One Page Marketing Plan Guide

Well-executed market research and the development of a marketing plan can be vital to the success of a small business. Yet writing a marketing plan is a commonly ignored part of business planning, especially in the digital age when an entrepreneur can start an online business with minimal effort. Writing a one page marketing plan can give small- and online-business owners a guideline for their marketing efforts without the time committment of preparing a full marketing plan.While a full marketing plan for any business is a good idea, there are several benefits to an abbreviated one page marketing plan for entrepreneurs wanting to save time, but without ignoring a marketing plan altogether:

1. A one page marketing plan can be prepared quickly.

2. One page marketing plans give business owners a marketing to-do list, in addition to a general snapshot of their marketing situation.

3. A one page marketing plan can later work as a springboard into a more comprehensive marketing plan, almost like a marketing plan outline.

At the end of this article, you’ll find a link to a .pdf one page marketing plan template. Here is a list of the sections of my one page marketing plan, with a brief description of each, to help you write your own one page marketing plan for your small or online business”

  • Target Market – This is who you’re hoping to reach with your marketing message (including demographics, like age groups, ethnic groups, sex, location, etc.).
  • Industry Trends – If your industry is experiencing widespread growth or decline, it might affect your marketing efforts, so you need to be aware of that and take note of it.
  • Goal(s) – Choose specific and measurable goals that you hope to attain with your marketing efforts, and note them on your one page marketing plan.
  • Strategies – Strategies very generally state how you plan to reach your goals. For example, if your goal is to increase listeners of your podcast by 10,000 in a year, an example strategy might be to invite well-known people in your industry to be guests on the show. Anything more specific would be considered a “tactic.”
  • Yearly Marketing Budget – You need to estimate your yearly marketing budget, which will serve as a guideline when choosing your marketing tactics.
  • Marketing Mix – The marketing mix is basically a breakdown of the 4 Ps of marketing.
  • Top 3 Competitors – While you likely have many competitors, pick at least the top three competitors that you’ll need to position your products or services against in order to analyze them and form a comparison. By “top competitors” we’re talking about those that are most directly related to you; not necessarily the most well-known.
  • Your Strengths – List your primary strengths as opposed to your top competitors.
  • Your Weaknesses – List your primary weaknesses as opposed to your top competitors. Saying “I don’t have any weaknesses,” isn’t acceptable. Every entrepreneur has weaknesses in the competitive environment. You can’t overcome them if you don’t acknowledge them.
  • Monthly Tactics – Here’s where you’ll choose very specific marketing tactics that fit within your strategies and your marketing budget. This one page marketing plan template lets you break them down monthly in order to ensure that your marketing efforts are continual, instead of using up the marketing budget on one or two tactics early on.

Use this one page marketing plan template and guide to help you build a quick and basic marketing plan for your small and online business needs.

Free Sample One Page Marketing Plan Template

 

Note: This post was originally published on November 11, 2007.

Jenn Mattern is a professional blogger, freelance business writer, consultant, and indie author. An active digital publisher, she runs numerous websites and blogs including All Freelance Writing, Freelance Writing Pros, and Kiss My Biz.

Jenn has over 20 years' experience working as a solopreneur running a 3-prong business of offering freelance writing and consulting services, running digital publications, and operating as an indie publisher of predominantly e-books.

This experience includes 25 years working as a professional writer and editor, more than 20 years' experience in marketing and PR (specializing in areas like digital PR, online marketing, social media, and SEO), 19 years' experience as a professional blogger / online publisher (including web development), and around 18 years of experience as an indie author / publisher.

At Kiss My Biz, Jenn shares stories, tips, and tools from her own adventures in solopreneurship, while aiming to help fellow solopreneurs and creative professionals succeed even where it feels against the odds.

14 thoughts on “One Page Marketing Plan Guide”

  1. Thanks, I’m writing a marketing plan for a company doing their webhosting in a climate neutral way. By in the first place having their servers running on green energy and in the second place having a genius way of cooling the server room in a way which uses only 65% of energy compared to traditional cooling.

    Reply
  2. Thank you for your quick response when I contacted you via email, Jennifer. I was looking to get this link so i could take a look at the template. It seems that it may be very helpful and I can utilize this and expand on what this one offers to meet the needs of our business and marketing plan. Keep up the good work!

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  3. I am trying to write a marketing proposal for the companies one year planning. So I need a compite marketing plan.

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  4. Great guide and thanks much! Definitely the help I was looking for after freelance writing and web authoring for a bit now!
    Cheers,
    James

    Reply
  5. I am in charge of the sales and marketing of our services for our long term care division and would very much like to use your one page marketing tool for myself and the regional manager who works in a different area of Illinois.
    Thanks in advance for offering such a helpful tool for small businesses.
    Sincerely,
    Lisa M. Zaenger, RRT, RCP

    Reply
  6. Being the head of sales & marketing in a Dairy company in Asian region your one page plan provided an insight knowledge to make the starting point.
    Thanks in advance for offering such a guiding tool.
    Best regards,
    Charles.

    Reply
  7. Thank you for the template as I struggle with the sales strategy for my recently selfpublished book “101 HEALarious Reasons To STAY MARRIED.” I have priced the book to ensure that any couple who wants one can afford it but now I have to watch as the overhead eats away at my profit. My strength has been “bulk” sales to organizations but this plan may help me take my mission to the next level.

    Reply
  8. Great guide…I am preparing business plan for dairy industry in Nepal, this concise template helped a lot. Thanks

    Reply

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