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Answer
For a small business, a marketing plan fits on one page and answers ten questions: 1. Who exactly are we for? 2. What do we sell them, and at what price? 3. What is the goal this quarter, as a number? 4. Which two or three channels will we use? 5. What do we offer people before they are ready to buy? 6. How do we follow up? 7. How does someone actually buy? 8. How do we keep customers and get referrals? 9. Which numbers will we watch? 10. What are we deliberately not doing? Question 10 is the one most plans skip and the one that matters most. Marketing usually fails from too many half-finished efforts, not too few ideas. Use the One-Page Marketing Plan template. Fill it in imperfectly in 30 minutes, then sharpen it monthly.
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