Your Electronic Marketing Plan

Most businesses have a marketing plan. And good for you if you have one! But do you have a plan for your electronic marketing efforts, an e-marketing plan? If not, then this is where you want to be.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

It's true. There are so many ways you can market your business using electronic media... and unless you have a well thought-out plan, you are likely to be overwhelmed and frustrated, and eventually give up.

Every day new opportunities appear that promise to catapult your business to new heights - and some of them are probably really good tools to use. But you can't try everything that comes along. You need to be very intentional about the tools you use to achieve electronic marketing success.

First you need to determine at what growth point you are in your business.

• Do you need to focus on getting new customers?
• Are you doing well attracting new customers, and now you need to concentrate on keeping them coming back?
• Are you ready to expand your business to a new level?

Next you need to take a good look at your target market. Who are those people, really?

• Sort your current customers informally. Choose 2-5 categories that make sense for your business (size of purchase, frequency, age -- whatever demographics fit).
• Identify which group is most profitable for you.
• Determine what problems they have that your business can solve.

Based on the data you have collected so far, you can now begin to develop your marketing plan.

If you are just starting to use electronic marketing tools, you might want to choose only one strategy to focus on until you are comfortable with it and are seeing some success.

If you are already doing some e-marketing, you may be able to juggle several.

The key is to stretch yourself, but don't break! Remember that success often lies just outside of your comfort zone.

Here are the primary strategies I've found that consistently lead to marketing success:

• Website
• Electronic Newsletter or eZine
• Blogs
• Keep In Touch and Follow-Up
• Social Networking
• Article Writing

So, in summary, to develop a marketing plan that will ultimately lead to electronic marketing success, you need to determine where you are, where you want to go, and the vehicle you will use to get there.