To get to where you want to go, you need a map — or at least a GPS. Your business is no different.

Regardless of your marketing goal, you need a marketing plan to get there. A marketing plan is a report (document or spreadsheet) that outlines your marketing strategies aligned with your #1 business goal.

Today, I’m going to show you a simple marketing plan template you can copy and use immediately, categorized into three marketing goals.

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I want to make one thing clear before we get started: there is no one-size-fits-all marketing plan. Yes, you can copy my marketing plan and see results — but feel free to remove any strategy mentioned if it doesn’t align well with your business.

Also, these templates are based on a 12-week (quarterly) time frame and assume you’ve done the legwork to figure out your target market.

Ready? Let’s do this!

Marketing Plan Template To Increase Blog Traffic

Goal: 10,000 sessions in 12 weeks

Template: Increase Blog Traffic (go to File > Make a copy to get your own copy)

MILESTONES AND TIMELINE

Week 1 – 4	Week 5 – 8	Week 9 – 12
1,750 sessions	5,000 sessions (Accumulative)	10,000 sessions (Accumulative)

MARKETING STRATEGIES

Week 1-4

• Research keywords for new blog posts. Then, write 3-6 high-quality blog posts based on the keywords and publish them on your blog. Learn more about how to do that here.

• Email everyone you know about your blog. Here’s an email template you can use:

• Add Sumo Share buttons to your blog. Check out the video with setup instructions.

Week 5 – 8

• Reach out to bigger blogs for guest posting (try to line up 2-6 guest posts for down the road). Check out our detailed guide on guest posting for how to do it.

• Find 4-8 industry or niche newsletters and pitch your evergreen content to get featured. Follow these steps to get more eyes on your content (including an email template you can use).

Week 9 – 12

• Answer 3-6 questions per week related to your blog post topics per week on Quora and link to your existing blog posts. Check out our detailed guide on getting Quora traffic for how to do it.

ONGOING MARKETING ACTIVITIES

• Schedule the blog posts you've written. Craft a newsletter email to promote the blog posts to your email list when they go live.

• Promote blog posts to your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest).

• Reach out to people you mentioned in your posts and influencers in your niche.

• Boost your content on Facebook for $10/day.

To see how we got 100,000 visits in one month on the Sumo blog, download the plan we used below.

How To Get 100k Visits In One Month

Marketing Plan Template To Build An Email List

Goal: 1,500 new subscribers in 12 weeks

Template: Build An Email List (go to File > Make a copy to get your own copy)

MILESTONES AND TIMELINE

Week 1 – 4	Week 5 – 8	Week 9 – 12
400 new subscribers	900 new subscribers (Accumulative)	1,500 new subscribers (Accumulative)

MARKETING STRATEGIES

Week 1 – 4

• Create content upgrades and add click-trigger popups to your top 10 traffic blog posts (inside Google Analytics go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages to see what your top traffic posts are). Then check out these instructions to set up Sumo click trigger popups.

• Create a site-wide lead magnet that your audience desperately wants.

• Add Welcome Mats (pictured below), Scroll Boxes, and Smart Bars to your top 10 traffic posts. Check out the instructions to set them up here.

• Email your LinkedIn contacts and ask them to join your email list. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do this.

Week 5 – 8

• Check out this guide and follow the steps to republish your blog posts in 3-5 major publications.

• Create a custom landing page for your mailing list and spend $10 to $30 on Facebook ads to your custom landing page.

• Reach out to three blogs with a similar size audience to run cross-promotions. Learn more about running a cross-promotion here.

Week 9 – 12

• Run a viral giveaway (make sure your prize is related to your product and niche). Check out this detailed guide on how to run a viral giveaway.

• Spend $10/day on Facebook ads to bring new traffic to your viral giveaway.

• Pitch influencers and existing subscribers to promote your giveaway.

ONGOING MARKETING ACTIVITIES

• Write new high-quality blog posts to generate more traffic.

• Spend $10 to $30 daily to boost your content on Facebook.

Marketing Plan Template To Grow Ecommerce Revenue

Goal: $10,000 in revenue in 12 weeks

Template: Grow Ecommerce Revenue (go to File > Make a copy to get your own copy)

MILESTONES AND TIMELINE

Week 1 – 4	Week 5 – 8	Week 9 – 12
$2,900	$6,300 (Accumulative)	$10,200 (Accumulative)

MARKETING STRATEGIES

Week 1 – 4

• Offer a first-time purchase discount when new subscribers join your email list. You can create this using Sumo’s Grow Email List Shortcut.

• Use Sumo’s Reduce Cart Abandonment shortcut. Click here for detailed instructions.

• Use Sumo's Increase Average Order Value shortcut. Click here for detailed instructions.

• Add security badges to boost trustworthiness. Check out our recommended Shopify app for this.

Week 5 – 8

• Improve product page copy. Check out how to write product descriptions that convert.

• Add video demonstrations to your products.

• Add an upsell before checkout. Check out our recommended Shopify app for adding upsells.

Week 9 – 12

• Add related products at the bottom of every product page.

• Pitch Instagram influencers to promote your products. Check out our ecommerce influencer marketing strategy.

• Run retargeting ads to customers who abandoned their carts. Learn more about running Facebook ads for an ecommerce business.

ONGOING MARKETING ACTIVITIES

• Send more emails to subscribers and existing customers.

• A/B test all your email opt-in forms and popups.

• Ask for testimonials from paying customers.

Download One Of The Templates And Use It For Your Business

That’s it! In summary, here’s the process to come up with a marketing plan for your business, whether your goal is to generate higher blog traffic, build an email list, or grow your ecommerce revenue:

1. Set a time-bound goal and then decide on a key metric to measure.

2. Break your goal down into milestones and fit them into your set timeline.

3. Make a list of strategies that will help you achieve your goal — and prioritize high-impact activities.

4. Execute your plan and measure the progress.

To make things easy for you, I’ve created three marketing plans of the above in three separate spreadsheets (go to File > Make a copy to get your copy). 

1. Increase Blog Traffic Template

2. Build An Email List Template

3. Grow Ecommerce Revenue Template

Each spreadsheet comes with three parts:

1. Overview: The marketing plan you see above.

2. Strategies: All the strategies and tactics with their potential impact and ease of implementation listed.

3. Tracking: A table where you can fill in your actual results to track your progress.

Get access to the case study of how we grew blog traffic by 100,000 visitors in one month on the Sumo blog (if you want some inspiration to grow your blog traffic).

Get The 100K Traffic Case Study