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EBN E-commerce Businesses Banner Exchange Advertising Network plus Free Banner Design

Internet Marketing Plan

Millions of businesses, and perhaps many of your competitors, are rushing to establish web presence. As several leading consultants have indicated, "there will be two types of businesses in the future, those who successfully do business through the internet and those who don't
exist
".

We know that your goal in establishing web presence is to be successful and to increase your bottom line profits. Unfortunately, it is more common to see web sites are clearly not successful.

One very important tool to help ensure the success of your web site is to create a Internet Marketing Plan Document. Use the document to help you clearly write down answers to some tough questions about the viability of your internet marketing project.

It is always much better to spend the time to think through the key challenges ahead of time and to realize the amount of financial, personnel, and time resources that will be required. There is nothing more frustrating than finding out that there is still a long way to go to successfully complete the project after allocated funds and other resources have been totally depleted.

Several excellent books have been written on creating a solid business plan document. They all address issues similar to those listed below.

Feel free to go through the exercise below and try to answer these questions for your own product/service. You may find the exercise quite enlightening.

ACIS Consulting has extensive experience in helping clients create an Internet Marketing and Sales Plan and has developed a process that applies some rigorous methodologies to quickly and efficiently answer these questions about any E-Commerce business.

  1. Why does my company need a web presence?

    This is probably the central question that must be answered in order to put the whole project into context and to determine the amount of resource that can be justifiably invested in this exercise. It is important to be as specific as possible in answering this question because you will have to answer how much are you willing to invest to achieve your quest for web presence.

  2. How suitable is the product for marketing/selling through the internet?

    Not all products are suitable for the e-commerce environment. Some products are best marketed through the traditional channels and media. If you feel your product/service has sufficient attributes that would make it web friendly then by all means pursue it. Otherwise you have to make additional allowances in your plan to ensure adequate support to compensate for the weaker attributes.

  3. What are the various options and web presence levels appropriate for my product?

    There are several options and web presence levels to consider in starting to market your product via the internet. For some products it is more appropriate to only have product information brochures and asking visitors to email you or give you a call for more information. In other cases it only makes sense to go for the full fledged e-commerce implementation that includes product information, sales information, shopping cart system, credit card or cash payment system and shipping and handling and fulfillment system.

    Almost in every case it is prudent and appropriate to go through a staged plan starting from an initial test implementation gradually reaching full operational stage.

  4. How likely are the clients to visit my web site?

    The answer to this question is linked to your overall marketing and promotion plan and, specifically linked to what specific actions you will to take to drive traffic to your web site.

    As you know, there is a direct correlation between number of visitors to your site and your sales volume. If your plan does not include a concrete list of activities, (supported by financial resources), to be carried out throughout the web site launch period and continuously thereafter, you can forget about having a successful web site.

    You will find this site full of ideas and action suggestions that you may want to consider incorporating into your marketing plan.

  5. What is the specific, MEASURABLE objective that must be achieved?

    This gives a wonderful opportunity to spell out exactly what your bottom line is. What is your sales growth target in using the internet channel? 2%? 10%? 50%? 200%?

    How much additional revenue does this generate? What would be the bottom line profit?

  6. How many visitors a month will be needed to achieve this objective?

    It is believed that there is a rough correlation between number of visitors, number of potential buyers who express interest and number of actual buyers who are converted from prospects to clients.

    This "conversion ratio" is influenced by several factors including product attributes, visitor demographics, timing, marketing material etc. If this figure is not already known for your product, you could start from industry standard figures under the worst case scenario. if your business plan holds under worst scenario assumption then it probably has a good chance of success.

    Here is a hypothetical example to ponder: Assuming only one out of hundred (1%) visitors to your site is converted to an actual buyer of your product and assuming it costs US$5.00 to drive these one hundred visitors to your site would the bottom line profit justify such a project? Would your decision be the same if you could have 10,000 visitors or 1,000,000 visitors?

