Marketing Strategy & Roadmap
A written plan for who you sell to, what you say, where you show up and what you will measure — decided before anyone spends money on ads, content or a redesign.
Overview
Most small-business marketing fails before it starts: nobody decided what it was for.
The usual story is a website, a few boosted posts, an agency that ran ads for a quarter, and a vague sense that none of it added up. It did not add up because nothing connected it. Who were the ads for? What did the website need to say to that person? What would success have looked like, in a number, by a date? Those questions were never written down, so every vendor answered them differently.
A strategy engagement answers them once. We interview you and a handful of your customers, look at what you have spent and what came back, study the competitors a buyer would compare you with, and write it up: positioning, the two or three channels worth your money, a realistic budget, the measurements that will tell you whether it is working, and a 90-day roadmap with owners and dates. You can hand that to anyone — your own team, another agency, or us.
The marketing roadmap is the part people keep. It turns the strategy into a sequence: what gets fixed first, what launches second, what waits until there is data. If you would rather not run it yourself, the same consultant stays on as a fractional CMO for a flat monthly fee.
Capabilities
What's included
- Positioning and messagingWho you are for, what you do differently, and the words that say so on every channel.
- Customer and competitor researchInterviews with real customers and a buyer's-eye review of the alternatives they weigh.
- Channel planThe two or three channels that fit your buyer and budget — and the ones to leave alone, with reasons.
- Budget and 90-day roadmapSequenced tasks with owners, dates and the spend each one needs.
- Measurement planThe handful of numbers that mean something for your business, and where they will come from.
- Fractional CMO (optional)The consultant who wrote the plan runs it with your team, month to month.
How We Work
Our approach
- 01
Discovery
A working session on the business, then interviews with customers and a look at past spend and results.
- 02
Research
Search demand, competitor positioning and channel economics for your category and region.
- 03
Strategy and review
The written document, walked through with you and revised until it reflects the business you actually run.
- 04
Roadmap handover
The 90-day plan with owners and dates — run by you, by someone else, or by us.
What You Get
Commitments
Yours to keep and to hand to whoever runs it.
Sequenced tasks with owners, dates and budgets.
One person who knows your business, not a rotating team.
To Get Started
What we need from you
- Two to three hours of the owner's or decision-maker's time across the engagement.
- Introductions to five or six customers we can talk to for fifteen minutes each.
- Whatever exists on past marketing spend and results, however rough.
- Access to Google Analytics and Search Console if the site has them.
Common Questions
Questions we get asked
What does a marketing strategy cost?
It is a fixed price agreed after a short call, because the scope depends on how much research your situation needs — a single-location service business and a company selling into three industries are different jobs. We do not publish a rate card for that reason, but you will have a price in writing before you commit to anything.
Do we have to hire you to run the plan afterwards?
No. The roadmap is written so that your own team or another agency can execute it, and plenty of clients do exactly that. If you want the same consultant to stay on, the fractional CMO arrangement is month to month and ends whenever you no longer need it.
What exactly is a marketing roadmap?
It is the strategy turned into a sequence. Each item says what will be done, by whom, by when and for how much, in an order that makes sense — fix the tracking before buying ads, fix the website before sending traffic to it, publish content before expecting search traffic. It is the page people pin to the wall.
How is this different from a fractional CMO?
The strategy engagement is a project with a start, an end and a document at the end. A fractional CMO is an ongoing role: someone who owns the marketing function part-time, manages vendors, reads the numbers and adjusts the plan each month. Most clients start with the project and some continue into the role.
When should we not do this?
If you cannot yet describe who buys from you and why, the honest first step is ten conversations with customers, not a strategy document, and we will say so on the call. The same applies if the business is about to change hands or change what it sells; a plan written before that settles will be out of date on delivery.
Decide what the marketing
is for, then spend.
Tell us what you sell, who buys it and what you have tried. We respond within one business day with what we would do first and what it costs.