Gaining an interested audience or promoting a product or service on the Internet can seem a daunting task when search engine result listings number in the hundreds of millions and the memory of the dot-com crash is still on our minds.
Fortunately, a growing number of people and firms are learning from past mistakes and poorly executed Internet marketing campaigns. They realise that, while the medium and methods may differ somewhat, business fundamentals work on the Internet too. They realise now that the Internet strategy should not be completely separate, or replacement for, an overall sound business model and operation.
We have recently developed a 5 step process which we believe is essential for any Internet marketing initiative to achieve its goals.
The secret to the success of this 5 Point Marketing Plan is partly in the discipline and attention to detail that we can bring to its implementation and partly in our dogged persistence in doing the basic things of marketing on the Net well, over an extended period.
1. Set Your Internet Goals
This may seem an obvious first step, but you will be surprised how many site owners are very very vague and general about the purpose of their Web site when pressed. Being too general leads to mediocrity at best and makes it hard to measure or influence the success of a Web presence. So, be specific and ask yourself the following questions:
- What is my business good at? (core competencies)?
- Do I have a Unique Selling Proposition?
- What classes of visitors do you wish to target?
- Will you offer different navigation paths for different classes?
- How will my Web site offer real value to visitors?
- How precisely do a want my visitors to respond?
- How will I measure that preferred response(s) over time?
- How will I measure the source of sales?
- What is my Customer Lifetime Value?
- What are my response targets for 6 months and 12 months?
- What are my Web sales targets (ie as a percentage to total sales)?
2. Analyse the Competition
Look honestly at your Strength vs Weakness in context of the competition (a simple SWOT analyis) and then re-evaluate the goals set in step 1.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Opportunities | Threats |
Like it or not, when you put your business on the Web to offer products or services nationally or internationally you are in competition. To succeed you need to identify your core competences - write them down! Determine what kind of competencies your online competitors bring to the Web, and then see how to leverage your strengths to gain a competitive advantage.
Now write down the essence of what makes your business and Web site different from all the other online businesses. From this, write down your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and make sure your Web site focuses and directs your visitors to acting upon it! Does your Home page tell its visitors why they should deal or buy the relevant product/service from YOUR site?
As this USP setting may be the single most important thing you will do on the Internet, use a specialist copywriter or Web marketer to help you do this.
Finally, you will need to determine how to maintain your competitive advantage, as others will surely copy your ideas. Have you appointed someone suitable to keep an eye open on your Internet positioning over time?
3. Devise a Marketing Plan
Start with Customer Analysis, segment your customers, products and market, and then determine the 4 Ps of Marketing as they relate to the Internet space:
- Product Strategy
- Place (distribution) Strategy
- Price Strategy
- Promotion Strategy
For example, start by profiling your customers; move to calculate the average Lifetime Value (CLV) of a new customer (this should also be considered in setting a Web Marketing Budget) and then determine how you would segment your customers, focus on them and determine what you will be prepared to pay to acquire a new customer in each segment.
Every marketing plan Promotion Strategy should consider:
- Search engines;
- Linking strategies;
- Email, newsletter and viral marketing;
- Paid advertising (online); and
- The traditional offline marketing methods.
It should be noted that listing and/or promotion via the major search engines (like google.com) is currently the most inexpensive and effective way of promoting products and services in todays market. Obviously, free listing with keyword optimisation is a first step, but paid placement and Pay-Per-Click are still relatively inexpensive and very effective ways to promote, especially when used intelligently (again, consult a specialist). More than 80% of Internet users find products and services online via the major search engines.
4. Implement Your Site and Marketing Plan
Build the site and adequately resource your development, maintenance and marketing plan.
Be careful - good Web designers are not usually good graphic artists. Make sure your designer has access to a specialist graphic artist (ask for samples). And good designers are definately not good Marketers, so always use a specialist.
- Choose your specialist Internet Marketing firm before you start your development, so they can have input to the design process (eg search engine optimisation, sales copywriting).
- Make sure your Internet Marketing firm does MORE than just send reports on a regular basis.
- Be suspicious of low cost marketing/promotion plans. Low cost will invariably mean low value over a sustained period.
- Set your Marketing Budget according to the percentage of total sales that you can reasonably expect to achieve on the Internet in the medium term rather than on what you have been getting in the past with a sub-optimal site and budget.
Internet marketing, as with most types of marketing, is not a one-time affair. A combination of short, medium and longer-term commitment and resource allocation, together with strategies of measuring and adjusting will help ensure continuing growth and improvement.
5. Measure, Monitor and Make Changes
Make sure that you have access to meaningful Web visitor statistics and you assign someone to looking at them every month who is capable of interpreting them to your advantage.
The visitor statistics available from most ISPs often give a lot of data but little information. Make sure you understand the difference between server-side and client-side statistics. WCR provides superior visitor statistics (see online demo) as part of every Web marketing plan. Your visitor stats should show as a minimum:
- Real time statistics 24X7 (ie including todays stats)
- Unique IP visits and Page views
- Click paths, entry and exit pages
- Full lists of page names viewed by selectable time period
- Monthly, Weekly and selected range trends
- Search Engine Visitor Trends
- Search Engine Keywords by Search Engine
- Search Engine Referral Monthly and selected period trends
- Full list of referrer sites
- Ability to exclude searchbot and other unwanted data
Finally, there is no substitute for a periodic custom written summary report in plain english from a Web Marketing specialist, with suggestions to improve visitor behaviour. WCR can provide this service for busy executives who do not have the time to agonise over the detail. And WCR is there to make things happen!
So, to recap:
- Set Your Internet Goals
- Analyse the Competition
- Devise a Marketing Plan
- Implement Your Site and Marketing Plan
- Measure, Monitor and Make Changes