  7. What mechanisms are used to generate new visitor traffic?

    There are several mechanisms that can be used to induce more traffic to your web site. The most important among these include proper registration and maintenance with all the major search engines and continuous advertising of your web site through inexpensive services such as the Banner Exchange Advertising Network (BEAN). Active participation in user-groups and listing in directories affiliated to your product categories is also very useful.

  8. What compelling reasons will generate repeat visitors?

    Ask yourself this question about your web site: "is there an absolutely compelling reason that would cause your visitors to re-visit your site?"

    Many web sites fail this test. A great web site is designed, some initial advertising campaigns conducted generating respectable initial traffic. But then the number of visits starts to slowly go down to nothing. Initial enthusiasm is replaced with disappointment and over time the whole project written off as a total waste of time and money. The main reason? Lack of compelling material that would cause visitors to want to visit again.

    A mechanism for maintaining interest and loyal visitor must be built in as part of the web site design. This is not something that is added as an afterthought. Most successful sites produce continuously fresh information that is useful to your visitors and offer this information for free. Others offer free services (such as free email) that would compel visitors to go to their site in order to use their services. Yet others maintain a mailing list of their clients that is frequently used to inform subscribers of new useful information in their web site and invites them to take a look.

  9. What internet technologies are most suitable for this project?

    Assuming there is an attractive business case for your product, and a good marketing plan is in place the next set of issues to consider has to do with selection, implementation and management of technologies required to implement your web site. Several questions need to be answered:

    • Designing of your web pages consistent with your marketing style and product image
    • Finding the right web hosting service, or setting up your own server
    • Implementing software to manage your product information catalog
    • Implementing software to handle secure financial transaction for on-line credit card payment
    • Implementing firewall and other security measures to protect your web site
  10. Who will manage the implementation of this technology?

    This issue simply boils down to whether you want to do the implementation in house or have professional companies such as ACIS Consulting handling this bit of activity.

  11. Who will maintain and update the information on regular basis?

    The question of proper maintenance of a web site. Proper refresh of search engine registration and the technical issues associated with expansion of services and higher visitor traffic and security issues all have to be carefully reviewed and understood. Depending on the size and expertise level of in-house IS department team this activity could either be done in house or out-sourced to professional companies such as ACIS Consulting who specialize in providing precisely such services.

  12. What organizational changes are required to properly service the internet marketing and sales channel?

    This is a big hurdle in e-commerce implementation for larger companies with heavy duty systems solidly entrenched. E-commerce must be viewed as a new channel that is different from other traditional marketing and sales channels. Careful study and detailed preparation may be required to ensure successful merger of the e-commerce channel with other existing processes. For smaller companies this may be less of an issue.

  13. What is the operational cost of web site maintenance?

    Operational cost should take into account the costs associated with regular update and maintenance of the site, regular marketing activities to be carried out to increase new visitor traffic and to retain existing clients. It should also factor in cost of continuous upgrading of technology as e-commerce industry continues to mature and better tools continue to become available.

  14. How much will the overall project cost?

    The cost of overall project is the sum of the initial implementation cost plus annual maintenance cost for a number of years you select as your project horizon. A horizon of two to three years is probably sufficient for e-commerce projects.

  15. How exactly will the added revenue measured?

    This can become a real contentious issue depending on product type and currently existing channels. For example if an airline were to setup a web page that encouraged visitors to call its travel agency for booking information, it would be difficult to exactly quantify the additional referral generated through the web site unless a special telephone number is designated to handle web site generated referrals. Some companies chose to take a statistical sampling only and use the result obtained to estimate for overall company.

    For smaller companies or companies who sell a specific product through the internet channel only should be able to quantify benefits much more easier.

  16. And what is the projected Return On Investment (ROI)?

    Given the total project cost for a period of three years and the projected additional revenue expected through the e-commerce channel over the same period of time.

Professional and unbiased answers to these questions will provide you with a solid basis to help you make a decision.

ACIS Consulting will help you quickly produce your Internet Marketing and Sales Plan.

Contact us !!