Marketing Plan

You can't skip steps. Every customer goes through all five.

Community vs. Audience

• Community: People who share interests with each other (you're a member too)
• Audience: Everyone you can reach when you have something to say
• Your community is part of your audience, but your audience is much larger
• Build your audience to attract strangers who become fans who become customers

The Three Levels of Content

Progress through these levels. Each reaches a wider audience:

Level 1: Educate

• Share what you've learned from building your business
• If you have 100 customers, you've learned 100 things worth sharing
• Your existing audience will engage and broadcast the best ideas
• It doesn't need to be polished or produced — just consistent

Level 2: Inspire

• Go beyond teaching into motivating
• Share your journey, struggles, and successes
• Be vulnerable and authentic — like Gimlet's StartUp podcast
• Document your progress, not just your expertise

Level 3: Entertain

• The hardest but most far-reaching
• Entertainment is the king of content on every platform
• Think about jokes: 1) say something, 2) establish a pattern, 3) break it with a punchline
• Example: "Entrepreneurship: work 60 hours a week so you don't have to work 40 hours a week"

Social Media Guide

• Create two accounts: Personal (you, the human) and business (you, the business)
• Don't share what you ate for lunch. Status updates won't grow your audience.
• Be authentic. Focus on ideas, not self-promotion. Your job is to give, not ask.
• Build in public. Share what you're working on, what you've improved, what you've learned.
• Trust the feedback loop. Post consistently, see what resonates, do more of that.
• Pick one platform that works for your business rather than juggling all of them.

Email: Own Your Audience

• Social media = rented land (algorithms can change, accounts can be shut down)
• Email = owned land (direct line to your customers, no algorithm)
• Start building an email list immediately
• Offer something valuable in exchange for an email (guide, PDF, checklist)
• Each email subscriber is worth far more than a social media follower
• Apply the same educate/inspire/entertain framework to emails

Content Calendar

Create a simple, sustainable schedule:

• Pick 1-2 platforms + email
• Post consistently (e.g., Twitter M/W/F, YouTube once a week, Instagram once a week)
• Quality over quantity — a monthly newsletter with substance beats daily noise

Spend Money Last

• Most growth you see is paid for. Don't be fooled by it.
• Only spend on ads after you have organic traction and know your customer profile
• When you do spend, use lookalike audiences (Facebook/Instagram can find people similar to your existing customers)
• Spend money on your customers (rewards, loyalty) before spending on acquisition
• Common sense rule: don't pay more than you make per customer

Output

Help the user create:

1. Their primary content platform and posting schedule
2. 5 content ideas for each level (educate, inspire, entertain)
3. An email list strategy (what to offer, how to collect)
4. A "build in public" plan — what to share from their journey
5. When (if ever) to consider paid advertising