At this point you will clearly map out your search engine marketing strategy. This portion of the search marketing plan should describe in detail all marketing efforts that you plan to implement which seek to capitalize on targeted search engine traffic. For example:

• search optimization strategies
• PPC advertising campaigns
• Viral search marketing systems

Campaign Objectives: The first order of business is to clearly define your objectives and goals for your search marketing campaign. It is important to take the time to define non-financial goals in addition to financial objectives. For example:

• Improve Overall Profitability of web property by X%
• Achieve top 10 organic search engine rankings for targeted search phrases across top 3 U.S. Search properties.
• Increase search engine traffic by X%
• Improve visitor conversion by X%
• Increase brand awareness .
• Capitalize on market growth / Increase market share by X%

The point is that they must be measurable objectives, for which a conclusive “mission successful” or “mission failure” can be assessed at the completion of the campaign or any appropriate phase thereof.

Strategies: Here you will outline your search marketing strategies. Be very specific so that this information can be used as a map to keep you on track if need be at any point in the campaign. Each strategy should include a discussion of why you have chosen these strategies, what you hope to accomplish with each and the intended order of implementation.

For Example (A generic SEO campaign outline):

Optimization of Web Pages:

Develop web pages that are highly optimized and designed to rank well for targeted search phrases across the top 5 U.S. Search engines: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Ask.

(Discuss your methodologies, etc.)

Improvement of Specified Web Pages:

Application of marketing principles and usability guidelines to improve the user experience and visitor conversion for the optimized web pages.

(Discuss specific principles and their intended effect on the campaign.)

Augment Website:

The creation of additional website features that are supportive of the campaign objectives: Site Map, RSS Feed , User functionality, New Features, etc.

Buzz Marketing:

The use of strategic citation building, viral marketing, press releases, manual industry interaction, etc. to generate an initial public interest and search index presence.

Ongoing Support:

The ongoing application of citation and content development systems to facilitate a continued improvement in organic search engine rankings as well as improve brand awareness. Etc. etc.

Tracking and Adjustment:

The monthly tracking of campaign progress using the following metrics: (Detail all performance tracking and metrics that will be employed). Any scheduled enhancements or upgrades for the website should also be detailed.

This of course would not be a sufficient strategy for an actual search marketing plan, it should however provide conceptual support for developing the strategies section of your search marketing plan.

Why this process is important:

It’s too easy to focus on each element of the campaign piece by piece as you are implementing each one in turn and thereby potentially becoming distracted from the larger vision of the overall campaign. By writing down your entire plan of attack, you are creating a means to quickly see the bigger picture and make adjustments as necessary before it's too late.

Accordingly these need to be reviewed periodically to see if your proposed course of action is still the optimal course of action. Put it in your appointment book; to review this section of your plan once each month for the next 12 months.