Gay. Sexy. Hockey-stick growth.

Why hello there!

Valentine’s Day may be have been this past weekend, but Heated Rivalry is still all over our feeds and the Winter Olympics are giving us such messaging-memorable-moments like Elana Meyers Taylor thanking her nannies and signing to her kids 🥹 

….And messaging mishaps, ahem the dating equivalent of “I thought that would land.”

All of which is a making the winter doldrums much less dreary. Blesssss.

We’ve covered a lot in the last six weeks, so here’s a quick recap of where we’re at with your marketing plan, because you are moments away speed skating your way to growth you can count on!

• How to niche down on your target audience and talk to them IRL so you’re talking to the right people in the right way

• How to nail your positioning in a crowded market (and have mighty messaging to match)

• How to write content that educates and entertains (and sells your product well)

• Choosing a channel that will actually work

Let’s walk through them right quick.

How to niche down on your target audience and talk to them IRL so you’re talking to the right people in the right way

1. Talk to 3-7 of your current customers to narrow down your core customer guesswork

2. Test channels to see where your core (future) customer hangs out in greatest numbers

3. Ask people to chat about their work/lives

4. Interview 12-30 of them (or do a mix of interviews and surveys)

5. Analyze your interviews to get your positioning, messaging, and content ideas

If you don’t have customers yet (them lovely custys!) then jump straight to step 2.

Here’s the full issue with:

• Where to find people to talk to

• How to interview them

• What questions to put in surveys

• And how to organize what you hear from them

Read: A step-by-week marketing plan guide

And it kicks off this section in the copyable marketing plan template

How to nail your positioning in a crowded market (and have mighty messaging to match)

• Look at all of the people in your core customer group

• See whether it would be best to group your customers by the way they use the product OR the outcome they get from using the product

• Write your positioning using this framework:

Here’s the full issue with deeper breakdowns on

• What it looks like to choose between grouping customers by use case and outcome-based

• A prompt for Chat to help you get unstuck if none of this makes sense

• How to add in an opinion to your positioning so you stand out completely

Read: How to position your product in a crowded market

And this is where it is in your marketing plan.

How to write content that educates and entertains (and sells your product well)

Go back to the interviews you did with your customers and the questions you asked about communities, hobbies, and entertainment guilty pleasures.

• Do KW research across search (Google) and organic questions (Reddit)

• See what questions haven’t been answered well

• See what content types would answer the question best

• list out the top 10 questions you’re going to answer and what content type would best answer them

Here’s the full issue with:

• ChatGPT Prompts to help you get KW lists when you’re starting from scratch

• Breakdown of awareness levels (If you’ve done content for awhile and it’s not working , this is probably why)

Read: How to make your content convert, not clunky

Here’s where we are in your marketing plan worksheet. (Has a content database template in there already!)

Choosing a channel that will actually work

• Going from possible channels to specific practical ones based on demand and desire

• Understanding what awareness stages means for your customers

• Matching your content to your awareness stage and channel

Here’s the full issue with:

• Detailed awareness stage definitions

• The tiniest KPI’s list you actually need

Read: It was Colonel Content in the Courtyard with the Comment!

Exhale like you just hit the bottom of the Bobsled track!

(My favorite Olympics interview so far, because yes, these are SPORTS with a capital S, as I am reminded every four years)

And here’s where we are in your marketing plan worksheet.

That’s right, you’re done!

Gold Medal!

By now you should have your marketing plan completely written and know:

• Know which segments of your target audience to focus marketing to

• Have messaging that matches what your core customers are looking for

• Have a channel hit list you can start with today

Still drifting like a curling stone without a sweeper?

Because that analysis paralysis is probably hitting really hard right about now

How to do the ding dang thing?

I got you.

Optional starting point - ask yourself why you’re actually afraid to get started and sit with the mental response without dismissing or diminishing it. There might be an emotional blocker here too! Best to work through that now instead of hoping you can hip-check it into the future (you can’t).

Here’s how to actually get started on this marketing plan.

1. Take a deep breath

2. Block off time for each section and do it step-by-step

   1. 2-3 weeks for talking to people

   2. 1 week for positioning

   3. 1 week to get your content niche on paper (another 3-6 for getting it consistent, but that's for another issue)

   4. 1-2 weeks to chose channels (another 3-4 for getting them setup, but that's for another issue)

   5. 3 weeks to get the rest of your marketing foundations in place if you don’t already have them (Analytics, CRM, Email sending system)

It will take you ~10 weeks total without setup time.

If you start next week, that puts you roughly checks watch at May 9th (Mother’s Day weekend).

Or, you could hire us (Aelia, Abhishek, Midhat and I) to do it for you.

And you could have that marketing plan by March 28th with zero point deductions for missed technique.

Just reply back and we can get a coffee chat on the books. Or book one now, here.

Next week we’re covering how to Recession Proof Your SaaS, then jumping into a 4-week series on content led by Aelia (insert party parrot here!).

Hold on to your toboggan. 🛷 

Not subscribed or know someone who should be? You can fix that here.

We’ll see you and your inbox next week!

Sophia 💜👩🏽‍💻 & Aelia ⚡️🧕 

Powered by a 70* day in Feb & Ramzan prep.

And correction: while the “Quad god”’s one-legged backflip on ice is unquestionably impressive, France’s Surya Bonaly did it first. 28 years ago. What a legend.