American Express

A common question that arises is, “How do you plan your Internet strategy in a world where technology is changing constantly?” This is a somewhat valid question. Yes, technology changes, but this does not affect only your Internet strategy; it affects every facet of your business. The best way to answer the question is with the following question: “How do you plan to grow your business?” If you don’t have an answer to this question, you have a bigger issue and probably should be reading a book on developing a business
strategy. More importantly, if the Internet (or related technologies) is not a part of how you plan to grow your business, you should definitely keep reading this Blog.

So how do you typically plan to manage the growth of your business? For starters, you forecast to the best of your ability where your business will be six months, one year, two years from now, and so on, and you develop a strategy to facilitate this growth both from a sales and a delivery point of view. How does this relate to the Internet? Well, your Web site and Internet strategy should be flexible enough to grow with your business without having
to start from scratch every time your business reaches a new milestone.Figure 2.1 illustrates what we refer to as “the foundation” for all Web site activities. If you don’t take the foundation into account, then the structure of your entire online marketing strategy will fall to pieces. The key components of your foundation include:
• Understanding your primary online marketing objectives
• Identifying your primary and secondary target market segments
• Having a clear understanding of what you’re promoting on your site.