Do You Have A Web Marketing Action Plan?
May 23rd, 2008
If you have a company, you will want to have a web marketing action plan. This is a roadmap that tells you how you will advertise your business for maximum impact. Without a plan, you’re very likely to overspend on advertising, since you are likely tojust grab at any sort of marketing strategy that seems to work. Also, without a marketing plan, you are more likely to be easily persuaded by advertisers who want to show you the latest way to sell Votivo candles, clothes, or exercise equipment.
To write your marketing plan:
1) Start with your long-term and short-term goals. What you want to accomplish with your marketing? Do you want to project a specific image of your company? Do you want to make a certain amount of money? Do you want to sell a certain number of Tocca candles by a specific date? Do you want to get a specific amount of leads? By when? Having specific goals helps you to decide which marketing tactics you must use in order to meet your goals.
2) Next, brainstorm all the possible online marketing techniques you could use. Look into banner ads, link exchanges, affiliate programs, pay per click programs, pay per call programs, blogs, social networking sites, web sites, and more. Which marketing strategies are used by other people in your industry? Is there a reason for this? Could the same technique work for you?
3) Work out your budget. Let’s say you want to sell Seiko watches on your site and you even have some goals for your marketing plan. Now is the time to figure out how much money each form of advertising will cost. How much money can you spare for your marketing plan? If you want to do more advertising than you can afford, consider which forms of advertising are best for you right now – which ones are most likely to bring you the most leads? Focus on those and you can add more marketing strategies later as you earn more. If you are on a very tight budget, a good rule of thumb is to focus on word of mouth advertising and online marketing – both are very effective and cost-effective.
4) Develop a plan for testing your plan. Decide how often you will want to test your marketing strategy. Once a quarter or more often you will want to review your marketing efforts and you will want to see how effective each form of advertising is for you. Based on what you find, you might want to change your tactics. For example, if you find that your blog takes an hour from your day but brings you almost no leads while your banner ads bring you lots of leads, you might want to put a halt to your blog and put out more banner ads. Keep your marketing plan flexible so that you can always move towards what works for your business.
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