In this short tip, Sally explains how to build a business or marketing plan using colored Post-it notes on a 12‑month visual calendar. She argues that visual tools tap into the majority’s visual learning style, helping both small and large businesses see immediate tasks and the broader strategy. By assigning each activity (speaking events, meet‑ups/webinars, article posts, etc.) a distinct Post-it color, teams can quickly spot what’s scheduled, identify gaps, and create new opportunities. The visual board also drives stronger team buy‑in, momentum, and alignment between corporate and local strategies. Sally invites viewers to a forthcoming workshop for deeper guidance.
Chapters
Hi, Sally here with today's tip on how to create a business and/or marketing plan for your business by befriending Post-it notes. Simple tool, very, very effective. Now, the reason I find this so effective is because generally about 70% of the population do tend to have more visual tendencies, so they can tend to relate and see things in a bigger way, both the smaller perspectives of what they need to do right now, but also they able to grasp the bigger picture. Now, I'm not saying this is the only way to do a marketing plan or build a marketing plan, but it's certainly very, very effective. It's really, really good for small businesses to gain clarity so they know what they're doing and when they need to do it by, and it's really good for multiple or big businesses because it actually enables you to visually see what the corporate strategies are but also what the localised strategies are. So let me just give you a quick explanation. So Post-it notes, the key is lots of different colored ones, as you can see from my chart here. So effectively what we've got here is 2 months. I generally do this with a 12-month calendar mapped out visually along the wall. You can use corkboards and those sorts of things as well, but every Post-it note color represents an activity within the business. So in this case, the blue ones are promoting or events that I'm speaking at. The pink ones are either meetups or webinars. The yellow ones that you see there are when I'm posting articles, etc. So you can see here very quickly with just a few things on the board, you can actually see what's actually occurring from a marketing plan perspective. What it also enables you to do is really see visually what's occurring. As you can see from the board, you can also identify where there's gaps. That gives you an opportunity to fill those gaps, create a conversation, or define and build opportunities to fill in those gaps as well. So it actually enables you to really leverage your time and drive more growth in a much quicker and more planned way. What I also find is really, really good for this is it actually creates and builds momentum in your business, but because you it's visual, people can see it, they're buying into it. You get really strong buy-in from your team because they can actually see what's going on, and they even start to offer suggestions and drive further growth and marry your marketing plan across to their business development strategies. So this is a really great way to visually create a marketing plan. It's very, very effective, as I've mentioned, and I look forward to talking to you more about that in the upcoming workshop. But you can see very quickly there what you can do, how you can go about doing it, and how you can make your marketing plans much, much easier for yourselves. Look forward to meeting you soon. Bye.
