Promotion: choose the channels clients find you through

Video: how to build your promotion plan in the Business Planner.

The best product does not sell if nobody knows about it. Yet in many business plans, promotion stops at "we'll do a lot on social media". A reader wants to know which channels you choose, what you want to achieve with them, what it costs and how you will measure whether it works. That turns an intention into a plan.

From channel to budget split

1. 01

   Add your channels

   Each channel gets its own line, with the type of channel, the goal and the budget as labels. One overview shows where your money and time go.

2. 02

   Choose the channel and goal

   You choose from SEO, search ads, social media, email, content, events, PR, referrals and offline. For each channel, you set the goal: awareness, consideration, conversion or retention.

3. 03

   Set budget, timing and target

   Fill in the yearly budget, the timing, the frequency and a target you can measure. Then describe what the channel does and how you approach it.

4. 04

   Look at the budget split

   A chart at the bottom shows how your budget is split across the channels. Add the total as a marketing cost line in your financial plan, so both parts match.

Think in terms of the customer's journey

The goals in the planner follow the route a client takes: first they hear about you, then they consider you, then they buy, and after a good experience they come back. The idea goes back to the AIDA model of E. St. Elmo Lewis. By linking every channel to one step, you can quickly see whether your plan is balanced. Lots of awareness and nothing for retention means you will keep having to find new clients.

Example: four channels for a salon

The salon in the demo deliberately chooses a small mix. The Google Business Profile with reviews has to bring in bookings from new clients in the neighborhood. Instagram with before-and-after photos of color work builds awareness. Regular clients hear about the haircut subscription by email and at the front desk, aimed at retention. And with a client referral scheme, the existing client and the new one both get a credit. Every channel has a target the owner can count, such as the number of reviews or bookings per quarter.

• Goal: one clear step in the customer journey per channel.
• Budget: an amount per year that comes back in your costs.
• Target: something you can count, such as bookings, sign-ups or reviews.