the bare-minimum marketing
strategy builder
The free tool that takes you from doing marketing stuff to a strategy on one page. Built around the framework Joe Glover, founder of The Marketing Meetup, has taught to thousands of marketers.
About 25 minutes · no sign-up · your work stays in your browser
what is the bare minimum marketing strategy?
The bare minimum marketing strategy is a one-page marketing strategy framework created by Joe Glover, founder of The Marketing Meetup. It strips strategy back to the parts you cannot skip: a goal, the problem you solve, who you are trying to help, the idea you want to build in their mind, and the tactics that bring it all to life.
It is built to take you from zero to one: from doing marketing activities without direction to having a strategy on a page that you can explain to anyone in the business. It is not the whole of marketing strategy, and it does not pretend to be. It is the bare minimum that makes everything else make sense.
the five parts
- A goal. Specific, measurable, ambitious, relevant, and time-related. One to three of them, never ten.
- The problem you solve. Written from the customer's side, using jobs to be done: the functional, emotional, and social progress they are trying to make.
- Who you are trying to help. Defined by how they think and behave before their age or postcode, and sized by how many there are, their spending power, and how easily you can reach them.
- The idea you want to build in their mind. A positioning statement only you could sign, made recognisable by your distinctive assets, and backed by the few dimensions where you are genuinely different.
- The tactics that bring it to life. Awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy, with every tactic carrying a purpose and a measure.
where the thinking comes from
Joe built this framework after hitting his own marketing rock bottom as a solo marketer: doing things, posting things, and unable to say why. It has since been taught at Marketing Meetup sessions to thousands of marketers, most recently as a live workshop.
It stands on the shoulders of people worth reading. Mark Ritson, whose Mini MBA argues strategy boils down to three questions: who are we targeting, what is our position, and what is our objective. Michael Porter, who said strategy is choosing what not to do. Byron Sharp on salience and distinctive assets. And Clayton Christensen, whose jobs to be done theory reframes what customers are really buying.
A fair criticism of the bare minimum strategy is that it is closer to a communication strategy: it deliberately leaves out pricing and product. If you have no strategy at all, it is far better than that. When you outgrow it, something like the Mini MBA is the natural next step.
questions people ask
How long does it take?
About 25 minutes if you type as you think. Longer is fine. Your work saves in your browser, so you can leave and come back.
Is it really free?
Yes. No account, no card, no catch. The Marketing Meetup exists to help marketers get better at marketing, and this is one of the ways we do it.
Where does my strategy go?
It stays in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere unless you ask Joe for feedback, which sends that step's text to generate the reply and does not store it, or you ask for your strategy by email. We do keep an anonymous note of which steps people use and the two multiple-choice answers, never your drafts, to help us make TMM more useful.
Who is it for?
Solo marketers, small teams, founders doing their own marketing, and anyone who has ended up responsible for marketing without ever being taught how to build a strategy.
Is this a full marketing strategy?
No, and that is the point. It leaves out pricing, product, and plenty of nuance. It takes you from zero to one. When you are ready for the fuller version, Mark Ritson's Mini MBA is where we would point you.
Can I use it with my team?
Please do. The one-pager exists to be shared: a strategy that lives in a document nobody reads is not a strategy. Print it, put it in front of your team, and revisit it as you learn.
The Marketing Meetup, the community that has been helping marketers feel a little less alone since 2016, with more than 51,000 members worldwide. The framework is Joe Glover's, our founder.Who made it?