The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd

by Allan Dib

Strategy is the big-picture planning you do prior to the tactics.

So what do you do instead? You hire a builder and an architect first and they plan everything out from the major stuff like getting building permits, down to what kind of tap fittings you’d like. All of this is planned prior to a single shovel of dirt being moved. That’s strategy.

Then, once you have your strategy, you know how many bricks you need, where the foundation goes and what kind of roof you’re going to have. Now you can hire a bricklayer, carpenter, plumber, electrician and so on. That’s tactics.

You can’t do anything worthwhile successfully without both st...

Strategy without tactics leads to paralys...

Tactics without strategy leads to the “bright shiny object syndrome.”

You need both strategy and tactics to be successful but strategy must come first and it dictates the tactics you use.

I Have a Great Product/Service, Do I Really Need Marketing?

Good, even great products are simply not enough. Marketing must be one of your major activities if you’re to have business success.

As Thomas Watson from IBM famously said: “Nothing happens until a sale is made.”

Therefore we need to clearly understand an important concept: a good product or service is a customer-retention tool.

However, before customer retention, we need to think about customer acquisition (AKA marketing). The most successful entrepreneurs always start with marketing.

How to Kill Your Business

The most common way small business owners decide on this is by looking at large, successful competitors in their industry and mimicking what they’re doing. This seems logical—do what other successful businesses are doing and you will also become successful. Right? In reality this is the fastest way to fail and I’m certain it’s responsible for the bulk of small business failures. Here are the two major reasons why. #1 Large Companies Have a Different Agenda

Large companies have a very different agenda when it comes to marketing than small businesses do. Their strategies and priorities differ from yours significantly.

The marketing priorities of a small business owner look something like this: Making a profit

#2 Large Companies Have a VERY Different Budget

Strategy changes with scale. This is very important to understand.

If you have an advertising budget of $10 million and three years to get a profitable result, then you’re going to use a very different strategy compared with someone needing to make a profit immediately with a $10,000 budget.

Large Company Marketing

Large company marketing is also sometimes known as mass marketing or “branding.” The goal of this type of advertising is to remind customers and prospects about your brand as well as the products and services you offer.

The vast majority of large company marketing falls into this category. If you’ve seen the ads from major brands such as Coca-Cola, Nike and Apple you’ll have experienced mass marketing.

Branding, mass marketing and ego-based marketing is the domain of large companies.

Small and Medium Business Marketing

Direct response marketing is a particular branch of marketing that gives small businesses cut through and a competitive edge on a small budget. It’s designed to ensure you get a return on investment that is measurable.

When you turn your ads into direct response ads, they become lead generating tools rather than just name recognition tools.

Direct response marketing is designed to evoke an immediate response and compel prospects to take some specific action, such as opting in to your email list, picking up the phone and calling for more information, placing an order or being directed to a web page.

So what makes a direct response ad? Here are some of the ma...

It’s trac...

It’s measurable.

It uses compelling headlines and sales copy.

It uses attention-grabbing headlines with strong sales copy that is “salesmanship in print.”

It targets a specific audience or niche.

It makes a specific offer.

simply get the prospect to take the next action, such as requesting a free report. The offer focuses on the prospect rather than on the advertiser and talks about the prospect’s interests, desires, fears, and frustrations.

It demands a response. Direct response advertising has a “call to action,” compelling the prospect to do something specific. It also includes a means of response and “capture” of these responses.

Interested, high-probability prospects have easy ways to respond, such as a regular phone number, a free recorded message line, a website, a fax back form, a reply card or coupons.

It includes multi-step, short-term follow-up. In exchange for capturing the prospect’s details, valuable education and information on the prospect’s problem is offered. The information should carry with it a second “irresistible offer”—tied to whatever next step you want the prospect to take, such as calling to schedule an appointment or coming into the showroom or store.

It incorporates maintenance follow-up of unconverted leads.

There is value in this bank of slow-to-mature prospects. They should be nurtured and continue hearing from you regularly.

The 1-Page Marketing Plan is a tool that helps you implement direct response marketing in your business without needing to spend years studying to become an expert.

The 1-Page Marketing Plan The 1-Page Marketing Plan (1PMP) canvas is designed so that you can fill it in in point form as you read this book and end up with a personalized marketing plan for your business. Here’s what a blank 1PMP canvas looks like:

There are nine squares split up into the three major phases of the marketing process. Most great plays, movies and books are split up into a three-act structure and so too is good marketing. Let’s take a look into these three “acts.”

The Three Phases of the Marketing Journey

These phases are the Before, During and After2 phases of your marketing process. The following is a brief overview of each of these phases.

Before We label people going through the before phase as prospects. At the beginning of the “before” phase, prospects typically don’t even know you exist.

During We label people going through the during phase as leads. At the beginning of the “during” phase, leads have indicated some interest in your offer. The successful completion of this phase results in the prospect buying from you for the first time.

After We label people in this phase as customers.3 At the beginning of the “after” phase, customers have already given you money. The after phase never ends and, when executed correctly, results in a virtuous cycle where the customer buys from you repeatedly and is such a fan of your products or services that they consistently recommend you and introduce you to new prospects.

In summary if we were to describe the three phases in table form, it would look like this: PHASE STATUS GOAL OF THIS PHASE Before Prospect Get them to know you and indicate interest During Lead Get them to like you and buy from you for the first time After Customer Get them to trust you, buy from you regularly and refer new business to you

The “Before” Phase Section Summary In the “before” phase, you’re dealing with prospects. Prospects are people who may not even yet know you exist. In this phase, you’ll identify a target market, craft a compelling message for this target market and deliver your message to them through advertising media. The goal of this phase is to get your prospect to know you and respond to your message. Once they’ve indicated interest by responding, they become a lead and enter the second phase of your marketing process.