Starting a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is important for any business, here are suggestions to help you and your business get started.

Goals, goals, goals. Set goals for your business and even more importantly make a time frame for each goal. Tell your employees about what they need to do to help you reach your goals. Set forth your vision and goals clearly and then let your employees exercise their creativity and authority in meeting your goals.

Decide what tools will be most beneficial to your business. These tools include the Internet, newsletters, direct mail campaigns, special events, trade shows, advertising, public relations and more.

Make a budget and stick with it! Be sure that your budget reflects your goals and that you have an accurate income projection. Keep in mind that a budget isn't about tracking your cost, it is about setting financial goals and finding ways to meet them.

Delegate responsibility for implementing each segment of the marketing plan and monitor the results. It is a learning process so don't be afraid to make adjustments as necessary.

Keep thing fresh. Overhaul your marketing plan every few years.

Information from: Score.com & About.com

Internet Marketing: How to make good Internet ads

Not all attention is positive. Ads with poor creativity can have a negative effect on people's opinions about a brand.

Bigger ads are not always better or necessary. Recommended size: 180 pixels x 150 pixels, a rectangle works best.

Ads that surround content are least effective. People have developed "banner blindness," this is where they chose not to pay attention to these banners.

Good ads are creative and use video (can be expensive) or GIF/JPEG (cheaper). Do not have annoying ads.The least effective ones are simple flash-based ads.

Always use ads that have the option to skip or close.

Try and run multiple ads in multiple positions.

Be relevant to your viewer.

Do not use flying ads or ads that cover content that people want to see/read.

Information from Adage.com