Possibly one of the biggest mistakes Website owners make is to invest the majority of their budget into the development of their Website while leaving only a small percentage of the budget to actually market the site. Does this make any sense? When developing your e-commerce business plan remember to include reasonable marketing costs within your budget. The scale and type of marketing required to market your site is relative to your type of business. For example, if your business is seasonal then your marketing requirements might be different than if you operate a year-round business. And if your product is orientated towards teens your marketing requirements will certainly be different than if you are selling pharmaceutical or medical products.

Considerations for Your Website Marketing Plan
Reasonable Internet marketing costs for small businesses could range from $2000 to $10,000. Medium sized businesses are easily investing $25,000 or more per year into their online marketing. While there is no magic formula to calculate exactly how much you should spend on Internet marketing it is important to realize that some forms of marketing are more effective than others. But no matter what type of marketing you do, if you do not plan and manage it well then it may result in a lower return on your investment.

Below are several factors to consider when developing your marketing plan and budget.

1. Who is your target customer? Are you targeting teens, doctors, parents, wives or husbands? This will help you determine which type of Websites or portals to direct your advertising.

2. What are your goals? Do you want to increase sales, increase brand awareness, or sign members to your newsletter? Knowing your goals could help you with the development of your keyword phrases, ad copy, and landing pages. And may also help to decide what specific type of marketing would be the most cost effective.

3. Is your business seasonal or year-round? If your business is seasonal then you may want to focus more of your budget on pay-per-click and behavioral targeted advertising. If your business is year-round then focusing your budget on search engine optimization might be a priority.

Below are several effective Website marketing methods. When developing a marketing campaign one or many of these methods could be considered.

A. Pay-Per-Click Programs (PPC) - this form of direct marketing displays your ad in the sponsored section of the search engines and in the search engine network. This is an alternative solution if you are not ranked on the first page of the organic search listings. Pay-per-click is easy to implement allowing Internet savvy website owners to instantly create their own campaigns. Depending on the competitiveness of your keyword phrases you could launch an experimental pay-per-click campaign for as low as 100.00$ per month. Pay-per-click is an excellent marketing solution if you only want to market during specific seasons or holidays.

B. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - search engine optimization is a long-term strategy taking up to eight months before producing any measurable results. Implementing best practice SEO requires unique skills and plenty of patience. A professional SEO campaign could produce great returns on your investment, so expect to pay no less than 1000.00$ for the services of a competent search engine optimizer. And always ask for references.

C. Behavioral Targeting