One of the biggest problems I see with small business marketing is not a lack of ideas.
It’s the opposite… there are too many.
Post on Facebook. Start doing videos. Send an email newsletter. Try Google Ads. Go networking. Improve SEO. Sponsor the local footy club. Start a podcast because apparently everyone needs one of those now too.
Before long, marketing becomes a collection of random activities rather than an actual plan.
And that is usually when it gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list.
A useful marketing plan does not need to be 40 pages long or filled with graphs, market analysis and words you would never use in normal conversation. In fact, for most small businesses, I would rather see a simple one-page plan that gets used than an impressive document that sits untouched in a folder.
The framework I use breaks marketing into three fairly simple jobs:
Attract. Convert. Retain.
Get the attention of the right people, turn that attention into customers, then give those customers good reasons to come back and recommend you.
From there, you can build your entire marketing plan around nine questions.
ATTRACT: Before the sale
1. Who are you actually trying to reach?
Trying to market to everyone normally results in messaging that means very little to anyone.
Start by getting clear about your ideal customer. Who values what you do? Which customers are profitable? Who do you enjoy working with? Most importantly, what problem are those people actively trying to solve?
Be specific enough that the person reading your marketing can recognise themselves.
“We work with businesses” is vague.
“We help trade businesses with five to 30 staff that have outgrown their DIY branding” gives you something you can actually work with.
Your customer choice affects virtually everything that comes afterwards, from your messaging to the channels you use.
2. What do you want to say to them?
Once you know who you are talking to, work out what they actually care about.
Customers are rarely lying awake at night thinking about your products and services. They are thinking about their own problems.
They might want to save time, make more money, reduce risk, look more professional, avoid frustration or simply feel more confident about a decision.
Your message should connect what you do with that outcome.
A useful starting point is:
We help [customer] achieve [result] through [service].
It is not necessarily the line you will plaster across every advertisement, but it forces you to get clear.
And when it comes to marketing, clarity nearly always beats cleverness.
3. Where will you reach them?
This is where people tend to go slightly mad.
You do not need to be everywhere.
You need to be in the places your customers are paying attention.
For one business that might mean Google and referrals. For another, LinkedIn and industry events. A local trade business might get far more value from vehicle signage, Google Ads and a strong website than posting three TikToks a day.
Choose two or three channels you can manage properly and work them consistently. That is also the approach in the marketing framework from my Stop Doing Random Marketing presentation.
Doing three things well usually beats doing nine things badly.
CONVERT: During the sale
Getting attention is only the first part.
Now you need to turn that interest into an enquiry and, eventually, a customer.
4. How will you capture leads?
Not everybody who discovers your business is ready to buy today.
So what happens to the people who are interested but not quite ready?
This is where lead generators can work well. A useful checklist, guide, calculator, template, audit, planning tool, sample pack or free consultation gives someone a reason to take a small step towards your business.
The trick is making it genuinely useful.
A good lead generator solves a small problem for the customer while demonstrating that you know what you are talking about.
5. How will you build trust?
Once someone is on your radar, do not immediately bludgeon them with “BUY NOW” messages.
Help them.
Share useful advice. Show examples of your work. Explain common mistakes. Answer the questions customers regularly ask. Use case studies, blogs, emails, videos or workshops to demonstrate your expertise before they need to make a decision.
People buy from businesses they trust.
The aim is not to constantly tell everyone how wonderful you are. It is to help your customer feel informed and confident enough to take the next step.
6. How will you make it easy to buy?
This is where a surprising amount of marketing effort goes to die.
A business spends thousands getting an enquiry and then takes four days to reply.
Or sends a confusing quote.
Or finishes every website page with the wonderfully vague instruction: Learn More.
Your buying process should be simple.
What happens after someone enquires? How quickly do you respond? What information do they receive? When do you follow up? What is the next step?
Your marketing material should also use clear calls to action. If you want someone to book a consultation, say Book a consultation. If you want them to request a quote, say Request a quote.
Do not make customers solve a small puzzle before they are allowed to give you money.
RETAIN: After the sale
This is the section that gets forgotten most often.
A lot of businesses treat marketing as something you do to find new customers, then stop once the invoice has been paid.
That leaves a lot of money on the table.
7. What experience will you give customers?
Marketing does not finish when somebody says yes.
The delivery experience affects whether they buy again, recommend you, leave a review or quietly decide never to call you again.
Think about what happens after the sale.
How do you communicate?
Do customers know what happens next?
Do you keep them updated?
Do you follow up after the project?
The experience itself becomes part of your marketing because customers talk about it.
8. How will you encourage repeat business?
Your best next customer may already be a customer.
Depending on your business, there may be natural opportunities to reconnect after three months, six months or a year.
You might send useful reminders, introduce another service, provide an annual review or simply check in and see how things are going.
This does not need to feel like a sales campaign.
A well-timed, useful conversation with an existing customer is often far easier than trying to win somebody completely new.
9. How will you generate referrals?
Happy customers are one of your best marketing assets, but hoping they remember to recommend you is not much of a strategy.
Think about how referrals happen in your business.
When is the customer happiest?
When would it feel natural to ask for a review or introduction?
Could you make referring someone easier?
Sometimes it is simply a follow-up email after a successful project. Other businesses might create a more formal referral system.
The important thing is to make it intentional.
Put the whole thing on one page
Once you answer those nine questions, you have the bones of a very practical marketing plan.
Your page can be divided into three columns:
Attract
- Target market
- Message
- Media
Convert
- Lead capture
- Lead nurturing
- Conversion
Retain
- Customer experience
- Retention
- Referrals
That is essentially the one-page framework shown on page 17 of my marketing presentation.
It is deliberately simple.
You should be able to look at the page and understand where your customers are coming from, what happens when they show interest and what you are doing after they buy.
Then choose what you will actually do
This is the bit that turns a marketing plan into marketing.
Do not walk away from the exercise with 37 new tasks.
Choose one meaningful action from each stage for the next 30 days.
For example:
Attract: Improve the main message on your website homepage.
Convert: Create a proper follow-up process for new enquiries.
Retain: Contact ten existing customers with a useful reason to reconnect.
The attached framework deliberately recommends one action from each area rather than trying to fix everything at once.
That matters because the aim is not to create the world’s most sophisticated marketing plan.
The aim is to actually do the marketing.
Finally, measure things that matter
Do not judge your marketing purely by likes, followers or whether somebody told you your latest Reel was funny.
Track the numbers that affect the business.
Things like enquiries, where those enquiries came from, quotes sent, conversion rate, average sale value, repeat purchases, referrals and cost per enquiry are far more useful.
You do not need a massive dashboard.
You just need enough information to work out what is producing results and what is wasting your time.
Simple marketing tends to get done
That is ultimately why I like a one-page marketing plan.
You can see it.
You can explain it.
Your team can understand it.
And when another shiny marketing idea appears on Tuesday morning, you have something to judge it against.
Does this help us attract the right customer?
Does it help us convert more of them?
Does it help us retain the ones we already have?
If not, perhaps it belongs in the “good idea, maybe later” pile.
Because good marketing is not about doing more.
It is about doing the right things consistently, and that is a much easier plan to stick to.
Need some help making your marketing less random?
Brand Hero works with businesses to simplify their marketing, clarify their message and build practical plans they can actually implement.
Our marketing coaching and consulting is not about giving you another enormous strategy document.
It is about working out what matters, what you should stop doing and what you are going to do next.