Develop an Internet Marketing Plan 

Update Your Current Marketing Plan
Evaluate your current marketing plan and update it to include ecommerce tools and tactics.

• Current situation: What is your company doing online now? What is the off-line marketing strategy? How are they related?
  
  
• Objectives: What do you want to accomplish on the Internet? More sales? International sales? More customers? Better brand recognition? Cheaper customer support?
  
  
• Strategies & tactics: What do you need to do to achieve your goals? Who do you need to help you?
  
  
• Budget: What percentage of your marketing budget should go to Internet activities? Do you need to increase the budget? What will your website cost? Will you need more staff to handle increased email and online sales?
  
  
• Audience: Who are your primary customers? What impact will the Net have on your customer-base?
  
  
• Ecommerce: Will you sell your products and services online? What type of payment methods will you accept? How will you handle them? What will they cost you?
  
  
• Pricing: How will the Internet's very competitive pricing situation affect your marketing plans? Can you reduce your prices? If not, how do you plan to remain competitive?
  
  
• Risks: Are you prepared for potential problems related to doing business on the Net? Do you have the proper insurance coverage? Do you have a backup system? How do you plan to handle potential Internet credit risks?
  
  
• Evaluation: How do you plan to measure the effectiveness of your online marketing?
  What criteria and methods will you use?
  
  

Design your updated marketing plan to target your primary target audience. Market to them first.

Online Marketing Tactics
Hundreds of articles and websites outline a variety of ways to market on the Internet. The most important methods include:

• Create a dynamite website: Build an audience-driven website that is content-rich and easy to navigate.
  
  

  According to 1-2-3 Promote, "A Website design is a marketing plan in visual form."
  
  

• Track your competitions' websites: What marketing strategies are they using? How are they handling sales? How do they encourage repeat visits?
  
  
• Listen in online: Monitor online discussion groups, Usenet newsgroups, and web forums.
  
  
• Use email effectively:
  
  
  1. Respond promptly to visitor feedback.
  2. Experiment with various email strategies, such as, autoresponders, email coupons, website update announcement lists.
  3. Sponsor a mailing list.
  4. Publish a newsletter.
  5. Distribute press releases about Internet activities.
     
     
• Make website promotion a high priority: Promote your website continuously. Create a plan for improving search engine visibility, obtaining reciprocal links, and drawing media attention to your website.
  
  
• Experiment with different types of websites: If you have a new product or service, consider test marketing via a special domain, hosting service, and website. Consider trying a mall location or online auction as well as a more traditional web presence. Analyze your visitor/customer responses carefully. You may find that using multiple online venues can increase the demand for your products and services without increasing your costs significantly.
  
  

Test various mixes of traditional and Internet marketing until you find one that works well for you. Some digital products (soft goods) can be sold with only Internet advertising, but most products require more than this.