Outlining Your Tiny Marketing Plan: A Guide to Crafting Marketing Plans That Work
Marketing Plan Outline
The key to amazing marketing? A great foundation.
Blog Highlights:
Define your goals before anything else.
Who is your ideal customer? Hone in on them.
Create a streamlined marketing plan that makes marketing easier.
I have written MANY marketing plans, and I can tell you, they are like having children: tons of work, worth it, and super cute when they sleep. Maybe not that last thing. But for real, creating a successful marketing plan can be daunting. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the details and feel you don’t know where to start. To make it easier, we’ve outlined five essential elements that should include in your Tiny Marketing Plan outline. From defining your goals and identifying target audiences to choose channels for key messaging, creating content plans for lead capture & nurturing, all the way through sales conversion measurement and optimization—this guide has everything you need. So let’s dive into our Tiny Marketing Plan outline now so you can confidently create an effective strategy.
Table of Contents Show
Define Your Goals
With inbound marketing for small businesses, don’t ignore the goals. Without a clear goal in mind, you won’t be able to measure your success or determine if the strategies you are using are working.
Your goals should be specific and measurable so that you can track progress. For example, instead of saying, “I want more website traffic,” try something like, “I want to increase my website traffic by 20% within three months.” This will give you an achievable target and allow you to track your progress along the way.
When determining your goals, consider what results you actually care about. Do you care about that website traffic for vanity reasons or to meet a larger goal like increasing your organic search traffic? Are they short-term objectives, such as increasing brand awareness or generating leads? Or do they have long-term implications, such as driving sales or improving customer loyalty? Knowing this information ahead of time will help ensure that you focus your efforts on achieving the right outcomes for your business.
Finally, ensure that your goals align with your company’s overall mission and vision. If there isn’t a connection between them, then it’s likely that any effort put into achieving those goals won’t have much impact on the bottom line regarding revenue growth or customer acquisition rates.
Once you clearly understand your goals, you can move on to identifying your target audience.
“Setting specific, measurable goals is essential for successful inbound marketing for small businesses. Make sure your objectives align with the mission and vision of your company to ensure maximum impact.” #InboundMarketing #SmallBusinesses Click to Tweet
Identify Your Target Audience
Have you ever heard the phrase, “if you’re talking to everyone, you’re talking to no one?” Well, my friend, that’s why defining your target audience is so important. Knowing who you’re trying to reach and what they care about will help you create content that resonates with them and drives results.
The first step in identifying your target audience is defining the goals of your business or organization. What do you want to achieve? Are you looking to increase sales, grow brand awareness, generate leads, or something else entirely? Once you clearly understand what success looks like for your business, it will be easier to determine which audiences are most likely to help you reach those goals.
Next, consider the demographics of the people most likely interested in what your business offers. Who are they? Where do they live? How old are they? What gender do they identify as? Understanding these characteristics can help narrow down potential customers and ensure that you don’t waste your efforts on an irrelevant audience.
Once you have a better idea of who might be interested in buying from or engaging with your company, consider their needs and interests outside of just purchasing products or services from you. What challenges do they face in achieving their personal goals related to yours? Thinking through this question can give insight into how best to serve them by providing helpful resources such as blog posts, videos, tutorials, etc., tailored toward solving their problems.
Finally, ask yourself if there is any other information that could further refine the target audience profile, such as job titles or industry type. This could also provide valuable insights into how best to engage with them online via social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, where certain types of professionals congregate more than others, depending on their field or industry type.
Taking the time upfront during the planning stages before launching any campaigns - whether it be email marketing, SEO optimization, paid advertising etc. - to define exactly who should receive each message will ensure greater ROI (return on investment) over time since messages sent out won’t get lost among those not relevant at all; saving money and resources while increasing conversions and revenue growth.
If you already have a service or product, you can narrow down your best customers by asking these questions:
Who do I enjoy working with best?
What is their annual revenue?
What sector are they in?
Do they share a similar pain point?
Do they share goals?
If possible, interview people who fall within your target customer avatar, so you can understand how they talk about their problems, pain points, desires, and ideas. They can also tell you their preferred channels and content mediums.
Once you have identified your target audience, it is important to craft key messaging that will resonate with them.
