In many small companies marketing happens in bursts. There is a plan at the start of the year, a flurry of posts before a trade fair, and then weeks of silence because orders and customers come first. The usual cure is a bigger plan, but a bigger plan is exactly what nobody has time to open.
A smaller unit works better: one page, one week. This article describes a routine that takes about fifteen minutes to set up and ten minutes a week to keep running. It is written for owners and for whoever in a small company looks after marketing next to other duties.
What goes on the page
The page has five parts, and it should fit on a single sheet or in one shared document:
- The week. The dates, so the page is clearly about this week and not a standing list.
- Three tasks. No more. Each is written as something that can be finished, such as "publish the article about delivery times" and not "work on content".
- The owner. One name for the whole page. Others may do the tasks, but one person answers for the page.
- The time block. When the work is done, for example Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00 to 10:30.
- One number to watch. For example enquiries received, newsletter signups or visits to one key page. One is enough.
Choosing the three tasks
Start from the single goal for the month, such as more enquiries for a particular service. Ask what the three most useful steps toward it are this week. If you are unsure, favour tasks that finish something (publish, send, fix) over tasks that only prepare something (research, brainstorm).
A useful mix is one task that produces something new, one that improves something existing, such as a weak page or a contact form, and one that keeps contact with people, such as answering comments or writing to a past customer. Not every week needs all three kinds.
Why one owner
When two people share a plan, each often assumes the other will do the unpleasant part. A single owner does not have to do everything, but must notice on Friday what did not happen. If the owner is also the person with the least free time, choose again: a plan owned by someone who cannot touch it is the same as no plan.
Protecting the time
The most common reason weekly plans fail is not lack of ideas but lack of time. Work that is not in the calendar loses to the customer on the phone. Book the time block as a meeting with yourself, and treat it as movable only to another fixed time, not to "later".
If ninety minutes twice a week is too much, start with one block. Three small tasks done every week beat ten ambitious ones done in January.
The Friday check
On Friday, take ten minutes and answer four questions, writing one line for each:
- Which of the three tasks are finished?
- What got in the way for the ones that are not?
- What did the number you watch do this week?
- What are the three tasks for next week?
The fourth answer is the next page. Copy the page, change the dates and you are done. Over a few months these pages also become a simple record of what was tried, which is useful when you review marketing at the end of a quarter or write a monthly summary. A one-page monthly marketing report with five numbers shows how to turn the weekly numbers into a monthly view.
What to cross out
A task that is not finished after two weeks is usually telling you something: it is too large, it is not important, or it depends on someone else. Split it, drop it or hand the dependency to the person who can resolve it. Do not carry it forward silently. A page that grows by one stale task each week stops being read within a month.
Common mistakes
- Planning too much. Seven tasks mean none gets finished. Keep to three.
- Vague tasks. If you cannot tell on Friday whether it is done, rewrite it.
- No watched number. Without one you cannot tell activity from progress.
- Skipping the Friday check. Without it the page becomes a wish list.
- Treating a bad week as failure. A week where one task was done is still a week of marketing. Note why and continue.
A first week
Today, choose the monthly goal, write the three tasks for the coming week, name the owner and book the time block. On Friday, answer the four questions. After four weeks, look at the pages together: you will see what you actually do, which is more useful than the plan you meant to follow.
Sources
- Practical guidance based on common small-business planning practice, offered as a planning aid. The examples are invented for illustration. No client results or performance figures are claimed in this article.
