Build business on the web
Launch a Successful Web Strategy
by Randle Toepfer, Deerfield Chamber President
Whether you are a one-person shop or part of a Fortune 500 company, having a website marketing plan can help your business prosper on the web. A marketing plan helps you make the right day-to-day adn longterm decisions. Without a marketing plan, it is more likely your website will drain your finances instead of building more business. Below are 5-step web marketing plan to help you get started:
- Gather & Analyze Information
- Identify your Main Challenges
- Develop yor Website Objectives
- Create Strategies
- Choose Marketing Programs
- Tweak & Adjust
Identify your target customers. Gather information about your company, competitors, customers, and other industry players. This includes all you can find about how the Internet is currently being integrated within your industry.
List all the Internet challenges you need to overcome. This will help keep you focused while filling your marketing plan outline. When your marketing plan is completed, it will answer the question “How do I address these challenges?”
Address the big picture. An objective for your Website marketing plan could be to increas online client business as well as build site awareness and intersest with clients.
Strategies support your objective. These could include a) improving online communication, ifnormation and education, b) build awareness and interest in your company on the Internet, and c) communicate the website’s existence and advantages to existing clients.
These are the things you will do to bring yoru strategies to life. Marketing programs to support strategies could include a) sharing experience and observations in yoru industyr through participation in discussion boards, b) offering an email newsletter, and c) listing your site to targeted search engines and directories.
After the intial plan is developed, you should treat it as a work in progress. Tweak and adjsut as needed in response to changing conditions. Many companies update marketing and business plans annually when developing budgets for the coming year.
I would like to add to this document.
- Marketing plan is great and this is why many business sites fail
- Businesses fail to take advantage and identify their online clients.
Businesses think that they reason that they have a website is why… Because their competitor has one. Wrong. You have website because your company’s long term strategy is to not only attract the clients that walk in the but also the clients that never see your door. Word of mouth and online sales provides strong drive for having a website. Ok. so this works with a product based business but what about a service base business. Well, let me describe this a different way. You can buy and sell stocks online without ever seeing your broker. The same can apply to your service based business. People often try to mold their online business into their current business model. This is a detrimental to the success of the site. Your strategy for your website will not in anyway match your current business methods and strategies. Does this mean you have to completely throw out your ideas on your business. Not at all, it simply means you need to adjust them to fit the world of the Internet. The Internet is global. Not Cambridge, Not Wisconsin, Not the United States. Therefore it is possible that your business could become a global business with competitors popping up that you have never identified as competitors.
- Content
Your website should contain content that people would consider important to them. If you are selling a product, mention what is going on in your industry so your customers can make an informed decision without ever leaving your site. If you are selling a service the same applies. Pull in information from competitors, markets research, etc. to help your client make their decision. You do this and you clients will keep coming back because they know you are it.
- Advertising / Affiliates
People seem to forget that there are tons of Affiliate programs, such as Google’s Adsense, that can bring in money to your site with very little work. Find other Affiliates in your industry that you can post on your website. Advertising.. Find ways to include advertising or sponsorships to help pay for the site’s expenses or the newsletters. Not only will your clients find out about you but they will also find out about the sponsor. It is all about impressions. The larger your lists the better. The more exposure your site has the better.
So finally, a marketing plan is key part of a successful website, but not the only part.
Christopher Meister