1. Advancing the
7-Sentence Marketing Plan
(Goals, Actions & Audience)
by Monique Trottier

2. The 7-Sentence Marketing Plan
• Sentence 1: What is the purpose of your marketing?
• Sentence 2: How will you accomplish your purpose?
• Sentence 3: Who is your target market?
• Sentence 4: What is your niche in the marketplace?
• Sentence 5: What tools and tactics will you use to carry out your
marketing?
• Sentence 6: What is your business identity?
• Sentence 7: How will you measure success and allocate time and
budget?
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

3. Sentence #1: What is the purpose of your
marketing?
• What are your goals? These need to be specific and measurable:
• Reach a new audience (#, %)
• Promote an event (#, $)
• Get sales (#, $)
• Identify the top 3 goals and tailor them to be specific to your client/project.
Be as specific as possible (i.e., drive # people to the FB page who will enter
the contest (est. 10% conversion rate))
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

4. Example 1: Assignments
• Get 100 people to purchase tickets to event (ticket price would include copy
of book)
• Increase mentions of the book & event in news outlets/blogs by 25%
• Sell 25 extra books at the event
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

5. Sentence #2: How will you achieve that
purpose?
• Sentence #1 must include specific, measurable goals. #2 provides more
detail.
• Lead Generation: acquiring customers or convincing prospective book
buyers to stay in touch via email newsletters, sign-up forms or other
offers.
• Revenue Generation: typically about increasing sales – what percentage
increase are you aiming for? What’s the desired average order value?
Number of orders? Lifetime value of the customer?
• Audience Engagement: If you’re trying to build community – how many
new members a month do you need? If you are generating buzz, what
volume increase are you expecting and estimating?
• Your goals need to be measurable so that you will know if you’ve met them
or not.
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

6. Example 2: Assignments
• Reach New Audience - have a twitter retweet contest for free food voucher at
teriyaki chicken cart outside the venue
• Establish the Author - set up Facebook page for author, link to band page and
offer free download of novel to those who like the page
• Press coverage - outreach to social media sites, as well as print and radio
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

7. Goals, Actions, Response, KPIs Grid
Actions that Desired
Goal will achieve Why Audience KPIs
goal Response
Facebook event, Need to get Register for event
Attract attendees Facebook ads, noticed by lots of Share event with Book 100% venue
to the event (200 Twitter people in order friends capacity
ppl) promotion, to ensure some Offer to
Blogger outreach people attend volunteer at event
Goals > Actions > Response > KPI
Goals (#1) > Actions (#2, 5, 6) > Response (#3, 4) > KPI (#7)
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

8. Sentence #3: Finding Your Target Audience
• Who are the people you want to reach?
• Create personas for them:
• What kind of people are they?
• What characteristics do they share?
• What social media channels do they use?
• How do they engage online?
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

9. Sentence #3: Example Persona
Name:
Title:
Basics: (Includes demographics and psychographics – age, gender,
location, family life, likes and dislikes, location in adoption curve [i.e.
innovator, early adopter, early majority, late majority)
Professional and personal background: (Includes job title, job history,
role, leisure activities)
Quote: (related to context of the marketing)
Favourite Sites: (What websites does this person visit with context to this
project?)
Goals: (What is this person’s goals when looking for the services/product
you’re offering?)
I need / I want: (What does this person need and or want in order to reach the
above goals? Remember to keep in mind all of the characteristics you
described above) Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

10. Sentence #3: Personas
• Developing personas. Personas are character sketches of individual audience
members that define who the content is for and you can use as sounding
boards.
• “Playing Barbies” or G.I. Joe
• Moves you away from what the project team wants and towards what the
persona wants.
• Ideally, a project will have both primary personas – common user types that are
important to the business success of the project – and secondary personas –
user types that are very different from primary users but whose needs still
need to be addressed for the success of the project. This helps to ensure that
all user needs are outlined.
• Make a better product that is more relevant to the audience.
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

11. Sentence #3: Finding Your Target Audience
• If you can’t imagine the people represented in your personas, go
and search for them – investigate!
• What kinds of websites are similar?
• Who is commenting? Follow the clues and links.
• Find them online – profiles, Facebook, Twitter.
• Check your assumptions with the Forrester Social
Technographics ladder.
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

