Your Marketing Doesn’t Need to be Complicated: How to Execute The One Page Marketing Plan

Most companies engage in what we call, “random acts of marketing.” They’re doing some things right, but not in a way that’s compelling or driving revenue. Instead of treating their marketing like an educated investment, they’re treating it like a slot machine.

Here’s the thing: people lose a lot of money at slot machines. 

It’s frustrating to feel like marketing is a necessary expense, but that you’re unsure if it’ll ever actually work for you. When will results come?

We work with companies to establish marketing plans that they can understand. It’s our goal for a marketing plan for our clients to be able to execute and see that it works. How do we do that? It’s not magic. 

We make it simple.

The One Page Marketing Plan 

We’re not geniuses at Banker Creative, but we do know how to weaponize good info when we find it. One of the best templates we use comes from a book called, The One Page Marketing Plan. In it, Allen Dib breaks down marketing into the nine buckets you need to focus on. Nine sounds like a lot, right? I thought this was simple. Trust us, here’s how to make better, more actionable marketing plans.

Who is your audience?

A lot of times when we ask clients who their audience is they say the same thing: EVERYBODY. While that sort of aspiration is admirable, it’s just not realistic. The best marketing tactics work because they’re simple. You have to define a narrow enough audience that you can talk to them as a group and have it makes sense. One way to know if your audience is narrow enough: could you buy an email list consisting of that group? We’re not saying you should go out and buy an email list, but that’s always going to be indicative that someone else has targeted that group and sees them as important. 

What’s your message?

You have an audience. What are you telling them? We use StoryBrand as our framework to help companies find their message. That works for us. We like StoryBrand, and we see results from it. Will you? Yes, if you make sure that you get your message right. StoryBrand is great because most folks understand what makes a story compelling, and it distills your brand’s message down into exactly that. Your brand is the thing that helps the hero triumph! 

Where are you promoting your message?

You have your audience, you have your message. Where are you promoting it? The internet is a big place. While you can choose to do everything, it’s probably not realistic to think that you’ll be everything to everyone. That’s a recipe for burnout. Instead pick the areas that you think will be most effective. It could be youtube, it could be podcasts, it could be an email list. As a rule, we like to pick just a few different channels and really focus on those places and what makes for good content. 

Are you moving potential leads through your funnel?

This is a little different than some of our other points here, but it makes sense to put them together. Basically, the three middle sections of the one-page business plan have to do with leading people down your sales funnel. It’s really important to capture and nurture leads, but sometimes “capture” means different things to different people. Do you want to get them on your Facebook group? Do you have an email list? Sometimes the nurturing takes place before that even happens.

We sometimes use paid linkedin strategies to get content out in front of a targeted market where you can nurture them there first, then try to capture them into your funnel. In many cases, people don’t want to be put onto long email drips before they buy your product. They want to do research upfront, then call you. 

Are you giving a world-class experience to your customer? 

One thing that’s important to remember is that your client’s journey isn’t done once you sell them something. In fact, that’s when the most important part of their journey starts. Once somebody is on board, you need to make sure that they have a good experience or you’re not going to get referrals or testimonials – which are obviously hugely important to marketing your product. 

What’s your customer’s lifetime value?

If you DO have a great product and great service, then they’re going to benefit from working with you. Think about how the lifetime value of your product affects your customers and their perception of your brand. 

Where are your referrals coming from?

When you have a great marketing program set up and a great product that you’re selling, referrals are going to be easier to come by. Obviously, right? The best ads are word of mouth. Think about where your referrals have come from in the past and analyze what worked and what didn’t in that process. Figuring that out is going to make a huge difference. 

if you want to dive deeper, pick up the book One-Page Marketing Plan. It’s great. It’s a great, deeper dive into this concept. And just imagine what you’re going to feel like when you actually have a handle on your marketing and you feel confident that it’s all tied together and it’s going to pay off. It’s really a great feeling.