What is the ultimate, final, or fundamental internet marketing plan for small businesses…if such there be.

Thousands of small business owners already have lots of internet skills, others are just beginning, and both groups have great ambitions and ideas. So what is the common thread necessary for you and other members of either group to be successful?

It’s the willingness to dig in, realizing that at least in the beginning, money is not your only investment. You must also be prepared to invest many hours of dedicated work to getting your internet marketing plan off the ground.

Have you studied the market? Do you know what your competition is doing? Do you know what your basic objectives are? When you’re sure you can answer yes to these questions, then you’re ready to being making detailed objectives for your internet marketing plan.

First: Decide how many hits per day you want on your site and what you want readers to do when they link onto your site. Do you want them to download information? Buy an item? Do both or do something else? Make sure the answer to that question is evident to your internet visitors.

Second: Identify your marketing focus and your target audience and then determine the keywords for your marketing campaign. Remember that discovering and utilizing keywords on your website are both absolutely essential for Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It is also important that these keywords be popular everyday words which describe your product and appeal to your audience. What are you selling and to whom?

Third: Is the value of your product equivalent to the selling price? If you are selling a product are you selling it at a reasonable price? If you are selling information, look at the information from the customer’s point of view and ask yourself what the content is worth, either in future earnings or just in the importance and helpfulness of the information itself? Then set a fair price, maybe what you would pay for comparable information.

Fourth: Decide what are the best internet tools to accomplish the goals you have set for yourself, and then decide which ones to use and how to integrate them into your plan.

Fifth: Do it…whatever it takes. Set a schedule for yourself to carry out your plan as outlined above and after that – JUST DO IT!

Even among the high gas prices and failed mortgages of the economy, it is still a viable time to start a small business. One of the first tasks to take care of when starting a small business is to create a marketing plan.

Here are the basics needed in a marketing plan for new entrepreneurs:

A core message

A great logo and brand

A Web site

Business cards

Exposure

First, you need to decide what your core message will be. If you don’t focus your message about your product, service or business, your customers will most likely be confused by your marketing materials. There’s no way you can get a clear message across if you don’t even know what that message is.

Part of knowing your core message is knowing your audience. Who are they? Where do they live? How much money do they make? And most importantly, what do they want? Why do they need your product? Your message needs to serve your customers’ needs, not yours. Your business’ survival depends on your customers’ opinions and knowledge of your business, not yours.

You also need to create a great, memorable logo and brand next. Your logo should show your business’ personality. When people take one glance at your logo, they should know what you are about and remember you. Your logo is part of your brand. A brand is not only your logo and it’s not only your advertising. It’s the combination of all your marketing materials, including these two elements, that creates a relationship with your customers.

To be successful today, you need to create a Web site. You need to plan for at least a basic Web site that shows a few of your products, and the benefits of your products. You should explain who you (as a business) are, what your business does and how your business can help your customers. You can add more functionality to your Web site as your business grows – like answering questions and ordering online.

Print some business cards. Be sure to leave room in your budget for business card printing. Even though a lot of marketing and advertising is done online, if you don’t have a business card, you’ll look unprofessional. You should print at least 500 at first and give them out to everyone you know. Give out a few to friends and family, and really anyone you think might pass them along to other potential customers.

Finally, you need some exposure. Contact your local media – many newspapers and local magazines like to profile new businesses and it’s a great way to get free advertising. You should also advertise in local media and hang up flyers and posters around your community. This can be done relatively cheaply – many places like libraries and grocery stores have bulletin boards on which you can hang advertising materials. These are great for the beginning entrepreneur who might not have a huge marketing budget. Also, word-of-mouth marketing works wonders for a new business – ask for referrals and ask your current customers to tout your benefits to others. Many times word of mouth works better than most of your other marketing techniques!

Is Your Vision to Be The Biggest and Baddest on the Planet

I frequently get approached by people and companies that want me to develop a business plan. The trouble is they try to tell me what the business plan should look like. And more often than not, they just want a quick and dirty paper plan. Typically, they want something that says their vision is that they want to be The Biggest and Baddest XYZ on the Planet.”

Here Is What Is Missing

The problem with that is they’ve missed a big part of the equation. They are focused on what they want to be and not on what the customer wants, nor what the customer may think of them. It is important, VERY IMPORTANT, to understand the customer and to find the alignment between what the customer wants and what you as the business owner want. Finding that alignment will deliver “the biggest and baddest.” Just having a picture of YOU isn’t going to do that.

