The purpose of a business is to make money and grow—if you don’t make money as a business owner, you’re running a hobby, not a business, according to business coach and entrepreneur Allan Dib.
Dib contends that for a small business, the surest way to make money and grow is to have a simple, clear marketing plan defining who you’re targeting as prospects and customers and how you’ll reach them. In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, he shows step-by-step how to create a marketing plan using a simple template that will drive business growth. This guide explains Dib’s method and compares it to other templates and marketing strategies.
Dib argues that many small businesses fail to thrive because they don’t get marketing right. (Shortform note: Similarly, Michael Gerber contends in The E-Myth Revisited that small businesses often fail because they lack business skills such as marketing. Their owners have a technical skill, such as a talent for baking, but don’t know how to make money at it.)
Dib says that most small businesses either 1) neglect marketing entirely, hoping simply to attract customers by word of mouth, or 2) they do the wrong kind of marketing, using big-business strategies that don’t work for small businesses. Dib argues that the answer to small business success is having the right marketing plan, one focused on direct-response advertising designed to prompt the prospect to act. (We’ll discuss direct-response advertising further in the next section.)
(Shortform note: Similarly, a Forbes article lists not having a marketing plan as among the 10 most common small business marketing mistakes. Others include not having a website, prioritizing social media marketing over developing your website, failing to customize your marketing strategy, and ignoring competitors’ marketing strategies.)
Dib’s template guides small business owners through three customer-focused phases of marketing: awareness, familiarity, and enthusiasm. Each phase has three steps. In sequence, the nine total steps define a process or “customer journey” of interactions that you’ll walk your prospects through. They start out not knowing anything about your business and ultimately become superfans. Download Dib’s template free or design your own by creating three rows of three squares each and filling them in sequentially as you go through the steps in each marketing phase described in this guide.
(Shortform note: You can view Dib’s books and training materials on his website successwise.com; or email him at allan@successwise.com.)
Dib’s Approach: Marketing Really Simplified
Inexperienced small business owners often hire a consultant to draw up a business plan, which usually has a section on marketing. The problem, Dib contends, is that these plans are so generic as to be useless in guiding your daily operations, and the plans end up being shelved and forgotten. Alternatively, some business owners try but soon give up on learning the myriad complexities of marketing, which mushroomed from the simple idea of moving goods from producer to consumer in the late 1700s, to a multifaceted professional discipline with an array of theories, practices, metrics, and ever-evolving jargon.
In contrast, Dib touts his one-page plan as a “marketing implementation breakthrough” allowing any small business owner to immediately grasp and customize the few key marketing concepts she really needs.
Dib’s template is reminiscent of the Business Model Canvas developed by Alexander Osterwalder and later described in his 2010 book Business Model Generation, which sketches nine building blocks for starting a business. Others have developed similar spinoff templates for marketing plans, such as the Marketing Canvas, but they’re more detailed than Dib’s one-page plan and aren’t designed specifically for small businesses. In comparison to others’, Dib’s template streamlines creating a marketing plan.
Dib defines marketing as your business strategy for reaching your target market, getting them to like your product or service, and converting them into loyal, ongoing customers.
He contends that of all business activities, marketing gives you the most leverage, or greatest impact for your effort, because by growing customers, marketing directly drives business growth. (Shortform note: Management expert Peter Drucker also argued that marketing is critical to business success. He said it’s one of only two functions—marketing and innovation—that contribute to a business’s purpose: creating customers.) So growing your business is why you need a marketing strategy or plan.
Many businesses mistake tactics for strategy. A strategy is your high-level approach to reaching and winning new customers, while tactics are your methods. Your strategy dictates your tactics.
Dib cautions that small business owners often become enamored with the latest digital marketing tactics—such as SEO, video, or pay-per-click advertising—before they’ve come up with an overall strategy. They cobble together a collection of random tactics in hopes of attracting customers, then wonder why they’re not getting results. (Shortform note: As one marketing strategist put it, that’s like going on vacation without picking a destination—you’re driving blind.)
