4 Steps to Create an Actionable Quarterly Marketing Plan [Template]
Easily Meet Your Annual Marketing Goals with Quarterly Planning
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Fifty percent of small businesses don’t have a marketing plan, according to Outbound Engine.
Right now, you fall into one of two camps. Camp one: “I’m in good company! I don’t either.” Camp two: “What are they thinking?”
When you don’t have a marketing plan, you are at risk of running in place.
You get sidetracked, and marketing goals are left unmet.
Shiny object syndrome has you “testing” everything and not moving the needle.
All tasks are treated the same, with no documented priorities.
Burnout comes fast because all tasks are hurried and usually lead to nothing.
Quarterly Marketing Plan vs Annual Marketing Plan
Featuring Michelle Tresemer of TGroup Marketing Method!
We understand why you might not have a marketing plan when you’re a small business. Creating a marketing plan is time-consuming. And, if you need to pivot quickly, it’s hard to be agile when you have a structured annual plan. But there’s a solution.
Introducing the actionable quarterly plan.
With a quarterly marketing plan you set and review goals every 90 days. This makes completing tasks and checking progress more manageable for a small team. By moving to this planning system, you have a defined list of goals to accomplish each quarter. And it doesn’t have to be a case of quarterly planning vs annual planning. Having an overall strategy for the year sets your direction and complements the more adaptable quarterly approach. Each 90-day goal will lead you closer to achieving your annual marketing goals, but with the ability to be flexible.
4 Simple Steps to Build an Actionable Quarterly Plan
If you feel aimless when it comes to reaching your marketing goals – you try this and that, but you have no true plan in place – creating an actionable quarterly plan will help you proactively move forward on your annual goals by breaking them down into doable tasks. All it takes is four steps, and a quarterly meeting in the books, and you will start to see your revenue rise.
Step 1: Build the Foundation
You will need to identify a few things before you can start building your actionable tasks.
Not all customers are the same. Think about the customer personas that you want to target this quarter so you can customize your approach.
Identify the tasks that you want to try this quarter. Put these tasks in order from high priority to low. Mark the most doable tasks (doable = right time investment + right budget) with an asterisk. Choose a select number of these tasks to tackle this quarter.
To help you choose these tasks, review analytics and key performance indicators (KPIs) from the previous quarter. Did anything not meet your benchmarks? Cut it. Focus on what works and eliminate the rest.
Ensure you have the tools and budget needed to tackle your tasks and measure your performance.
From here, you will dive deeper into reaching your ideal customer.
Step 2: Identify Your Ideal Customer
Your customers are the heroes of your business, and they need to be the center of your marketing campaigns. With that in mind, you’ll want to do a deep dive into who they are.
Meet with your team and answer these questions:
Who is our ideal customer?
How do we reach them effectively?
What problem do they need solved?
What will happen if they don’t solve the problem?
How can we help them solve it?
How will we create a clear message to tell them this?
If this is the first time you’re doing this, we recommend taking the time to interview select customers and send surveys to the rest. This will help to give you a true picture of who they are and how they talk about you.
Step 3: Brainstorm Your Activities
This is where you really start to gain traction! Meet with your team and get ready for a productive brainstorming session.
Review the following action list for each of these digital marketing tools.
Website
What changes do we need to make to attract our ideal customer?
Is our welcome message appealing to this customer?
Is our value proposition targeted to this customer?
Do we need to create new copy or videos to adequately communicate our offer?
Social Media
What social media channels does this customer frequent?
Where is our customer not going online?
Are we on channels that don’t reach our ideal customer?
Email/Text
Does our ideal customer prefer email or text?
Does it make sense to create an email campaign?
Do we have any sequences that can be repurposed to reengage this customer?
Paid Media
Do we have an ad budget?
What ad platforms make sense for this customer?
Are there publications that we can partner with?
If yes, which ones would appeal to this customer?
SEO
What keywords does our ideal customer use?
Is there a system to get feedback from this customer to learn how they talk about us?
Are we listed in strategic directories?
Have we done a site health check?
Digital PR
Are there any events (in-person or online) we should attend to meet our ideal customer?
Are we supplying quotes on HARO?
Are we guest speaking on podcasts?
If yes, which ones appeal to our ideal customer?
Content Marketing
Conduct a content audit: What’s working and what isn’t?
Do we have a list of publications to guest post on?
What media format does our ideal customer prefer?
Step 4: Track Your Impact
Be sure to identify what KPIs matter to meet your goals. For example, do you want increased sales volume, leads, or organic traffic? Once you establish these KPIs, make sure they’re trackable so you can tell if your strategy is working or not. Determine what tools and systems you need in place so you can track each KPI.
An actionable quarterly plan will make it easier to respond to the data and adjust your activities accordingly.
Next Steps to Implement Your Actionable Quarterly Plan
Now that you have a framework that shows you how to build your actionable quarterly plan, take the first steps. For a small business especially, prioritizing is key – you can’t do everything. Identify three big goals for 2022, and develop your quarterly action plan to meet those goals by the end of the year.
Find out how Tiny Marketing can help you build your marketing plan with this action-packed workshop.
