Develop a Web Marketing Plan

Internet marketing is a broad topic and one that must be given much thought and planning. Just like all other marketing programs, before you decide that you want to “do” Internet marketing, you need a plan. To better understand what may work for your business, answer the following set of questions. Write your answers in a brief outline and you have the beginnings of a Web marketing plan.

• Analysis: How are my customers and competitors integrating the Web into their marketing activities? What is my target audience for the Web site? What are my opportunities and challenges?
• Objectives: What am I trying to accomplish with Web marketing? Awareness? Education? Sales? Building relationships?
• Tactics: How do you plan to accomplish your objectives? How do I get visitors to the Web site and what do I want them to do when they get there?

What Tactics are Included in Internet Marketing?

One of the benefits of using Internet marketing to promote your business is that there is a wide variety of options to choose from, some of them very affordable for most businesses. You can start with a small budget and grow as you see your revenue grow. There are many cost-effective opportunities for promotion and relationship building that provides broad awareness. A word of caution though – before you select your tactics, research your options very thoroughly. The Internet is so large that there are a lot of less than optimal solutions. Get help from a source that knows what does and does not work to ensure you select what is best for you.

The types of marketing tactics you can perform on the Web include advertising, affiliate marketing, email marketing, web site promotion, and search engine optimization. We will cover each topic briefly, with further coverage in future articles.

Advertising – Building Awareness

Banner Ads

Many of the commercial Web sites offer advertising by placing banner ads in sections based on topics. Payment for the advertisement is usually based on click-through rates in terms of cost-per-click or cost per thousand impressions, although some sites also have pay-per-lead or pay-per-sale. If you are a small business, evaluate this type of advertising thoroughly. It may be a good investment depending on how it charges for the advertisement and the amount of leads you generate.

Pop-up Ads

Pop-up ads need little explanation because we have all been bombarded with these ads. Most people utilize pop-up blockers so the effect of having them “in your face” has been neutralized. The value of pop-up ads? None. Actually, a recent study by a UK consultancy called Bunnyfoot Universality has indicated that pop-up ads are a lot worse than expected. Pop-up ads create negative feelings in users who may have initially been potential customers. The study also shows that users resent the Web sites that run pop-up advertising to the extent that these users will stop visiting those sites. My advice? Don’t waste your time or money.

Paid Search Services

There are different types of paid search services — paid submission, pay-for-inclusion (PFI), and paid placement or pay-for-placement (PFP).

• Paid submission is submitting your web site for review by a search service for a fixed fee with the expectation that the site will be accepted and included into that company’s search engine or directory database, provided it meets the stated guidelines for submission. This is the method used by Yahoo.
• Pay-for-inclusion is submitting a web site or web pages for guaranteed inclusion into a search engine’s database/listings for a set period of time, usually monthly or annually. Inktomi and Fast search engines accept this method for a fixed fee per URL (for small-to-medium sites) or a pay-per-click fee for large sites.
• Paid placement, also known as paid listings or sponsored listings, is a guaranteed ranking in search listings for the terms of your choice. You bid a price on keyword terms with actual placement based on either a fixed price or maximum amount you are willing to pay as compared with other bidders’ offered prices for those same terms. Payment is on a pay-per-click basis. Google AdWords is and example of this type.

Sponsorships

Advertising sponsorships take many forms. You can pay for a sponsorship ad in many of the major directories, like Business.com, DirectoryM, About.com, and other major publications on-line directories. They usually require a year commitment and can cost from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. Quality directories increase the value of these sponsorship ads by limiting them to a certain number at any one time. DirectoryM only allows about 20 in any one category at a time. Therefore, if you buy a sponsorship, you at least have a chance of being seen.

Another type of sponsorship is placing an ad in an email newsletter. Depending on the newsletter, you can buy a top, middle, or bottom ad. Since the newsletter goes to a permission-based list of people who are interested in a particular topic, these types of ads can reach a very focused target audience.