Key Takeaway: Identifying your target audience is essential for successful inbound marketing. Outline goals, and consider demographics, needs, interests, job titles, and industries to refine the profile.
Key Messaging
Define Your Target Audience
The first step in creating an effective messaging strategy is to define your target audience. Who are you trying to reach? What do they need from you? What problems can you solve for them? Knowing who your customer is and their needs will help guide the rest of your messaging strategy.
Create a Clear Value Proposition
Once you know who your customer is, it’s time to create a clear value proposition that resonates with them. This should be succinct and clearly explain how your product or service solves their problem or improves their life. Ensure this message is consistent across all channels, so customers recognize it wherever they encounter it.
Develop Brand Messaging
Your brand messaging should reflect the company’s and its customers’ values. It should convey why someone would want to work with you over another business while also conveying trustworthiness and reliability. Keep these messages consistent throughout all marketing materials, including website copy, social media posts, email campaigns, etc., so customers recognize them no matter where they come into contact with your business.
Use Storytelling To Connect With Customers
It has proven storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for connecting with potential customers on an emotional level, and emotion plays a huge role in decision-making processes. Use stories about yourself, your customers, or other real-life examples related to how using your product/service could improve someone’s life or make things easier for them; this helps potential buyers envision themselves as part of that story and makes them more likely to purchase from you down the line.
Craft your key messaging to appeal to your target audience, and selecting the right channels will help you reach them effectively.
Key Takeaway: A successful marketing plan should include defining your target audience, creating a clear value proposition, developing brand messaging, and using storytelling to connect with customers.
Choose Your Channels
Choosing the right channels to reach your target audience is an important part of inbound marketing for small businesses. You will struggle if you’re showing up on TikTok and your audience is hanging out on YouTube. But don’t worry! Marketing is an experiment. You can test out different channels and see what works for you. The important thing is to set benchmarks. What does success look like? Anything less than that means cut. Each “failed” experiment provides you with clarity and a learning lesson. Give yourself a quarter as a testing period, and once you get the results, you can move on with confidence. With so many options available, knowing which ones are best for you can be difficult, so allow yourself the grace to experiment while trying to figure it out. Here’s a look at some of the most popular channels and how they can help you achieve your goals:
Social Media:
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube are great ways to engage with potential customers and build relationships. You can use these channels to share content that applies to your business or industry, as well as promote special offers or discounts. It’s also a great way to get feedback from customers about their experiences with your products or services.
Blogging:
Blogging is the best way to improve your SEO and build your audience. Don’t discount guest blogging, either. Borrow other people’s audiences by writing a blog post with something original in it — subject matter expert (SME) quotes, interviews, or even comments from a LinkedIn post — and pitch it to publications that share the same audience as you.
Podcasting:
Podcasting allows you to reach your audience through multiple distribution channels. You can create a podcast using an interview-style, solo, panel, narrative, or co-host style. Survey your audience to find out what mediums they prefer to help you decide if podcasting makes sense to reach your audience.
Video:
Video is my favorite choice for core content. Core content is the Tiny Marketing term for the piece of content that you repurpose to feed all of your channels. You can easily repurpose video into podcasts, Reels, TikTok, video courses, and with a bit of extra work blogs, eBooks, and more.
Email Marketing:
Email marketing allows you to send targeted messages directly into people’s inboxes. This is an effective way of staying top-of-mind with existing customers while also attracting new leads through newsletters or promotional emails featuring special offers or discounts.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization):
SEO helps increase visibility on search engines like Google by optimizing website content to appear higher in search results when someone searches for keywords related to your business. This will help drive more organic traffic (people who find you through search) back to your website, where they can learn more about what you offer and potentially convert into paying customers down the line.
PPC Ads (Pay Per Click Advertising):
PPC ads are another form of digital advertising where advertisers pay each time someone clicks on their ad link displayed on websites across the web, including social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. This type of advertising gives businesses control over who sees their ads based on targeting criteria such as age range, and location, making it easier for them to reach out only to those interested in what they offer without wasting money showing ads to irrelevant audiences.
Once you have identified the best-suited channels for your business, it’s time to move on and create a content plan for each channel.
