Creating a Marketing Plan for Your Website

Have you created a Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan for your Website? If not, it is time to think about developing one. An Internet Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan helps you make the right day-to-day and long term decisions. Without a Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan, it is more likely your Website will be a drain on finances rather than a business builder.

Creating a Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan need not be scary or difficult. It does not require a Internet marketing or Internetmarketing degree or a lot of experience. You do, however, need to put some quality time into writing your plan. There are different ways to write a Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan, one of which is to create a Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan outline (or single summary page) through a five step process.

5 Steps to Creating a Marketing Plan

Those five steps are:

1. Gather and Analyze Information

2. Verbalize Your Main Challenge(s)

3. Develop Your Website Objective(s)

4. Create Strategies

5. Choose Marketing Programs

As you create your Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan, fill in the knowledge you gained while developing the five steps.

Step 1: Gather and analyze information.

You will need information about your company, competitors, customers, and other industry players to reference while creating the plan. This includes all you can find about how the Internet is currently being integrated in your industry with respect to products, promotions, pricing structures, and distribution channels. From this information, you can complete industry and SWOT analyses as well as identify your target customers.

Step 2: Verbalize your main challenge(s).

Write down the main Internet related challenges you want to overcome as a result of your plan. Referring to these main challenges will help keep you focused while creating your Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan. You may even want to write your challenges down in question form - "How do we _____________?". When your Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan is completed, it will answer the question "How do I address these challenges?"

Step 3: Develop your Website objective(s).

The objective addresses the "big picture". Your objective answers the question "How will I overcome my main Internet marketing or Internetmarketing challenge(s)?" in broad, general terms. If your company's main site-related challenge is figuring out how to use your Website to help build client business, for example, an objective for your Website Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan could be "To enhance online client service as well as build site awareness and interest with clients."

Step 4: Create strategies for the Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan.

Strategies support your objective, defining the general approaches you will take to meet your objective. For example, strategies to support the objective outlined in Step 3 could include 1) improve online communication, information, and education, 2) build awareness of and interest in your company on the Internet, and 3) communicate the Website's existence and advantages to existing clients.

Step 5: Choose Internet marketing or Internetmarketing programs (tactics).

Marketing programs are where the action takes place - these are the things you will do to bring your strategies to life. Marketing programs to support strategy 2 in the above example (improve online communication, information, and education) could include 1) sharing experience and observations in your industry through participation in discussion boards, 2) offering an email newsletter, and 3) listing/submitting your site to targeted search engines and directories.

The Write Up

Once you have created a Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan summary by working through the five steps, there are numerous ways to create an expanded write up. If you are a company employee, there may be existing format and content you must follow. You can find some write up suggestions in "What to Include in Your Marketing Plan Write Up" at Internet marketing or Internetmarketingplan.com/Arts/WritePlan.htm">http://www.websiteInternet marketing or Internetmarketingplan.com/Arts/WritePlan.htm.

After the initial plan is created, you should treat it as a work in progress. Tweak and adjust as needed in response to changing conditions. Many companies update Internet marketing or Internetmarketing and business plans annually when developing budgets for the coming year.

Whether you are a one-person shop or part of a good-sized company, having a Website Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan can help your business prosper on the Web.

About the Author

Bobette Kyle draws upon 12+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online Internet marketing or Internetmarketing research in her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network, Internet marketing or Internetmarketingplan.com">http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com, and author of the Internet marketing or Internetmarketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business," ( howmuchforspider.com/TOC.htm ).

© 2002, 2004 Bobette Kyle. All Rights Reserved.