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Dear Reader,
I have been thinking about ways to make this newsletter more
interactive - I want to make this a newsletter full of information you
are interested in. One way will be to add a section for your questions
and comments. If you would like to see yourself mentioned in Website
Marketing Plan News, then ask, comment, or question - your email may
make it into a future issue. Send email to
comments@WebSiteMarketingPlan.com.
Visits to the no cost marketing tools section of the site dropped this
month and I didn't know why - until I noticed there wasn't a link on
the navigation bar! I inadvertently took it off when I streamlined the
navigation (duh!). The marketing tools are now back. Have a look
here.
Today's articles...
One of the more difficult issues when learning about online promotion
is how to correctly send email advertisements. For experienced
business people, it is logical to assume the same rules apply for
email and postal mail marketing. Not so. In the spotlight, ClickZ's
Heidi Anderson and her readers help a reader understand the
consequences.
On a more analytical note, my feature article "SWOT Analysis -
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats" explains how to
complete a basic or more advanced SWOT analysis.
Thanks and enjoy, Bobette
P.S. If you like what you read here, please help spread the word about
the WebSiteMarketingPlan newsletter and site by forwarding to two
friends or associates. Thank you.
WebSiteMarketingPlan.com Rises To Top .3%
It took less than four months.
Here's how.
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Contents
Welcome from Bobette
(above)
Feature Article: "SWOT
Analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities,
and Threats".
by Bobette Kyle
Spotlight
"Got Answers? Three Campaigns -- Three Conundrums"
"Potential Spammer: Our Readers Intervene!"
by Heidi Anderson
Site
News, Adjustments, and Additions.
- Site is climbing bit by bit.
- No Cost Marketing tools back.
- Reciprocal links page.
Administrative Instructions
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More information
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SWOT Analysis -
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
by Bobette Kyle
When conducting strategic planning for any company -
online and/or offline - it is useful to complete an analysis that
takes into account not only your own business, but your competitor's
businesses and the current business environment as well. A SWOT is one
such analysis.
Completing a SWOT analysis helps you identify ways to minimize the
affect of weaknesses in your business while maximizing your strengths.
Ideally, you will match your strengths against market opportunities
that result from your competitors’ weaknesses or voids.
Basic SWOT
You can develop a basic SWOT analysis in
a brainstorming session with members of your company, or by yourself if
you are a one-person shop. To begin a basic SWOT analysis create a
four-cell grid or four lists, one for each SWOT component:
| Strengths | Weaknesses | Opportunities
| Threats |
Then, begin filling in the lists.
Strengths - Think about what your
company does well. What makes you stand out from your competitors? What
advantages do you have over other businesses?
Weaknesses - List the areas that are
a struggle. What do your customers complain about? What are the unmet
needs of your sales force?
Opportunities - Try to uncover areas
where your strengths are not being fully utilized. Are there emerging
trends that fit with your company's strengths? Is there a product/service
area that you could do well in but are not yet competing?
Threats - Look both inside and
outside of your company for things that could damage your business.
Internally, do you have financial, development, or other problems?
Externally, are your competitors becoming stronger, are there emerging
trends that amplify one of your weaknesses, or do you see other threats to
your company's success?
Advanced SWOT
A more in-depth SWOT analysis can help
you better understand your company's competitive situation. One way to
improve upon the basic SWOT is to include more detailed competitor
information in the analysis. Note Internet-related activities such as
trade organization participation, search engine inclusion, and outside
links to the sites. This will better help you spot opportunities for and
threats to your company.
You can also take a closer look at the
business environment. Often, opportunities arise as a result of a changing
business environment. Some examples are:
* A new trend develops for which demand
outstrips the supply of quality options. Early on, the trend toward
healthy eating coupled with an insistence on good-tasting food produced a
shortage of acceptable natural food alternatives, for example.
