Learn how the PESTLE analysis model can help you assess your business’ place in a variety of environments
PESTLE is one of a well-known series of acronyms used in business and marketing planning which summarizes how to review the broader forces, sometimes known as the 'macro-environment', that can shape a business.
This is an introductory article, for more details see our post: How to create a PESTLE analysis for marketing planning?
What does PESTLE stand for?
PESTLE stands for:
Political
Economic
Sociological
Technological
Legal
Environmental
These are the contexts that a business should assess itself against to review competitors, markets, and the situation in which an organization finds itself.
Environment Factors affecting a business - Source: Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick - Digital Marketing, Strategy, Implementation, and Practice
How to use PESTLE
The key technique with PESTLE is to dig deep. Many managers simply work through or tick…
A process for creating a multichannel marketing plan combining the SOSTAC® and RACE frameworks
Amidst the highs and lows of 2020 in multichannel marketing, one thing that remains constant for managers is strategic planning and frameworks for growth. At this time of year, many are reviewing their options for growing their business using improvements to their multichannel marketing.
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Our Multichannel Marketing Growth Wheel infographic gives a visual view of key planning activities that are needed as part of the process of producing an integrated digital marketing or multichannel marketing plan.
We originally created the Marketing Growth Wheel infographic back in 2012. In his post introducing the infographic, Dan…
7 missed customization actions in your Google Analytics set-up that you can fix now
Google Analytics can sometimes be very overwhelming, I know, I’ve been there. Getting access to an account about 12 years ago, I remember just looking at all the reports and thinking “wow, look at all that data”. Like many others, I have talked to since I then used to report on top-level metrics assuming the set up was valid and my data solid.
It is only been in the last 5+ years that I can say I have really got a firm grasp on analytics and working with clients and teaching Google Analytics to marketers, business owners, and agencies I see the same stumbling blocks and issues come up time and time again.
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Using different insights tools to build an understanding of the opportunities for an agency to create value for a client
In a previous article, I defined and explained the need for marketing agencies and consultants to develop a robust Discovery process when they start working with new clients or on new market pitches or projects.
In the second part of the article, I’ve broken them down the discovery process into nine distinct activities covering different insights sources, focusing on those needed for a digital or multichannel marketing project. Exactly who undertakes these will depend on your agency or team size, individual experience and skillsets. You will need to make a call on both the depth and breadth of discovery undertaken depending on the size of the opportunity/potential impact on the client business in the long run as mentioned in the…
5 Options for charging fees and paying for agency resource
There are a wide range of marketing agency costing and budgeting options for marketers to consider when outsourcing their marketing activities. The fees model used will vary by both type of agency and client engagement as you seek to agree what is a practical, mutually beneficial remuneration mix. Whichever model(s) you use, an agency or consultancy should ensure that all elements of activity are captured and you minimise working ‘for free’ e.g ‘giving away thinking’ in order to secure production work. I say costing model(s) since it’s common practice for an agency to have a preferred approach, but to vary it on a case-by-case basis depending on clients requirements and expectations.
How much you should charge clients for specific elements of work that you undertake will be based on a range of factors e.g. your fixed overheads (office rent, management salaries etc),…
Chart of the Day: How popular are Digital Transformation programmes?
Our Managing Digital Marketing research (a free download) reveals many challenges for how digital marketing is run by companies today. Problems included a lack of focus on integrated strategy, testing and optimization and structural issues, such as teams working in silos or lack of skills in integrated communications.
To counter these types of problems and to make the most of the opportunities for growing a business through digital marketing, many businesses are now putting a digital transformation programme in place. The chart shows how many businesses are active in transformation.
You can see that over a third (35%) of businesses already have a transformation programme in place, which is an increase from the 34% who last year had a programme set up. On top of this, 31% are looking to launch…
The 5Is model from Forrester can help to structure your digital marketing
Forrester is a well-established market research company focusing on business applications of digital technology and media and over the years, the team from Forrester have developed a number of models that we can apply to digital marketing. Occasionally they extract insights from their research and share in the form of a blog article. In 2007 they created a measure of engagement which was termed the 5Is although their focus was on 4 specific elements beginning with the letter ‘i’.
What are the 5Is?
The 5Is stand for the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence an individual has with a brand over time.
The concept was based on research conducted by Forrester where they concluded that the traditional marketing funnel was dead and they proposed ‘engagement’ as a new metric. Engagement as a term had been discussed by many scholars as far…
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20 Feb 2020
The must-know content marketing statistics to benchmark your plans against this year
Content marketing is still very much at the heart of digital marketing, with content continuing to be a vital tactic for bringing in traffic and encouraging conversions.
However, content marketing has moved past blogs and now encompasses so much more. The industry is also more competitive than ever, with content being produced on masse, making it harder to ensure yours stands out.
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In order to be successful at content marketing, you need to ensure that you’re taking into account more technical aspects – such as SEO – but also that you’re effectively battling for consumers’ attention. It is this battle that has led content to change at a rapid pace, with competition leading to increased levels of innovation.
This is why you need to stay on top of the latest trends and advances in the content marketing arena. With this in mind,…
What can an ancient text do to help your digital marketing?
Sun Tzu's The Art of War is a widely studied piece of literature, so communicating its principles from reading it feels a little like learning to drive a car by watching a movie with a car chase in it.
What I'd immediately remembered (from reading it 9-10 years ago) was that the book itself is short and powerful. Each chapter layers onto what was taught in an earlier chapter.
Despite the title indicating otherwise, it's part science and part philosophy; it centres around the idea of winning without conflict, by competing based on position, not through 'warfare'. This is immediately powerful and relevant to marketers with experience in brand or marketing strategy.
I think that you can summarise the whole book (very crudely) with two questions:
How do I use information that is available to…
6 essential requirements for designing your digital strategy around your customer
While customer experience is a key business driver for any company, few have yet to understand that, in the digital age, when customers can instantly access swathes of information about a company and its competitors, it has become fundamental to obtaining a real, sustainable, competitive advantage in a rapidly changing marketplace. With customer expectations becoming much more demanding, it is essential for any business to think with the customer at the centre when making any business decision. To help make your digital strategy more customer-centric we recommend these 6 requirements for a digital strategy development process.
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Plenty of corporate strategies talk about the benefits of being…
