Event Marketing Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide for Event Success
Many SMEs are winging their marketing efforts and the numbers prove it.
According to The Marketing Center report, 67% of UK SMEs lack a marketing action plan.
This isn’t surprising. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process. And for small businesses, the additional cost of hiring professional marketers can feel out of reach.
Here’s the good news: creating a one-page marketing plan makes the planning and implementation process simple and fast.
It’s called a one page marketing plan because you can fit your marketing plan for your small business on a single page.
Keep in mind that a one-page plan doesn’t replace a comprehensive marketing strategy. But, it’s definitely a good starting point for those new to marketing or short on resources.
And even for businesses with detailed plans, distilling them into a concise, actionable format can make them far easier to follow and execute.
In this article, we’ll walk you through how to create a one-page marketing plan and share customizable templates to help you get started right away.
Before you dive in, watch this video to learn how to create a sophisticated marketing plan that propels your business growth.
A one-page marketing plan is a document that helps you define goals, understand your target audience and map out actional plans to execute your marketing strategy on a single page.
Its primary goal is to provide businesses with a clear, actionable overview of their marketing efforts without overwhelming them with excessive detail.
Here’s why Stephanie Pittman, Marketing Consultant and Coach at Continuous Improvement Solutions thinks one-page marketing plans are great:
Marketing Consultant and Coach at Continuous Improvement Solution
A one-page marketing plan distills your entire marketing strategy into a single, focused document. It includes the essential elements that guide your efforts, such as your marketing objectives, target audience and value proposition. These establish the "why" and "who" behind your strategy.
It also outlines the "how" by identifying the channels you’ll use and the specific strategy you’ll employ to engage and convert customers.
Finally, it incorporates key performance indicators (KPIs) to track success and ensure results tie back to your business goals.
In other words, a one-page marketing plan information about your:
If you’re looking for reasons to convince you that investing in a one-page marketing plan is worth it, here are some key benefits:
A one-page plan cuts out the fluff and gets straight to the point. It lays out everything (target audience, USP, strategy, channels) on a single page. This clarity ensures that everyone, including non-marketing-savvy stakeholders, can easily understand exactly what you aim to achieve.
With a one-pager, you don’t spend hours flipping through a giant binder of marketing details or trying to decode jargon. It’s straightforward, which makes it way easier to put into action. You can see what channel and strategy to prioritize assign roles to team members and track progress
For example, if you're running a product launch campaign, the one-page marketing plan clearly defines the goal (generate 500 sign-ups), the target audience (early adopters) and the channels (PPC, influencer partnerships). One team member handles PPC ads, another manages influencer outreach and a third tracks conversions.
Markets change fast and you need to keep up. With a big, detailed marketing plan, making adjustments can feel like trying to steer a cruise ship—it’s slow and clunky. But with a one-page plan? It’s like turning a speedboat. If something isn’t working, you can tweak the plan quickly and get back on course. Whether it’s adjusting your messaging, shifting your budget or focusing on a new channel, this format makes it easy to stay agile.
One of the best parts of a marketing one pager is how it forces you to focus. You can’t include every little detail or every possible idea. Instead, you zoom in on the things that guarantee results—your objective, audience, strategy and the channels that work best for your business. It’s an efficient approach that prevents you from getting distracted by unproductive tasks.
A one-page marketing plan isn’t just great for an overarching annual strategy. It’s equally effective for specific campaigns, like Black Friday sales. This allows you to prioritize the elements most relevant to your short-term objectives, such as driving sales or increasing brand visibility during a high-traffic period.
There are only six steps to writing a one-page marketing plan that moves the needle.
Check them out:
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The first and perhaps most crucial, step is defining your marketing objective—it’s the compass that guides every other decision.
But how do you decide on the right objective? The smart approach is to derive your marketing objectives from your broader business goals. This way, you’re ensuring that your marketing efforts directly contribute to your overall success.
For example, let's say we’re creating a one-page business plan for a fictitious food delivery service in Chicago called "QuickBite." If QuickBite’s business goal is to “increase total revenue by 30% over the next 12 months,” the corresponding marketing objective could be:
“Boost online orders by 10% each month for the next 12 months.”
Notice how specific the objective is? It doesn’t just vaguely say “generate more orders.” Instead, it includes a clear metric (10%) and a defined timeline (monthly over 12 months). This precision ensures that everyone involved knows what success looks like and can track progress along the way.
