Updated · Andreia Cirne
A simple marketing plan for small businesses (with template)
A marketing plan doesn't need thirty pages. It needs to fit on one page and be used every week. This is the template I use.
The word plan scares people. It brings to mind long documents, charts and analyses nobody opens again after the meeting. A small service business doesn't need that. It needs one page that says what you will do over the next three months, why, and how you will know whether it worked.
Why three months
A year is too far ahead for a small business whose calendar changes every week. A week is too short to see results. Three months is enough to test, measure and adjust without losing direction.
The one-page template
Copy these seven parts into a document and answer each in a few lines:
- Goal: what you want to happen three months from now, with a number. For example, eight enquiries a month, or four direct bookings a week.
- Client: who this plan is for. A concrete description, not a generic audience.
- Offer: the service you will promote and the sentence that explains it.
- Channels: two at most, chosen by where your clients already are.
- Actions: three to five concrete things to do, in order.
- Rhythm: how much time each week and on which day.
- Numbers: what you will measure every week and where you will write it down.
How to choose the goal
The right goal is one that changes something in your business if it happens. Not followers or visits: enquiries, appointments, bookings, sign-ups. To get to the number, look at the last three months. If you received four enquiries a month, eight is ambitious and possible. Forty is just a written wish.
How to choose the channels
Ask where your last ten clients were before they contacted you. If the answer is Google and referrals, your channels are chosen. For each channel, set one concrete weekly action. A channel without a defined action is one you will open, look at what others are posting and close feeling guilty.
An example
A holiday rental in the Algarve wants more direct bookings in low season. Goal: ten direct bookings a month between November and March. Client: Portuguese couples taking weekend breaks. Offer: a two-night stay with breakfast and suggestions for off-season trips. Channels: Google profile and a list of past guests. Actions: update photos and description, create the offer on the website with simple booking, send one message a month to past guests, ask for a review at every checkout. Rhythm: two hours on Mondays. Numbers: direct bookings, where each came from and new reviews.
Another example: a small real estate agency
Goal: six new listings a quarter in the area where the agency already works. Client: owners of family homes thinking of selling in the coming months. Offer: a free valuation with a local price report and a sales plan. Channels: Google profile and a valuation page on the website. Actions: write the valuation page with a short form, publish a monthly summary of the local market, ask for a Google review at every completion, send the summary to past clients. Rhythm: three hours on Tuesdays. Numbers: valuation requests, where each came from and new listings.
How to use the plan
Read it every week, on the same day, before doing any marketing. If a task isn't in the plan, ask whether it helps the goal. If it doesn't, it waits, however good the idea feels at eleven at night.
The fifteen-minute weekly review
Once a week, answer four questions:
- How many enquiries came in, and from where?
- Which of last week's actions got done?
- What didn't get done, and why?
- What is the most important thing this week?
Where to keep the plan
Somewhere you open every week: a pinned document on your computer, a note on your phone, a printed page next to your screen. The tool matters very little. A plan stored in an app you never open is the same as having no plan.
When to review it
After three months, look at the numbers. What worked stays; what didn't goes or changes. Then write the next plan, using what you learned in the previous months.
The most common mistakes
Almost every plan that fails falls into one of these:
- Goals without a number, such as more visibility.
- Too many channels for the time available.
- No way of measuring.
- Plans so pretty that nobody wants to touch them.
Common questions
- Does a marketing plan need a budget?
- Not necessarily. Many plans for small businesses rely on time, not money. If there is a budget for ads, it becomes one more channel, with its own numbers.
- Can I write the plan myself?
- Yes. The template was designed for that. Outside help is useful when you can't decide the goal, the client or the offer.
- What if I don't stick to the plan?
- It happens. The plan is there to bring you back on course, not to make you feel guilty. Cut the actions until they fit your week.
- What is the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan?
- Strategy is the underlying choices: who you sell to, what, and why they choose you. The plan is what you do over the next few months to put those choices into practice. Without a strategy, a plan is a random task list.
Who writes this
Andreia Cirne
Marketing consultant and certified trainer (CCP) based in Faro. She spent almost six years at a digital agency managing marketing projects, websites and teams, and providing marketing consulting to each client. Today she works directly with service businesses and trains teams so they can do the work without depending on anyone.
Read about my pathIf you can't fill in the goal, the client or the offer, that is where a diagnostic helps.
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