Book SummaryThe 1-Page Marketing Plan, by Allan Dib

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The 1-Page Marketing Plan

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...

The 1-Page Marketing Plan Summary A Marketing Template

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...

The 1-Page Marketing Plan Summary What Marketing Is and Why You Need 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.

Strategy vs. Tactics

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...

The 1-Page Marketing Plan Summary Phase 1—Create Awareness

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:

1. Identify your target market.
2. Develop a compelling message for this market.
3. Deliver the message through some type of direct advertising.

1. Identify Your Target Market

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...

The 1-Page Marketing Plan Summary Phase 2—Build Familiarity

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:

1. Capture leads in a database.
2. Cultivate leads—increase their interest with offers that build in value.
3. Convert them into customers (get them to like/trust you enough to buy from you, moving into the third phase of the marketing process).

1. Capture Leads

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...

The 1-Page Marketing Plan Summary Phase 3—Build Enthusiasm

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:

1. Give them an extraordinary experience.
2. Get them to keep buying more from you, increasing their value to your business.
3. Get them to make referrals.

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.

1. Give Them an Extraordinary Experience

The first step in building customer enthusiasm is delivering a standout experience that helps turn them into superfans. Dib recommends several strategies:

• Ensure the customer gets results from the product. Customers often don’t use a product as intended, then conclude it doesn’t work, and never buy from you again. To retain them as happy customers, walk them through the products’ setup and use;...

The 1-Page Marketing Plan Summary Conclusion

In summary, the three phases and nine steps of the 1-Page Marketing Plan are:

Phase 1 (Create Awareness):

1. Identify your target market.
2. Develop a compelling message for this market.
3. Deliver the message through some type of direct advertising.

Phase 2 (Build Familiarity):

1. Capture leads
2. Cultivate leads
3. Convert leads to customers

Phase 3 (Build Enthusiasm):

1. Give your customers an extraordinary experience.
2. Get them to buy more from you.
3. Get them to make referrals.

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...

Shortform Exercise: Rethink Your Approach to Marketing

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?

Shortform Exercise: Take Steps to Implement a Marketing Plan

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?