These same lists can sometimes be rented for a specific email campaign. Companies that build opt-in lists will ask subscribers if they mind getting emails from qualified businesses. You can usually work with the owner of the list to focus your target even more, depending on the information the publication asks when the subscriber signs up for the online publication. These can be very effective marketing campaigns and should be considered when you have an exciting announcement or want to generate new visitors to your site.

Affiliate Marketing – Extending your Sales Channel

Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing model, where online advertisers/merchants sign up people to advertise their services on their web site and pay compensation based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales, clicks, registrations, or a hybrid model. A good example of an affiliate program is the one on my home page. I signed up for Robert Middleton’s affiliate program because he offers good marketing advice for independent professionals. If you click through to his web site and buy any products from him, there is a commission paid for my referral. There are many types of affiliate marketing programs. Do your research before you sign up for one or dive into building one for your business.

Email Marketing – Building Relationships

Email marketing is a means to stay in touch with your prospects, customers, and partners. You can publish a newsletter of articles, announcements, and topics of interest to people who subscribe to your mailing list. Today with the CAN-SPAM act, you need to build your list through an opt-in mechanism to ensure you do not violate the law. Make use of other types of programs to drive people to your site to register. When you meet people at shows, events or through networking, ask for permission before putting them on your list. Once you have built the list, you can now communicate with them. For more information on this topic, refer to Once You have Their Permission, Do You Have Anything to Say? and many of our tips of the month.

Web Site Promotion – Fee or Free?

There are many ways to promote your site for free through other sites. Build upon your relationships with business partners, clients and suppliers to cross-link your sites. Also submit your Web site link from any directory that your prospects most likely will use to search for services. By having links to your web site, you will enhance your position with search engines.

There are also directories where you can get your site listed for a small fee. One thing you want to know is if the link you are paying for is visible to search engines. Paying for a link in a directory that uses a database may get you traffic, but does not do anything for building your page ranking with search engines. A good example of a link we paid for that is working for our site is from Robert Middleton’s site, www.actionplan.com. Through his affiliate program and this paid link, we have effectively built an effective cross-link between our sites.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing is an important marketing program for many businesses. According to a recent report on search engine usage by Nielson//Netratings, over 75% of the active online U.S. population used a search engine during January 2004 – spending nearly 40 minutes doing searches during the month. Google, Yahoo! and MSN reached between 30-40% of active Internet users. Neilson//Netrating analyst Jason Levin hit the nail on the head when he says: “Search engines continue to be the primary tool people use to navigate the Web.” With this many people using search engines to find information on the web, can you afford to not include search engine marketing as an important part of your marketing mix?

In addition, search engine marketing is no longer just for national or international businesses. There is now a trend for smaller businesses to focus their search engine marketing to a local or regional market, engaging local directories and sources to help drive traffic to their web sites. The goal of these businesses is to reach local buyers looking to find local business that offer the products and services they need. This is a growing area of the search market and one to consider for your business.

We cannot do justice to this topic in this overview article, as the extent of search engine marketing is much larger than a paragraph. This topic will be the focus of a future article. One thing everyone with a Web site can do, however, is to optimize your Web site for efficient indexing by the search engine crawlers. To do so means you are using a combination of content, keywords, titles, page descriptions, and site structure to ensure that the engines index your Web site.

But keep this in mind. Search engine marketing is one part of your Web marketing plan and you need to determine if being found through search engines is important to your business model. There are many ways to drive visitors to your web site and using the search engines may not be the best way for you.

Where to Start?

Internet marketing is a very important component of your overall marketing plan and one where you can do a lot of marketing for a relatively affordable price. But Internet marketing is something you need to investigate and understand before you dive in. Like any marketing program, if not planned properly or understood, you can spend a lot of money with little result. Do your homework. Research what your competitors are doing. Start small and see the results. Like other types of marketing programs, effective Internet marketing can increase sales and build awareness of your business.