Key Takeaway: A successful inbound marketing plan for small businesses should include channels such as social media, email marketing, SEO and PPC ads to reach their target audience and drive organic traffic.
Create a Content Plan
A content plan is essential for staying on top of your marketing. Here’s the thing... you won’t stay on top of your marketing if you don’t plan. It’s easy to get distracted and drop the ball. Or, you get all excited, create a bunch, get burnt out, and stop. You need to be consistent, so keep it chill. Create your content and schedule it over time so you always show up. It helps you to focus on your goals, identify your target audience, and create the right message that resonates with them. Here are some tips to help you get started:
Content Themes
Brainstorm ideas for content that will engage and educate potential customers while helping them understand why they should choose you over other competitors in the market. Examples could include blog posts highlighting customer success stories or industry trends related to products/services offered by businesses in similar markets; videos showing how to use certain features or services; podcasts discussing topics relevant to current events within an industry sector; or infographics illustrating data points related to a particular topic area.
Once you have created engaging content pieces that capture people’s attention, think about ways readers can convert into leads or sales opportunities through calls-to-action (CTAs). For example, offer free trials of products/services at discounted rates when readers sign up via email forms embedded within articles or blog posts they read online. This encourages more engagement from potential customers who may not have been aware of offers available otherwise.
Content Repurposing
Choose a core content you can commit to creating on a regular cadence — once a quarter, month, week — whatever you can commit to. Then, repurpose it into different content to feed your channels.
As an example, if you create a research report, you can repurpose it into:
eBook
Infographic
Webinar
Videos
Blogs
Hub & Spoke Content
Social media
Emails
Key Takeaway: A content plan is essential for any small business to focus on goals, identify the target audience, and create the right message. Key elements include: key messaging, choosing channels, creating content ideas & calls-to-action (CTAs).
Lead Capture
The reason you’re creating a marketing plan is to capture, nurture, and close leads. AMIRIGHT? So, lead capture is an important aspect of your marketing plan. It’s collecting contact information from potential customers and converting them into leads. The goal is to build relationships with prospects, nurture them through the sales funnel, and ultimately convert them into paying customers.
One way to do this is by offering a low-cost offer such as a virtual workshop or ebook that can collect contact information from potential customers. This type of lead capture requires minimal effort on your part while still providing valuable content for your audience. For example, you could create an ebook about how to start a business or write a guide about common mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting out. By offering these resources for free, you can encourage people to sign up for your mailing list and provide their contact information for access to the content.
Another effective lead capture method is webinars or live events where attendees can learn more about what you offer and interact with other members of your community in real time. Webinars are especially powerful because they allow you to show your expertise directly and engage with participants who may not otherwise have had access to it without attending the event itself. Webinars often include calls-to-action at various points throughout, which encourages viewers to take action immediately after viewing the presentation instead of waiting until later when they might forget all about it.
Types of Lead Captures
There are many lead captures you can use to collect contact information from potential customers. Some popular options include webinars, virtual workshops, ebooks, templates, surveys and quizzes.
Webinars:
Webinars are a great way to engage with your audience while also providing valuable content related to your business or industry. You show your smarts while building a relationship with your (future) customers. I’m a big fan! You can host live webinars or pre-record for viewers who sign up for the event can watch them afterwards. During the webinar, provide useful information about your product or service and ways that people can get involved with it if they choose to do so. Make sure it’s engaging, and pull your audience into the experience.
Virtual Workshops:
Virtual workshops offer a more interactive experience than traditional webinars because attendees ask questions and take part in discussions during the session. They’re also usually shorter than webinars which makes them easier for busy professionals to attend without taking too much time out of their day-to-day schedule.
Ebooks:
Ebooks are another great way to capture leads because they allow readers to gain valuable insights into topics related to your business without having to commit too much time upfront reading long articles on complex subjects like SEO or digital marketing strategies. Plus, once someone has downloaded an ebook from you, then there’s a good chance that they will be interested enough in what you have written about that they may want more information about how they could work with you further down.
Templates:
Templates provide users with easy access tools such as checklists and worksheets which help guide people through processes associated with certain tasks, such as setting up social media accounts. These templates often come along with helpful tips on how best to use these resources within each user’s own context (e.g., depending upon their particular goals), making it easier for those individuals who might not otherwise know where exactly to start when trying to tackle something new online - especially if it is technology-based - but still need some guidance along the way before feeling comfortable enough to actually dive right in themselves without help firstly provided by others beforehand via said template(s).