12. http://www.forrester.com/empowered/tool_consumer.html
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

13. Sentence #3: Finding Your Target Audience
• The Social Technographics Ladder from industry analyst firm Forrester
can inform you about typical web behaviours based on gender, age and
geographic location.
• Find what your target audience does online.
• For example, while a small percentage of website visitors comment on
blog posts, create content for contests and engage of Facebook pages,
the majority of people are Spectators – they’ll read blogs and “Like”
Facebook pages but they won’t actively engage with brands.
• Check your specific, measurable goals – are they realistic?
• Check your assumptions – will this campaign work with our particular
target audience?
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

14. Personas Exercise
Complete the Group Persona Assignment
http://bit.ly/pub355-personas
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

15. The 7 Sentences are Connected
• Sentence #1 and 2 establish the basic outline of the plan.
• Sentence #5 and #7 reinforce that plan.
• Sentence #3 (your client's target audience), #4 (your client's niche and
competitive advantage) and Sentence #6 (your client's business identity) all
need to work together.
Your client's niche, competitive advantage and business identity need to reflect
the wants and needs of the target audience. If your client's identity and
positioning don't address something that your audience wants or needs you
need to reexamine the audience that you're targeting or the product you are
offering.
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

16. Sentence #4: What is Your Niche in the
Marketplace?
Be clear about why the audience cares about what you’re doing.
In order to attract your readership you need to answer:
• “What is this?”
• “Who is it for?”
• “Why should the reader care?”
What attracts your audience? Why do they return?
Who are your competitors? What sets you apart?
• Look at Amazon related titles
• How is this book better or different?
• Why should someone choose your title over another?
You need a strong elevator pitch:
• Make advertisers/vendors say “Why aren’t I advertising or sponsoring
that event?”
• Make customers say “I will go out of my way to get there because...”
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

17. Sentence #4: S.P.H.E.R.E.
• So what: Why does Terroryaki or your event matter? What makes your event
different from its competitors? (list competitors – name, URL) Why do people
choose your event over someone else?
• Personality: What are the adjectives that describe your author’s brand, your
event’s brand?
• Hook: What’s your story angle? Use phrases that are easy to remember to
helps to spread your story via word of mouth.
• Ego: Who does your author/event need to engage with? Who can benefit
from promoting the brand amongst their friends? Why do people want to
engage with the brand?
• Relevancy: What is the relevancy between the audiences’ motivations and
what you are trying to do?
• Effort: What do you need to do in order to keep the audience engaged
throughout the campaign as well as after the campaign is finished.
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

18. Hook
There are 9 themes that get people talking:
• aspirations and beliefs
• David vs. Goliath
• Avalanche about to roll
• Anxieties
• Contrarian/counterintuitive/challenging assumptions
• Personalities and personal stories
• How-to
• Glitz and glam
• Seasonal/event-related
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

19. Sentence #4: Example
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

20. Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

21. Sentence 4
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

22. Sentence #4: Example S.P.H.E.R.E.
So What: What makes this mag special?
• Original content and access to underground and established artists
Personality: What are the adjectives that describe the brand?
• Relevant, reputable, underground, easily accessible, mobile
Hook: What’s the story angle?
• Underground and established. Local artists.
Ego: Who does the mag need to engage with?
• Artists who hold a high reputation within street culture
• Advertisers: exposure; interviews with stores and brands
• Artists: exposure in Van, TO, Montreal; exclusive feeds and original content
• Staff: own writers, videographers, photographers (high quality, professionalism)
Relevancy: What is the relevancy between the audiences’ motivations and what the mag is
trying to do?
• Easy access, mobile
• Original content, inspiring, motivating content
• Knowledge of the current hype: events, discounts, fashion, music, gossip
Effort: What does the mag need to do in order to keep the audience engaged throughout the
campaign as well as after the campaign is finished. Monique Trottier
• Weekly up-to-date content, contests and chances to win. @BoxcarMarketing