I know, I know. I’m hearing the roar from the peanut gallery as I say this. I hear comments like, “Well, Alan, it is there. It’s in the marketing plan.”

The point is that your vision, and what you are doing right down to the core of your business should START with the results and benefits that your customer gets from working with you, and doing that will result in you being the biggest and baddest ZYZ on the planet. It can’t just be something buried in the marketing plan, or sales plan. It has to be everything about who you are and what you deliver. It is the core of your vision, your values, and your business. If you are to become “the biggest and baddest” it can’t just exist in the marketing plan alone.

Find the Measurable Results Your Customer Gets

Whenever I work through a business plan with a client he usually has a very rough picture of who and what he is or wants to be. We start looking for a really powerful statement about the MEASURABLE RESULTS he delivers to customers and when he finally finds it, he will always go back and change who and what he is. He’ll change his vision statement….every time.

So, now I start by helping clients find what measurable benefits and results they deliver to a customer. Then you have a better idea what or who you want to be.

My original vision was that I wanted to be a successful business coach. Now I “help people and companies worldwide double, triple, and multiply their businesses in a matter of weeks. I help clients achieve “the impossible.” At least what they’ve always THOUGHT was impossible because they had never achieved it. I break down the barriers they placed between the ears and suddenly they achieve “the impossible.”

Isn’t that a more powerful vision?

Turn Your Customer’s Measurable Results Into Your Powerful Vision
If you’d like to achieve that kind of vision, start with 30 Seconds to Explosive Networking and Sales one of the other articles I wrote for EzineArticles.com. It explains how to find the MOST POWERFUL statement that you can use to define who you are. That article was originally written to find a powerful 30-second elevator speech, but it has become the core for finding a powerful vision of who you are as well.

Once you find that powerful statement, then add that to who or what you want to be through the use of that powerful statement and watch what happens to your thoughts about you, your company, and even how the customer now looks at you.

Wow! It works every time.

It is imperative that, as a small business owner, you create a marketing plan. It’s also imperative that you realize your marketing plan is going to be a work in progress. Your plan (and you!) must be flexible enough to change and adapt to the current market conditions, changes in the economy, advances in technology and so on.

Here are 6 great tips to keep in mind when you begin creating your own small business marketing plan:

1. Establish Goals

Your small business marketing plan should be very goal oriented. Being able to visually see what your intentions are for your business can often help you plan and organize in a way that will help you reach your goals quicker and more efficiently. Before beginning your marketing plan you should sit down and write out exactly what goals you intend to reach.

Next, figure out a rough idea of how you plan to reach these goals. Be as specific as possible; include exact numbers (number of clients, number of products, number of websites, etc), exact dollar amounts (amount of sales, amount of profit, amount of affiliate commissions, etc) and exact dates (when your website will be completed, when your sales calls will be made, when your products will be released, etc.) There is no way you can draft an outline of what you plan to do with your business unless you really know what you want out of your business.

2. Identify Yourself

Though many small business owners do not see the point in creating a brand for themselves, you are creating a brand whether you realize it or not. So why not do it deliberately? Include in your marketing plan exactly what you want your customers’ and the market’s perception of your business to be. What personality will your business take on? What do you want to be known for? What do you want the “gossip” about you to be about? This should be spelled out in your marketing plan and should be something that you actively strive for on a day to day basis.

3. Develop a Budget

Be sure to include in your yearly marketing plan the budget for the year as well as your plan for achieving this budget. Though there will always be additional financial documentation separate from the marketing plan, it helps to include exactly what your goals are for spending, budget, and earning. This way you have a perfect example to look at; and remember to always leave room for flexibility and editing of your marketing plan.

4. Describe Your Product or Service

One of the greatest things about your small business marketing plan is that it will come in very useful as your business grows. You’ll be able to hand it off to your new team members and they’ll have a perfect sense of where the business is going and how it’s going to get there.

But one of the funniest things I encounter in working with small businesses is that many of the ancillary team members can’t exactly tell me what the business they work for does. Since they’re only involved in a small portion of the business, they’re not familiar (or have never been told) the big picture. This is especially true with consulting businesses and service providers.

So be sure to describe in detail your product or service and how it will improve the lives of your customers. Many small business owners skip this step, thinking they already know exactly what they do. But remember, you’ll have a larger audience than just yourself for your small business marketing plan – and you might be pleasantly surprised at useful this step is to you and how you view your future marketing activities.

