A strategy is not a list of channels. It is seven decisions, and once they are made the tactics are largely obvious. Most businesses skip the decisions and go straight to the tactics, which is why they end up doing a little of everything and none of it well.
This is the order I work through with a client, and the whole thing fits on two pages.
Quick Info
What a strategy is
Seven decisions, written down
Channels to start with
One, worked properly
First decision
Who exactly you are for
Most skipped decision
What you are not doing
Time to build it
One working day
Decision 1: who exactly
Narrow enough to name three real customers who fit. "Small businesses" is not an audience; it is a category too wide to write a single sentence for.
—Define by situation, not demographics. "Practices with two to five sites and no in-house marketing" is actionable.
—Look at your best existing customers and find what they have in common.
—Choose the segment that is profitable, reachable and that you like working with. All three.
—Write it as one sentence you could say on the phone.
Everything downstream, the channel, the message, the budget, is undecidable until you know who it is for.
Decision 2: what problem, and what it costs them
Stated in their words, with a number attached where possible. "They are invisible in local search and each lost customer is worth £400 a year" is a problem worth solving. "They need better marketing" is not.
This is the sentence your entire marketing rests on, because it is the reason somebody acts rather than deferring. If you cannot say what the problem costs them now, your offer will always be competing against doing nothing.
Decision 3: what you offer and why you
—The offer, specifically: what they get, in what timeframe, for what price.
—The reason to choose you, stated so that a competitor would find it awkward to claim: a specialism, published results, a guarantee, a genuine constraint you accept.
—Not "quality and service". Everybody says that and it therefore says nothing.
—A price or a starting price. Silence on price loses more prospects than a high number does.
Decision 4: one channel
The hardest discipline and the one that most improves results. Pick the single channel where your defined audience is reachable, work it properly for six months, and only then add another.
How to pick
—Do they search for a solution? Then SEO and local search, with paid search alongside if the budget exists.
—Do they not know they have the problem? Then paid social, which creates demand rather than capturing it.
—Are they in an identifiable industry with events and publications? Then partnerships, speaking and guest content.
—Do you already have a network in the space? Then referral and direct outreach, which is the fastest of all and the least glamorous.
—Do you sell products with visual appeal? Then paid social and marketplaces.
Two channels is acceptable if one is email, because email supports everything. Five channels is not a strategy; it is a way of being consistently mediocre.
Decision 5: what you are not doing
Write this down explicitly. It is the part that makes the strategy usable when opportunities appear, and it is the part almost everybody leaves out.
—Name the channels you are not working this year.
—Name the customer types you will decline.
—Name the services you are not offering, even if asked.
—Name the price floor below which you will not work.
—Then hold to it for at least two quarters, or you do not have a strategy, you have a preference.
Decision 6: the one number
One metric that tells you the strategy is working. Not a dashboard.
—Qualified enquiries per month, for most service businesses.
—New customers per month, if the sale is short.
—Monthly recurring revenue, if you sell retainers.
—Blended cost per acquisition, if you are spending meaningfully on ads.
—Pick one, set a target, and report it monthly.
Everything else is diagnostic. When the number moves the wrong way, the other metrics tell you why, and that is all they are for.
Decision 7: what you will spend
Money and time, both stated. Undated intentions are not a plan.
—Money: a percentage of revenue you can sustain. Five to ten per cent for an established business, more if you are buying growth.
—Time: hours per week, in the diary, owned by a named person.
—Split it: acquisition, existing customers, and content or creative production.
—Include the unglamorous line items: creative production, tools, and somebody's time to follow up leads.
—Review quarterly against the one number.
The budget allocation guide covers the split in detail.
The first ninety days
01Weeks one to two: make the seven decisions and write them on two pages. Fix the obvious conversion problems on your site: clarity, speed, a short form, a visible price.
02Weeks three to four: set up measurement. Analytics, Search Console, a way of recording where enquiries came from, and the one number.
03Weeks five to eight: work your chosen channel. Publish, advertise, or reach out, consistently, at the cadence you can sustain.
04Weeks nine to ten: build the existing-customer basics. A welcome sequence, a review request, a referral ask.
05Weeks eleven to twelve: review. What did the one number do? Which decision was wrong? What are you stopping?
Note what is not in the first ninety days: a rebrand, a new website, a social presence on four platforms. Those are the projects that absorb a quarter and produce no enquiries.
Where these strategies go wrong
—Too many channels, so none reaches the threshold where it works.
—Audience defined too widely, so the message fits nobody in particular.
—No named owner, so the work happens when there is spare time, which is never.
—Judging a channel after three weeks. Six months is a fair trial for organic, six weeks for paid.
—Fixing the marketing when the problem is the offer or the price.
—Leads arriving and nobody following them up quickly, which wastes everything upstream.
Most failed marketing is not badly executed. It is spread so thin that nothing had a chance to work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a small business marketing strategy include?
Seven decisions: who exactly, what problem and its cost, your offer and why you, one channel, what you are not doing, the one number, and what you will spend.
How many marketing channels should I use?
One, worked properly, plus email. Adding channels before the first one works reliably spreads effort below the threshold where anything succeeds.
How do I choose the right channel?
By whether your audience is already searching for a solution. If they are, search. If they do not know they have the problem, paid social.
How long before a strategy shows results?
Six weeks for paid, six months for organic channels. Judging earlier than that means reacting to noise.
What is the most common mistake?
Doing a little of everything. That, and defining the audience so widely that the message cannot speak to anyone specifically.
How much should I spend on marketing?
Five to ten per cent of revenue for an established small business, more if you are deliberately buying growth, with time and creative production budgeted explicitly.
Before You Go
Seven decisions, two pages, one channel, one number. Then ninety days of doing it before you change anything.
The decision people find hardest is what to stop. It is also the one that makes the rest work. Choosing between social, SEO and email is the next question if the channel decision is not obvious.
Seven decisions. One channel. Ninety days.
WRITTEN BY TARIQ SALLAM
Marketing Consultant. Entrepreneur. Content Creator.
I'm a marketing consultant, entrepreneur and content creator. I help businesses grow through practical marketing, websites, SEO, content and AI.
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