Marketing plan template: five questions, one page, ninety days

A marketing plan answers five questions and nothing else: what are we trying to achieve, stated as a number with a date; who is it for; what will we say to them; what will we do, in what order; and how much will it cost. Everything else in a plan document is evidence supporting one of those five answers. Write the plan for ninety days with a twelve month frame around it, because a dated twelve month plan is rewritten by month three anyway.

This page gives a template you can copy, shows how to fill each section with evidence rather than adjectives, and includes the cut down version for a small business and a social media plan.

The copyable template

1. WHERE WE ARE
   What we sold last year, to whom, and through which routes
   What our win and loss reasons say
   What three competitors are claiming
   The three things that are clearly broken

2. THE OBJECTIVE
   One primary number, with a date
   Two supporting numbers
   The baseline for each, recorded today

3. WHO IT IS FOR
   Segment one: who they are, the trigger that starts a purchase, what they compare us with
   Segment two: the same
   Who we are not targeting this year

4. WHAT WE SAY
   The position, in one sentence
   The three proofs we put in front of a buyer
   The objection we answer first

5. WHAT WE DO
   Programme one: owner, channels, deliverables, one measure
   Programme two: the same
   Programme three: the same
   The ninety day calendar
   What we are stopping

6. THE MONEY
   Budget by programme
   Fixed costs: tools, retainers, people
   Contingency

7. HOW WE WILL KNOW
   One measure per programme, and the reporting day
   The quarterly review date

Filling each section without padding

• Where we are. Use your own data: last year's revenue by segment and route, win and loss reasons, enquiry volume by source. Two paragraphs beats a market report nobody reads.
• The objective. One primary number. Revenue, signed customers or qualified opportunities, with a date. Record the baseline on the day you write the plan, because that single line is what makes the review meaningful.
• Who it is for. Describe the trigger that starts a purchase rather than demographics, since the trigger is what your campaigns can actually respond to. Name who you are not targeting.
• What we say. One position, three proofs, and the objection you answer first. If a competitor could use the same sentence, keep working on it.
• What we do. Three programmes at most. Each needs a named owner, a deliverable list and one measure. Programmes without owners do not happen.
• The money. Split by job rather than by channel: what captures demand that already exists, what creates new demand, what the tools and people cost, and a tenth held back for a test.
• How we will know. One measure per programme, a fixed reporting day, and a dated quarterly review in the calendar before the plan is signed off.

The ninety day calendar

Lay the next three months out in weeks, with one deliverable per week per programme. Leave the fourth month onward as a list without dates. This is the single change that most improves whether a plan gets executed: everything dated is close enough to be real, and everything undated is honest about being an intention.

The small business version

For a business of one to ten people, the whole plan fits on one sheet and takes an afternoon.

• The number: how many new customers you need this quarter, and what one is worth.
• The two groups you will go after, and where they already look for this.
• The sentence you want them to remember.
• Three activities, each with a weekly commitment you can actually keep. For most local businesses: a complete and active business listing with a review habit, a page for each service you sell, and one route to past customers such as email or a phone call.
• The budget, including your own hours at an honest rate.
• The review date, twelve weeks out.

The social media plan, as a section rather than a separate document

A social plan fails most often because it starts with channels. Start with the four lines below instead, one per channel you keep.

• Channel and reason. Keep a channel only if your buyers are there and you can post weekly for six months.
• Three content pillars, each tied to something you sell. Rotate them so planning takes minutes.
• Cadence, expressed as the minimum you can sustain in a busy week.
• One measure per channel, chosen from saves, shares, profile visits, enquiries or booked calls, never from follower count alone.

Hold the assets and dates in a content calendar rather than in the plan, so the plan stays a decision document.

This page covers the plan document and how to fill it. For the choices that sit above it, which segments and what position, strategic marketing handles that. For week to week publishing, a content calendar is the right tool.

Asked and answered: marketing plan template

How long should a marketing plan be?

One to three pages for the plan, with any research as an appendix. Length tends to grow in proportion to how many decisions were avoided.

What should a marketing plan include at minimum?

An objective with a number and a date, the audience, the message, the activities with owners, the budget and the measures. If any of those six is missing, the gap shows up later as an argument.

How do I set a marketing budget with no history?

Work backwards. Decide how many new customers you need, what one is worth to you, and what you can afford to pay to win one while still making money. That figure times the number needed is your ceiling, and the first quarter is partly an exercise in finding your real cost per customer.

How often should the plan be reviewed?

Monthly on the measures, quarterly on the plan itself, with one decision per review: continue, change or stop. A review that ends with no decision is a status report.

Do I need a separate plan for each channel?

No. One plan, with a short section per channel covering the cadence and the single measure. Separate documents drift apart and then contradict each other.

One line most plans are missing this year

Five questions fit on one sheet. Add one line under the audience question: what does an assistant say when they ask about us?

The answer is evidence, not opinion. Write down the date, the question, the companies named and the pages cited. It changes how the ninety days are spent, since a gap there points at pages to write or sources to correct. AI Knows Us gives you the line to fill in.