoids wasting time and money on projects that will not bring the expected results for companies, especially for startups.

Our agency helps you achieve your goals by developing your MVP and/or marketing it. Contact us now to discuss!

Que signifie MVP ?

As explained earlier, MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product.

Product developers know that many ideas can come up in everyday life, but not all of them are really interesting.

Sometimes we think something can be extremely useful, make great sales and be successful, but the reality turns out to be very different, even with great marketing and advertising efforts.

The problem with these projects not moving forward is the investment and time allocated to their development.

But then, how do you know which product is really good or which one is best? The answer is: by creating a pattern!

The idea behind an MVP is to develop a test version of your project, with minimal financial investment and time, and at the same time able to offer the same values as the finished product.

In this way, the idea can be tested and, if approved, all the necessary structure for its development will be applied.

Start-ups are the most common users of the MVP concept, as they typically have little money and a core idea that is new to the market.

Leaders must move quickly to develop and implement it effectively, attracting resources and investing them in the right places.

However, don’t think that only small businesses use this concept. Small, medium or large, every organization should use the minimum viable product to optimize its resources.

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Why is the MVP so important to the success of a product?

MVP is, conceptually, a smart way to test the success of an idea before investing money or time in it.

If we stop to think about it, there are several products launched by big brands that required a high investment, but did not have the expected success.

This has happened, for example, with the food products of the Colgate brand, famous for its toothpaste.

The brand invested in the creation of food products such as frozen lasagna to diversify its product line, but the results were not interesting.

Did they test the product in the market before making the investment? If they didn’t, they should have!

Facebook itself, today’s largest social network, was already an MVP. The platform was tested by Mark Zuckerberg with his colleagues at Harvard University.

The minimum viable product is not just about defining whether a product is a good bet or not. Creating a prototype and testing for market acceptance provides valuable information.

It is interesting to use the strategy to formulate the best product. The final project may be very different from this initial test, depending on the reaction of the audience.

The important thing is that, even as an MVP, your product retains a core value proposition.

In other words, why is your product valuable and necessary to someone, what problems does it solve, what are its differentials in the market compared to other existing options?

It doesn’t matter if a product is an MVP or not, the key is that it has these values for the test to be truly effective.

What is the process for creating a minimum viable product?

Now that you know what an MVP is, let’s see what steps you need to take to create one efficiently. Let’s get started!

  • Define the value proposition

We said in the previous topic that the main point of the MVP is the value proposition, so the first step is precisely to define it.

Your MVP must answer certain questions about your product or service with extreme precision:

  • Why does the public need it?
  • What solutions does it offer?
  • How will the public use it?
  • Why will the public choose it over competitors already in the market?
  • What really makes it valuable?

These questions help in the design phase of the Minimum Viable Product so that the MPV model represents the core values of the finished product and the tests are therefore effective and realistic.

  • Choose the right audience

Whether in French-speaking Switzerland, in Switzerland as a whole or even worldwide, the target audience (or persona) of a minimum viable product is very important. It must have the same characteristics as the company’s target audience, otherwise the results may deviate from what is expected.

  • Determine the duration of the test

Another important point is the length of time the product or service will be tested. If the period is too short, it can give us an insufficient answer; if, on the contrary, it is very long, it can harm its launch on the market.

  • Test the market response

The fourth step in the MVP methodology is to conduct a test with the public. This test is very important because it is the key to determining whether or not the market will approve of your solution.

If you don’t take this step, you may invest a significant amount of money, develop a product, and then when you launch it on the market, sales may be disappointing and you may end up with a big loss.

Thus, in this test phase, there are two stages to follow, alpha and beta:

  • In the alpha phase, you test your minimum viable product with a small, controlled audience. You choose who will participate in the test.
  • In the beta phase, users of the product or service simulate your usual audience.

We often see companies with great products or services in beta. In this case, the solution explicitly states that it is still in this phase and may undergo changes until it reaches the final phase.

In both of these tests, the key is for the company to interpret the audience’s receptivity, the success of the value proposition, and where improvements can be made immediately.

You can count on Edana’s experts to create an MVP efficiently, to promote it and to accompany your company in its digital growth in a reliable and efficient way.

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Digital Consultancy & Business (EN) Featured-Post-About (EN) Featured-Post-BusinessModel-EN

Use Marginal Gains Strategy To Increase Your Sales

Use Marginal Gains Strategy To Increase Your Sales

Basics Of Marginal Gains Theory

Basically the theory of Marginal gains has its roots in sports field, more specifically cycling. If you have never heard of this theory, it’s only because it didn’t begin being applied to business field until the legendary win-win of the British team in Cycling. It was early 2000s. David Brailsford was the one who implemented the theory of marginal gains into sports activities and brought the British team great progress by doing so. The strategy dictates to break down our objective into small pieces/segments and improve them little by little, to later improve the bigger picture automatically.

Marginal Gains In Business

Profits are earned quite slowly, especially at the beginning of the business career. Even if you obtain a great sales strategy for your business, it still needs constant monitoring and research to know when to repurpose or retarget your marketing strategies in order to support the sales flow. Sometimes it just so happens, that we focus only on one thing and neglect all other elements of success. To take a sports example again, you need to warm up before the workout and stretch after it, to make sure you don’t hurt yourself. In business, the marginal gains strategy says to improve aspects of your business little by little, which will later make your business better as a full.

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Marginal Gains In Branding

So far, we’ve been speaking about sports and sales. Now, here is the branding part. It’s well-known that branding consists of tons and tons of elements and each of them needs equal attention. For a clear example let’s consider you have these three marketing strategies for your brand image: Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing and Outdoor Marketing. Social Media and Content marketing are the ones concentrated on digital world, yet outdoor strategy is visible to anyone, target or not. If you only concentrate on one of these and improve SMM alone it will reflect on engagement and sales, but not so positively. It’s one thing to have a priority strategy, but you cannot let your attention down on other strategies either.

Live Communication In Marginal Gains Strategy

Making time for real-life communication with your audience is of great help when you are implementing the marginal gains theory in your business and branding strategies. Or maybe should we say, real-time communication. It’s a current trend to opt for online communication accessible for everyone, but as very social beings it’s important to give your customers a chance to form a stronger bond as a community.

Gather A Community

Let’s say you decide to host an event of any format. The guests can be your loyal customers in certain areas of residence. It’s great to give them a chance to actually speak with you, discuss the improvements a brand needs to make.  This way you will find out more customer based insights on multiple areas of your business and branding strategies. After several events make notes about almost anything even small details you’ve acquired feedback on and try to improve that by 1% for example. Small changes make a big impact and that’s exactly what the Marginal Gains Strategy is all about.

Do Not Rush The Results

Another very important aspect of the stated theory/strategy is to be slow and steady. Do not expect to see results in 24 hours instantly. Sometimes you just might be timely for even one strategy to work out all too well because it responds to customers’ instant needs. But, don’t set your expectations for quick results. In this case taking this strategy slow will be the key to winning the race against your past results.

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For more interesting articles make sure to scroll through our Publications on Edana and don’t forget to check our services for professional assistance in your Marketing Strategy Planning. Feel Free to contact us anytime!

PUBLISHED BY

Marie

Marie is an expert in digital strategy and project management. She audits the digital presences of companies and organizations of all sizes and in all sectors, and orchestrates strategies and plans that generate value for our customers. Highlighting and piloting solutions tailored to your objectives for measurable results and maximum ROI is her specialty.