Most business owners spend money on marketing without a plan — then wonder why it doesn’t work. A marketing plan isn’t creative. It’s arithmetic. Here’s how to build one.
Marketing is not about looking good. It’s about buying customers at a price that makes you money.
Spend money on marketing with no plan. Chase the latest platform. Hope that “getting your name out there” will magically bring customers. Measure nothing. Blame the marketing agency when it doesn’t work.
Research their market. Set goals in the Five Ways. Calculate exactly how many customers they need. Know their acquisition cost. Test, measure, and scale only what works. Build campaigns around specific target audiences with specific offers.
“Sales is about one sale at a time. Marketing is about 100 sales at a time — having them come to you.”
Marketing without measurement is just decoration. Here’s the arithmetic behind every successful plan.
Ten components. In this order. Skip one and the whole thing underperforms.
Start internally. Survey your existing customers. Identify your top 20%. What do they have in common? Then go external — how big is the market? How many competitors? What’s the shape of the opportunity?
You cannot set goals until you understand the market. Once you do, set targets in each of the Five Ways: leads, conversion rate, average sale, number of transactions, and margins.
How many new customers do you need per week? Multiply by your acquisition cost. That is your marketing budget. Too many, and your service suffers. Too few, and you can’t keep the doors open.
Two ads, same cost. One gets 1,000 responses. The other gets 100. Which is better? You don’t know yet — not until you measure sales, spend per customer, repeat visits, and referrals.
Get on the internet and study your competitors. Their pricing, their offers, their social media. If your customers know more about your competitors than your sales team does, you’re in trouble.
Document every product and service. What are the benefits? What’s the pricing structure? What’s the payment model? Design them based on your niche and your competitive advantage.
Where will you sell? Through your own outlets, partners, websites? And where will you market? Which publications, stations, websites, and communities serve your target audience? Don’t write anything off until you’ve researched it.
What makes you different? Not “great service” — something specific. Ask your customers why they buy from you. Find out what frustrations you can guarantee to remove. Be concrete.
Not “men aged 35–55”. Think like a dartboard — 20 tight segments. 10 for volume, 10 for high profit. Then go deep with each one: dedicated materials, dedicated campaigns, dedicated channels.
Plan your campaigns across the year. What you’ll test, what you’ll measure, and what proven campaigns you’ll run on repeat. Every campaign answers five questions: Who, Where, What, Why, and How.
“The greatest thing about planning is planning — it’s the actual thinking. Sit and brainstorm. Bounce ideas around. That’s where the real value lives.”
Stop broadcasting to everyone. Start targeting the segments where your best customers cluster. Click a ring to explore.
Each ring on the dartboard represents a layer of targeting precision. The tighter the ring, the higher the return on your marketing investment. Start from the centre and work outwards.
The real question isn’t “how much did that ad cost?” It’s “what is each customer worth over their lifetime?”
How often they come back and buy from you
How much they spend each time they purchase
How long they keep buying — 1 year, 5 years, 10?
How many new customers they send your way
Someone who gives you referrals is worth
far more than someone who doesn’t.
Your marketing budget should be determined by lifetime value — not the cost of the first sale.
How much should you actually invest in marketing? Plug in your numbers and find out.
Every campaign you run must answer these five questions. Get them right and your marketing makes money. Skip them and you’re guessing.
Define the ideal customer for this specific campaign. Get specific — industry, size, geography, role.
High concentration of good-quality prospects beats a massive pool of low-quality ones every time.
Not the product — the outcome. People don’t want a drill. They want a hole in the wall.
The emotional driver. Different audiences have different “whys”. A family business and a millennial start-up buy for completely different reasons.
What is the most cost-effective way to get this offer in front of that target? Letter, email, social, referral, partnership?
“The only person excited about your name at the top of your advertisement is you and your mother. And she’s probably not buying much from you.”
Most businesses are required by law to guarantee their work. So why not turn that obligation into a competitive weapon?
What are the three biggest frustrations customers have in your industry? Late delivery? Poor communication? Hidden fees? These are your opportunities.
Be specific. “We guarantee to turn up on time or your first half hour is free.” Not fluffy promises — concrete commitments with consequences.
Don’t over-promise and under-deliver. Put systems in place so you can always honour the guarantee. That is the real differentiator.
You won’t build the entire marketing plan tonight. But you can start with these five moves.
What makes a great customer for you? Pays on time, gives referrals, buys repeatedly? Write down the 10 traits that define your ideal client.
Get Help With ThisA = Awesome. B = Basic. C = needs re-educating. D = move them on. Spend your time with the A-grades — that’s where the money is.
Get the FrameworkWhich 20% of your customers give you 80% of your revenue? What do they have in common? That is the profile you want to replicate.
Analyse Your DataCurrent leads per week? Current conversion rate? Average sale? Transactions per customer? Margins? Write down where you are now and where you want to be.
Set Your TargetsThink dartboard. 10 volume markets, 10 high-profit markets. Then rank them. Your best segment deserves its own dedicated campaign, materials, and channels.
Map Your SegmentsAs your ActionCOACH, I’ll sit down with you and work through every step of this blueprint — market research, goal setting, budgeting, campaign design. The kind of focused day that transforms your marketing from a cost into an investment.
ActionCOACH — Midlands
Helping established business owners build growth systems that actually work.
Stop Hoping.
Start Planning.
30 minutes. No obligation. Let’s see what a proper marketing plan could do for your business.