Or, they mistakenly believe having a great product or service constitutes a marketing strategy—that if their product is great, it will naturally attract customers. However, a great product retains customers—once they buy something and like it, they’ll buy from you again. But first, you have to acquire customers through marketing.
(Shortform note: Marketing experts debate whether customer acquisition or customer retention is more important. Each has an advantage: retention yields a greater ROI while acquisition brings long-term growth.)
Small business owners often try to emulate big business by using “mass marketing” to increase general awareness of their product or to create a positive image. However, Dib contends that this type of marketing wastes money because small businesses need to reach a targeted group of likely customers rather than a universe of people, the vast majority of whom won’t buy.
He believes the most effective marketing strategy for a small business owner is direct-response marketing. (Shortform note: Dib often uses the terms marketing and advertising interchangeably, and he refers to advertising as both a strategy and tactic. The American Marketing Association defines marketing as identifying, predicting, and meeting customer needs. In contrast, advertising is a specific tactic—paying to place your company’s messaging or branding in specific media.)
Direct-response marketing is targeted to prospects most likely to be interested in your product or service; ads focus on solving their specific problem, and they’re designed to prompt an immediate response by encouraging people to take a specific action. For example, a financial planner might aim to get parents of high school-age children to sign up for a college finance webinar. Other “calls to action” include visiting a web page, signing up for a free report or newsletter, joining an email list, or buying.
Unlike mass marketing to build brand awareness, direct-response ads generate sales leads (potential customers you can contact). Further, Dib says for every $2 you spend on direct-response advertising, you generate about $10 in profits from sales—so it’s a cost-effective way for small businesses to reach customers.
(Shortform note: Other marketing strategists cite several disadvantages of direct-response marketing, including the difficulty of making your message stand out among many, and laws regulating mass emails and direct mail, which are the typical media for direct-response advertising.)
The Decline of Mass Marketing
Many, though not all, experts maintain that the effectiveness of mass marketing has been declining, even for big businesses—which may be all the more reason for small businesses to focus their resources on direct-response marketing and its immediate, measurable returns.
Reasons for the decline include the fragmenting of media, proliferation of new platforms and devices, and changing customer behavior such as multitasking and “switching off” or skipping ads. For example, by one estimate, television advertising was only about 35% as effective in 2010 as it was in 1990.
Adding to pressure on mass marketing will be the ability of technology to not only target specific consumers but also specific activities. A CEO argues in the Wall Street Journal that as technology is seamlessly woven into people’s lives, through connected cars and coffee pots, health trackers, and so on, advertising will increasingly capitalize on everyday moments and needs.
Although big tech offers sophisticated options for niche marketing, for small businesses the most cost-effective option may be “old school”: direct marketing via email or direct (snail) mail, on which Dib’s 1-Page Marketing Plan focuses.
Direct-response marketing is a multifaceted topic that you could spend considerable time studying. But the 1-Page Marketing Plan helps you write and implement a direct-response plan for your business without having to become an expert. Dib’s plan is based on three customer-focused marketing phases:
(Shortform note: Other experts also break marketing planning into three to five phases. But unlike Dib’s template focusing on customers, these plans typically focus on a company’s internal process, which can be more complex. For example, company process steps may include mission, situation analysis, marketing strategy/planning, marketing mix, implementation and control.)
We’ll discuss each of Dib’s marketing phases in more detail in the next sections.
In the first marketing phase, you want people who’ve likely never heard of your business—prospects—to discover you and respond to an offer, thereby becoming leads and entering the second phase. (Shortform note: As noted earlier, each marketing phase entails three steps. To create your own 1-page plan, fill in each step or square on the author’s or your own nine-square template as you read this guide.)
The three steps for reaching prospects are:
By identifying and focusing your marketing on the prospects most likely to buy from you, according to Dib, you’ll receive a better ROI or return on investment for your time, money, and effort.
