If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of crafting a marketing plan, you’re not alone. One of the biggest mistakes many small biz owners make is overcomplicating their marketing strategies. But guess what? It doesn’t have to be that way. Today, we’re going to simplify things and show you how to create a one-page marketing plan that’s both effective and easy to implement. Plus, if you start your free trial on Enji today, we’ll even help you create it too.
Here’s what we’re sharing:
- Why a simple one-page marketing plan is so effective
- How to create a one-page marketing plan (8 steps!)
- An easy marketing strategy template for you to use now
Why We Dig A One Page Marketing Plan
First, why just one page? When it comes to marketing, simpler is often better. While we’ve come up with our own version of the one-page marketing plan, we highly recommend reading The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib if you’re interested in diving in even further. A one-page marketing plan forces you to focus on what’s truly important, cutting out the noise and focusing on the few key actions that drive results. Plus, it’s much easier to reference and adjust as you actually move forward and implement the thing.
Now, let’s dive into the steps to create your one-page marketing plan.
Steps to Creating a One-Page Marketing Plan
1. Define Your Goals
The foundation of any solid marketing plan starts with clear, achievable goals. What do you want to accomplish? Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, or boosting sales, it’s so important to set goals for your business. We recommend you choose up to three goals.
2. Outline Key Marketing Objectives
Once you have your goals, we suggest you choose up to six objectives to help you hit them (which in turn, will help us choose your tactics). For example, if one of your goals is to increase sales and revenue, your objectives might be to increase website traffic and have better messaging.
When you choose your objectives in Enji, we make it even easier for you by sharing the tactics that we believe will help get you there. For example, if you want to get found on the internet, we’ll tell you to do things like update your Google Business listing, get listed on review sites, or start a blog.
3. Conduct Market Research and Create Customer Personas
Next up, we have market research and creating customer personas. Because let’s be honest—we don’t do marketing for ourselves. We need to know our customers well (from their demographics to the problems that keep them up at night) if we want to effectively market to them. Plus, market research helps you identify trends, opportunities, and potential threats in your industry. You’ll want to keep this information front and center as you dive further into your one-page marketing plan.
4. Set Your Marketing Budget
Next, decide how much you’re willing to spend on your marketing efforts. And remember, the lower your marketing budget is, the more time your marketing is probably going to take you (trade offs). It’s very hard to move the needle in your marketing with less than two pennies to rub together.
When you think about your marketing budget, this number should include costs for advertising, tools (like Enji!), and any outsourcing you might need. You may also want to set aside a set budget for specific campaigns (like influencer marketing, for example, that won’t be ongoing). However you choose to split it up, having a clear budget helps you manage your finances and helps you make sure that you’re getting the best return on your investment.
5. Choose Your Marketing Channels
Next on your one-page marketing plan, it’s time to select the right marketing channels for reaching your target audience. The most important thing to think about is where your customers spend their time—are they on social media, reading blogs, or checking emails? Your choice of channels should be where your people are hanging out.
With that said, we’ve been around long enough to know that small business owners don’t tend to do anything they don’t want to do, so make sure to take into account your preferences too. Remember, you can always add or change channels as your business grows and evolves. It’s better to do fewer things well than to spread yourself too thin.
6. Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
You’re well on your way to having a simple one-page marketing plan, but we can’t talk about marketing without talking about KPIs. How else would we be able to tell if the plan is actually working? Depending on the goals, objectives, and channels you’ve chosen so far, your KPIs could be anything from website traffic, conversion rates, or even social media engagement. Monitoring your KPIs allows you to adjust your strategy as needed to stay on track. You can learn more about how we use KPIs to make data-driven decisions here.
7. Share with Your Team
We’re in the home stretch now—if you have a team, make sure to share your one-page marketing plan with them. We love collaboration here at Enji (that's one of the reasons we let you add your team to your account—and it doesn't cost extra!). Having a one-page marketing plan is a surefire way to keep everyone on the same page and working towards the same goals.
And by the way, if you don’t have to, don’t do all your marketing alone. Collaboration always brings fresh ideas and perspectives, making your marketing stronger overall. Your team might have an outside perspective you don’t have, or they may have more day-to-day conversations with your customers. Don’t sleep on their ideas!
8. Implement Your Plan with Enji
Last but not least, what good is a one-page marketing plan if you don’t implement it, right? Creating a marketing plan is one thing, but implementing it is where the magic happens. From here, Enji can help you put your plan into action. From setting up marketing campaigns to tracking your KPIs, Enji provides the resources and support you need to succeed. It really is an all-in-one marketing software for small businesses.
One-Page Marketing Plan Template
To help you get started, here’s a simple template for your one-page marketing plan:
1. Goals
- Goal 1
- Goal 2
- Goal 3
2. Objectives
- Objective 1
- Objective 2
- Objective 3
- Objective 4
- Objective 5
- Objective 6
3. Market Research/Customer Personas
- Key takeaways from your market research
- Customer Persona 1
- Customer Persona 2
4. Marketing Budget
- Total marketing budget
- Budget allocation by channel
5. Channels
- Marketing Channel 1
- Marketing Channel 2
- Marketing Channel 3
6. KPIs
- KPI 1
- KPI 2
- KPI 3
7. Team Responsibilities
- Who’s responsible for what
Creating a One-Page Marketing Plan
In case you were skimming: creating a one-page marketing plan doesn’t have to be complicated. By focusing on the bare minimum and keeping it simple, you can develop a plan that’s easy to follow and effective. At the end of the day, the goal is to have a clear roadmap that guides your marketing efforts and ultimately helps you hit your business goals. And hey, if you want to have a one-page marketing plan created for you in the next 5 minutes, start your free trial on Enji today!
