10 Things Every 90-Day Marketing Plan Actually Needs
Annual plans die in March. Ninety days is short enough to finish and long enough to matter.
By Lance Wagner · Published · Last Updated
What should a 90 day marketing plan include?
A 90 day marketing plan needs one objective, one owner, a short list of channels, dated deliverables, KPIs you already measure, a test budget, and a written stop list. If it doesn't fit on one page, nobody will follow it.
Most marketing plans are documents nobody opens twice. A good one is a short list of decisions with dates on them.
Ten things yours needs.
1One objective
Not five. One. More leads, more repeat visits, a successful launch, a lower cost per customer.
Everything in the plan should be defensible against that single objective.
2One number that proves it
Pick the number the objective moves, and write down where it's measured and who reads it.
If you can't measure it today, fixing that is week one.
3An owner
A plan without a name next to it is a wish. Someone has to own it day to day, even if they're not doing all the work.
4A short channel list
Two or three channels, run properly, beat six run occasionally.
Pick based on where your customers already are and what you can sustain.
5Dated deliverables
New service pages, a photo shoot, a review flow, a landing page. Each with a date and a person.
Undated work doesn't happen.
6A foundation phase
The first 30 days are usually unglamorous: tracking, CRM, the three worst pages on the site.
Skipping this is why quarter two feels like quarter one again.
7A test budget
Ten percent of spend, aimed at one hypothesis a month, written down before you start.
You have to be willing to report the failures. That's the point of the budget.
8A stop list
Name what you're stopping. Every plan adds work and almost none remove any.
The stop list is where the time and money for the new stuff comes from.
9A retention play
At least one item that serves customers you already have. It's the cheapest revenue in the plan and it always gets cut first.
10A review date
Put the day 90 review on the calendar before day one. Decide in advance what would make you keep going, change, or stop.
The short version
- One objective, one number, one owner.
- Spend the first 30 days making the next 60 measurable.
- Reserve ten percent for tests you're willing to lose.
- Write the stop list. It's the hardest and most useful part.
Questions people ask
- Why 90 days instead of a year?
- Ninety days is long enough for a channel to produce a real signal and short enough that people stay accountable. Annual plans get written once and abandoned by spring.
- How many channels should a small business run?
- Two or three, done consistently. Adding a fourth usually means all four get less attention.
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