I just wanted to point out a post on another blog first. They have searched the net and came up with the top fifty posts about business plans and it has great information to share with you. Here it is:

The Top 50 Business Plan Posts Of The Year

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. GRINS. I always wanted to say that.

Create Your Own Internet Marketing Business Plan

If you already have a small internet business that you are attempting to promote and are are having trouble making profit, it may be because you have not first created an internet marketing plan. Internet marketing can be simple but it is certainly much more difficult than simply putting some keywords in the text of your site.

You need to have a plan of action in order to reach your company goals. (You do have a set of goals, right? If not see The Realgoalgetter.)

An internet marketing plan could consist of 8 basic steps: planning, analysis, customer analysis, market and product focus, product positioning, pricing strategy, product distribution, and internet promotion. Don’t let all this scare you off, it just sounds complicated.

And we will get into all of these right here on this blog. So, here are the steps and we can pull them apart later.

Step Number 1: Strategic Planning…
When promoting your business online, you need to keep some things in mind. Ask yourself the question, “what am I good at?” “What can I do better than anyone else?” You need to discover how your business is different from the rest by discovering all of the advantages that you have over your competitors.

Step Number 2: Situation Analysis…
This is basically learning about the market that you are in or about to get into. Analyze your competition, what are they doing that you can improve on? The more you know about the industry you are in and how you can succeed in it, the better. Is there really an online market there where people are spending money?

Step Number 3: Customer Analysis…
Simply put, this step involves learning about your customers. Pick your target customer, sometimes called your target market. How you are going to effectively market to someone that you know nothing about? You really need to spend some time on this one. Who are you trying to market to?

You need to know your ideal customer’s problems if you are going to market to them effectively and solve their most pressing problems in your industry. In fact, some businesses do invent personalities that act as the target customer and then develop a plan of marketing to them.

Step Number 4: Market and Product focus…
This step involves making your company different from your competitors. This is often times referred to as the “Unique Selling Point” or “USP”. Your USP is hugely important, and can mean the difference between success and failure of an enterprise. Why would people pick your product or service over all the others? What is special about what you are offering?

Step Number 5: Image, Product positioning…
Simply put, when a person hears a company name, certain thoughts come to mind. When somebody says your company name, what thoughts do you want to come to mind?

You need to think about how you want your prospects to see you. You need to know how to position your business in your customer’s mind. If you haven’t learned about them yet, acquaint yourself with the 4 Ps of marketing: product, position, promotion, and price.

Step Number 6: Pricing Strategy…
This is also one of the 4 Ps of marketing. You need to know how to effectively price your goods or services. A good way is to take a look at what the competition is charging. If you are new to the business, you may need to undercut their prices, but better yet, you could build tremendous value into your sales offer and separate yourself from the competition with higher pricing.

Step number 7: Product Distribution…
This is the second P in the 4 P’s of marketing, also known as position. This is the physical location where your product or service is offered. And yes, if you have an internet business then you position is the internet.

Step Number 8: Internet Promotion
This is how you are going to advertise your business on the internet. There are plenty of different methods at your disposal including newsletters, search engines, article marketing and pay per click advertising. Learn how to effectively implement them. Experiment with each of them and try to find what best suits your business and makes your revenue targets.

Hopefully, you can make use of some of this information and create your own internet marketing plan that fits your business. Planning ahead for all contingencies pays off in increased revenues and profits. And by the way, check out that link I recommended at the beginning . . . great info!