As noted earlier, many small businesses try a mass marketing or branding approach of broadcasting their name widely and frequently in hopes that a small percentage of those who hear it will become customers. However, this type of marketing is costly and results are hit or miss. Dib recommends focusing narrowly on a single niche or subset of your market at a time.
(Shortform note: Similarly, in The 21 Immutable Laws of Marketing, the authors note that many businesses mistakenly believe that appealing to a wider audience will expand their customer base. However, the way to expand your customer base is actually to identify and focus on your strongest niche, because success in a niche expands the niche and beyond. For example, in advertising cigarettes, Marlboro targeted only men while other companies sought to attract both men and women. With its memorable campaign featuring cowboys, Marlboro led sales nationally among both men and women.)
Dib notes that you can keep serving multiple market niches, but he advises focusing your marketing on one ideal segment first—characterized by people you genuinely like working with, who value what you offer and are willing to pay a premium for it, and who exist in sufficient numbers to make the work profitable. After dominating your first niche, then target another niche.
You can also create niche profiles, including characteristics such as age, gender, education, income, and geographic location. In addition, delve deeper by researching and interviewing people in this market.
(Shortform note: An Inc. article offers more detailed steps for identifying your target market by analyzing the following: your customer base, competition, your product or service, the most-promising demographic, and their concerns, attitudes, and behaviors.)
Once you’ve identified your target prospects, step 2 of the awareness phase is crafting a message that gets their attention (so they react, “Hey, that’s just what I need!”) and compels them to act. Dib offers several tips to create such a message.
(Shortform note: Dib stresses that the purpose of direct-response advertising is to generate leads, or potential future customers, rather than to sell immediately, but his tips seem aimed at creating messages that sell, so it’s likely the two purposes overlap.)
1) Develop a unique selling proposition: Your ads should flow from your unique selling proposition, a concise problem-solution statement that tells prospects why they should buy from you rather than from a competitor. Dib contends your USP should position you so that prospects make an apples-to-oranges comparison between you and your competition rather than apples-to-apples. Your differentiator could be your product, or something else like packaging, delivery, or support.
How to Write a Unique Selling Proposition
Dib offers a simple formula for writing a USP: Describe the problem. Describe your solution. Provide your proof/testimonial.
Here’s another template that you can customize with information about your business:
For [hair stylists and salons]
Who need [top-quality styling products]
[Acme Beauty Supplies]
Is [the leading distributor of brand-name products]
Providing [the widest range of popular products delivered overnight].
Unlike [other suppliers using dubious sources],
[Acme Beauty Supplies] is [the only salon products distributor in North America that guarantees our products are authentic and will meet your standards].
In addition, here are examples of unique selling propositions, including from The Economist, HelloFresh, Ben & Jerry’s, and Robinhood.
2) Create a compelling offer: Once you know your niche and USP, you need to structure an offer that will excite your target prospects. Don’t go the lazy route of just offering a discount, or customers will default to an apples-to-apples price comparison. Dib identifies several essential elements of a compelling offer:
(Shortform note: In addition to these often-quoted basic elements, being extra creative with your offer can significantly boost your response rate. For example, a car dealer might offer an exclusive preview of its newest models to high-end clients—including catered food and a limo ride to the event. The key is to make your offer entertaining and unique (“May I send a limo to pick you up?”) Ask yourself whether the offer you’re contemplating would motivate you to act if you received it. This marketing website provides additional examples of compelling offers for various types of products.)
The third step in the awareness phase of marketing is choosing the right advertising medium to communicate your message to your target prospects.
Because advertising is the most expensive component of your marketing, Dib recommends choosing and managing it based on ROI, or how many leads and customers it generates versus the cost. By tracking results, you can drop ads that aren’t effective and boost the ones that work. Tools for tracking ad response include toll-free numbers, web analytics, and coupon codes.
To choose a medium or channel (such as direct mail/print, TV/radio, email, social media, or web/SEO), identify and go where your target prospects spend their time. Dib cautions that marketing via social media, while popular, has downsides: It’s time-consuming to monitor and you’re at the mercy of the platform, which owns your social media profile and page.