5. Describe Your Target Consumer

You should make it abundantly clear within your marketing plan who your business is aimed at and how you plan to market to that particular group. Clearly targeted customers are vital to a business or marketing plan. Your plan is all about articulating who, what, when, where, and why. This is the “who” and it helps to make it clear to everyone in the business (especially you) what sort of person you are targeting as a potential customer or client. By having a very clear description of your target customer, when you set out to advertise, promote, or change a product, you’ll know exactly where and when to do that. You’ll know where to spend your advertising dollars, you’ll know how to phrase your messages, you’ll know what type of graphics to use, and on and on. Don’t be tempted to skip this either – again, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at a useful it is to get your target market profile down on paper.

6. Tell What Makes You Unique?

Being able to set yourself apart from all of your competitors is a huge part your small business marketing challenge. You need to clearly separate yourself from the crowd. This is called your “unique selling proposition”. What makes you different? How do you stand out from other businesses that are selling the same product or offering the same services? Create a clear and coherent statement on this differentiation within your marketing plan. Not only does this help to improve confidence in your product, but if a prospect asks why he should do business with you, you’ll have a clear answer to give him.

Can’t find anything that sets you apart? Be sure to spend the time creating something! Schedule a brainstorming session with your staff members, your best clients, even your family and friends. Often times, these people already know what sets you apart, and it’s usually something that you’ve taken for granted all along. And one last word of warning: avoid using Price as your unique selling proposition. There is always someone willing to undercut you or use your product as a loss leader, trapping you in a never-ending game of sales and price reductions.

A small business marketing plan is essential to your business. It doesn’t have to be something large and cumbersome; you’ll get more use out of a marketing plan that is flexible and easy to follow. So I challenge you to set aside a few hours over this upcoming weekend and begin drafting your small business marketing plan. You’ll be amazed at how helpful this step is to the growth of your business.

It is possible that you have never considered writing a sales plan before; you are not alone. Most organizational leaders are not even aware that they need to create such a document. So that leaves the question hovering in the air: what is a sales plan? The answer is quite simple and extremely relevant to the modern company. A sales plan is an important piece of your marketing plan; it is the actionable portion. While marketing becomes increasingly important, getting the attention of your prospective consumer is only step one of many in the buying processes. Another very important component is actually getting customers to make a purchase or place an order for the product or service that has been so cleverly marketed. And that is what the sales plan outlines: sales goals and how to achieve them.

Some strategic planners choose to make the sales plan part of the overall business plan; sometimes tucked away in the operations section of the business plan. However, in order for the document to be effective, it needs to be very well thought out and easily attained by the person responsible for sales– most likely, the Sales Manager.

Like all well thought out strategic planning documents, the sales plan needs to have a summary that is written last but serves as an overall statement of the purpose and vision for the document and organization’s goals regarding sales. It should sight the company’s philosophy about sales and discuss the culture of the sales department.

The next section needs to include quantifiable objectives, outline any and all success factors as well as discuss sales avenues. This brief and typically bulleted overview serves as the overall sales plan & strategy.

Since customer relationship management [C.R.M.] is becoming a vital part of organizations, it is important to have a section outlining feasible customer retention & loyalty programs to track such interaction. This section does not outline the C.R.M. package itself but rather the programs that drive repeat and referral traffic.

The sales force organization section of the sales plan is as equally as important as discussing the customers, as this section discusses sales personnel. This portion answers such questions as: 1) How will the sales department be managed? 2) What territories will each sales person cover? 3) How will sales people be compensated and rewarded?

Prospect management & lead systems is the opportunity for companies to think about exactly what C.R.M. packages will be utilized and the best way to track leads and manage conversion rates. In this section, strategic planners can clearly outline the processes that new and prospect customers will go through and what sort of technology [if needed] will manage the transition.

Use the next section to create a detailed list of annual sales activity; called a sales activities timetable. A chart format or spreadsheet layout is easiest to maintain and update. The information should clearly identify the ROI as well as the overall expense of each activity.

When each sales effort, as recorded in the sales activity timetable, is complete it will become important to develop a sales effectiveness summary that monitors the success of each sales campaign. This can be a simple review by management or team members.

Create a tracking system for the sales plan as a final portion of the sales plan. This allows managers to meaningfully forecast business levels and allows for accountability among sales representatives.

The sales plan should be between approximately five to ten pages. The detailed plan will add action items to your marketing plan and give Sales Managers clear direction on how to lead the sales team. Such a document should be given as much time and attention as the marketing plan itself.