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What a Real 90 Day Plan Looks Like, With a Sample

About 30 minutes

A 90 day plan is not a mystery. It is four steps you repeat: plan, do, check and adjust. This guide shows what each step looks like, why we plan a quarter at a time, a labeled sample, and how to write your own in about 30 minutes. The sample is for an imaginary business. It shows a method, not a result.

Why a quarter, not a month

Changes in search can take weeks or months to show, so one month rarely gives you enough to judge. Google's own guidance says some changes take effect in a few hours and others can take several months, and it suggests waiting a few weeks before deciding whether a change helped. A month is also long enough to stay stuck on something that is not working. A quarter gives you room to try something, look at what happened and adjust. We also like that it lines up with the seasons many local businesses live by.

So how long before marketing works? Nobody can give you an exact number, but about 90 days is a fair window to judge a plan. People often need to see you more than once before they call. Give a plan a full quarter before you judge it.

The four steps

Step 1. Plan

Pick three things to say this quarter, and choose a pace you can hold, even in a busy week. For a simple pattern to copy, see A 90 Day Posting Plan You Can Copy.

Step 2. Do

Write the posts before you post any of them, then post on schedule. Posting becomes routine instead of a scramble.

Step 3. Check

Four weeks into a plan, it is tempting to stare at every number you can find. Do not. Look at three things only:

  1. Did the posts go out on time? Count the misses, and do not judge.
  2. Which post got the most response? Note what it was about.
  3. Did anyone call, click or send a message? That is what the posts are for.

Write the answers on a sheet of paper. If the posts went out and someone reached out, the plan is working well enough to keep going. If not, you know where to look next. No dashboards needed. See Check Your Own Marketing in 30 Minutes a Week.

Step 4. Adjust

Change one or two things at a time, and keep everything else the same. Say you change your posting days, your photos, your wording, your hours and your hashtags all in one week. Then things get better or worse. Which change did it? You will never know. Look again in three weeks, then decide: keep it, drop it, or try the next thing. It feels slow, but it is how you actually learn what works.

A sample plan

SAMPLE ONLY. An imaginary neighborhood shop. No real client, no results.

Month one: plan and start

  • Plan: choose three themes, such as a tip, a look behind the scenes and a customer question. Choose a pace.
  • Week one, a kickoff week of short posts:
    • Monday: meet the owner. A friendly photo and two sentences about what you do.
    • Tuesday: a photo of something you made or fixed, with one line on how.
    • Wednesday: answer a question customers ask all the time.
    • Thursday: a behind the scenes shot of your day. Keep it simple.
    • Friday: remind people of your hours and say thank you.
  • Weeks two to four: one post a week, rotating the three themes.
  • End of week four: the four week check. Three questions, written on paper.

Month two: keep what worked, change one or two things

  • Repeat the theme that got the most response.
  • Change one or two things, such as the posting day or the kind of photo. Leave the rest alone.
  • Look again in three weeks.

Month three: look back and plan the next quarter

  • Keep going at the same pace.
  • Around week twelve, look back over the whole quarter. What went out? What got a response? Did anyone call or click?
  • Write down what to keep, what to drop and one thing to try.
  • Plan the next quarter, then start the cycle again.

Small, steady posts are the point. The plan is built so that the quarter is already written down before the busy weeks arrive.

Write your own in about 30 minutes

  1. Write your goal (5 minutes). One sentence about what you want from the quarter, such as "more calls for AC repair" or "fill Tuesday appointments." A plan without a goal is just a calendar of posts.
  2. Fill in your facts sheet (10 minutes). See How to Use AI to Write Your Marketing Without It Making Things Up.
  3. Ask AI for a draft (5 minutes). Paste your facts sheet and use this:

Using only my facts sheet, draft a 90 day marketing plan for my business. My goal this quarter is: [your goal]. Include: three themes; a posting pace of [number] posts a week on [Facebook, Instagram and Google]; one blog article a month; a list of holidays or slow weeks I should plan around, based only on dates in my sheet; and the three numbers I should write down each week. Do not invent prices, specials, events or statistics. If you need a fact that is not in the sheet, write [ASK ME].

  1. Edit it (10 minutes). Cut anything that is not true or that you cannot keep up in your busiest week. Fill in every [ASK ME]. Put the review date on your calendar for week 12.

Check your work

  • You have one sentence for your goal.
  • You have three themes and a pace you can hold.
  • You know the three things you will check each week.
  • A review date is on your calendar.

If you would rather hand this off

This is the method we run for our clients: plan, do, check and adjust, every 90 days. It starts with a setup call where we learn your business. The plan covers what gets posted, when and where, and we write and publish on that schedule. Every 90 days we look back together and plan the next quarter. You can see what is included on our 90-Day Plan FAQ, or get started.