(Shortform note: As Dib notes, each medium has advantages and disadvantages. Some questions for small businesses to weigh in choosing media include: What do I want this marketing effort to accomplish, where do my target prospects go for information, what information do I want to convey and when, and what’s my budget?)
For affordability and effectiveness, Dib’s recommended media for small business marketing are email and direct (snail) mail.
Email is an inexpensive, direct, personal way to reach prospects and customers, which also can be automated. Dib notes that with email, you can:
Dib recommends using a commercial email marketing system such as MailChimp, ConvertKit, or ActiveCampaign (rather than trying to send mass emails via Outlook or Google mail). They meet compliance standards and work to improve delivery. Also, they automate sending.
How to Create an Email Campaign
According to marketing strategists, key questions to answer when planning an email campaign include:
Identify the outcome you want.
Identify a niche target.
Determine what matters to these prospects and how you’ll address it (what value you provide).
Decide on a timeline for the campaign.
Plan your emails and follow-ups.
Write subject lines that compel clicks (by promising value and personalizing).
Include a strong call to action.
Provide a way for recipients to opt out,
Test your email on multiple devices to make sure it looks right.
Track your metrics.
Here’s a planning template for email marketing plus examples of successful campaigns.
Despite the allure of social media and email, Dib recommends that regular or snail mail also be a part of your marketing strategy. Direct mail works as a marketing medium because:
The key to messaging is to use a mix of media appropriate to the prospects you want to reach, avoid relying too much on any one channel like social media to generate leads, and track the ROI.
(Shortform note: Surveys continue to show that direct mail has a higher response rate than email (4.4% versus 1.12%, according to the Direct Marketing Association). A study by The NPD Group Inc. found that 30% of recipients read email and 16% took action, compared with 47% who read direct mail and 27% who bought something as a result. Specifically, 44% of millennials in a Valassis survey said snail mail is their preferred way to receive offers, while slightly fewer—40%—cited mobile; this underscores the value of using a blend of tactics, including direct mail.)
The second marketing phase after creating awareness focuses on developing or nurturing sales leads—people who have indicated interest by responding to your message—and turning these leads into customers.
Dib’s three steps for increasing leads’ familiarity with you so they buy your product are:
The first step in increasing a lead’s familiarity with you is capturing their contact information in a database so you can follow up.
This is important because only a small percentage of the people who express initial interest by, for example, downloading a free report or video, will be ready to buy immediately. But if you don’t capture their names and contact information, they’ll forget about you soon after viewing your ad, and you’ll lose the opportunity to turn them into customers later.
Dib notes that capturing them in a database allows you to develop their interest over time, so a sale follows naturally.
Your marketing infrastructure (direct-response ads and database) is an engine that will keep generating sales for the future—Dib claims that while only 3% of leads may buy now, 40% may buy in the future.
To manage your marketing infrastructure, he recommends investing in a CRM system, or customer relationship management software that allows you to organize, track, and analyze customer data.
(Shortform note: In New Sales. Simplified., sales coach Mike Weinberg offers his own three-part method for generating new business: Strategically select prospects to pursue, create effective sales tools, and plan/execute. To generate leads, he explains how to create a list of likely prospects using online research and referrals. For instance, he recommends using LinkedIn to research an industry, identify leads by checking out your best customers’ LinkedIn contacts, initiate relationships, and share useful information. He also emphasizes meticulously planning your approach to the prospect, creating a well-crafted “sales story” and a scripted sales presentation.)
After a prospect has expressed interest and you’ve captured them as a lead in your database, the second step in the familiarity phase is continuing to develop their interest. You want to move them from being interested in your product to wanting it—and wanting to buy from you. Do this, Dib says, by making a series of contacts with the lead in which you:
These contacts will predispose leads to buy from you before you ever try to sell them. Most salespeople follow up on a lead only a few times—however, Dib recommends a multistep process in which you contact them 10 or more times. Your CRM can help with the follow-up work by sending automatic monthly emails to leads, alerting you when it’s time to make a follow-up call, and so on.
