One-page marketing plan: a simple template for small businesses

Many people think a marketing plan is something for big companies. In practice, it is just answering in writing, on one page, who you sell to, what you offer, how you will talk to those people and how you will know if it worked. Without it, marketing becomes a string of unconnected posts and ads.

The page in 7 blocks

1. Who the customer is. Describe a real person: who buys, what they need to solve and where they search.
2. What you offer. In one sentence: what it solves, for whom and why it is different. If the sentence will not come, the offer is not clear yet.
3. Where customers find you today. Google, referrals, Instagram, walking past the shop, WhatsApp. Note what already works.
4. Which channels you will prioritize. Choose few, according to your time and budget. Three channels done well beat seven abandoned ones.
5. What a customer is worth. Estimate how much they spend and how often they return. That sets how much it makes sense to pay to win one.
6. Goal and deadline. One goal in contacts or sales, with a date. For example: 20 qualified contacts a month for three months.
7. Routine and owners. Who does what and on which day. Without an owner, the plan stays on paper.

A filled-in example (adapt it to your case)

How to use the plan day to day

• Print it or keep the page open. Every marketing decision goes through it: "does this help the customer in block 1?"
• Record where each contact comes from.
• Review monthly: keep what brought contacts, cut what did not.

Common mistakes

• Writing goals with no deadline or no number.
• Trying to reach everyone instead of one defined customer.
• Planning channels that nobody will run.
• Never reviewing: the plan becomes a forgotten file.