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Vision, mission, objectives - strategic internet planning

When planning an ecommerce venture many site owners are very, very vague and general about the purpose of their web site when pressed.

Being too general leads to mediocrity at best and makes it hard to measure or influence success.

So, be specific and ask yourself the following questions:

• What is my business good at?

• Do I have a Unique Selling Proposition?

• What classes of visitors do I wish to target?

• Will I offer different navigation paths for different classes?

• How will my Web site offer real value to visitors?

• How precisely do I want my visitors to respond?

• How will I measure those preferred response(s) over time?

• How will I measure the source of sales?

• What is my Customer Lifetime Value?

• What are my response targets for 6 months and 12 months?

• What are my web sales targets (ie as a percentage to total sales)?

Whilst getting the anwers to these questions remember that everything has to happen within structure, culture and philosophy of any particular business. Unless these values are clear to all and subscribed to by all who work in the organisation failure is much more likely. So as well as answering the questions above use vision, mission, objectives, strategies, tactics and measurement as the framework to develop a successful internet based business.

Develop a realistic internet Vision for the organisation. This should a picture of what you want the business to be. Think big: "World peace and prosperity".

Next are the Missions, which indicate what you have to achieve and by when - think military: "Your mission to day is to take the pillbox on the third hill".

The third essential element is to explicitly state the many and sometimes conflicting Objectives in terms of the results it needs and/or wants to achieve in the medium/long term.

Objectives should relate to the expectations and requirements of all the major stakeholders, including employees, and should reflect the underlying reasons for running the organisation.

Think quantified and KPI (Key Performance Indicator): "10,000 customers buying the mega-widget package with an average spend of £100 in 12 months at a gross profit margin of 30% and a net profit margin of 10%, of which 90% will repeat their purchase in the following year"

What do you want your business to be? Strategies, tactics, measurement.

Next are the Strategies - the rules and guidelines by which the mission, objectives etc. may be achieved. They can cover the organisation as a whole including such matters as diversification, organic growth, or acquisition plans, or they can relate to primary matters in important functional areas. Think how: "Direct marketing to get 50% of the 10,000 customers, 6 sales people for the other 50% ". Marketing strategies must concentrate on the key customer segments and develop the core message and communications methods with them.

Then Tactics set out the implementation plans for the important strategies. Think implementation: The direct marketing campaign will consist of 4 direct mail campaigns in W, X, Y and Z costing…" These tactics have to deliver the core message that has been developed.

Finally, there is Measurement of the actual results against plan to all the relevant parties. Think methodology: "All campaigns whether sales-force based or direct marketing based will be entered in to the CRM system every day and the following reports.

This may seem obvious, but you will be surprised how many businesses don't use these factors.

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