What’s your web marketing strategy? It’s the kind of question many small business owners don’t give much thought to. After all, now the site is up and running what’s the point of having a strategy?

The thing is, a web marketing strategy should be written before work starts on the site. Why? Because a web marketing strategy dictates the purpose and objectives of the resulting site. In particular…

• What the business aims to achieve on the web
• The revenue the business expects to generate
• The budget (i.e. amount of money) the business is prepared to invest to achieve its revenue target
• The specific components required to achieve the site’s aims

If these high level items aren’t thought of before the site is built, what’s the purpose of the web site? How much can the business afford to spend on it? How can the business owner know whether or not the site is successful?

And how can anybody know what should or shouldn’t be included in the site?

When the web marketing strategy comes first, it’s much easier for all concerned. Everything falls out of the strategy…

• What content to include (i.e. focus)
• What content to exclude
• Whether or not some particular component is too expensive
• Whether or not some particular designer or programmer is too expensive

These four things can tie up a business owner’s time for months. Yet an Internet marketing strategy can be created in less than a day.

It needn’t be a complex document. It’s not a business plan. In most cases, it won’t be used to secure financing (by a small business owner). Its purpose is simply to define what the site should achieve. It becomes a tool for making good choices, and doing away with nice-to-have components the business owner can’t really afford.

The plain fact is, your web marketing strategy only needs to state what you want to achieve, how much you expect to earn, how much you’re prepared to invest, and give a date by when you want to achieve your target.

marketing strategy, Web Marketing