Ever sat at your keyboard with the goal in mind “to create a marketing plan” and had no idea where to begin? Or are you daunted by all the sample marketing plans you see out there which seem to have been written by MBA students with nothing better to do? Good news: we’ve invented a marketing plan template that will ease your pain.

The essence of good marketing is understanding your target market’s needs, having a solution to those needs, and communicating about that solution in a way your target market will see and appreciate. In keeping with our “visual business planning” approach, we’ve developed a grid template which you can use either on a computer (as a Word document) or transpose onto big whiteboard or chart paper.

There are two files here: the DIY Marketing Plan Grid, and a description of how to use it. We’re always interested in feedback from people who’ve used this (we’ve tried it out on ourselves and numerous clients before releasing it to you here).

Shy about giving this a shot on your own? We can walk you through it in a Visual Planning Retreat.