PESTLE analysis template

Identify threats and opportunities in the macro environment to feed your marketing strategy

What is a PESTLE analysis?

A PESTLE analysis is a framework to help you identity broad factors in the macro (external) environment that can affect and influence your marketing strategy. It is common for businesses to focus on the more immediate micro-environment factors like customers, competitors and intermediaries to reach and trade with them. While this is important, PESTLE is useful for revealing broader changes in the market which may give opportunities which impact on the micro-environment actors and helps review legal factors.

How will this PESTLE analysis template help me and my business?

When creating a marketing strategy, you need to assess internal (micro) and external (macro) factors to find opportunities and threats for your plan to tackle. This is normally done in the Planning phase. A PESTLE analysis is a great, quick way to see a top-level view of your macro environment. What is going on outside of your internal environment, that you have little/no control over, that will have an impact on your business? It’s a chance to react to external influences and create tactics to tackle any challenges/opportunities.

In this template you'll find a completed B2C example and a blank template for you to complete. It will help you analyze each PESTLE factor and assess whether it is an opportunity or a threat, and how it will impact your business goals. It also has useful advice on how to turn your PESTLE analysis into an actionable SWOT/TOWs matrix.

Who is the template for?

This template was created for marketers responsible for creating your marketing planning strategy. Roles such as marketing managers, digital marketing specialists or agency specialists who are looking to include macro analysis in their strategy.

How is this template structured?

Our PESTLE analysis template uses the following structure:

• What is PESTLE analysis?
• Why is a PESTLE analysis useful?
• How do I create a PESTLE analysis?
• 1. PESTLE analysis template
  • PESTLE analysis - B2C example
  • Example explained: How to use the PESTLE analysis template
  • PESTLE analysis - blank template
• 2. Turning analysis into strategy
  • Furthering your analysis
  • SWOT/TOWs matrix
  • RACE Growth System

Resource Details

• Author: Amelia Cooper, Head of Content
• Format: PowerPoint presentation with editable templates – 13 pages
• Related resources:
  • Marketing SWOT analysis and strategy prioritization workbook template – Practical templates for analyzing and presenting your digital marketing strategy
  • Essential marketing models for business growth – Classic marketing planning models to create a solid digital marketing strategy. Includes further advice and examples on creating a PESTLE analysis.
  • Business marketing plan guide – Create a solid marketing plan to grow a business

About the author

Amelia Cooper

Amelia Cooper is Head of Content at Smart Insights. She is responsible for managing the paid member content library and e-learning resources, as well as strategic planning to ensure customers get the most from their memberships. She is a University of Southampton and the Chartered Institute of Marketing graduate with over 7 years’ experience in digital marketing, specializing in content marketing.