It is my belief that if anyone is to suceed in any type of business then the business needs to be marketed to it's target consumers in an effective manner. In order to do this effectively rather than in an ad hoc, probably expensive, manner I propose the construction of a marketing plan. This is something you can do yourself quite simply, but it will need some time for research and thought if it is to be worthwhile and achieve results.

So, have read this far and not run away yet you will be wondering how to go about it. I see it as a very simple 5 step process as follows:

1) Get your information together and analyze it

Find out all you can about the industry you are in, it's sales channels, anticipated growth, products etc. Look at who your competitors are, who you expect your customers to be and your wholesalers. Look at pricing, distribution channels and product ranges.

Next complete some SWOT analyses. This is a simple analysis of your Strenths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats which will be of great help in clarifying your thoughts and putting them and the information into some order.

2)Write down your main challenges

The SWOT analysis should have helped you to see what they are e.g. one of my weaknesses is in how to drive traffic to my website. After all we need site visitiors in order to sell to them.

3)Decide your objectives

Following on from the example above I have decided to set an objective for myself of increasing awareness of my website. Increased awareness should in turn lead to more visitors.

4) Devise strategies

Strategies need to support the objectives you have set yourself and define the approaches you will take to acheive the objectives set earlier. It is sometimes useful to brainstorm ideas with a few friends at this time as you can bounce ideas off each other but if you are on your own don't worry just write down all of your ideas on a large sheet of paper Following on from our example I decide that one of my strategies should be to communicate the existence of the site to my existing customers.

5)Select your tactics

This is where the action is. You should now have some firm ideas in your mind and on paper as to what your objectives and strategies should be. You should now be thinking in more practical terms as to what you can do to achieve those goals. You may also need to think at this point about any costs involved with some of your ideas.

Set yourself a budget to spend on marketing your site. This is not the time to penny pinch. You have already invested a great deal of time and money into setting up your site and that money will be wasted if you expect people to simply queue up just because it is there. The web is huge and yours is just one site among millions and is unlikely to be stumbled across by chance. Few of us have the marketing budget of Macdonalds but a few well spent pounds on targetted marketing in the right areas will reap dividends.

So thats it. How to develop a simple marketing plan. One final thing though. Treat your plan as a continuing, living document. Revisit it regularly, update it and change it as your goals change. Come back to this message board regularly to see what other articles have been posted. Read the ideas and ask yourself whether that should be something you should be included in your marketing plan.