Next year's marketing plan on a single page

A small business marketing plan fits on one page: one measurable goal, who you sell to, two or three channels, what you'll do each quarter, how much you'll spend, and how you'll know it worked. If it doesn't fit on a page, it's usually more than you can actually pull off with the people you have. December is a good month to write it, before January catches up with you.

At the top: one goal

Write one goal, not five. And write it so that in December 2026 you can answer "yes" or "no":

• not "more visibility," but "40 quote requests a month through the website, up from 25 now";
• not "more diners," but "group bookings every Friday from March through June."

Take your numbers from what you measured this year. If you didn't measure anything, your first goal for 2026 is exactly that: find out where your customers come from.

Who you sell to and where to find them

Two or three lines about your best customer: who they are, what they're looking for, where they look before they buy. Your channels follow from that.

Pick three at most. A construction company that sells to other businesses needs a clear website, its Google profile and maybe LinkedIn. A beauty salon lives on Instagram, its Google profile and word of mouth. One channel run well beats five channels run halfway.

The calendar: four quarters, not 365 days

You don't plan every post in December. You plan the big moments of the year and leave the details to each month.

The table is an example. Yours follows your own season: a mountain guesthouse peaks in winter, an air conditioning company in summer. For the last quarter, we wrote a four-week plan in our article on the year-end campaign.

How much you'll spend

On the page you write two things: how much of the budget goes to each channel and what stays in reserve. The reserve saves you when an opportunity shows up that you didn't plan for, or when one channel works much better than you expected.

Besides money, write down time. Who takes the photos, who writes the copy, who answers messages. A plan with no names next to the tasks stays on paper.

How you'll know it worked

Decide up front what you'll count and where the number comes from.

• On the website, in Google Analytics 4, mark the actions that matter to you as key events: a contact form sent, a tap on the phone number, a booking made.
• In ads, newsletters and posts, add UTM parameters to your links. Google says to always use three: utm_source (where the visitor came from, such as instagram), utm_medium (the type, such as social or email) and utm_campaign (the campaign name). That way your reports show which campaign brought in each request.
• On the phone and in the shop, ask "how did you hear about us?" and write it down. It's the oldest method and still one of the most honest.

Once a quarter, look at the numbers and shift effort toward what works. The plan on the page can change; the goal at the top usually doesn't.

The page, at a glance

1. The goal, with a number and a date.
2. Your customer, in three lines.
3. Your two or three channels.
4. The four-quarter table.
5. Budget per channel, plus a reserve.
6. Who does what.
7. What you measure and where the number comes from.

If you'd like to build the plan together, see our marketing services page. For month-by-month planning, the method in our article on the content calendar fits right on top of the yearly page.