Marketing a small business is not about doing a bit of everything. It is about deciding five things once, writing them on one page, and holding them for a year. Businesses that have that page spend less and get more, because every action adds to the previous one. Here is the plan in five questions, an example for a small service company, and the rhythm that keeps it alive.
Question 1: which market, in which situation
Not an industry, a situation: the businesses or people living the moment that triggers your offer. A company that just hired a new leader, opened a location, launched a product, lost a supplier. How many such decisions happen each year within your reach, who decides, and what makes them buy today rather than next year. A marketing plan that opens with "the market is huge" has not started.
Question 2: which offer, said in one sentence
For whom, what result, what makes you different from those who promise the same thing. Three tiers rather than one, with a middle tier most customers choose. What the offer includes, what it does not, and the proof you deliver it. A vague offer does not sell, whatever the marketing behind it.
Question 3: which price, and why
Price says value. Too low, it worries and attracts the most demanding customers. Set the price from what the customer gets, not from what it costs you, and plan what would justify raising it: a guarantee, a deadline, one point of contact, proof of results.
Question 4: how you sell
Direct, through partners, through referrers, online, on site. Each channel has its own acquisition cost and delay. The plan picks one main channel and one or two supporting ones, and sets how many contacts it takes for one sale, from what you already know.
Question 5: how you get seen
Here the communication plan begins: the channels where the target already looks, the message, the calendar, the measurement. And the proof that precedes any contact: reviews, case studies, content, a film. The brand film is often the piece written into the plan because it serves every sales channel at once: sent before a meeting, shown to a partner, posted on the site. Studio FLF builds it from what the plan has to achieve, never as one more video; see the corporate films made in Miami.
Marketing plan for a small business: an example
Market: companies with twenty to two hundred employees within an hour's drive that just changed leadership or opened a site. Offer: a three-tier program with one point of contact and a result measured at six months. Price: at market for the first tier, above for the other two, justified by the result guarantee. Selling: direct by the founder, supported by two chain partners and by referrals. Visibility: the Google profile, LinkedIn held by the founder, one content page every two weeks, a film in the first quarter, two events a year. Measurement: qualified inquiries per month, share coming from partners, conversion rate.
The rhythm that makes it hold
A twelve-month plan, reviewed each quarter, with three numbers checked monthly. One lever changed at a time, measured for three months before touching another. When inquiries rise and margin follows, the plan is working, whatever the view counts say.
If your plan calls for a film, tell us what it has to achieve.