Small Business Marketing Plan Example: How One Little Dog Grooming Shop Planned Its Best 90 Days

Do you ever feel like you are guessing with your marketing? You post online when you remember. You run a sale when things get slow. Then you hope new customers show up. You are not alone. Many small business owners work this way.

There is a better way. You can make a simple plan. In this post, we will walk through a small business marketing plan example from start to finish. You will see each part of the plan and why it matters. By the end, you will know how to make one for your own business.

Want to skip ahead and start your own? Grab our free small business marketing plan template and fill it in as you read.

What Is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is a short guide for how you will find and keep customers. It answers five easy questions:

1. Who do you want to reach?
2. What will you tell them?
3. Where will you reach them?
4. How much will it cost?
5. How will you know it worked? A marketing plan is not the same as a business plan. A business plan covers your whole business, like money, staff and rules. A marketing plan looks at just one job: getting and keeping customers. It can be as short as one page.

Meet Our Example Business: Happy Tails Grooming

To keep things real, we will follow one business the whole way through. Happy Tails Grooming is a made-up shop. We use it as an example, but it looks a lot like many real small businesses.

• Owner: Maya, who grooms dogs with one helper
• Location: A small shop on a busy street in a growing town
• Services: Baths, haircuts and nail trims for dogs
• Problem: Maya is busy on weekends but has empty spots on weekdays
• Marketing budget: $350 a month Maya has no marketing team and about four hours a week for marketing. Let's see how she builds her plan.

Small Business Marketing Plan Example, Step by Step

Step 1: Set Clear Goals

A good goal is clear and has a number and a deadline. Some people call these SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. That just means the goal is clear, you can count it, you can reach it, it matters, and it has an end date.

Here are Maya's goals for the next 90 days:

• Get 40 new customers
• Fill 75% of weekday spots (up from 50%)
• Grow her email list from 120 to 300 people
• Go from 35 to 75 Google reviews Tip: "Get more followers" is not a strong goal. Followers do not always pay the bills. Tie each goal to customers, sales or bookings.

Step 2: Know Your Best Customer

Next, Maya writes down who her best customer is. This is sometimes called a customer persona. It is a short picture of the kind of person you most want to serve.

Maya's best customer is "Busy Ben." Ben is 30 to 55 years old. He lives within 15 minutes of the shop. He works from home some days, so he can drop off his dog on a weekday. He wants a groomer he can trust. He finds local businesses by searching on his phone and asking friends.

Tip: Do not say "everyone" is your customer. When you talk to everyone, your message is not a strong fit for anyone.

Step 3: Look at Your Competition

Maya lists the other places Ben might go. She notes what each one does well and where it falls short.

Competitor	What They Do Well	Where They Fall Short
Big pet store salon	Low prices, long hours	Long waits, different groomer each time
Mobile grooming van	Comes to your home	Costs more, books up weeks ahead
Home groomer down the road	Friendly and cheap	Hard to reach, no online booking

Maya's simple competitor check

Then she fills in a quick SWOT. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

• Strength: The same groomer every visit, so dogs feel calm
• Weakness: Few people know the shop exists
• Opportunity: A new apartment building opened nearby
• Threat: The big pet store runs discount deals

Step 4: Decide What Makes You Special

Now Maya answers one big question: Why should Ben pick her shop? Her answer becomes her main message. She will use it everywhere, from her signs to her emails.

Maya's message: "Same friendly groomer, every visit. Calm dogs, happy owners."

Tip: Words like "great service" and "high quality" are used by almost everyone. Pick something true and special about you that people can see for themselves.

Step 5: Choose Your Offer

An offer gives new people a reason to try you. Maya wants an offer that fills weekday spots, not weekend ones. So she creates a "Weekday Welcome" deal. New customers get a free nail trim with their first weekday groom.

She also starts a referral reward. When a customer sends a friend, both of them get $10 off their next visit.

Step 6: Pick Two or Three Marketing Channels

A marketing channel is a place where you share your message. It could be a website, social media, email or even a flyer. Maya cannot do everything with four hours a week. So she picks the three channels where Busy Ben is most likely to find her:

1. Google Business Profile. This free listing helps her shop show up on Google Maps and in "near me" searches. She will add photos each week and ask happy customers for reviews.
2. Email. She will send one short, friendly email every two weeks with tips and open weekday spots.
3. Local social media ads. She will run small Facebook and Instagram ads shown only to people who live nearby.

