The E-Marketing Plan

OVERVIEW OF THE E-MARKETING

PLANNING PROCESS
How can firms identify a sustainable competitive advantage with the
internet when the landscape is constantly changing and filled with
international competitors?
By determining how to apply digital data and information technologies both
effectively and efficiently. The best firms have clear visions that they translate,
through the marketing process, from e-business objectives and strategies into e-
marketing goals and well-executed strategies and tactics for achieving those
goals.
This marketing process entails three steps: marketing plan creation, plan
implementation, and plan evaluation/corrective action.
CREATING AN E-MARKETING PLAN

• An E-Marketing plan is a guiding, dynamic document that links the firm’s e-

business strategy (e-business models) with technology- driven marketing
strategies and lays out details for plan implementation through marketing.
• Two common types of e-marketing plans are:
1- The napkin plan
2- The venture capital e-marketing plan
THE NAPKIN PLAN

• In what one marketer calls the napkin plan, many entrepreneurs

simply jot their ideas on a napkin over lunch or cocktails and then
run off to find financing.
THE VENTURE CAPITAL E-MARKETING
PLAN
• A comprehensive e-marketing plan.
A SEVEN-STEP E-MARKETING PLAN

• The seven key planning elements are :

1. A situation analysis
2. An e-marketing strategic planning
3. The plan objectives
4. An e-marketing strategy
5. An implementation plan
6. The budget
7. A plan for evaluating success.
STEP 1—SITUATION ANALYSIS

• Review the firm’s environmental and SWOT analyses. Read page

78
• Review the existing marketing plan and any other information that
can be obtained about the company and its brands.
• Review the firm’s e-business objectives, strategies, and performance
metrics.
STEP 2—E-MARKETING STRATEGIC
PLANNING
• Determine the fit between the organization and its strategic planning changing
market opportunities. Perform marketing opportunity analysis, demand and
supply analyses, and segment analysis.
Tier 1 Strategies
• Segmentation
• Targeting
• Differentiation
• Positioning
STEP 3—OBJECTIVES

• Identify general goals flowing from e-business strategy.

STEP 4—E-MARKETING STRATEGIES

• Identify revenue streams suggested by e-business models.

Tier 2 Strategies
• Design the basic offer, value, distribution, communication, and
market/partner relationship management strategies to
• create a competitive edge.
• Modify objectives as warranted.
STEP 5—IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

• Design e-marketing mix tactics:

• Product/service offering
• Pricing/valuation
• Distribution/supply chain
• Integrated communication mix
• Design relationship management tactics.
• Design information gathering tactics.
• Design organizational structures for implementing the plan.
STEP 6—BUDGET

• Forecast revenues.
• Evaluate costs to reach goals.
STEP 7—EVALUATION PLAN

• Identify appropriate performance metrics

DISCUSSION

• Read page 86
• Go to the Web site of your university and describe how well you
think the site fulfills the marketing objectives of the university.
Suggest improvements.