Lead capture is an essential part of any successful inbound marketing strategy. Once you have captured leads, it’s time to move on to the next step: lead nurturing.
Key Takeaway: Use low-cost offers, webinars or live events as lead gens. These methods allow you to build relationships with potential customers, demonstrate your expertise and provide calls-to-action for immediate engagement.
Lead Nurturing
Once you’ve captured your leads, you need to nurture them. What do you think happens when a prospect signs up for your webinar or workshop and then.... nothing? They don’t hear from you. I’ll tell you what happens. They forget you exist! Lead nurturing involves creating personalized content, tailored to their interests and needs, that helps move them further down the sales funnel. By providing valuable information at each stage of the buyer’s journey, you can keep leads interested until they are ready to make a purchase.
Why Is Lead Nurturing Important?
Without it, you risk losing out on potential customers who may have been interested, but you didn’t give them enough time or attention to make a purchase decision. With lead nurturing, you stay top-of-mind for prospects by providing helpful content that keeps them informed about your products or services and encourages them to take action when they’re ready.
How Can You Use Lead Nurturing Effectively?
The key to effective lead nurturing is personalization—you need to tailor your messages based on where each prospect is in their buyer’s journey and what information would be most useful for them at this stage. For example, if someone signed up for your email list but has taken no other action, send emails introducing yourself and highlighting some benefits they could get from working with you (ease of use/time savings/cost savings). As they progress further down the funnel towards making a purchase decision, provide more detailed information, such as case studies or product comparisons, so they know exactly why your solution is best suited for their needs.
Finally, don’t forget about follow-up emails after purchases; this will help ensure customer satisfaction and encourage repeat business.
Lead nurturing builds relationships with potential customers and leads them down to the sales funnel. Now let’s move on to Sales Conversion.
Key Takeaway: Lead nurturing is essential for successful inbound marketing and should involve personalized content tailored to each prospect’s needs. It should include introductions, benefits of working with you, detailed information, and follow-up emails after purchases.
Sales Conversion
Now, it’s time to turn those leads into sales! Sales Conversion is turning leads into customers.
Here is our five-part sales process:
Prospecting
Customers own the sales process, so prospecting starts with your content strategy. You have already identified your ideal customer and their journey. The next step is looking at those customer profiles you've created and identifying accounts you want to target.
Ask yourself these questions:
How do we meet them?
What channels do they prefer?
What role do you need to target?
Can you identify any specific people you can reach?
What is it they need to be successful?
Send a personalized email or DM.
Do you know anyone who can recommend you or refer you?
Are you showing this person your expertise?
Is your personal brand established?
Have you invited the prospect to a webinar that A) shows your smarts and B) solves their problem?
2. Discovery Calls
Keep the discovery call client-centric. Let them do all the talking!
Ask them questions like:
What challenges are you experiencing right now?
What would success look like?
What are you doing right now (or in the past) to alleviate these challenges?
What results did you see?
What are your goals?
You need to remember that clients often don't know how to solve their problem or what's causing it. They only know what the problem feels like and how it affects the business. Your job is to understand the problem so you can be a strategic partner and provide an educated answer. People don't hire yes, men. They hire people who can do what they can't. Your job is to solve the problem.
3. Proposal
Keep it simple! People overcomplicate proposals, but you only need a few key elements to sell.
What do you include in the package?
What does it cost?
What were your past results with this package?
What's the timeline?
What is your process?
What do you NOT include (i.e. what would they need to pay extra for?)?
What is your revision policy?
What is your payment policy?
That's it. Prospects don't want lengthy proposals. This could even be an email!
I use Bonsai for my proposals because I can create a template, use the same one repeatedly, and they can accept the proposal right in Bonsai.
Here is my BIG SECRET SAUCE: Don't send the proposal. Schedule a call to review the proposal and send it afterward. This way, you can address objections on the call. You can't explain your proposal if they read it alone in their office.
