From time unknown, even when the barter system prevailed, every business had a business plan.

No business can succeed without proper strategies and planning.  I am sure even you have a business plan.

Now that we are talking about business plans, every strategy is incomplete without the addition of digital marketing in it.

Ok, digital marketing may not be something new for you. By now everybody is aware that digital marketing is all about

• Social Media Optimization
• Search Engine Optimization
• Online Reputation Management
• Content Marketing
• Digital Analytics
• Pay Per Click Marketing

And much more.

If you have all these included in your business plan, more or less everything is covered.

So, all set, you know everything…so what am I going to discuss today?

Ok read again…

I wrote more or less everything is covered. This means you might be leaving back something important.

Have you ever thought of including PESTLE analysis in your business plan? If not, maybe you will consider revising your plans after reading this.

PESTLE analysis caught my interest and I thought of learning everything about it. And keeping the knowledge to myself is not a good thought.

So I thought of sharing all about…

What is PESTLE analysis?

You might have come across this term many times but probably never actually paid attention to it. And definitely not in terms of digital marketing.

 

PESTLE is nothing but the acronym of

• Political
• Economical
• Social
• Technological
• Legal
• Environmental

 

 

Now you must be wondering what does political or environmental or legal analysis has anything to do with digital marketing.

 

Trust me these six bullets mentioned above are macro-environmental factors. These factors directly or indirectly affect the business, service and product of any company.

 

PESTLE analysis is a strategic decision-making tool, which gives the detailed insights to the businessmen about the environment and its surroundings that they are dealing in or are planning to launch their products or services in.

 

Let me explain how all these factors come into play while forming the PESTLE analysis.

 

You need to keep these things in mind

• What is the political condition of the country you are planning to operate in?
• How the political situation of that area will affect your business or industry you are dealking in?
• What is the economic condition of that area and what economic factors can affect your business?
• How impactful is the social and cultural conditions of that area and how much effect the social and cultural conditions will have on your business?
• What are the possible technological inventions that might come up in future and what impact it can have on your business?
• What are the legal formalities that you need to take care of before coming into full functionality in the area?
• What future changes can legally affect what you are dealing in?
• What are the environmental conditions of the area and can they affect you business?

 

So these are basically some of the questions that you need to keep in mind.

And I hope you now understand how PESTLE is a very important factor that plays a major role in the smooth and successful functioning of your business.

 

This analysis will not only help you understand the workings of the market but can also be the backbone of your strategic planning to explain you what you should do, when and how.

 

Now let me explain…

How does PESTLE analysis benefit digital marketing?

If the PESTLE analysis defines the factors that influence your business, it definitely also impacts the consumer’s behaviour.

 

As a digital marketer, you do not have to outrun these 6 factors. In fact you have to understand them and add it effectively in your planning for a fruitful business.

 

You need to keep all of them in mind one by one, giving each factor equal importance.

 

Let me explain it with an example, taking the first factor:

• Political Analysis: Whether you are dealing in a single country of multiple, you need to understand the political outlook to produce and sell your products or services.Suppose you skip this step, you might end up shutting down your product or service permanently. For instance, if you think about dealing in China and if the Chinese government finds out that the citizens of China are buying your product, you could end up shutting down forever.This will happen because you did not do the research and you were not aware that China is governmentally intrusive country.
• Legal Analysis: Just like political, legal analysis is also equally important. If you ignore important aspects like the employment laws of that area, the minimum age of employment, minimum wage, health and safety regulations, GDPR laws etc, you might end up in trouble.You need to be thorough with the laws and regulation of any area before starting any business.The legal analysis can be both internal and external. External laws pertaining to the laws of the area you are operating in. And internal laws can be about your internal business policies and laws.

 

These were just two examples. All the other factors work similarly and trust me, you cannot afford to neglect even one of them.

 

 

The PESTLE analysis will give you an in depth details of the threats and weaknesses that your company has. This can be further used to form your SWOT analysis.

 

I hope you get the point how digital marketing can benefit from PESTLE analysis.

 

In short, digital marketing basically works on analysis, be it demographics or anything else. Having all the analytical data in advance that may affect your business, will definitely give you an upperhand in planning your digital marketing strategies.

 

Now let me come to the next point i.e.

What’s the point of PESTLE analysis in digital marketing?

Like I said earlier, digital marketing functions on analytics. If you have well researched analytics, you plan better strategies.

 

As a digital marketer, PESTLE analysis helps you to understand all the aspects of the area you are planning to target.

 

For instance, after performing the social analysis, you will get an idea of the consumer’s behaviour and you will know whether investing would get you any ROI. Or for that matter you can also have the insights of who should be your target audience after having a look at the social analysis.

 

Let me explain with the example:

 

• Social Analysis: The social analysis, scrutinises the social and cultural environment of the market. With the help of the social analysis, you understand the demographics, consumer buying patterns and behaviour, cultural trends, population analytics, etc.For example, the holiday season is the most fruitful in US. People have a tendency to shop more before the beginning of holidays or during the holiday season. If you as a digital marketer know which season is going to get you the most sales, would it not be a jackpot for you?
• Environmental Analysis: Similarly, if we talk about the environmental analysis, as a digital marker, you also need to focus on the surrounding factors that might directly or indirectly affect your business.If I take an example of a travelling company, would it not be beneficial to know in advance about the geographical and environmental conditions of the area you are planning to deal in. Some of the factors that may be useful for your digital marketing strategies can be weather conditions, global climatic chances, geographical location, environmental offsets, etc.

Now that you know what is PESTLE analysis and how it is beneficial in digital marketing, you must be curious to know…

 

 

How to do PESTLE analysis?

Do not worry, I have that too covered for you.

1. First and foremost you need to design a PESTLE template. If you are confused or facing any problem in doing that, you can get plenty of templates online. Just browse the Internet.
2. Once you have the template ready, examine all the strengths and weaknesses that you are already aware of and list them below the P-E-S-T-L-E categorically.
3. After that take each category one by one and do a market research about the things that you are not aware about.
4. I would suggest you to go category wise, starting from political analysis to avoid any confusion or mishandeling of the data at the end.
5. Focus on both the possibilities, the current ones and that might pop up in the future, especially when you are doing the economic, legal and technological analysis.
6. While doing the economic analysis, keep in mind the market trends, taxes, inflation rates, supply and demand that might affect your product or service rates, what is the economic condition at present, is there a possibility of recession in the future, etc.
7. If you are completing the analysis step wise, by the end you will be aware of political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental conditions that may affect your business.
8. After you are done with everything, use the PESTLE analysis to plan your business strategies accordingly.

For those of you, who were aware of the PESTLE analysis, good. For those for whom this is something new, you must be regretting about missing out on something so important.

 

But it is never too late. You can start right away and reap the fruits in the next quarter.

 

Ahh…you can thank me later 🙂

 

Well, this was all about PESTLE analysis that I knew and thought of sharing it with you. DO try this and let me know how it works for you.

 

Stay tuned for more interesting things that will help your business grow.

 

Ohh..!! I almost forgot. Before you blame me for giving you incomplete information, let me quickly jot this down too.

 

If you browse about PESTLE analysis after reading my article (which I know you will), do not be confused if you come across the term PEST analysis.

 

 

PEST is the same like PESTLE only without the “Legal” and “Environmental” analysis. But I would suggest you to go for all the six macro-environmental factors for best results and not leave out the two.

 

Good Luck with your PESTLE analysis and do not forget to share anything important that you come across and I might have missed out.