What is a strategic plan?

Answer 1

Small Business Marketing Strategy: Target the up-and-coming search engines

While Google still rules the roost when it comes to Internet search engines, and Yahoo is firmly entrenched in second spot, a number of new start-ups are hoping to give them a run for their money. And a good small business marketing strategy would be to check them out and see how you can make them work for your site!

Some of the new up-and-comers include:

Powerset : ( www.powerset.com ) A "natural language" search engine

Hakia : ( www.hakia.com ) A "meaning-based" search engine

Wikia : ( www.wikia.com ) A "community-based" search engine

ChaCha : ( www.chacha.com ) A "social networking-based" search engine

Snap : ( www.snap.com ) A search engine that offers visual previews

It's a smart small business marketing strategy to continue optimizing for the Google, Yahoo, and MSN search engines as they are by far and away the most popular -- but niche search engines could provide new opportunities to reach your market. Be sure to check them out!

Answer 2

A strategic plan should not be confused with a business plan. Essentially a strategic plan provides the foundation from which to build a full long-range plan. It is simply a document that summarizes, in about ten pages of written text, why a business exists, what it is trying to accomplish and how it will go about doing so.

Its "audience" is anyone who wants to know the business' most important ideas, issues and priorities: management team members, board members, company employees, clients, partners and the media. It is a document that should offer direction and guidance - so, the more concise and ordered the document, the greater the likelihood that it will be useful, that it will be used and that it will be helpful in guiding the operations of a business.

In its simplest form, a strategic plan can help boost performance. It helps an organization to refocus energies and ensure that all team members are working towards the same goal(s). As a process, strategic planning involves a sequence of activities, each a vital element – including:

(1) Assessing the external environment;

(2) Assessing internal capacity and organization;

(3) Developing a vision and a mission for the future;

(4) Developing goals and objections – the actions – for reaching that future;

(5) Implementing the plan; and

(6) Measuring progress and revising the plan, as needed.

Answer 3

The strategic plan identifies where the company is going and how it is going to get there, in detail.

It includes organizational design (structure - boards, committees), strengths and weaknesses, target market, competitors, performance goals, public image, resources, measurable criteria.

It is ever changing as new information is gathered and assessed. It is your corporate road map!