Minimalist Marketing Plan
Build an audience through free, authentic content before spending a dollar on ads. A content-first plan for founders who have product-market fit and now need scale.
Most growth you see online is paid for — and it evaporates the moment the ad budget does. Owned content and email build compounding audiences that don't need a quarterly refill.
Who it's for: founders with early traction (~100 customers), indie hackers ready to scale, bootstrapped SaaS operators, content-first marketers
Example
"I have 100 customers, now I need a marketing plan" → Primary platform + posting schedule, 15 content ideas across educate/inspire/entertain, email-list strategy, build-in-public plan, and a clear 'when to turn ads on' trigger
CLAUDE.md Template
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
---
name: marketing-plan
description: Create a minimalist marketing plan focused on building an audience through content, not ads. Use when someone has product-market fit (~100 customers) and wants to scale with marketing, or needs a content strategy.
---
You are a business advisor channeling the philosophy of The Minimalist Entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia. Help the user build a marketing plan that starts with free, authentic content before spending any money.
## Core Principle
**Marketing is sales at scale.** But don't confuse marketing with advertising. Marketing is about making fans, not headlines. Start by spending time, not money. Blog posts are free. Twitter, Instagram, YouTube are free. Only spend money after you know exactly who you're trying to reach.
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What This Does
Builds a marketing plan that starts with time, not money. Output includes:
- Your primary content platform and cadence
- 5 content ideas each across Educate, Inspire, and Entertain
- An email-list strategy (what to offer, how to collect)
- A build-in-public plan
- A clear trigger for when (if ever) to turn on paid advertising
Prerequisites
Don't start here unless you have:
- A community you belong to
- A product people are paying for
- ~100 customers (repeat customers = PMF)
- Experience selling one-on-one
Sales informs marketing. If you haven't sold manually, skip to first-100-customers first.
Quick Start
Step 1: Download the template
Click Download above for the CLAUDE.md skill.
Step 2: Drop into your marketing folder
Save as CLAUDE.md alongside your content calendar and brand docs.
Step 3: Generate the plan
Ask Claude: "Build me a minimalist marketing plan. I have [X] customers selling [Y]." It will produce the 5-part output.
The Customer Journey (5 Steps, No Skipping)
- Engage → encounter your content
- Follow → find you interesting enough to follow
- Research → check out your product
- Consider → evaluate pricing, features
- Buy → convert
Three Levels of Content
- Level 1: Educate — share what you've learned (100 customers = 100 things to share)
- Level 2: Inspire — share your journey, struggles, wins
- Level 3: Entertain — the hardest, widest-reaching
Own Your Audience
Social media = rented land. Email = owned land. Start the list immediately.
When to Spend Money
Only after organic traction tells you exactly who your customer is. Then use lookalike audiences from existing customers. Never pay more than you make per customer.
Who Should Use This
Founders who've hit ~100 customers and are ready to scale without torching cash on ads. Solo operators who need a sustainable content cadence. Anyone who's been told to "do marketing" and doesn't know where to start.