Emily’s Simple Marketing Plan Framework

At September’s networking meetup, our topic was marketing plans. Do you instantly feel daunted at the idea of creating a marketing plan? I wouldn’t blame you if you were, it can feel like a big task. A bit like creating a business plan.

But what if it didn’t have to be a massive long document, covering the next year/five years (or whatever)? My take on this is to plan a goal at a time, which covers no more than 12 weeks. You can then break it down into easy chunks, track your success and have a clear idea of whether it worked … before planning your next goal. Here’s my simple marketing plan framework. Please note that I have taken inspiration from the stucture provided by the 12 Week Year which is my favourite book for goal setting – if you haven’t looked at this I would highly recommend that you do.

1. What is your goal and timeframe?

The first thing to do is decide on what you want to achieve from this plan and to give yourself a timeframe.

Think about what would feel like a success to you – aim for something that is achievable but a bit of a stretch.

Examples

• Sign up 3 new clients in the next 12 weeks
• Get 20 new followers on my Facebook page in the next 4 weeks
• Get 6 new enquiries over the next 12 weeks

You’ll notice that I’ve been very specific – this means that you’ve got a way of measuring the success of your marketing activities.

2. How will you achieve your goal?

This is where you work out a strategy. What can you do to move you from where you are now to achieving your goal? Think of some specific actions – they can be one-offs or repeating tasks.

Examples

• Update the services pages on my website
• Write one blog post per month
• Attend one networking event per week (in person or online)
• Join a relevant Facebook group and respond to five posts every day
• Review my quoting process
• Get business cards designed and printed
• Post to your Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn accounts once every day
• Print flyers and display them where you can around the town
• Ask local shops to keep a pile of your business cards on their counters

3. What do you have already?

Before spending a lot of time creating new marketing materials, review what you have already.

Examples

• Business cards
• Blog posts you can update and reuse
• Social media posts you can update and reuse
• Facebook groups you are already a member of

4. What do you need?

And what’s remaining that you need to create?

Examples

• Flyers
• New blog posts
• New social media posts
• Networking events booked into your calendar

5. How will you track and measure?

Finally, you need to work out how to measure your success. You need both lead and lag measurements:

Lead – the actions you take, that you can tick off as you complete them. These are great to keep you motivated and working towards your goal. You can feel successful that you have completed the actions that you planned to take.
Lag – and this is the end result. Have you achieved the goal that you set out with?

How do you plan and track your marketing activities? Comment below to share your top tips.