In traditional pressure selling, Dib notes that a dozen contacts would be unwelcome. But in a relationship built on trust and value, leads will welcome your contacts rather than feeling pressured or angry, and you’ll sell effortlessly and ethically.
(Shortform note: Along the line of building trust, many sales experts advocate a consultative method of selling, in which the salesperson asks questions about customer needs and concerns and helps create a solution to the customer’s problem. A version of this method is described in SPIN Selling.)
In the third step of the familiarity phase—conversion—turn interested leads into paying customers. Dib contends that the key to conversion is positioning yourself the right way, so that buying is the natural response.
He claims that most salespeople, who haven’t established a relationship of trust, position themselves as either beggars or adversaries pushing for sales by using high-pressure closing techniques. However, pressure tactics only engender more distrust. (Shortform note: In To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink argues that because most people have negative views of salespeople from the outset, pressure sales tactics following the ABC, or “always be closing,” mantra are increasingly ineffective.)
In contrast, because you’ve used this phase of marketing to build value and trust, Dib says conversion should be almost effortless. In addition, he offers the following positioning tips to convert leads to customers:
1. Be an educator, advisor, and problem-solver. This starts in step 2, cultivating your leads, where you offer something, such as a free report or webinar, that educates them about a problem they have. Dib notes that continuing contact, while delaying a sale, further strengthens your position as an expert and advisor acting in the customer’s best interests to help you solve her problem. (Shortform note: The Challenger Sale approach positions salespeople not only as experts but also as teachers, challenging their thinking about their market and providing customers with new insights into their problems.)
2. Eliminate the risk: Every buying decision carries a risk or fear of loss from choosing something that doesn’t pan out. Offering an extraordinary guarantee eliminates the risk. Dib says this guarantee should go beyond a simple refund to something specific and truly attention-grabbing—you’ll deliver the promised results or else. Determine the customer’s fear—for instance, that you’ll leave their house a mess while performing repairs—and promise that you’ll not only fix the problem forever, but also leave the house cleaner than when you arrived, or you’ll pay for a cleaner. Another way of eliminating risk is to allow the customer to try before she buys.
(Shortform note: In Traction, Gino Wickman recommends making a guarantee part of your marketing strategy. To come up with one, start by identifying your customers’ biggest frustrations and concerns, then develop a guarantee that will bring you more business by addressing those concerns. He also suggests calling your guarantee a pledge, commitment, or promise to give it added weight.)
3. Charge a premium price. Most businesses set prices based on their competition, or they calculate their cost and add a markup. This positions your product as a commodity, forcing you to compete on price, which is a downward spiral. Instead, Dib argues you should position yourself above competitors by charging a premium. This facilitates buying in several ways: A few customers will pay for the best, boosting your bottom line and attracting more high-end customers; and a high price for your main item will make other items seem reasonably priced.
(Shortform note: In New Sales. Simplified., Mike Weinberg cautions that if you charge a premium, you need to differentiate yourself to justify it—that is, you must sell the customer on the value you create for the price. The way to do this is to create a compelling sales story.)
The final marketing phase after creating awareness and building familiarity focuses on turning customers who’ve bought from you at least once into enthusiastic superfans who keep buying from you and make referrals.
Dib’s three steps for turning customers into superfans are:
Dib notes that most businesses stop marketing to a customer once she buys something—however, this way of thinking limits business growth. Developing customers into superfans generates ongoing revenue and can help you launch new products because superfans will test the products and evangelize for them.
The first step in building customer enthusiasm is delivering a standout experience that helps turn them into superfans. Dib recommends several strategies:
Creating a Customer Experience (CX) Strategy
Many business consultants recommend creating a customer experience or CX strategy that lays out your approach to creating the best possible customer experience for your product or service. To develop a CX strategy:
Create a “customer journey map” of customer interactions with your business.
