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How to Build an Effective Online Marketing Plan

Guest post by: Rebecca Daneault

Article Overview: Step by step techniques on how to build an effective online marketing plan.

How to Build an Effective Online Marketing Plan

If you plan on doing business on the internet, one of the most important tasks you will face is building an online marketing plan. You need to generate traffic to your site and find a way to convert that traffic into customers once they come. The only way to do this is to effectively market your business.

While the thought of online marketing may be overwhelming, particularly to those who have never taken on such a task, it doesn't have to be as hard as you may think. In fact, if you break it down into a few easy steps, you'll have built an internet marketing strategy before you know it.

The first step is determining your objectives. Ask yourself these key questions:

• Who is your target audience?

• What can you offer to them? (i.e. Why should they buy from you?)

• What do you want to accomplish?

• How much can you afford to spend?

The answers to these questions will help you establish a basis on which to build your plan. Then you'll be ready to move on to the next step: research. Put on your detective hat and hit the web. Create a solid database of the types of people (or other businesses) you'll be trying to reach. Are there some "big fish" out there that you'd love to reel in and get as a client? Learn as much as you can about your target audience so you understand their needs. You'll also want to start scoping out your competition by determining what other businesses offer the same product or service as you, and pinpointing your biggest competitor.

Next you'll need to analyze the results of your research. You've established who you will be targeting, but do you know how you plan to reach them? Establish which sites your audience is most likely to frequent so you can know where to place your ads. You'll also have to drill down on what your competitors are up to. What methods are they employing in their marketing campaigns? What seems to be working for them? You don't have to necessarily mirror their tactics - in fact, if you're savvy enough you might even be able to figure out ways that you can do things better.

Now that you know who your target audience and competitors are, you're ready to move on to the next step, developing a strategy to accomplish your goals. There are a variety of different marketing techniques you can use - display campaigns, pay-per-click, SEO, social media marketing, are among the most popular. Spend a little time reviewing each option and selecting the ones that you feel would best accomplish your goals and fit within your budget. Once you pick the methods you're going to use, prioritize them by how much time and money you plan to spend on each.

After you officially launch your campaign it'll be time to employ the last step, measuring your results. How much traffic is coming in, which ads and keywords are bringing in that traffic, and what sites seem to be the most profitable for you? You need to determine what is working and what isn't so you can make the appropriate modifications to your plan right away. At this point you may also want to consider introducing other innovative techniques, such as retargeting, into your strategy. Retargeting goes after lost sales by gathering information about visitors who come to your site but leave before buying, and using that information to display your product specific ads to them as they surf the web. It's another highly effective way to increase your conversion rate.

An important thing to remember, once your strategy is in place, is that marketing plans are never set in stone. You will need to continuously adapt your plan to be sure it's achieving the results you want.

By following these guidelines you will be able to successfully develop an effective online marketing plan that will help get your business on the map. However, if after reviewing the above steps you still feel overwhelmed with the process, you might consider using a marketing service provider who can work with you to develop a customized marketing campaign that is perfect for your business.

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Article Tags: marketing plan, marketing strategy, online marketing, retargeting



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