PESTs (not the bad kind!)

PEST analysis is another important preliminary step in the marketing planning process (although, I think the acronym PETS sounds a little more friendly...). PEST analysis forces you to take a close look at external factors that influence your library, specifically the Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological situations in your greater community (aka the big picture). Check out MindTools.com for the how-to. PEST is a complement to SWOT, which has a bit more of an internal focus.

It's hugely important to be aware of these kinds of larger-scale changes so that we can anticpate them and act quickly (in fact, I'd love it if more librarians were the first in blazing new trails). It's no good to always be in reaction-mode.

As luck would have it in the wide world of the blogosphere, the writers of the It's all good blog (OCLC) have a series going on now about environmental scans: what they are, how to do them and why. It's a VERY good read!

Doing SWOT and PEST analysis shouldn't be a hard and tedious process; it should just be a done process that is re-done on a frequent basis. A marketing plan that doesn't address current wants and needs with a unique offering isn't worth much, so I guess it pays to learn to love PESTs!