The online strategy is built in accordance with the marketing strategy. And the marketing strategy – in accordance with the goals and objectives of the business.

A business can have many goals – from “making money for an apartment” to colonizing Mars.

Internet business objectives can be formulated in different ways, but the goal remains the same – sales and profits.

Examples of business tasks on the Web:

Increase website traffic, increase conversion or average check, increase audience loyalty, gather fans, launch a new product, “move” online, increase retail sales – these are all tasks leading to one goal – sales.

To achieve the goal, the business needs to answer the main question: 

How to increase sales and profits?

Sales are customer money. This means that the task can be formulated as follows. Find customers and sell them your product (product or service). How to do this is described by the marketing strategy.

How to do it over the Internet is an online strategy.

It is important to remember that any goal becomes achievable. If it does not sound like an abstract representation of the future, but has specific numbers and timelines. Online strategy is no exception.

The strategy is long term. It is customary to use a strategic planning horizon of one to five years. At least six months. Anything shorter can be considered a tactical plan.

Media plan is not an online strategy

If an executive or marketer is not well versed in internet marketing. They are looking for an easy and quick solution. As a rule, such a solution turns out to be SEO and contextual advertising. Which are already more or less on everyone’s lips. Before the launch of SEO and contextual advertising, a media plan is developed.

Media Plan is a tool for forecasting and managing an advertising campaign. 

Typically, a media plan includes: a list of words for promotion and advertising, a work plan and forecasts. As a rule, a media plan is created according to a template. On the basis of a typical brief and does not take into account the peculiarities and tasks of the business as a whole.

At the same time, most of the performers present the media plan as an online strategy. But this is not an online strategy.

Usability, conversion and SMM are not an online strategy either. These are strategies for using tools that help solve the general challenges of an online strategy.

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A separate instrument may have its own strategy if it:

a) requires serious preparation before launch;

b) begins to work gradually;

c) will definitely require adjustments, during which it is important not to lose the original task.

Therefore, there may be an SMM and SEO strategy, but it is not an online strategy.

Usually, the media plan is developed by the performers themselves in order to maximize their services. Even if they do not work well for the purpose of your business.

The following logic works here:

If an agency specializes in a certain instrument, then its salespeople try to present the agency’s services as a universal tool. And this is not a bad agency – this is how the system works: the sales plan has to be done. And if there is no result. Then you can find many excuses: “You have a bad site / product / managers, and we cannot influence this.”

For example, SEO / performance agencies and “private” directors follow the simplest path. Attracting visitors (traffic) based on generated demand, using paid channels. They are great, they are fluent in the instrument. 

Only they are unlikely to understand your business. And will not say at the start that you have problems with the site or product and the advertising efficiency will be low. That the competition in Direct is now such that it is better not even to start, but use other channels. Before starting work on search engine optimization, you need to understand what real effect it will give you.

Of course, not everything is so sad. You might get lucky and get results. Just keep in mind that this result will be very difficult to scale. And the effect can end very quickly. After all, the market is changing, people are changing. Your competitors also know about SEO and contextual advertising. 

Every day you have to pay more for advertising, and getting results in SEO is becoming more difficult. This approach becomes completely unprofitable, and therefore meaningless. Today, it is important to look to the future and use an arsenal of tools. That will help you outrun the competition and grow steadily.

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