Rushing around willy-nilly to find success online will get you nowhere. No matter how hard you try you won’t find it that way, but do all the right things in the right order and success will find you. To start the process you need a plan, a plan of action for your small business online marketing adventure.

WORDS OF CAUTION BEFORE YOU START ON YOUR PLAN

Make sure it’s your plan and yours alone; you will find all you need for its formation right here in the pages of this book. Above all, avoid like the plague the peddlers of high-priced counsel; counselling on affiliate programs, ezines, email marketing, linking strategies, joint ventures, search engine optimisation, meta tags, keywords, Google, Overture, pay-per-click, pay-per-impression, FFA Sites, link farms, reciprocal linking strategies, safe lists, opt-in lists, double opt-in lists, RSS, blogging, copywriting, tools to do this, tools to do that, files for this, binders for that...

It is all frippery and fandango; all for show and not for blow; overpriced and worthless for the most part. Give these shameless hawkers the slightest sniff and they will fleece you. Keep your plan simple and structured to the precise requirements of your small business operation, refraining from ad hoc inclusion of snippets you pick up for free along the way and most particularly those tidbits offered by the cowboy counsellors.

And if you must pay for advice on any issue, make certain in advance that it comes from a trusted source before you part with your hard-earned cash.

STICK WITH THE PLAN; DON’T CHOP AND CHANGE

The second biggest mistake that most marketers make is to chop and change before they give their plan a chance to work. Do your thinking and research beforehand and stick with the strategies you choose to run with. No one becomes a successful online marketer overnight: it takes time, patience and dedication.

QUESTIONS YOU WILL WANT TO ASK OF YOURSELF

• 1.What is my mission?
• 2.Will I stay local?
• 3.Will I go global?
• 4.Which type of website will I need?
• 5.What about a domain name?
• 6.What sort of offline activity will I engage in to promote my site?
• 7.How much should I set aside for start-up costs?
• 8.How should I budget my time?
• 9.Is my core aim incremental income?
• 10.Do I want to expand in other areas?
• 11.Will I use the internet to freshen up my image?
• 12.How important to me is acquiring expert status in my niche?
• 13.Will I engage in marketing digital produce?
• 14.Will I be using electronically-generated vouchers?
• 15.Will I use the internet to deliver superior customer service?
• 16.Will I use it to foster loyalty among my existing clientele?
• 17.Will I set in motion an online system for monitoring my competition?
• 18.Will I be sourcing new merchandise online?
• 19.Will I use online research to track market trends?
• 20.Will I use it to source new or additional suppliers?
• 21.Will I be offering an online ordering service?
• 22.Will I set up a free newsletter and solicit subscriptions?

There will be other questions you will want to add to this list and only you can come up with the answers; answers that will add flesh to the bones of your plan.

MISSION STATEMENT

To kick start your plan you’ll want to compose a brief statement of your overall aims in engaging in online marketing. Keep it brief; a paragraph or two at most should suffice. Use it as a constant reminder of why you are doing this and to ensure that you are focused on achieving the targets you set yourself.

STAYING LOCAL OR GOING GLOBAL

Clearly if your business is strictly local in nature like a neighbourhood store, garage or window cleaning service you won’t be going global. Think seriously, though, before ditching the global route if your area of operation is more flexible and capable of expansion: the internet offers inexpensive avenues of reach that are unavailable offline.

YOUR WEBSITE

The type of business you operate and how adventurous you intend to be in your marketing will determine the type of website you require. In the majority of cases a simple 2–3 page mini-format should be adequate, but if you surround yourself with a battery of promotional tools from the arsenal you will be reading about shortly then you ought to consider a multi-page approach from the outset.

YOUR DOMAIN NAME

The domain you choose must reflect the character of your enterprise and you will learn why in Chapter 10.

PROMOTING YOUR WEBSITE ONLINE AND OFFLINE

You have a plethora of alternatives at your disposal, offline and online. We looked at some of the former in an earlier chapter and the entire range of online promotional options is discussed in detail in the chapters to follow.

START-UP COSTS

Apart from website hosting your start-up costs should be minimal. You will find in the pages of this book (and repeated again in the Resources section) online sources where you can download for free most of the basic tools, but you should make a contingency for the few you will need to purchase.

BUDGETING TIME FOR SERVICING THE SITE

One of the prime benefits of marketing online is the time-saving factor. Once you are underway, by far the majority of essential daily tasks are performed automatically. Regular manual servicing such as submitting your site to the search engines, checking on the functionality of links, etc, adds next to no time to your working schedule.

DELIVERING SUPERIOR CUSTOMER SERVICE ONLINE

Now you can move up a few notches on the customer servicing scale. Chapter 33 shows you how – and why you will miss out if you fail to take advantage of the electronic assistance your website is geared to provide.

FOSTERING LOYALTY AMONG YOUR EXISTING CLIENTELE

Get your existing clientele to subscribe to your newsletter and email them regularly with special offers, discounts, loyalty bonuses and the like. Keep in touch, keep them informed, and they will keep coming back for more.

MONITORING THE COMPETITION

Now more easily and effortlessly than ever before you are in a position to keep tabs on competitive marketing, pricing, promotions. Even if some of your competition is not online yet, you can still keep tabs. The search engines don’t need permission; they gobble up information-even from the most unlikely quarters.

SOURCING NEW MERCHANDISE

Expand your merchandise range; add new lines, and all at a few clicks of the mouse button.

SOURCING NEW SUPPLIERS

Finding new supply sources is easier and quicker online – even for the smallest of enterprises.

TRACKING MARKET TRENDS ONLINE

All of us involved in small business must have a finger consistently poised on the pulse of ever-changing market trends; there is no faster device than online research – and it’s free.

DELIVERING AN ONLINE ORDERING SERVICE

The nature of your small enterprise will decide whether or not this is feasible. If it is, Chapter 29 directs you on how to go about matters.

SETTING UP YOUR NEWSLETTER

Don’t hang about – skip ahead to Chapter 23 and make a start now ...