The SMART goals framework is handy for creating strong marketing objectives. Your goals should be:
While you might be tempted to outline several marketing objectives, keep in mind that a one-pager is all about focus. To maintain clarity and simplicity, limit your marketing objectives to no more than three.
Here’s an expert tip by Victoria Taylor, Head of Content at Visme:
“When you’re setting marketing objectives for a one-pager, keep it simple and clear. You don’t have a lot of space, so skip the complicated stuff. Stick to S.M.A.R.T. goals if you can, or just call out the goals or KPIs you’re aiming for.”
Zayed Ahmed, a business outsourcing expert and founder of ASL BPO also shares his point of view regarding creating marketing objectives:
Founder of ASL BPO
First, know what you’re trying to achieve. If your goal is growth, think about how much growth and in what timeframe. If it’s brand awareness, ask yourself why it’s important and how you’ll measure progress. Profitability metrics can be straightforward—look at your costs and what return you expect. For example, if you’re spending $1,000 on a campaign, what would a good outcome look like? Maybe it’s $5,000 in sales. Be specific because vague goals lead to wasted efforts.
Zayed Ahmed
The template below has a great example to get you started on your marketing objectives.
Without a well-defined audience, your message will either miss the mark or reach people who don’t care.
On the flip side, when you clearly understand who you’re speaking to, your efforts become more focused, effective and impactful.
You might even have multiple audience segments, but targeting all of them at once can dilute your message and spread your resources too thin. Instead, prioritize your most important segment—the group that’s most likely to engage with your brand and drive results.
Let’s revisit QuickBite.
While QuickBite serves a broad range of customers, this campaign focuses on “busy professionals” because they make up the majority of its customer base and represent the greatest growth potential.
Once you’ve identified your audience segment, go deeper. Research their behaviors, challenges and motivations to create a persona. This will help you craft tailored messages that resonate when implementing your strategy.
For QuickBite’s busy professionals, their customer persona might look something like this:
Name: Emily
Age: 29
Career: Tech-savvy marketing manager working 50+ hours a week in downtown Chicago
Behavior:
Challenges:
Motivations:
Since a one-page marketing plan is all about simplicity, you can distill your buyer persona into a single, focused statement. For example:
“Tech-savvy busy professionals in Chicago seeking quick, healthy meal options with easy ordering and fast delivery during lunch breaks or after work.”
Here’s what Zayed thinks about identifying your target audience:
Founder of ASL BPO
Understanding your audience can’t be guesswork. Who buys what you sell? Where are they, and what problems are you solving for them? If you’re running a virtual assistant service, for instance, your audience might be busy professionals or small business owners. Dig deeper—are they overwhelmed with admin tasks or struggling to scale? When you nail down their struggles, you’ll know how to approach them.
Zayed Ahmed,
If you need to create multiple buyer persona, this template will guide you on how to do that.
Your Unique Selling Point (USP) is the heart of your brand—the core promise of value that sets your product or service apart from the competition.
A strong USP isn’t just nice to have—it’s essential. It can be the deciding factor that turns a curious browser into a loyal customer.
So, how do you create a compelling USP? Start by answering these three key questions:
Applying this to QuickBite, here’s a potential USP:
“Customizable, pro-chef-made healthy meals delivered in 30 minutes or less, so you can eat better without the wait.”
This USP works because it’s not only clear but also speaks directly to the needs of the audience.
Alternatively, you could break down the USP into a list for easy understanding like this:
Here’s an expert recommendation from Victoria:
Head of Content at Visme
Cafely's CEO, Mimi Nguyen, also shared her insights on building an effective unique selling proposition.
CEO of Cafely
Take a look at how the business's target audience was clearly defined in the template below:
Marketing channels are the mediums that connect your brand to your target audience. These channels can be digital, like social media, websites and emails or traditional, like print, radio and TV.
Choosing the right marketing channels starts with understanding where your audience spends their time and how they consume information.
An easy way to pinpoint where your audience hangs out online is to use an audience research tool like Sparktoro. Simply enter the primary keyword that defines your product or service and it’ll return tons of data including channels to prioritize.
To identify channels for QuickBite, here’s the result for the keyword “food delivery service Chicago”.
It shows that QuickBite’s audience has a high affinity with platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Reddit. This tells you where your marketing efforts are likely to gain the most traction.
Sparktoro also reveals keyword search volume which can inform your SEO strategy, such as the keywords to targets, the type of content to put out and more.
