Six sections: target customer, primary problem you solve, your differentiator, three channels, three campaigns per quarter, measurable goals.
Most marketing plans are 30+ page slide decks that nobody reads after week one. A one-page plan you actually execute beats a 30-page plan you don't.
**The six-section template:**
**1. Target customer (3–4 sentences)** — Specific demographic + psychographic + situational profile. NOT "small businesses." Specific: "Independent HVAC contractors with 3–8 trucks, $1M–$5M revenue, in Texas + Arizona, currently spending $3K+/month on Google Ads with declining ROAS." If you can't picture one specific real person who fits this, the description is too vague.
**2. Primary problem you solve (2–3 sentences)** — In their language, not yours. "Their cost-per-lead from Google Ads has doubled in 18 months and they don't know why" beats "we provide PPC optimization services."
**3. Your differentiator (1 sentence)** — What you do that competitors don't, or do that competitors won't. If you can't fill this in, you don't have a differentiator and you're competing on price by default.
**4. Three channels (one line each)** — The three places you'll show up to reach the target. Pick three and only three. Common picks: SEO + Google Ads + email; LinkedIn + cold outbound + referrals; Instagram + influencer + retail. Trying to be on six channels at small business scale produces nothing memorable on any of them.
**5. Three campaigns per quarter (one line each)** — Specific time-boxed pushes. "Q2: launch the inspection-checklist lead magnet" / "Q3: publish the annual State of HVAC Marketing report" / "Q4: holiday-season Google Ads scaling." Date + topic + outcome.
**6. Measurable goals (2–3 metrics)** — Not "grow brand awareness." Specific: "200 organic leads/month by Q4 (up from 60), $80 cost per qualified lead from paid (down from $140), 30 reviews per quarter." Lagging indicators (revenue) and leading indicators (top-of-funnel volume) both included.
**What to leave out:** competitive analysis (do it once a year, not on the marketing plan), SWOT analysis (rarely actionable), brand voice guidelines (separate document), every channel you might do later.
Review quarterly. Rewrite annually.
- **What's the difference between marketing and sales?** — Marketing creates the conditions for sales — awareness, interest, qualified leads. Sales is the human conversation that converts a qualified lead into a paying customer. - **What is positioning and why does it matter?** — The mental space your brand occupies in the customer's mind relative to competitors. Positioning is the single highest-leverage marketing decision you'll make. - **How much should a small business spend on marketing?** — Established businesses: 5–12% of revenue. Growth-mode businesses: 12–25%. Pre-product-market-fit: whatever cash you can afford to lose, focused on learning not scaling. - **What's the difference between B2B and B2C marketing?** — B2B sells to multiple decision-makers, longer sales cycles, higher deal sizes, rational ROI-driven messaging. B2C sells to individuals, shorter cycles, lower deal sizes, often emotion-driven messaging. The lines are blurring.