23. Sentence #4: Competitive Advantage
• Nothing else exists like this in the Canadian market
• No other magazine on urban street culture delivers more relevant content than justalilhype
• justalilhype stands out because of its ability to share new, hip, cutting edge taste with its
audience.
• justalilhype is a valuable player in trendsetting
• For advertisers, it’s exposure to a diverse, concentrated audience of 17-25 year olds focused
on street culture of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal
• Gather data to prove position in the market:
Inbound traffic, PageRank, social media subscribers, etc.
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

24. Sentence #4: Competitors and
Competitive Advantage
• Ion Magazine and Inventory have print versions of their magazine.
• Ion Magazine has also been around for more than 5 years.
• Inventory Magazine also has a physical retail store in which they sell various products
and brands that feature in their magazine.
• Our content is different because we only post original content.
• Justalilhype! has a crew of talented and skilled photographers and videographers to help
capture the essence of street culture for its readers, while many other media outlets
simply use photography provided by the interview subjects.
• The Modline magazine has more of a focus on mainstream news. Justalilhype! attracts
their audience by providing coverage of both mainstream and underground events.
For example, they attend both the prestigious Vancouver Fashion Week and
underground Hip-Hop Breakdancing Tournaments.
• Visiting Modline will bring you to coverage of mainstream events, but visiting
justalilhype! will allow you to see a glimpse of all angles of the city, both underground
and mainstream events.
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

25. Sentence #6: What is Your Business Identity?
What is your brand’s personality?
• What adjectives describe it?
• What are the feelings you want to evoke?
• What brand attributes do you want to convey?
Go back and look at the brand attributes of OPEN companies from
the OPEN Brand book.
How do you align your identity with the identity of your customers?
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

26. Sentence #6: Example
Feelings evoked by justalilhype! magazine include: youthful, friendly, con dent, open and
enthusiastic.
Brand attributes they want to convey include creative, underground, professional, and
trustworthy.
• Justalilhype is a leading online magazine in Canada focusing on mainstream and
underground culture.
• With its creative approach to documenting and representing street culture, justalilhype!
has garnered a large following among young adults who are encouraged to provide
feedback on articles, music, and videos through the website and social media channels.
(Justalilhype! generally receives an average of 5 of comments on blog posts.)
• Not only has justalilhype! allowed users to engage and interact with its brand, but also
encouraged users to be creators of content – they’re open.
• With such a variety of distributed content, justalilhype! attracts and caters to the likes of
different audiences, essentially “giving each user what they want.”
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

27. Sentence #6: Example Proof
• Proof points: number of retweets, comments on blog posts, page views, unique
visitors.
• By encouraging feedback on articles, music and videos justalilhype! allowed users
to engage and interact
• Encouraged users to be creators of content.
• Different audiences gives each user what they want
• Creates sense of community and collaboration.
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

28. Revising Sentences #4 & #6
• Sentence #3 (your target audience), #4 (your niche and competitive advantage)
and Sentence #6 (your client's business identity) all need to work together.
• Your niche, competitive advantage and business identity need to reflect the
wants and needs of the target audience.
• If your business identity and positioning don't address something that your
audience wants or needs you need to reexamine the audience that you're
targeting, or you need to make some cultural and product changes within the
business.
• Match what they want with what you’re offering.
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

29. Sentence 7
• Do the KPIs relate to the stated goals in #1?
• Are they specific and measurable? Can they be used to
evaluate the campaign’s success?
• Are there estimated hours per channel or budgets?
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing

30. Next Steps
READINGS
•Steve Krug, “Chapter 2: How We Really Use the Web, ” Don’t Make Me Think, http://
www.sensible.com/chapter.html
•Kelly Mooney, Open Brand Part 3: Inside the Open Brand” and “Part 4: Getting to Open,” Open
Brand, p. 100 – 186.
•Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo, “Chapter 2: Get Social Media Ready,” Friends w/ Bene ts, 22 –
46.
•Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo, “Chapter 13: The Power of Crowds: Understanding and
Participating in Online Communities,” Friends With Bene ts, 239-260.
NEXT WEEK: Guest Speakers Crissy & Sean
http://bit.ly/7Sentence-Advanced
OCT 21 WEEK: Guest Speakers Crissy & Monica
Blogger outreach and pitch letters
Monique Trottier
@BoxcarMarketing