Once you’ve identified the right platforms, the next step is deciding how to make the most of them.
The template below gives a perfect example of how to capture your marketing channels in your strategy:
Your marketing strategy section is where you merge everything—your objectives, target audience, USP and channels into a cohesive roadmap.
Crafting a strategy isn’t just about deciding what actions to take; it’s about making informed, strategic choices that ensure every step aligns with your broader goals. This could be:
The marketing strategies you choose to adopt depends on your goals, budget and the nature of your business.
After identifying your core marketing strategies, you need to decide on the content formats that’ll allign with your marketing channels.
For example, snackable, visually engaging posts thrive on platforms like Instagram, while short videos perform best on TikTok, YouTube Shorts. YouTube is an effective channel for long form videos that educate and inform your audience.
You should also include the content type you’re adapting in your marketing strategy. Examples may include testimonials, offering behind-the-scenes glimpses or creating educational materials that resonate with your audience.
For QuickBite, this might translate to:
This approach works well for building long-term brand awareness and trust. However, if you have a specific, time-sensitive campaign, you'll need more targeted tactics.
For QuickBite's goal of increasing monthly orders, the targeted strategy could include:
Another essential aspect of your strategy is tone. The tone of your marketing defines how your audience perceives your brand. Whether it’s humorous, formal, friendly or bold, your voice should resonate with your target demographic while reflecting your brand values.
For QuickBite, targeting busy professionals calls for a professional yet approachable tone—emphasizing convenience, reliability and a genuine understanding of their time and health concerns.
Sami Andreani, a finance expert and CFO at Oppizi has the following recommendations when it comes to developing marketing strategies:
CFO at Oppiz
Effective strategies don’t need to be overly complicated. Start with what’s practical and scalable. For example, if your target market spends most of their time on social media, build campaigns there. If they respond better to in-person connections, invest in events or direct outreach. The best strategies are built around where your audience is already paying attention. In my role, I’ve learned that it’s better to focus on a few key channels that work rather than spreading resources too thin across many.
Sami Andreani
Here’s a great example of how to craft a tech’s startup marketing strategy in a one pager:
https://www.visme.co/templates/plans/tech-startup-one-pager-marketing-plan-1425293451/
If you would like to know the marketing strategy we used to bootstrap Visme to over 4 million followers, check out this guide. We’ve since surpassed 30 million followers. But that guide will give you insights into what worked for us during our bootstrap phase.
KPIs are measurable values that indicate how effectively you’re achieving your marketing objectives. Without it, you’re virtually flying blind—you won’t know whether you’re heading in the right direction or wasting resources.
It’s tempting to track everything, but too many KPIs can dilute your focus—instead, zero in on a handful of metrics that align with your objective.
For QuickBite’s objective of increasing orders, the most relevant KPIs to monitor would be:
By prioritizing the right KPIs, you gain clear insights into your progress and can make informed decisions to optimize your strategy.
The template below also shows a perfect example of how to craft your KPIs:
Creating your one-page marketing with a template will save you the time and stress of starting from scratch. Thankfully, Visme has a wide library of one-page marketing plan templates for different industries.
With Visme's easy-to-use editor, you can easily choose a template and customize it to your needs with text, images and other design elements. Check out some of the templates below:
Black Friday presents a huge opportunity to boost sales and having a tailored marketing plan for that can make all the difference. With this visually appealing template, you can easily customize the messaging to suit your business needs.
The goal chart allows you to visualize key metrics at a glance, helping you stay on track and measure success.
Visme offers a variety of chart types to choose from, including pie charts, donut charts, line graphs, dot graphs, combo charts and more.
Fundraising is more than asking for money—it’s about giving people the chance to support a cause that creates meaningful change in education, healthcare or community development.
But let’s face it: the nobility of your mission alone won’t always convince people to donate. You need a well-crafted plan to ensure your message cuts through the noise, reaches the right audience and builds trust. This one-page nonprofit marketing plan is designed to help you do just that.
You can adjust the template text and design for a space to add the target audience and USP for a comprehensive plan.
If your fashion brand isn’t gaining the traction it deserves, poor marketing may be the culprit. This vibrant, comprehensive one-page marketing plan template helps you gain clarity and drive your desired results. If your product serves different audience types, this template allows you to target them effectively.
Swap out the default photo with one that aligns with your brand and use the AI editor to touch up, blur or upscale it. You can upload your own image or choose from Visme’s extensive library of high-resolution stock photos to create a stronger emotional connection.
