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A small business marketing plan is one goal, one customer, two or three channels, owned tasks and a 90-day timeline, kept short enough to use. Write it in five steps: set the goal, choose channels, turn them into tasks, schedule 90 days and pick what you will measure.
What goes in a small business marketing plan
A plan for a small business needs seven things: a goal, the customer and your offer, the channels you will use, the tasks inside each channel, the budget and time you can spare, a timeline and the measures you will check.
Anything beyond that is detail for later. For the full list of sections and what each one holds, see what to include in a marketing plan.
Step 1: Set one goal and name your customer
Pick one goal tied to a business result, such as more booked appointments, more online orders or more repeat customers. Add a review date. Two goals split a small team's attention and make it hard to tell what worked.
Then describe one customer by their situation and what they need. "Homeowners with a leaking roof who need a repair this week" is usable. "Everyone nearby" is not.
If you want a draft to react to, the Marketing Strategy Generator proposes an ideal customer and positioning from a description of your business. Check it against the people who actually contact you. The small business marketing strategy guide covers that step in more detail.
Step 2: Choose two or three marketing channels
A channel is a place where your customer looks for, compares or decides on a business like yours. Choose from your customer's habits, not from what is fashionable: where do they search, who do they ask, what do they read before they call?
Keep the mix to what one person can maintain week after week. Two channels done steadily beat six started and dropped. If you serve a nearby area, the local marketing strategy guide shows which local channels to consider.
Step 3: Turn channels into tasks you can finish
A channel is not a task. "Email" is a channel; "send a message to last year's customers about the spring offer" is a task. Write the first task for each channel, give it one owner and a finish date.
The Marketing Plan Generator can supply candidates. You enter a business description, target audience, business stage and language, and it returns 20 ideas: quick wins and long-term bets, each split into acquisition and conversion, five per group. Pick the ideas that fit the channels from step 2 and ignore the rest.
The marketing plan examples library shows how other businesses frame their ideas.
Step 4: Set a budget and a 90-day timeline
Decide what time and money you can commit before you schedule anything, then size the tasks to fit. The marketing budget calculator helps with the money side.
Lay the tasks over three months. In month one, set up what each channel needs and do the quick wins. In month two, repeat whatever produced replies, visits or sales and drop what produced nothing. In month three, review the results and add one long-term bet.
Step 5: Pick measures and review monthly
Choose one measure per goal and write down where you read it: inquiries in your inbox, bookings in your calendar, orders in your shop dashboard, repeat purchases in your sales records.
Once a month, look at each task and decide to keep it, change it or stop it. Put the review date in your calendar when you write the plan, or it will not happen.
Plan outline to copy
Goal and review date: [one business result and the day you will check it]. Customer: [their situation and what they need]. Offer: [what you sell them and why it fits]. Channels: [two or three places they look or decide]. Tasks: [first task per channel, with owner and finish date]. Budget and time: [money and hours per month]. Timeline: [month 1 set-up and quick wins, month 2 repeat what works, month 3 review and one long-term bet]. Measure: [one number per goal and where you read it].
Where FounderPal fits
[FounderPal](/) is a marketing assistant for founders and small businesses. Its assistant produces weekly marketing plans, and its campaign tool produces action plans with goals, budget, best practices and pitfalls. Use the free generators above to get started and keep the plan itself to one page.
FAQ
What should a small business marketing plan include?
It should include one goal, a described customer, two or three channels, tasks with owners and dates, a budget, a 90-day timeline and a measure for the goal. That is enough to act on.
How long should a small business marketing plan be?
One page is enough for most small businesses. If you cannot see the whole plan at once, you are less likely to follow it. Move extra detail into a separate task list.
How much should a small business spend on marketing?
There is no figure that fits every business. Start from the tasks you chose and what you can sustain each month, then use the marketing budget calculator to check the numbers.
How often should I update my marketing plan?
Review it monthly and rewrite it every quarter. At each monthly review, keep, change or stop every task, and use the results to choose the next 90 days.