How to Create a Simple Marketing Plan

The phrase "marketing plan" conjures images of long documents and jargon. For most small businesses, that complexity is exactly why plans get written, filed and forgotten.

A genuinely useful marketing plan can fit on a single page. It simply forces you to be clear about who you are reaching, how, and whether it is working.

Start with your goals

Decide what you actually want from your marketing: more enquiries, more sales of a particular service, or growth in a new area. Vague goals lead to scattered effort.

Make your goals specific enough to measure. "More enquiries" becomes useful when you can say roughly how many and by when.

Know who you are talking to

Marketing works best when aimed at a clear audience. Picture your ideal customer: what they need, where they look for it and what would persuade them to choose you.

The clearer your picture, the easier every later decision becomes, from which channels to use to what to say.

Choose a few channels and stick with them

You cannot do everything well, so pick a small number of channels that suit your audience and budget — perhaps your website, search, one social platform and email.

It is far better to do two or three things consistently than to dabble in everything and follow through on none.

Plan, act and review

Set out what you will do each month and roughly what it will cost. Then actually do it — a plan that stays in a drawer achieves nothing.

Review regularly. Check what is bringing in enquiries, do more of what works and quietly drop what does not. A simple plan that you revisit beats a perfect one you ignore.