A Simple Marketing Plan for a Business With No Marketing Department
Short answer: A simple marketing plan for the first 90 days is to answer the five basic questions about your business, fix your website’s basics, post consistently on one or two platforms, publish a few useful articles, test a small ad budget, and review the results every month. The key is doing a few things steadily, not everything at once.
Who is this plan for?
It is for an owner who is also the marketing department. You have a business to run, so the plan assumes a limited amount of time each week. If you can spend about three to five hours a week, you can complete it. If you have less, stretch each phase over more time.
Days 1 to 30: get the foundation right
Week 1: answer the five questions
Write down who you are, what you do, why customers choose you, where you work, and when you are available. These answers should appear everywhere. See the five questions for how to write them.
Week 2: review your website
Check speed, how it looks on a phone, whether it says what you do in the first few seconds, and whether there is one clear next step. See how to tell if your website is working.
Week 3: look at your competitors
Spend one hour reviewing three to five of them. See how to check them for free.
Week 4: set your goal and budget
Decide what you want from marketing in numbers, such as a certain number of new inquiries a month, and set a budget you can sustain for six months.
Days 31 to 60: build a steady presence
- Pick one or two social platforms where your customers are, and post on a schedule you can keep. See what social media management really costs for what is involved.
- Publish one or two helpful articles that answer questions customers ask you.
- Set up Google’s free Search Console so you can see how your site performs in search (see Get started with Search Console).
- Make it easy to reach you: a clear phone number, a booking link, or a simple form.
Days 61 to 90: test and learn
- Run a small, capped ad test and track how many inquiries it produces. See programmatic ads explained if you are curious about display advertising.
- Compare results: what brought inquiries, and what did not?
- Decide: keep, drop, or increase each activity for the next 90 days.
How much should you budget?
There is no single answer. The SBA notes a wide range of benchmarks, including one source citing average advertising spend near 1% of revenue and another putting average marketing spending near 8%, and it advises that newer businesses generally need to spend more (see How to Get the Most From Your Marketing Budget). A practical approach is to start with an amount you can sustain for at least six months, then adjust based on what you learn.
What should you measure?
| What to track | Why it matters | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Inquiries, calls, or bookings | The result you actually want | Monthly |
| Where each inquiry came from | Shows what to keep doing | Monthly |
| What you spent to get them | Tells you if it is worth it | Monthly |
| Website visits from search | Shows if people can find you | Monthly |
What does a typical week look like?
Here is one way to spread three to five hours across a week during the build months. It is an illustration, so adjust it to your own schedule.
| Task | Time |
|---|---|
| Write or schedule your social posts | About 1 hour |
| Reply to comments, messages, and inquiries | About 1 hour |
| Write or review one article (every other week) | 1 to 2 hours, alternating weeks |
| Check your numbers: inquiries and where they came from | About 30 minutes |
| Improve one thing on your website or message | 30 to 60 minutes |
If a week gets away from you, protect two things: answering inquiries quickly and posting on schedule. Everything else can slide a week.
What are the most common mistakes?
- Doing everything at once and stopping after a month
- Spending on ads before the website message is clear
- Measuring likes instead of inquiries
- Changing direction every few weeks
- Never writing down the plan
When should you ask for help?
If a phase takes more time than you have, hand off that part, not the whole plan. Many owners keep the five questions and the goals, and hire help for content, ads, or the website.
What happens after 90 days?
Review the results, keep what produced inquiries, drop what did not, and set the next 90 days. A plan repeated with small changes usually beats starting over each quarter, because each round builds on what you have already learned.
Frequently asked questions
Can I do this myself?
Many owners do the first month themselves. Hours add up in months two and three, which is when many people ask for help.
What if I only have a few hours a week?
Do fewer things well. Fix the website message and post consistently on one platform before adding anything else.
What if I have no website at all?
Start there. A simple, clear site with your five answers and a way to contact you is the foundation for everything else.
If you want help with any part of this plan, see our services, or get a free marketing audit and we will tell you what to do first.
