Google Advertising Tools, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2. Creating Effective Marketing Plans

“No man is an island,” wrote the poet John Donne in 1624. Donne’s famous meditation suggests that all of humanity is connected, and that individuals do not thrive if they regard themselves as entirely separate from one another. It works the same way with websites.

To build a successful website (with success defined in Chapter 1 simply as a site that draws either broad or specific targeted traffic), you need to get other sites to link to your site. Chapter 3 discusses many of the tactics needed to generate these in-bound links. In addition, you need an overall strategy for increasing the visibility of your site.

This strategy likely involves optimization of your content for search engine ranking and tactical advertising, as I explain later in this chapter (the nuts of bolts of optimization are explained in Chapter 4, and advertising with AdWords is the subject of Part III). But these techniques should not be regarded as “islands.” They are necessary, but not sufficient in and of themselves.

Creating a successful website requires an effective campaign plan that blends the tactical techniques at your disposal. To some degree, this is Marketing 101.

Any good campaign plan must communicate a compelling story about your site and brand. The plan should also provide a roadmap, so that you know the steps you need to take, and provide a framework with which to benchmark your efforts. Finally, the plan should consider which marketing ...