How to Develop a Marketing Strategy

Marketing is one of the most important aspects of a profitable website. You cannot be successful unless you have customers and to bring in customers you must market your website. The methods you use to market your website may vary for any number of reasons.

* Budget
* Target audience
* Products or services you are promoting
* Whether you are promoting a website in the making or a live website
* What phase of your marketing plan is currently in place—initial or ongoing
* How much time do you have to devote to marketing your website?
* How much income are you looking to generate
* Are you looking for a full-time or part-time opportunity

All of the above will have an effect on the methods of advertising you may choose to use. However, you don't want to limit yourself to just one or two methods. The important thing is not the methods you use but rather how hard you work to promote your website. However, your initial marketing strategy is by far the most important one for providing your business with a good start. If your initial marketing efforts are successful you will be able to develop an ongoing plan that will allow you to continually bring in new customers and thus increase your profits.
If you are on a limited budget as many new website owners are, you should develop your marketing strategy using some of the free or less expensive promotional tools. While using more expensive advertising tools may provide more exposure, your initial plan should focus on developing a plan that will make your website visible. Once you begin develop a database of customers and earning some money you can use some of the more expensive promotional tools.

When you develop your marketing strategy do not stop with the initial plan. While you originally want to focus on providing exposure for your website, you should already have your next plans in place. If you create a marketing plan step by step you will be able to go straight from one point to the next instead of having to stop and think about what you are going to do next. Any break in the momentum can cause you to lose track of where you want to be—or where you should be—with your marketing strategy at any given moment.
Try it, you have nothing to lose but only to to gain.