How to Build an Annual Marketing Plan You’ll Actually Use
- jennmontgomery28
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Running a business starts with a solid offer, but even the best ideas can fall flat without the right marketing behind them. Sure, you could ask AI to put it together for you, but you’ll mostly get generic, one-size-fits-all advice, and knowing what to try and how it ties into your specific business is half the battle. (Keep reading for some industry-specific examples!)
Effective marketing is strategic, intentional, and aligned, and it should be tailored to your business, your goals, and your audience. With the new year approaching, now is the time for reflection and planning. If you use my TIDE Framework for your annual marketing plan, you’ll be able to navigate the tides of business in a way that’s both predictable and scalable.
A strong marketing plan shouldn’t be one long, overwhelming to-do list; it should be a tangible, structured roadmap. With your map in mind, you’ll know both where to start and where you’re headed, in the short and the long term, and no matter what life throws at you and your business. The TIDE Framework is a simple, intuitive way to keep your marketing focused, strategic, repeatable, and aligned with your goals.
Track Your Foundation
Ignite Immediate Results
Design for the Long Term
Expand with Consistency
We’re going to go through this together as if you’ve never done an annual marketing plan before. Whether you’re just starting out in business, or you’ve been in business for 10 years, the same process applies. If you need help getting walking through this process and getting it all on paper, let’s talk!
How to Start a Marketing Plan: Track Your Foundation
Before you dive into planning, take a step back and assess what's beneath the waves; every strong marketing plan begins with clarity. Look at your business’ core objectives, who you serve, and how your offer fits into their lives. This clarity will help you determine the best strategies for getting in front of your ideal clients.
Then, take some time to review how this year went. What goals did you outline, and did you reach them? What went well? What went poorly? What did you try and how did it work? What ideas do you have for the future? When were your busy times, and when were your slow times (i.e. high and low tide - this comes into play momentarily)?
Next, it’s time to look inward. Make an honest assessment of yourself as a business owner (and if this is hard, enlist the help of your partner, assistant, closest friend, or a marketing pro). How much time do you realistically have to spend on your marketing? How much time do you want to spend on marketing (or is it worth it to you to outsource)? What skills do you already have, and which tasks would be better delegated? Understanding these hard truths about yourself is instrumental when it comes to creating a marketing plan that you’ll actually follow.
(Pro tip: If you track your time on everyday tasks, that can give you real insight into where and how you’re spending your time.)
Side note: If you’ve done this self-assessment and realized that you don’t even want to be building this marketing plan yourself because you have better ways to spend your time… stop right now and let’s talk! I’d be happy to help you figure out what the next year looks like and how you can best spend your valuable time.
With data and self-awareness ready to go, it’s on to the next step!
Creating Marketing Little Wins: Ignite Immediate Results
Once you’ve assessed your foundation, it’s time to build on it. We all love those “little wins” and these immediate results are where you’ll see them.
The goal of this step is to figure out what you need to do right now, so that everything else runs smoother later. Think of it like gathering the tools and supplies you’ll need to build a pier that can withstand those business tides. Often the most labor intensive step in the process, it’s also instrumental! This could look like:
Building or updating your website to align with your goals, offers, and clients
Aligning your website, social, Google profile, etc. to maximize consistency and encourage more people to take action
Setting up an email marketing tool (Mailchimp, FloDesk, Kit, etc.) and organizing or building your email list (pro tip: there is a right way to do this, and it’s not just “add everyone”)
Identifying key opportunities that you’re missing out on (you don’t know what you don’t know)
Gathering testimonials from actual past clients (not your mom, bestie, or spouse!)
Tools and supplies in hand, let’s start building!
Jenn has an outstanding eye for detail, and is the most reliable creator I have encountered to date. One of her many talents is keeping the big picture in the forefront of her projects, never losing site of the "why" behind it. She is also an absolute delight to work with! - Amanda B.
The Meat of a Marketing Plan: Design for the Long Term
It’s time to future-proof our pier, so it can handle the ebb and flow. A marketing plan isn’t just for growth, it’s best used to put plans in place that can work with minimal effort from you. That way, when the tide is high and things are going great, your marketing activities are helping keep it that way for longer. And when the tide is (inevitably) low and business is spotty, it’s helping you to bounce back quickly.