Step 7: Set Your Budget

Maya writes down what each channel costs in money and in time. Time matters too. If something takes 10 hours a month, it is not really free.

Channel	Cost per Month	Hours per Month	Goal in 90 Days
Google Business Profile	$0	4	40 new reviews, 10 new customers
Email tool	$20	4	180 new subscribers
Referral rewards	$80	2	15 new customers
Local social media ads	$250	6	15 new customers
Total	$350	16	40 new customers

Happy Tails Grooming monthly marketing budget (example)

Does your budget look smaller? That is okay. You can still make a plan with $0. Lean on free tools like your Google listing, email, reviews and asking happy customers to tell their friends.

Step 8: Make a 90-Day Action Plan

A plan only works if you do it. So Maya turns her ideas into weekly tasks. Each task has a name and a person in charge.

When	Task	Who
Week 1	Update Google listing with hours, prices and 10 new photos	Maya
Week 1	Set up email tool and a sign-up sheet at the front desk	Maya
Week 2	Print referral cards and hand one to every customer	Helper
Week 2	Start asking each happy customer for a Google review	Maya and helper
Week 3	Launch the "Weekday Welcome" ad to people nearby	Maya
Weeks 3 to 12	Post one Google photo a week; send an email every two weeks	Maya

Happy Tails Grooming 90-day action plan (example)

Tip: "We'll post more" almost never happens. "Maya posts a photo every Monday at 9 a.m." does.

Step 9: Track Your Results

Last, Maya picks a few numbers to watch. These are often called KPIs, which stands for key performance indicators. They tell her if the plan is working.

• New customers each month
• Percent of weekday spots that are booked
• New email sign-ups
• New Google reviews
• Cost per new customer (total spent divided by new customers) Here is how that last one works. If Maya spends $1,050 over 90 days ($350 × 3 months) and gets 40 new customers, each new customer costs her about $26. If one groom costs $65 and most customers come back, that is a smart spend.

Maya also asks every new customer one easy question: "How did you hear about us?" It is free, and it often tells her more than any app.

The Finished Plan on One Page

Here is Maya's whole small business marketing plan example in one simple table. She prints it and hangs it near her desk so she sees it every day.

Part of the Plan	Happy Tails Grooming
Goal	40 new customers and 75% of weekday spots filled in 90 days
Best customer	Busy Ben, a local dog owner who can drop off on weekdays
Message	"Same friendly groomer, every visit. Calm dogs, happy owners."
Offer	Free nail trim on first weekday groom; $10 off for referrals
Channels	Google Business Profile, email, local social media ads
Budget	$350 a month and about 4 hours a week
Numbers to watch	New customers, weekday bookings, email sign-ups, reviews, cost per customer
Check-in	Quick numbers check every Monday; full review at the end of each month

Happy Tails Grooming one-page marketing plan (example)

How to Make Your Own Plan

You do not need to be a marketing expert to do this. Just follow the same steps Maya did:

1. Write two to four goals with numbers and a deadline.
2. Describe your best customer in a few sentences.
3. List three competitors and what makes you different.
4. Write one short message you will repeat everywhere.
5. Choose an offer and two or three channels.
6. Set a budget in dollars and hours.
7. Turn it all into weekly tasks for 90 days.
8. Pick a few numbers to check each week. If you want help with the whole process, take a look at our tools for building a marketing plan for small business owners. For extra free learning, the U.S. Small Business Administration also offers a helpful small business guide that covers planning, managing and growing your business.

Tips to Help Your Plan Work

• Keep it short. A one-page plan you use is better than a 30-page plan you never open.
• Put check-ins on your calendar. Set aside 30 minutes each month to look at your numbers.
• Give it time, then adjust. Give each channel about 90 days. If it brings no customers, move that time and money to one that does.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good small business marketing plan example?

A good example shows real goals, a clear best customer, a short message, a few chosen channels, a budget, weekly tasks and numbers to track. The Happy Tails plan above has all of these on one page.

How much should I spend on marketing?

There is no one right number. It depends on your type of business, your prices and your goals. Many owners start with an amount they can afford each month, track their cost per new customer, and then spend more on what works.

Can I make a marketing plan with no money?

Yes. Free tools like a Google Business Profile, customer reviews, email sign-ups, friend referrals and teaming up with nearby businesses cost time, not money.

Start Your Plan Today

Maya did not need a big team or a big budget. She needed a clear plan she could follow each week. You can do the same. Use this small business marketing plan example as your guide, then download our free small business marketing plan template to build your own in one afternoon.