Course description

Posting when you have a spare minute, boosting the odd post and saying yes to every advert that comes along? This course shows small business owners in the UK how to write a short, practical marketing plan instead: who you want to reach, what you'll say, where you'll say it, how much you'll spend and how you'll know it's working.

You begin with an audit of your sales, customers and channels, then set a few measurable goals. You get to know your customers through real conversations, look fairly at your competitors and decide where you stand. Then you write your core message and offers, choose a small set of channels, plan 90 days of content, check your marketing against the UK rules on claims, prices, reviews, email and ads, and set a budget you can track month by month.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons. Each lesson has a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Gwenith, who runs a shoe repair, key cutting and engraving shop in Beccles, from her first audit to her six-month review, mistakes included. In the final lessons you write a plan for a made-up driving instructor, with full worked answers. Every section has a practice pack with exercise sheets, answer keys and cheat sheets, plus a one-page plan template, an audit sheet, a persona builder, a competitor grid, a message house template, a channel chooser, a 90-day content calendar spreadsheet, a budget and forecast spreadsheet with a worked sheet, a results dashboard, a compliance checklist and simple diagrams.

What you'll learn

• Why plan your marketing: what random posting costs, the ten boxes of a one-page marketing plan, the planning cycle and how to fit planning into a busy week.
• Where you are now: a simple audit of your sales, a two-week tally of how customers found you, the channels you use and what they cost, and what has worked.
• Goals you can measure: business and marketing goals, turning vague aims into measurable goals, a few key numbers and realistic targets from your own figures.
• Understanding your customers: segments in plain words, real customer conversations, simple personas, the customer journey and the jobs customers want done.
• Competitors and positioning: who your competitors really are, a fair comparison grid, differences you can prove, a value proposition and a positioning map.
• Messages and offers: a core message, proof and fair review requests, tone of voice, offers and prices people can trust, and a message house.
• Choosing your channels: owned, earned and paid channels, local channels on and off the screen, online channels by type and a one-page channel plan.
• Content and the rules: content themes, a 90-day content calendar, the CAP Code on claims and prices, fake reviews and drip pricing, marketing emails, data and labelling ads.
• Budget and results: setting and sharing out a budget, careful forecasts, cost per customer in plain arithmetic, a monthly review and trying two versions fairly.
• Putting it together: the full plan and the one-page plan, getting buy-in, reviewing and adapting, and a final project for a driving instructor with worked answers.

Who it's for

Small business owners in the UK who already post and advertise but without a plan, such as shops, trades, cafés, salons and local services. No marketing experience is needed. The course is about planning and deciding; when you're ready to run a particular channel in depth, other Rootlet courses cover it.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a practical beginner course. It isn't legal or financial advice, and it makes no promises about results. It gives no typical budgets, costs or results: every figure is made up for the story or for practice, and labelled as such. The rules come from official pages on GOV.UK and the ASA, CAP and Information Commission websites, read on 2 November 2026. Rules change, so check the official pages before you rely on a detail. Channels and tools are described by type, never by brand. Gwenith and every other person and business in the course are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Audit your sales, customers and current channels, and sum up where your marketing stands now
• Set two or three measurable marketing goals with key numbers and realistic targets from your own figures
• Understand your customers through segments, real conversations, simple personas, the customer journey and the jobs they want done
• Compare yourself fairly with competitors, find differences you can prove and choose where you stand
• Write a core message, gather proof, choose a tone of voice and plan offers with clear, complete prices
• Choose a small set of owned, earned and paid channels and write a channel plan with an owner and a measure for each
• Plan 90 days of content around themes and seasonal moments
• Check claims, prices, reviews, marketing emails, customer data and ad labels against UK rules and guidance
• Set and share out a budget, forecast carefully, work out cost per customer and run a short monthly review
• Bring it together in a one-page plan, share it, review it after six months and write the next one

Frequently asked questions