Undertaking strategic work is vital for businesses that aim to grow. Whether you’re looking to launch a new product, face a competitor head-on, or simply take your existing offerings to the next level, a SWOT analysis can help you understand where you are and develop a plan to forge ahead confidently.
When tackling strategic brainstorming, don’t get bogged down in the documentation. Instead, you want to focus on expansive thinking and creative problem-solving.
That’s why we rounded up some of the best SWOT analysis templates on the web. Someone else has handled the layout and design so that you can dive right into the deep thinking.
Read on to learn more about the value of SWOT analyses and see our top template picks.
Contents
- What is a SWOT analysis?
- Why undertake a SWOT analysis?
- 7 SWOT analysis templates to fit any business need
- Bonus SWOT analysis template
What is a SWOT analysis?
A SWOT analysis is a system for evaluating where your company stands in the market. It encourages you to look within and at the broader landscape to understand your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
The strengths and weaknesses columns ask you to consider the realities within your business. It looks at what you do and how you do it. This is where you evaluate factors like your products, value proposition, team, and resources.
Opportunities and threats look outside the walls of your company. This is where you think about your customers, competitors, sector or industry, and even the broader world.
✅ Looking for more ways to measure your marketing’s strengths and weaknesses? Get a free, instant PPC report with our Google Ads Grader!
Why undertake a SWOT analysis?
A SWOT analysis helps you visualize where your business stands. When you know what you’re doing well, where you can improve, and how outside factors are acting on your business, you can identify strategies to move forward.
Understanding how your business is doing is always a smart idea, so periodic SWOT analyses are a great call. And they’re vital if you’re about to approach a new initiative or undergo a significant change. Consider undertaking a SWOT analysis when you are:
- Setting your annual business or marketing strategy
- Making significant leadership or organizational changes
- Launching a new product or service
- Facing disruption in your industry
- Expanding into adjacent markets (either with new products or into new geographies)
You can also use a SWOT analysis on yourself or individual members of your team. It can be a helpful tool in performance reviews or as part of a team reorganization.
The best SWOT analysis templates to fit any business need
Without further ado, here is our list of the seven best SWOT analysis templates any business can use.
🌱 Once you complete your SWOT analysis, make a plan to grow your business with our free, easy-to-use growth strategy template!
1. Best templates for a presentation: Canva
If your SWOT analysis will become part of a larger presentation—to your team, leadership, or someone else—consider building it in Canva.
The drag-and-drop design tool makes it easy for those of us lacking a degree in graphic design to create clean, professional documents and slides. Pick from one of Canva’s dozens of SWOT analysis templates, update it to incorporate your brand colors, and insert it into your strategy deck or PDF.
2. Best template to undertake deeper analysis: Miro
Miro leverages its virtual whiteboard product to give your team a clean place to brainstorm and drop your SWOT analysis feedback.
What’s even better about Miro’s template is that it takes things a step beyond the traditional SWOT framework of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
This template adds another set of squares to move you from making observations to identifying potential actions. How can you enhance your opportunities by playing into your strengths or minimize weaknesses by using your opportunities? There’s space to explore these next-level questions within the template.
3. Best templates if you like working in a document: Smartsheet
In this world, there are Microsoft Word people and there are Google Docs people. Smartsheet has created a series of templates for both camps.
Its Google Doc templates can help you conduct just about any type of SWOT analysis you need. Whether you’re undertaking a SWOT analysis to realize a business goal or evaluate your own performance as a boss or employee, these templates can help.
Even better? Smartsheet has created the same set of templates formatted as Microsoft Word Docs. No matter where you and your team like to work, you can leverage these layouts.
4. Best template for a variety of SWOT formats: TemplateLAB
Are you unsure where you want to build your SWOT analysis? Or are you thinking about drafting it in Word but converting it into a PowerPoint or PDF? You’ll want to check out TemplateLAB’s collection.
You can download each template in a variety of formats:
- Word Doc
- PowerPoint
- Photoshop
TemplateLAB offers a range of styles and designs. Whether you’re looking for something simple for your internal brainstorming or need a polished layout for a formal presentation, you’ll find one here to suit your needs.
5. Best spreadsheet-style SWOT template: Airtable
Excel is excellent for running formulas and handling numerical data, but it isn’t always as seamless when organizing written information. Airtable has the structure of Excel, with cells, columns, and rows, but it’s better at organizing written content.
That’s why the Airtable SWOT analysis template is perfect for spreadsheet people who want the color-coding, labeling, and filtering capabilities you’d otherwise have to establish yourself in Excel.
6. Best no-frills template: SCORE
If you procrastinate by fiddling with color palettes and design elements when you should be focused on content, this no-frills template may be right for you.
This template from SCORE is a simple Word Doc with all the elements you need to conduct your SWOT analysis and nothing extra. Plus, you can turn to SCORE’s site for plenty of other resources—as an affiliate of the US Small Business Administration, the organization offers free help for business owners, including mentorship and educational opportunities.
7. Best SWOT template from AI: Notion
Savvy businesses are looking to incorporate AI into everything they do. That’s why we love this template (built in Notion by Your Notion Dose) that leverages ChatGPT.
You provide information about your business at the top of the page, and based on what you share, the pre-designed ChatGPT prompts will help you generate your SWOT analysis.
Two heads are always better than one in strategic brainstorming, so think of ChatGPT as your friendly interlocutor in this exercise. The AI tool may come up with points you wouldn’t have thought of alone!
Bonus: The WordStream free SWOT analysis template
For the ultimate SWOT analysis template that checks all the boxes, we’ve got you covered! We built the WordStream template in Google Sheets, and it’s a great place to undertake your SWOT analysis brainstorming session.
Try using a SWOT analysis template today for business growth tomorrow
When selecting your template, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The style and design are secondary to the strategic work you’ll do in the document, so pick one and dive into the brainstorming process with your team! You’ll emerge with great insights to help take your business to the next level. If you start your SWOT analysis and feel like you could use a hand to bring your marketing to the next level, see how our solutions can help you maximize your strategy’s strengths and minimize any weaknesses for long-lasting success.
