Today’s topic is why you should start your internet marketing efforts with a systematic internet marketing plan. The simple answer is that any marketing efforts that proceed without a plan are basically experiments. Experiments can be a smart idea as a way to test response, if you’re already savvy about internet marketing. If not, you risk wasting a lot of money.and blowing a lot of effort in ineffective directions. You have a budget for marketing in both time and money, as every sound business does – that’s a plan to grow your business in the first place. Why wouldn’t you also develop a plan for how to use that time and money most effectively? There’s every kind of snake oil marketing available, promising you can instantly dominate your market, if you just sign up for a quick, thoughtless fix. Is there any other area of your business in which you would do that? Internet marketing can be done effectively, cheaply, or effortlessly – you get to pick two of those. How you allocate resources, and whether your activities do any good, begin with knowledge and planning, not an ad we’ve seen on the web, or a random set of attempts that can make things worse, not better. When companies of size do internet marketing, they start with a systematic plan in the form of marketing intiatives broken down into marketing campaigns. But there’s absolutely no reason why even a one-person shop can’t use the same techniques to be successful and even compete with much bigger operations. Key advice for today. Before you spend money on a marketing campaign, start with an comprehensive internet marketing plan that’s tailored to your business.