We all know the tag about proper prior planning, and businesses large and small demand a comprehensive, realistic and well-organized written plan before they shake loose funds for a new project. Creating an Internet presence is no exception, and in fact writing a good Internet marketing plan presents many special challenges. The medium is new, a lot of people aren't yet convinced of its importance, misconceptions abound, and the whole field is constantly changing. Bayne takes you through the whole process of defining your goals, making strategic decisions, and formulating and writing a winning plan.
September 23, 1997
This book covers much more than just writing a proposal for a Web site. It's a pretty darn good primer on Internet marketing in general. Even Web-savvy marketers will find a lot of useful information here, while beginners will learn to cut through a lot of the hype, and formulate some solid, realistic goals for a corporate Internet strategy.
The format of the book is unique, and very functional. Each chapter discusses a major step in the formulation of an Internet strategy, then provides a form with questions about your business situation. When you've filled in all the forms, you've got your Internet marketing plan written and ready to present to the boss.
Chapters include:
Preparing the Business Overview and Executive Summary
Analyzing Internet Market Statistics
Formulating Marketing Communications Strategies
Planning Your Internet Marketing Budget
Forming the Internet Marketing Task Force
Designing Advertising and Direct Mail Campaigns
Utilizing Collateral Materials
Developing a Corporate Identity
Conducting Market Research
Executing Public Relations and Promotional Programs
Incorporating Sales Support Functions
Planning Trade Shows
Measuring Internet Marketing Results
Just about every aspect of creating and managing a succesful Internet presence is well covered, with emphasis on integrating smoothly with your company's other marketing efforts, and on getting quantifiable results.
The 1.44" floppy disk that comes with the book includes all the worksheets, checklists, templates and so forth that the book uses to create the marketing plan. Another nice time-saving feature is a browser bookmark file that contains every Web site URL mentioned in the book. By the way, there are LOTS of useful URLs and addresses for all kinds of marketing resources both online and off.
This well-written, information-packed book is very timely. It's amazing how many companies blunder into the Web with no clear picture of what they want to achieve, or how they are going to measure their results. Anyone involved with Internet marketing will find it useful, and if you're the one charged with writing up a nice pretty presentation to convince the old fuddy-duddies upstairs that they need to sink some money into this crazy Internet thing, then this book is just exactly what you need.
