Internet marketing
plans are very similar to traditional marketing plans. They describe the market conditions and the specific ways in which the company plans to communicate its marketing message to the target market segment. Successful Internet marketing plans also include proposed methods of offline, or traditional, marketing methods. Businesses decide to write an Internet marketing plan when they need a concrete guide on market their products or services while staying focused on specific marketing objectives.
Instructions
1. Conduct thorough market research and record it in the first section. This includes all of the pertinent information you can find about the people that buy products similar to the ones you sell. Include information about their demographics, current products on the market, market sales figures, buying patterns and the target market. More information makes the plan easier to execute.
2. Write a detailed description of your product and how it relates to the target market described in the previous step. List information about what the target market needs and their current method of satisfying that need.
3. List your main competitors, their products and marketing style. Use that information to develop your unique selling point (USP). The USP is the reason that customers choose one vendor over another. USPs may include personality factors or marketing styles. A strong USP will create customer loyalty, even when your prices may be higher than the competition's.
4. Create a mission statement that describes the key market, your contribution to that market and the distinction between you and the competition. The key market is the market you want to sell to and your contribution is the product or service you offer. Elaborate on your USP to create the distinction between you and your competitors.
5. Detail the specific Internet marketing strategies you plan to use to drive traffic to your website and product offers. These include, but are not limited to, techniques like article marketing, search engine optimization, social marketing, affiliate marketing, banner ads and pay-per-click marketing. Each of these methods have different costs in both time and money and are more or less effective depending on your market.
6. Discuss possible offline marketing strategies. Offline marketing makes use of traditional marketing methods like direct mailing and telemarketing to sell to prospects that have expressed interest in your products online. When you integrate these traditional types of marketing it's effective because it adds a layer of credibility to the company and is often unexpected, which reduces the defensive barriers prospects sometimes erect.
7. Determine how much to charge for the product or service. Base the price on the information obtained in the previous sections. The price will determine where the product is positioned in the market and your USP sells the product at the set price. Your marketing techniques increase brand awareness to drive sales.
8. Create the monthly marketing budget in specific dollar amounts. Each marketing method has an associated cost and your marketing plan must account for those costs, as well as define the expected returns on investment.
9. Set marketing goals to gauge the success of the different marketing methods. Set individual goals in terms of sales or leads for each marketing method employed in the strategy, as well as an overall goal to gauge the effectiveness of your strategies and execution.
10. Describe the metrics and tools used to analyze the marketing strategy. Successful companies use quantitative data to determine which methods are working and which need to be improved or replaced. Common methods include surveys, simple forms on the sales page and advanced software tools.
Tags: Internet marketing, target market, marketing methods, marketing plans, traditional marketing