7. Implementation and control: consist in series of activities that must be performed in order to run marketing plan in accordance to objectives set by marketer. At this stage, it is critical to gain support of all members if organization, especially when marketing plan is due to affect organization from its grounds.

8. Performance measurement: constitutes last but not less important stage of marketing plan, since we can achieve only what we can measure. In order to measure performances achieved through marketing plan, we need to constantly monitor each previous stage of plan.

The marketing plan that has a feedback cycle, from 8th stage back to 4th. That is because sometimes during planning process, we might need to perform stages 4 to 8 several times before final plan can be written.

III. The e-marketing plan

The e-marketing plan is built exactly on same principles as classical plan. There is no different approach, but there might be some formal differences given by uniqueness of internet environment. Many of these differences come from necessity to ensure a high rate of responsiveness from customers, since e-world is moving faster and requires faster reaction from its companies, compared to traditional offline marketplace.

Even though it is perfectly acceptable and is a common practice to use 8-stage classic model for e-marketing plan as well, you might want to consider simplified version proposed by Chaffey, who identifies four major steps to build e-marketing plan:

1. Strategic analysis: consists in continuous scanning of macro- and micro-environment. The accent should fall on consumers' needs that change very rapidly in online market, as well as on surveying competitors' actions and evaluating opportunities offered by new technologies.

2. Defining strategic objectives: organization must have a clear vision and establish if media channels will complement traditional ones, or will replace them. We must define specific objectives (don't forget to check if they are SMART!) and we must also specify contribution of online activities to organization’s turnover.

3. Formulating strategies - we do that by addressing following essential issues:

- develop strategies towards target markets;

- positioning and differentiating strategies;

- establish priorities of online activities;

- focus attention and efforts on CRM and financial control;

- formulate strategies for product development;

- develop business models with well-established strategies for new products or services, as well as pricing policies;

- necessity for some organizational restructuring;

- changes in structure of communication channels.

4. Implementing strategies: includes careful execution of all necessary steps to achieve established objectives. It could refer re-launching of a website, promo campaigns for a new or rewritten site, monitoring website efficiency and many more.

Note: a common strategy to achieve e-marketing objectives is communication strategy. The steps to built a coherent communication plan will be presented within a further article.

IV. The e-marketing plan (sample titles)

1. Executive Summary a. overview upon present conjuncture; b. key aspects of strategic e-marketing plan.

2. Situational Analysis a. characteristics of e-market; b. possible factors of success; c. competitors’ analysis; d. technological factors; e. legal factors; f. social factors; g. possible problems and opportunities.

3. The e-Marketing Objectives a. product profile; b. target market; c. sales objectives.

4. The e-Marketing Strategies a. product strategies; b. price strategies; c. promotion strategies; d. distribution strategies.

5. Technical Issues a. website content; b. website "searcheability"; c. logging security (for customers and staff); d. customer registration procedure; e. multimedia; f. autoresponders; g. order forms and feedback forms; h. access levels to online resources; i. credit card transactions; j. website hosting; k. website publishing; l. technical staff (size, requirements)

6. Appendix

7. Bibliography

If there is one "constant" in Internet marketing, it's this: A cultivated list of subscribers is as good as money in bank. Write that down and never forget it!

5. Another excellent way to generate no cost traffic is by submitting ready-made articles to "content hungry" web-site and newsletter publishers with your "resource box" attached. A resource box is nothing more than a little 3-6 line "bio" about you and/or your web-site - including a link to your site (or even instructions on how to subscribe to your newsletter)...

When submitting or offering your article(s) for reprint purposes, just make sure to specify that each article is to be reprinted "as is" with your resource box attached.

...Even one article can go a LONG way towards generating no cost traffic and visitors for you. Just imagine your article being sent out to a newsletter subscriber base of 100,000 individuals - many of whom will be reading YOUR included resource box and clicking on your URL to learn more about what you have to offer!

Well there you have it, 5 sure ways to build your online business exponentially with help of articles and content...

With declining effectiveness of many of online advertising methods that we've relied on in past years, content is only strengthening its position as ultimate KEY to generating unlimited traffic, subscribers, and customers!