Determine customer expectations.
Determine how to solve problems for the customer.
Provide self-service options.
Train your customer service employees.
Regularly collect feedback.
Track your performance.
Customer experience is a major differentiator for businesses. Further, customers who have great experiences are more likely to forgive a company when there’s a problem, are likely to buy more, and have a higher level of trust in the company.
After delivering a memorable experience, step 2 in the enthusiasm phase is to get customers to buy more from you. Dib repeats an often-quoted statistic that people are 21 times more likely to buy from a business they’ve already bought from than one they haven’t bought from. So you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t tap into their potential long-term value.
(Shortform note: Dib recommends calculating customer lifetime value or CLV—how much money a customer will bring to your brand throughout their time as a paying customer. The basic formula is: average order value x purchase frequency x average retention time in years. However, there are different formulas and variations, and it gets complicated. Although Dib recommends calculating CLV, he doesn’t explain how to apply these numbers in your marketing strategy. Other strategists say knowing your CLV can help you increase profits by identifying your most valuable customers, profiling them, and focusing on building that segment.)
Dib offers these strategies for getting more profit from existing customers (that is, increasing their lifetime value to your company):
(Shortform note: There are many other ways to increase customer lifetime value or purchases, including: Create unexpected and delightful surprises such as birthday coupons, give extensive product details (which increases the likelihood of buying), personalize the shopping experience, provide multiple ways to return items, reward loyalty, and create frequent buyer programs and exclusive offers.)
The final step in creating enthusiastic superfans is prompting referrals. Dib stresses that hoping for referrals isn’t enough—to get consistent referrals, you need a system for generating them. He recommends several approaches:
(Shortform note: Additional ways to generate referrals include: Make the experience so compelling that customers want to share it, leverage LinkedIn to identify effective referrals, create a customer referral program, and offer incentives for referrals.)
In summary, the three phases and nine steps of the 1-Page Marketing Plan are:
Phase 1 (Create Awareness):
Phase 2 (Build Familiarity):
Phase 3 (Build Enthusiasm):
Dib writes that while his plan is intended to simplify and explain marketing, its second purpose is to speed up implementation. But many small business owners fail to implement plans or take action due to analysis paralysis, failure to delegate, or a belief that their business is unique and a particular approach won’t work for them. However, knowing what to do is useless if you don’t do it.
(Shortform note: Analysis paralysis is also referred to as overthinking. Causes include fear of making mistakes and simply having too much information. Some antidotes are trusting your instincts, accepting uncertainty, and making small choices quickly.)
Dib emphasizes that the strategies and tactics underlying his marketing plan are proven, and they work for all types of businesses because they address human behavior, which is common across industries. (Shortform note: Critics of Dib’s book noted that it lacked examples of marketing plans for specific industries. However, on his website, Dib provides five examples of marketing plans created using his template: coach, medical office, e-commerce, software company, and real estate.)
Because marketing grows your business, Dib contends it’s a key business activity you need to do daily if you’re serious about succeeding.
Entrepreneur and consultant Allan Dib argues that marketing is the highest-value activity a small business owner can engage in.
What business activities do you currently expend the most effort on? What’s your ROI, or the impact versus effort required for these activities?
Where does marketing fall on your priorities list and why?
What one or two steps in Dib’s nine-step template would make the biggest difference in your business if implemented and why?
What activities could you delegate or drop to free up resources for marketing?
The author emphasizes that the key to his simplified marketing plan template isn’t creating your own plan, but implementing it. He faults many small businesses owners for failing to implement.
What’s a recent business initiative or idea that you considered at length but never implemented?
Why didn’t you implement it? (The author cites three reasons for failure to implement: analysis paralysis, reluctance to delegate, and believing your business is different. Others are fear of making a mistake and being overwhelmed with information.)
What would keep you from implementing a marketing plan, and how can you preempt or overcome these obstacles?