As a business owner, having a comprehensive marketing plan is essential for driving growth and staying ahead of the competition. But with so many options, platforms and tools where do you even begin when it comes to mapping out your marketing strategy?
It’s so easy to become overwhelmed, going in circles and failing to achieve results from your marketing because you haven’t started with a plan. This is because you are missing a clear framework that provides a ‘true north’ to focus on and the critical elements that will ensure success.
If you feel at sea with your marketing, these five steps will give you clarity and better results.
When you have finished reading, check out our free marketing checklist, which will help you identify the biggest gaps in your strategy.
Fast-track Your Marketing Success with a Simple 5-Page Plan
Page 1: Business Purpose and Unique Selling Position
The first page of your marketing plan should start by clearly defining your business purpose. This goes beyond just making money—you need to articulate the change or difference you bring about in people’s lives in 25 words or less.
Next, identify the 5 things that make your business stand out from the competition by answering these questions: .
- What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?
- What is your competitive advantage?
You should be able to clearly articulate the differences that set your business apart.
This page also calls for outlining your three main business goals, whether that’s related to growth, revenue, or profitability.
Tie these goals directly to the number of customers you need to acquire to achieve them – for example do you need three new customers per month, three per week or three per day? Knowing this will help you clarify your marketing efforts.
Page 2: Ideal Customer Identification
The second page of your marketing plan is all about deeply understanding your ideal customer. Start by providing a brief description of your target market. Then dive into the demographics—their age, gender, location, profession, income level and interests.
The real magic happens when you explore the psychographics of your ideal customer. What are their biggest problems, goals, fears and aspirations? Tapping into the emotional drivers that motivate your target audience is key to crafting compelling marketing messages.
You may have more than one customer avatar, so be prepared to fill out this page multiple times if needed.
This is so important because the more you know about who you’re trying to reach, the more effective your marketing will be.
Page 3: Lead Generation and Nurturing
With a clear understanding of your ideal customers, page 3 of your marketing plan focuses on your lead generation and nurturing strategy. This is where you’ll outline your lead magnet—the valuable free offer you’ll use to capture the details of potential clients.
However, capturing leads is just the first step. You also need to have a plan for nurturing those leads through a multi-touch follow-up sequence, which should span at least 90 days. This is where tools like email, YouTube, and podcasts come into play, to help you share valuable information and keep your brand top-of-mind.
The goal is to guide the people within your target audience from awareness about your brand and products to consideration to conversion, using a variety of touchpoints to build trust and rapport.
Good marketing doesn’t just collect leads. You need to implement a strategy to turn them into paying customers and advocates for your business.
Page 4: Conversion and Optimisation
Once you have leads in the pipeline, the next page of your marketing focuses on your conversion and optimisation strategy. This is where you’ll outline the specific offers, promotions and calls-to-action you’ll use to encourage leads to take the next step and become customers.
For lower-ticket offers, this might involve time-sensitive discounts or bundles of your products. For higher-ticket products and services, the focus should be on booking strategy sessions or consultations so you or your representatives can have a personalised sales conversation and foster the connections that lead to deals.
Remember: marketing doesn’t stop at gaining leads. You also need to think about ways to increase the average dollar value of each sale, whether that’s through upsells, cross-sells or premium packages.
Page 5: Marketing Tactics (Chairs & Pancakes)
The final page of your marketing plan is where you’ll outline the specific marketing tactics you’ll use to drive leads and sales. Best practice will see you with at least four core tactics working for your business at any given time. Like the four legs of a chair, this will keep you steady.
Implement these tactics one at a time, going through a cycle of learning, implementing, refining and systemising each tactic before moving on to the next. This “pancake” approach allows you to gradually build a robust and diversified marketing strategy without becoming overwhelmed.
Some examples of marketing tactics to consider include:
- Social media posts and ads
- Search engine optimisation (SEO)
- Email marketing
- Networking
- Influencer partnerships
- Content marketing (blogs and articles, podcasts, YouTube videos)
The specific tactics you choose will depend on where your ideal customers spend time and how effectively each channel drives results for your business. Sometimes it can take trial and error to get things right.
By documenting your marketing plan across these 5 key pages, you’ll have a roadmap to follow that keeps all the critical elements of your strategy in one place. Review and refine this plan on a regular basis to ensure you’re continuously optimising your marketing efforts for maximum impact.
About Business Blueprint
The World’s #1 Business Program
Business Blueprint brings members the latest techniques and strategies to take control of their marketing, build better foundations and achieve the growth they are dreaming of.
If you’re tired of the business owner hamster wheel and sick of spending every day putting out spot fires, sign up for personal support, group accountability and access to the strategies that will maximise your profits and free you from the daily grind.
Membership includes:
- In-person conferences
- Weekly workshops (including AI news and training)
- Access to a library of over 1000 training videos (check out some samples here)
- Accountability groups
- One-on-one coaching calls
Want to know more? Book a call with a member of our team today.