You might be wondering... Sarah? What if they ask for the proposal ahead of time? The only reason they will want the proposal ahead of time is to know the cost, so make sure cost and budget talks happen early on. Before I have a discovery call, I get their budget first. If they don't have a budget, give them a range to expect to pay. You can eliminate much wasted time if you and your prospect are transparent about money.
4. Objections
You wait to send the proposal because you must be present when objections arise. You can't if you aren't there!
But how do you respond to objections?
FEEL: Show empathy. You have probably heard this objection before and know where it originated. Maybe it's too expensive, or maybe they're afraid they won't take your strategy and implement it. Show that you understand what they're going through. FELT: Show them why their objection is a fallacy. If their objection is your pricing, explain the return past clients have seen. If their objection is their own capability to use what you create to its fullest, explain how you set them up for success and create an implementation plan. Whatever the objection might be, show them why that issue won't happen. FOUND: Provide examples of why the objection is invalid.
EXAMPLE:
Client: I like the package, but I don't think we have the skill in-house to use this strategy to its full extent. It will end up wasted on us.
You: I completely understand that! I've seen that happen myself when I was in-house, but I designed my package so that doesn't happen. With my next steps road map, I've found that 90% of my clients thrive in their content marketing after successfully implementing their strategy. And, if you need a partner to stand with you on this, I can recommend some amazing content creators I've worked with before who can run with this strategy.
5. Follow-up
When you submit your proposal, provide a deadline for accepting and follow up before the deadline. Set an alert in your CRM (I use Streak, a Gmail Add-on), so you don't forget you need to follow up with them.
Keep it casual, but let them know any restrictions you might have. You might be able to take on the project if they accept by XX, but they will need to be added to a waitlist after that.
Here is an example of a follow-up email. Feel free to swipe and make your own.
Subject Line: Questions?
Thanks, [NAME], for the chat last [week/day/month/whatever]. It was great hearing about [PRODUCT/SERVICE]. After our call, I am confident we can [GOAL THEY WANT TO REACH] with [SERVICE YOU SELL].
My client, [NAME], had a similar problem, and we resolved it with this exact package.
I'm following up because the deadline is quickly approaching (where does the time go?), and after [DATE], I'll have a waitlist for this service. If you have any questions that came up since our proposal call, shoot me an email or schedule a call, and we can review the scope questions.
Thanks,
[NAME]
Measure and Optimize
Measuring and optimizing your inbound marketing efforts is an essential part of any successful strategy. Without tracking tools, you won’t be able to tell if the content you are creating is resonating with your target audience or not.
Google Analytics is one of the most popular tools for measuring website traffic and engagement. It can provide insights into how visitors interact with your site, including which pages they visit, how long they stay on each page, where they come from (e.g., organic search vs direct), and more. This data can help you identify areas that need improvement so that you can create better content that resonates with readers and drives more conversions.
Email open and click-through rates are another important metric to track for inbound marketing. Tools like MailChimp, Flodesk, ConvertKit, or ActiveCampaign allow marketers to measure email open rates and click-throughs from emails sent out through their platform. This data helps marketers understand what type of content works best for their audience so they can tailor future campaigns accordingly.
Social media analytics also play a key role in understanding the effectiveness of social media campaigns across various platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or whatever others strike your fancy. These metrics include likes/shares/retweets/comments on posts and follower growth over time, which all show whether people are engaging with your brand online and responding positively to its message. By monitoring these metrics regularly, businesses will adjust their strategies accordingly based on what works best for them.
Key Takeaway: Zero-click content is king right now. Your goal isn’t to bring social media followers to your website. It’s building relationships. Track metrics like impressions and engagements over traffic.
Finally, track lead capture forms closely, since this is often the first step towards converting leads into customers. Tracking form submissions allows businesses to see which sources generate the most leads so that they can focus their efforts there while still testing other channels at the same time.
Overall, tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with inbound marketing activities provides invaluable insight into what is working or not, so businesses know exactly where adjustments need to be made in order to maximize their return on investment from their efforts from now on.
Friends, if you’ve been avoiding creating a marketing plan, here’s your sign to make the move. A marketing plan will help you focus on the marketing strategies that will move the needle for your business.
I’ll make it easy for you. I’ve developed a simple quarterly marketing plan template for you. Grab yours right here.
