How to Create Your Marketing Strategy (in 30 Minutes)

I got an interesting phone call from my sister.

Her youngest daughter (my lovely niece) had started a business making custom bookmarks and selling them to students in her class.

She was in 3rd grade. Respect.

My sister was using this opportunity to teach accounting and finance principles. Here’s what it costs you to make one bookmark, here’s what you can sell it for, here’s what kind of discount you can give on bulk orders.

She asked: Would I be willing to talk to my niece about marketing?

Absolutely I would!

Then I had to figure out how to explain marketing to a 3rd grader.

Even great marketing can be complicated, but there’s tremendous value in simplifying it. So I racked my brain trying to figure out how to teach an eight year-old about creating a marketing strategy in a way she could understand, and this is what I came up with.

You might say, “Hey Kenneth, we’re all adults here, we don’t need the 3rd grade version.”

And I hear you.

But I’ve also used this framework as a marketing VP at a previous company, and as a basis for the marketers and founders I coach. It works surprisingly well for creating a simple marketing strategy quickly, especially if it’s your first time really putting pen to paper.

You need a GPS for going from Point A to Point B, or you won’t get there. You need a plan, and you need directions. That’s why you need a marketing strategy.

Otherwise, you’ll try a bunch of things, never get to where you want to go, and then be stuck up the creek without a paddle wondering why things never worked out (or worse, blaming others for your choices).

So what’s this framework, anyway?

I’m so glad you asked! It’s very simple, you just have to answer six questions.

Who is your target customer? I’ve got another post on identifying your target customer specifically, so read that for details, but the more specific and human you make this, the better.

My niece serves other students in her class. Easy.

This describes your product or service, or the benefit you’re providing customers. What is it that customers are buying from you?

My niece was offering custom, made-to-order bookmarks.

If you want to specify the benefit of your product or service, my niece was offering an easy way to keep your place in your book and a way to stand out from the class with a unique identifier.

Side note: Tapping into customers’ identity or sense of self is a great strategy for retail.

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This is when your pitch has the best chance of landing.

You have to understand when your customer considers new products and buys things. For consumer goods, it might be in the evenings after Thirsty Thursday when they’re laying on the couch tipsy scrolling Instagram. For business software, it might be during annual planning, when a new department head gets hired, or right after monthly numbers are reported and they realize they need help.

For my niece, it was on Fridays when her classmates got a little allowance money, and around periodic reading competitions (e.g. who can read the most books in November).

This is how you determine what marketing channels are worth investing in.

It helps to think about this in terms of where your targets spend their time throughout the day, and in different seasons.

Day-to-day, are there certain news outlets they keep up with, influencers they follow, media they listen to, places they go, or community groups they’re involved in? Seasonally, are there certain events they attend, locations they travel to, reports they analyze?

For instance, do they read a particular magazine, go to the same conferences every year, or use one particular app?

My niece’s customers spent time at school five days a week, so she knew when and where she could get in front of them (direct outreach, in-person sales).

Why would your target customers buy your product or service from you instead of from a competitor, or instead of doing nothing at all? Are you technically superior, can they trust you more, is your price better, is it more fun or convenient?

Whatever it is, this is how you position your brand and your pitch. It helps inform your messaging and sales conversations.

My niece was the only bookmark shop in school, so if you wanted a custom bookmark, she was your gal.

This is all about getting someone into your sales funnel. What’s the promotion, the ad, the freebie you’re going to use to get someone to take the next step?

It might be a sale or offer that expires on a certain day, or a free template to download, or a seven-day trial. It’s something that’s going to overcome the buyer’s objections and make it easier for them to say “yes” to working with you.

My niece used a buy-three-get-one-free approach (very common for consumer packaged goods).

Great marketing does take skill (and I’m here to help!), but it should also feel approachable — simple enough that you can easily communicate to an audience who doesn’t “get” marketing.

Your marketing strategy will naturally evolve over time, but work through these six questions and you’ll be in a great place fast.

A version of this advice first appeared on Entrepreneur.com.

Hi, I’m Kenneth Burke. 👋 As a Marketing VP, I led our bootstrapped startup from $0 to $20M and an acquisition. Now I help startup founders achieve product-market fit, so you can remove the guesswork from growth.

I post stories, advice, and frameworks weekly here on #BurkeBits, and share content more often across LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. If that sounds interesting, subscribe, email me at [email protected] with your current challenge, and share this with another builder.