This simple, eye-catching one-page marketing plan for cloud storage brands is perfect for any business. Customize design elements to match your branding by adding your logo, change colors and adjust fonts for a professional look.
For faster template branding in the future, use the Visme brand wizard tool. Just add your website URL and it will automatically gather your colors, logo and fonts, suggesting the best template design themes for you. This ensures a brand-ready template for all your marketing needs.
The SaaS market is crowded, with countless solutions vying for attention. This well-organized one-page marketing plan helps you clarify your USP and create a detailed strategy to stand out.
SaaS marketing isn’t isolated, it connects with product development, customer success and sales. With Visme, you can easily download and share your marketing strategy across teams, ensuring alignment with broader business goals. Download it as a PDF or image or share directly via email or Slack.
The back-to-school season symbolizes a fresh start filled with excitement and opportunity. Use this vibrant template to create one-page marketing campaigns that truly resonate with your audience. Whether it’s promoting “first-day outfits,” “gear for success,” or “study essentials,” this template allows you to craft messages aligned with the new chapter and excitement of the season.
If this template doesn’t quite match your vision, don’t let that stop you. With Visme’s AI document generation, you can easily create custom templates from prompts. Simply describe what you need in detail and the AI will transform your ideas into a professional template in seconds.
Selling houses might take time, but a clear and detailed one-page marketing plan can make the process easier. Start by identifying your target audience, whether it’s first-time homebuyers, families or investors.
You can rearrange your marketing strategy in order of importance for better results. Its organized layout ensures clarity for anyone reviewing the plan.
If you have a broader marketing strategy, use Visme’s interactive features like clickable buttons, hover effects or pop-ups to encourage deeper engagement.
This visually appealing real estate one-page marketing plan is your best bet to scale your real estate business. The template allows you to create detailed buyer personas, ensuring you're targeting the most qualified audience for leasing or selling your property. By clearly defining ideal clients, you can fine-tune your marketing efforts and maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns.
If you're concerned that investors or stakeholders may need more in-depth information, you can link to an explainer video that dives deeper into your marketing strategy. This provides a more comprehensive overview without cluttering the one-page plan.
Whether you're looking to bolster sales or attract investors to take your tech startup to the next level, this template will make your planning process easier. With a professional and visually appealing design, it’s sure to capture attention.
With Visme’s collaboration tool, you can invite your marketing team members or execs to provide input by granting them permission to edit or leave comments. This will ensure you get the necessary input and feedback that you need to perfect your strategy.
Launching a new fitness app or looking to increase user sign-ups for your existing app? This colorful one-page marketing plan template is a must-have to win the game. With a strong focus on defining your target audience, you can create a detailed description that resonates with your users.
The template also includes launch promotions, complete with offers to inspire action.
Using Visme’s analytics, you can track the performance of your shared marketing plans. By customizing each document and saving them separately with the prospect's name, you can ensure more precise activity tracking.
As the name suggests, a one-page marketing plan fits entirely on a single page. It’s designed to be concise and actionable, focusing only on the most essential components of your marketing strategy.
A one-page market summary is a brief snapshot of your market research and insights. It highlights your objectives, target audience, USP, channel and strategy, distilled into a single, easy-to-read section that ensures your strategy aligns with your business goals.
One-page marketing plans cut through the complexity and get straight to the point. They’re easy to create, follow and adapt, making them ideal for small businesses, startups or anyone looking to simplify their marketing efforts without losing focus or impact.
An ideal marketing plan should be as long as it needs to be—but no longer. For many businesses, a one-page plan is enough to outline the essentials and keep everyone aligned. However, more detailed plans might be necessary for larger teams or long-term strategies, but even then, simplicity is key.
A one-page marketing plan cuts through complexity, clarifies your goals and helps you stay laser-focused on what truly drives results. Whether you’re new to marketing or looking for a more agile approach, this simple yet powerful tool allows you to take control of your efforts without feeling overwhelmed.
With Visme, creating your one-page marketing plan is even easier. From customizable templates to intuitive design tools, Visme empowers you to craft visually stunning, professional plans tailored to your unique business needs. Plus, its collaboration and analytics features ensure your team stays aligned and your efforts stay on track.
Besides marketing plans, you can use Visme to create one-pager business plans and marketing assets such as social media graphics, infographics, press releases and more.
So, why wait? Sign up for Visme and start creating a marketing plan that works as hard as you do.
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