A marketing plan answers six questions: who we sell to, why they pick us, the offer, the channels, the budget, and how we measure success. Write it for a set period, a quarter or a year, with numeric goals and an owner for each activity, and review it monthly against the numbers.
Step by step
- 1
Analyze where you are now
Current sales, where customers come from, what works and what does not, who the competitors are and how they present themselves.
- 2
Set goals in numbers
The number of new customers or the sales value needed in the period, derived from the company's goal rather than picked at random.
- 3
Audience and positioning
Exactly who the customer is, why you and not someone else, and who you are not right for.
- 4
Channels and messages
Two or three channels where your customers are, and a message that fits their stage: introduction, persuasion or reminder.
- 5
Budget and schedule
What you will spend on ads, content, tools and the team, spread across the months, with a share set aside for testing.
- 6
Measurement and review
An indicator and an owner for each channel, and a monthly meeting that decides what continues and what stops.
A ready-made plan copied from the internet knows nothing about your customers or competitors, so it spends the budget on assumptions. Use templates for the format only.
- marketing plan template
- steps to write a marketing plan for a small business