Internet Marketing Plan

VA Inc. Internet Marketing Plan Month & Year issued This document contains confidential and proprietary information belonging exclusively to (Company name or your name) Your Name Your Title Your Address City, Province, Postal Code Phone # Fax # email Address _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................... 2 Business Information.................................................................................................... 3 Company Ownership and Location ................................. 3 External Analysis .......................................................................................................... 4 Target Customers / Market Dynamics ......................................................................... 5 Competition ................................................................................................................... 6 Competition Summary ....................................................... 6 SWOT Analysis ................................................................... 7 Strengths .............................................................................. 7 Weaknesses......................................................................... 7 Opportunities ..................................................................... 7 Threats ................................................................................. 7 Strategies ....................................................................................................................... 8 Key actions planned for the next 12 months ............... 10 Sales summary .................................................................... 10 Strategic Alliances.............................................................. 12 Marketing Communications Plan ............................................................................... 13 Our brand ........................................................................... 13 Brand proposition....................................................... 13 Brand personality ........................................................ 13 Brand identity .............................................................. 13 Marketing Communications ............................................ 13 Management Team/ HR ............................................................................................... 14 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 14 Business Plan • Jan-09 – Page 1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Executive Summary Summary VA Inc. is a new company developing a virtual assistant business. VA Inc. is founded by one entrepreneur who has 12 years corporate secretarial work experience and recently graduate from the University of Virtual Assistants obtaining the VA certification. The market and business The main market sectors VA Inc. will penetrate is helping small business entrepreneurs with their administrative needs thereby allowing them more time to focus on their business success. Core product offerings VA Inc. will have four main product streams:     Virtual Assistant services billed on a retainer basis. Website design and hosting for new clients Affiliate marketing of known internet guru products - taking a 25% minimum commission on each sale Development of organizational e-books and products to sell online. The main aim of the business is to have a full time retainer base of clients. Revenues and profitability Revenues forecasting for the first year of operation are $20,000 and $40,000 for the second year. Net profits are forecast to be 80% due to the nature of the goods being offered since overhead is substantially low. Management team VA Inc. is a new company set up and run by Your Name, who has 12 years corporate secretarial work experience and a VA certification. Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 2 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Business Information VA Inc.’s mission is to help small business entrepreneurs with their administrative needs thereby allowing them more time to focus on their business success. Company Ownership and Location VA Inc. is founded by one entrepreneur who has 12 years corporate secretarial work experience and recently graduate from the University of Virtual Assistants obtaining the VA certification. VA Inc. is a home-based office with a mailing address of: 123 Street City State/Province Zip/Postal Country Telephone 123-456-7890 Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 3 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ External Analysis The Economy and Business Environment The Virtual Assistant industry has steady growth and the outlook is for this to continue. As more and more CEOs and business entrepreneurs see the need to downsize, hiring a Virtual Assistant is a viable alternative to in house staff. Statistics to Support Increase Usage of Virtual Assistants October 2007 This is area to find local business statistics from how many small businesses there are in your locale or market plus Virtual Assistant statistics to support your internet marketing plan. Feel free to locate stats for Virtual Assistants at www.VAnetworking.com/survey/ as these are the most up to date stats on the industry currently. Please make sure you give source credits in your footer or appendix at the end of your Internet marketing plan. These both offer a firm foundation for growth for VA Inc. Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 4 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Target Customers / Market Dynamics The overall target market is small business entrepreneurs with under three employees. We are probably targeted to those who wish to earn an income of $75,000 per year and above. We are not targeting large companies. The second phase of this plan would be to target small businesses who want a strong web presence Customer group 1 End customer is  Small business entrepreneur  Can’t afford in-house staff End customer need  Administrative help  Organizational help Products targeted to this group  Virtual Assistant services on a monthly retainer basis Customer group 2 End customer is  Entrepreneur startup online End customer need  Online presence Products targeted to this group  Website Design  Hosting  Internet Marketing Services Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 5 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Competition Competitor Mary White www.companyname.com Calgary, AB Canada   Strengths Good location Complete administrative services     Weaknesses Limited exposure in the market No accounting services offered No accounting services offered One year VA experience Lisa Smith www.companyname.com Portland, OR USA    Sue Blue www.companyname.com Vancouver, BC Canada    Ten years executive assistant experience Complete administrative services Realtor Support and Website Design Local competitor Markets in local newspapers regularly Offers on-site services    Does not offer retainer options for payment Does not offer web design services One year in business Competition Summary There are many temporary secretarial agencies that provide administrative help. Few if any offer virtual services and instead require overhead costs from equipment to employee costs. A Virtual Assistant is an answer to this high cost scenario. With new internet technology, there are now online communities where one can send in a proposal and find a Virtual Assistant. Ie) www.VAnetworking.com/RFP/ VA Inc. will need to cut through all the marketing nonsense online to bring ourselves to the forefront of all our competitors. Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 6 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ SWOT Analysis Our strengths and weaknesses are shown relative to our competitors. Strengths are shown if they are better than the competitors. Weaknesses are weaker than the competition. Strengths 1. 2. 3. 4. 3 Virtual Assistants with 15 years corporate work experience Well known with personal links in the VA networking industry Large website design portfolio Written many articles on virtual assistance Weaknesses 1. 2. 3. 4. Does not offer website hosting or domain name registrations No credibility with target audience  clients Does not blog Does not offer informational products Opportunities 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Global market place with no limits in locale Millions need administrative services To have a proven, trusted product to sell to target market More people wanting to work from homes Low overhead Threats 1. Third world cheaper outsourcing 2. Spam email blocker programs block our email campaigns Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 7 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Strategies To develop and promote our services and products online via our website presence. Product 1: Administrative VA Packages Develop 4 administrative packages to include services: This will include:      Transcription Email management Database management Proofing, formatting and editing documents Bookkeeping We will offer 4 packages, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum starting at $175/month to $1400/month in prepaid retainers. The price is targeted as an average industry price. Not too low that it is not seen as valuable advice but not too high that no one will buy. Product 2: Website Package This will be an all in one website domain registration and hosting service     Developing 25 website templates that anyone can use Offering a basic HTML guide to change the templates Offering cheap domain registration Offering website hosting through a re-seller account Price: Domain registration $10.95 hosting starter package $15.95 per month including the website templates Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 8 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Product 3: Affiliate Income Develop joint ventures and alliances with other themed companies online to promote their products through our database.    Create newsletter to collect database Set up weekly newsletter to promote affiliates Set up affiliate ads on website Price: 25% commission or higher. Product 4: Business E-books Develop e-books targeted to our market of business entrepreneurs to help them achieve higher levels of success in their business.    Home office organization Email management Learning to Outsource Price: $29.95 each Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 9 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Key actions planned for the next 12 months Jan Feb Mar Apr Ma y Jun Jul Au g Sep Oct Nov Dec Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Product 4 Strategies Develop Products: 1. VA Packages 2. Website Packages 3. Affiliate Income 4. Business e-books Launch Products Market Products Cost Responsible Completion date May July Sept Dec May June $our time $3,000 $our time $200 & time $our time $1,000 Your Name Your Name Your Name Your Name Your Name Your Name Sales summary Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Product 4 TOTALS This Next Year +2 year year Sales $ Sales $ Sales $ 15 10,000 35 30,000 60 90,000 42 1,000 84 3,000 160 6,000 10 50 40 600 110 1200 0 0 18 500 35 1000 Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 10 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sales by year 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 TY NY Y+2 Product4 Product3 Product2 Product1 Sales by month - planned for year 1 18000 16000 14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Product3 Product4 Product1 Product2 Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 11 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Strategic Alliances 1. Jane Doe Virtual Assistant Services will send all web design clients to VA Inc. and in exchange we will send all clients to them that require bookkeeping services. 2. Contracted on a retainer basis to do overflow work at Secretary Temps downtown. 3. Will provide article submission services to Joe Blow Internet Marketing Solutions in exchange for continued SEO maintenance of our website to ensure high rankings online. Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 12 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Marketing Communications Plan Our brand Brand proposition - Your one stop source for all your administrative needs. Brand personality - Trustworthy, personal, service with a smile or at least a warm, communicative email. Brand identity - Our clients’ success will be our image Marketing Communications Timing Communications Program SEO Campaign (keyword research, optimization of website, copywriting/sales page, usable website, backlinking campaign) Tradeshows – attend large tradeshows and conferences of target markets to gain awareness to our business. PR Campaign – press release submission locale and online to promote hiring of Virtual Assistants. Get in local newspaper and on local radio show talking about VAs. Affiliates – Offer excellent commissions to new affiliates to sell our products and drive traffic to us. Networking – network online via our market’s lists, yahoo groups, forums, myspace, etc. to gain more online exposure. Cost Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 13 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Management Team/ HR Your Name is principal owner. (Bio here) Summary Overall summary conclusion or your Internet Marketing Plan goes here. Internet Marketing Plan • Jan-09 – Page 14