* A customer segment is becoming more
predominant, but their specific needs are not being fully met by your
competitors. The U.S. Hispanic population experienced this phenomenon in
the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
* A customer, competitor, or supplier
goes out of business or merges with another company. With the demise of
many pure-play "dot coms", examples of this abound. As each went out of
business, opportunities arise to gain the defunct business’ customers.
You can also enhance a SWOT analysis
through surveys. You can learn more about your own as
well as competitor’s sites and businesses. Areas you can research include
1) customer awareness, interest, trial, and usage levels, 2) brand, site,
and/or company image, 3) importance of different site or product
attributes to your customers, and 4) product and/or site performance.
Whether using a basic or more advanced
approach to SWOT analysis, you are sure to come away with newfound
insights. Use these to increase your company's effectiveness and as input
into your business or marketing plan.
Related Resources
* Book:
Strategic Marketing Planning
* Resources:
Market Research and Analysis
* Article:
Affordable Market Research
About the Author
Bobette Kyle is author of
How Much For Just the
Spider? Strategic Website Marketing. She used techniques
detailed in the book to bring her own site,
Website Marketing Plan,
from a ranking of 17 million to 59 thousand+ in less than four months.
Table
of Contents.
Index.
Book Excerpt.
Reviews.
©
2002 Bobette Kyle. All Rights Reserved.
WebSiteMarketingPlan.com Rises To Top .3%+
It took less than four months.
Here's how.
+
Source: Alexa traffic ranking for WebSiteMarketingPlan.com. Alexa ranks about 20 million
sites.
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 Got
Answers? Three Campaigns -- Three Conundrums
Potential Spammer: Our Readers Intervene
by Heidi Anderson
In campaign number three in the first article, one of
Heidi's
readers wonders what is wrong with sending unsolicited
advertising. Readers help set him straight in the second
article.
About the Author
Heidi, heidi@heidianderson.com, is a freelance writer
who covers the Internet for both consumers and businesses. She's a
former editor of the E-mail Publishing Resource Center and coauthor of
"Sometimes the Messenger Should Be Shot: Building a Spam-Free E-mail
Marketing Program." Her work also appears in Smart Computing, PC
Novice, What's Working Online, and Editor & Publisher.
Site rank is climbing little by little.
As of today, WebSiteMarketingPlan.com is ranked 52,464 out of about 20
million sites. Also, the site's Google rank on many key search terms
jumped (Including number 1 for "Website marketing plan", number 2 for
"internet marketing plan", and number 6 for "marketing plan". whoohoo!.).
My
planning book tells about the techniques I am using.
No
cost marketing tools are back.
New
reciprocal links page.
Through the Website Marketing Plan newsletter I
explore
ways to integrate traditional with online strategies in the
marketing mix. I regularly publish new articles and
resources designed to help educate companies in marketing
objectives, strategies, and tactics.
The newsletter is published sporadically - approximately
every two weeks, give or take a week or two.
How one gets onto the mailing list.
An email address is added to the newsletter mailing list
only by request. This happens in one of three ways.
Someone (hopefully you or someone acting on your
behalf)...
1) typed and submitted the address into a subscription
form on http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com.
2) sent an email to: subscribe@WebSiteMarketingPlan.com.
3) sent an email to:
WebSiteMarketingPlan-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com
If you are a member of this newsletter's list and no longer
wish to be, please ask to be removed.
Do this by:
1) clicking the Topica Email Publisher link at the bottom
of this newsletter, checking the "unsubscribe" button in
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2) sending an email to:
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3) sending an email asking you be removed to:
bobette@WebSiteMarketingPlan.com.Copyright 2002 Bobette Kyle. You may forward this
ezine - in its entirety - to others. You may not publish or reproduce
the content elsewhere without written permission, which isn't hard to
get. Just contact me at bobette@WebSiteMarketingPlan.com with your
request.
If you are not yet a subscriber to this newsletter, go
ahead - take the plunge. I do not share your email address
(Privacy
statement). Thanks
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