a 30 day marketing plan template for a founder needs five things on one page: who it's for, a positioning statement, the messages you will repeat, the channels in order with one marked start here, and then four weeks of three or four concrete tasks each. the calendar comes last. most templates start with it, which is why most month-long plans turn into a month of posts nobody asked for.
search for this phrase and page one is two kinds of page. one is a social media calendar: a post a day for a month, sorted by platform. the other is a 30 60 90 day plan for someone just hired as a marketing manager, written to show their boss what they will do. neither is written for a founder with a product and no marketing team.
this is the version for that founder: what goes in before the calendar, a template you can copy, how to fill it in from your own numbers, worked examples for three kinds of business, and what underway does to write one for you.
the plan is the whiteboard. the month is what you do about it. an ai illustration, not a customer.
what goes in a 30 day marketing plan before the calendar
a month of posts with no message behind it is a month of noise. before the calendar come four short things, each a few lines, never a page.
- who it's for: the first group of buyers, in a few words, a line on where they are and what stops them buying, and two or three signs one is ready.
- a positioning statement: for who, who need what, your product is the one that does this. unlike the main alternative, it does that.
- the messaging: one line each for the headline, the problem, the solution, the proof and the call to action, and three or four things to keep saying all month.
- where to spend the effort: four to six channels in order, the first marked start here, each with why it suits these buyers and what to do there.
if you cannot write these four, that is the plan for week one. it is not a delay. every task after it is cheaper once you know who you are talking to and what you are saying.
the three kinds of 30 day marketing plan, compared
it helps to know which one you actually need, because the templates look alike and do different jobs.
| social media calendar | 30 60 90 day plan | a founder's 30 day plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| written for | whoever runs the accounts | a new marketing hire and their manager | a founder doing the marketing themselves |
| starts from | a post a day | learning the company | who it's for and what to say |
| unit of work | a post | a phase | a task you can finish this week |
| how it ends | the month runs out | a review with the boss | next month's plan, written from what worked |
| good at | consistency on one platform | showing progress in a new job | deciding where a small amount of time goes |
a 30 day marketing plan template you can copy
copy this into a doc and fill in the brackets. keep every line short. if a line needs a paragraph, it is not decided yet.
- the goal for the month: [one number you can check on day 30, such as signups, orders, calls booked or email subscribers].
- where you are today: [that number now, and where it comes from].
- who it's for: [the buyer in a few words]. ready to buy when: [two or three signs].
- positioning: for [who], who need [what], [product] is the one that [does this]. unlike [the alternative], it [does that].
- messages to repeat: [three or four lines you will say every week].
- channels in order: 1. [start here, and why]. 2. [next]. 3. [next]. dropped this month: [anything you are deliberately not doing].
- time you have: [hours a week, honestly].
- week 1, foundation: [three or four tasks].
- week 2, seeding: [three or four tasks].
- week 3, search and proof: [three or four tasks].
- week 4, double down: [three or four tasks, the last one is always writing next month's plan].
every task is one concrete thing, starts with a verb and could be done by you that week. "work on seo" is not a task. "write one page that answers how to x, the search our buyers already make" is.
a filled-in example, week by week
- week 1, foundation: write the positioning statement and put it on your homepage. tell the story of why you built it, once, on the channel you start with. list the three searches your buyers make. ask three customers what they used before you.
- week 2, seeding: post on the first channel every weekday for a week. answer five people asking about the problem, without pitching. turn the best customer answer from week 1 into a post, with their permission.
- week 3, search and proof: write one page that answers a search your buyers already make. turn your best week 2 post into a short video. ask five customers for a review.
- week 4, double down: keep the channel that brought the most visits and drop the weakest. repeat the post or page that worked best in a new form. write next month's plan from what the numbers say.
the trick most templates miss is that last task. the plan is only worth writing again if the next one starts from what this one taught you.
a task list that starts with a verb. an ai illustration, not a customer.
how to change the template for your kind of business
the four weeks hold for most businesses. what changes is the channel you start with and what counts as proof.
- a software product: search and the communities your buyers already ask in usually come first. proof is a short screen recording of the thing working, and a named customer if you have one.
- a shop or a maker: the platform where people already buy your kind of thing, plus instagram or tiktok for showing the making. proof is reviews and photos of the work in someone's hands.
- an agency or a service: linkedin and direct conversations usually come first. proof is a case study told plainly: what the client had, what you did, what changed.
whatever the business, one channel done every week beats five channels done once. if the template asks for more than your honest hours allow, cut channels, not weeks.
why the plan should start from your own numbers
a generic plan picks channels from a list. yours should pick them from what is already working. google search console shows the searches your site already shows up for and the pages people land on. google analytics shows where your visits come from. if a third of your visits come from one place already, that place is probably week 2, and a template cannot know that.
the same goes for messages. the words that work are usually ones your customers already use. read your replies, reviews and sales emails before you write a headline.
a 30 day marketing plan template that fills itself in
underway is a video diary for founders, and beside the diary sits promote, the shop window. the first thing in promote is your marketing brief, on every plan. it writes the whole plan above for you, laid out as documents rather than a page to read.
- it asks first, one step at a time, and every step has do it later: your website, where you post, google search console and google analytics. both google connections are read-only.
- while it writes, a live log shows what it is doing: the pages it read and each search it made for what your buyers use instead.
- it hands back documents, rows in one white list, each with a coloured mark, that open below themselves: who it's for, positioning, messaging, where to spend the effort (with start here), your next 30 days, who else they look at, how you sound, the product, and what it couldn't tell.
- your next 30 days is four weeks of tasks you press to tick off as you go.
- every line comes from what it read. a call to action or an offer your site does not make is never written in.
- every part has correct this, and what you correct stays as you wrote it when the brief is written again, monthly or when you press write it again.
the brief lives in promote, walled off from the diary. none of it reaches your interviews: the questions you are asked on camera come from your day, never from a positioning statement. the phone has the same steps and the same documents, under promote.
if the plan needs something real to post each day, filming the build itself: build in public video.
faq
what should a 30 day marketing plan include?
a goal you can check on day 30, who it's for, a positioning statement, your messages, the channels in order with the first marked, and four weeks of three or four concrete tasks each. end it with writing next month's plan from what worked.
is a 30 day marketing plan the same as a social media calendar?
no. a calendar is when to post. the plan is who it's for, what to say and where, and the calendar comes out of it.
how many channels should a 30 day plan use?
as few as your hours allow. one channel done every week beats several done once. order them and mark the one to start with.
do i have to connect google analytics to underway?
no. every step is optional, with do it later. with it connected, the brief can see where your visits already come from.
does it cost extra on underway?
no. the marketing brief, with the 30 day plan, is on every plan.
does the plan change my interviews?
no. it lives in promote and never reaches the interview, its questions or the cut.
the brief that comes before the plan, section by section: how to write a marketing brief.
why documenting the build is a marketing channel of its own: build in public marketing.
Originally published at https://underway.life/30-day-marketing-plan-template
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