Strategic Marketing Plan: Go In With a Game Plan!

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that if you want business success, you have to have a marketing strategy–a specific outline of your goals and how to achieve them.  What you may not know, especially if you’re just breaking into ecommerce, is what specific issues your marketing strategy needs to address in order for you to be competitive in today’s online business arena.  Following are a few important considerations, some specific to Internet marketing, others useful all-around.

What are you selling?

Sounds pretty straight-forward, right?  So straight-forward, in fact, that many people overlook it.  Clearly defining your product is the first step in creating a marketing strategy.  The goal of all businesses is to sell something, and concretely delineating what your product is–and isn’t–will help you stay focused as you make more advanced marketing decisions.  In ecommerce, having a firm concept of your product is especially important, as you’ll need strong keywords related to the product in order to develop effective advertising.

What’s your Unique Selling Point?

All advertising campaigns should have a Unique Selling Point–a persuasive argument that clearly states what you offer, what the customer will to gain by purchasing it, and why your offer is better than your competitors’.

A Unique Selling Point answers the question, “Why should people buy from you?”  It sets your business apart from the competition by making a claim that your rivals can’t match.  It shouldn’t just be an empty phrase, however; it should be a promise to the customer, one that you can deliver, and that you work to deliver by developing a strong marketing strategy.

How good is your offer?

Be honest with yourself.  How does your product compare with those of competitors?  What are its strengths?  Its weaknesses?  If you can improve on your offer in some way, that should be the focus of your marketing strategy; if your product is already competitive, then you need to work on selling it to your potential clients.

How easy is it to buy from you online?

Customer satisfaction is one of the key goals of any marketing strategy, and the easier it is for customers to buy from you, the more satisfied they will be.  Speed and options are key here.  The more payment and shipping options you have, the more customers you can serve, and the faster you can get an order to them, the more likely they are to come to you with future orders.

Where should you be advertising?

The Internet abounds with worthwhile advertising venues, but picking the right one for your web site can be difficult.  SEO practices and ad networks such as AdWords offer a good, general approach to advertising; however, your investment will generate a much greater return if you target customers specific to your niche through social marketing and direct partnership banner advertising, as well.  For these two approaches, it pays to learn about web analytics.