In this step, you want to look at initiatives to tackle in the next 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months, and you also want to look at how they build upon and intertwine with each other. These initiatives should leverage the tools you gathered in the last step, and when possible, should be something that run without your involvement. A marketing strategy like this one isn’t designed to put more work on your plate, it’s designed to make it easier to do the work that’s most important in your business, and to keep it flowing in.
Some things you could consider including might be:
Curating, creating, and sharing content
Digital and physical advertising campaigns
Networking and partnership opportunities
Improving visibility online with social media and search results
Refining how you welcome new clients and encourage people to refer you
Steps required to expand the business
Some of these initiatives might be one-and-done tasks, and some might be recurring tasks. When you’re putting them together, be sure to reflect on your internal assessment and determine who’s the best fit for executing on these tasks - you, your staff, or a vendor. Everything you’re outlining is working toward the future, and your outline should be as granular as necessary to be effective.
If you want to better understand how a marketing strategy can help your business take the next step, be sure to check out the Room Candy Candles case study.
As a past-life contact, Heather had my name in the back of her mind, and she came to me because she felt she was ready to level up, taking the next step in growing her business. She had built a basic website, but wasn’t in love with it. In her mind, her product was “right,” but everything else needed a little help.
Marketing for the Future: Expand with Consistency
Remember how I said the ‘Design for the Long Term’ step looks at the first nine months? Well, this is an annual marketing strategy - what about the last three? Those last three months are set aside for expansion and reflection. If we continue with our pier and tide analogy, now we’re building a look out spot and planning the next beach addition. An argument could even be made to start with these expansion goals, and work backward to create your plan for everything leading up to them.
Everything in your first nine months is designed to work toward larger goals. For example, if you’ve got email marketing on your list and you’ve been consistently communicating with this interested (aka “warm”) list of people for months, it might be because you’ve been working toward releasing a webinar series, or a large offer that better reflects your expanded services and brings on retainer clients. These long-term initiatives take time, planning, and multiple steps to pull off and, plot twist, you might not even achieve them in this year’s plan.
Set aside the last month of your plan to…well, start over. Once you get through year one of the plan, it’s time to look at year two - and you’re going to start in the same place of reflection and review, to create a plan that expands on everything you’ve already built. Your Ignite step might not be as robust in year two, and that’s okay!
Real World Example:
In 2024, I decided I wanted my business to start making charitable donations as part of my overall strategy - if I’m making money, I want the causes I care about to make some too. I set Q4 2025 as my target, and then outlined everything I needed to figure out beforehand; researching charities, calculating how much revenue I’d need each month to support the donations, considered how I would announce and structure it, and so on. I added a task to my calendar to reassess my options and finances come Q4, and decide if things lined up and it was feasible. Knowing that I had that check-in already scheduled allowed me to sleep better at night, without worrying if I forgot to do something. Ultimately, financially it didn’t make sense for me to implement this goal in Q4 2025, but you best believe it’s still on the radar for next year’s expansion.
Navigating the Tides of Business with a Marketing Plan
We’ve explored how the TIDE Framework can help you build a consistent, scalable annual marketing plan. Here’s a recap:
Track Your Foundation: Look beneath the surface and figure out where you want to go, and what it might take to get there - both personally and within the business.
Ignite Immediate Results: Gather your tools and supplies to build the pier over the ebbing tides.
Design for the Long Term: Tasks that layer upon each other as we build the pier to withstand the high and low tides.
Expand with Consistency: Look ahead with a look-out spot, and a new beach addition by exploring tasks that take longer to execute.
Now that your pier is mapped out, it’s time to start building!
Just Get Started
At the end of the calendar year is the perfect time to revisit your goals and tasks - but you can start anytime and plan for 12 months later. Don’t let clever marketers make you think that January is the only time you can set goals and put plans in motion. As 2025 winds down, take a moment to reflect on efforts that worked, ideas that didn’t give you the results you wanted, and new goals that are going to help you elevate your business in 2026.
If you’d like expert support in leveraging this TIDE Framework, I’d love to collaborate. Together, we’ll clarify your goals, research your ideal audience, and determine the strategies that make the most sense for your business in the short- and long-term. You can get started by booking a complimentary no-obligation consultation at a time that works best for you.
Ideas when Planning for Specific Audiences & Industries
If you want some specifics of what works for different generations of people or different industries, grab this one-page PDF that will help get you started! It'll go straight to your inbox.
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