Module 2: Your Marketing Framework
Draw the system on one page: the four-stage framework, the two numbers that decide everything (CAC and LTV), and a 90-day plan built for learning.
Build your growth framework
A growth framework is your marketing system drawn on one page: how a stranger becomes a customer, and how a customer becomes a repeat buyer who sends friends. Most businesses have fragments — a social account here, a website there — but no drawn path connecting them. Drawing the path is the work of this module.
Start with four boxes in a row: Awareness (they find you), Trust (they believe you), Conversion (they buy), Retention (they buy again and refer). Under each box, write the one or two things you actually do for that stage right now. Blank boxes are fine — blanks are the diagnosis. A business with three awareness tactics and nothing under retention has a leaky bucket, not a marketing problem.
Your framework is a living document, not a poster. Revisit it monthly: which box is thinnest, and what is the cheapest experiment that could strengthen it? You cannot improve a system you have not drawn.
Build brief
Draw your four boxes — Awareness, Trust, Conversion, Retention — and put your current tactics under each. Which box is emptiest, and what does that tell you?
Saved
The two numbers that run the business
Two numbers decide whether your marketing can survive: what it costs to win a customer, and what that customer is worth. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is your total marketing spend divided by new customers won. Lifetime value (LTV) is the average total a customer spends with you over the whole relationship.
The rule is simple: LTV must be comfortably bigger than CAC. If winning a customer costs $80 and the average customer spends $60 total, no tactic can save you — the math is broken and the fix is pricing, retention, or cheaper acquisition, not better ads. A healthy target for beginners: LTV at least three times CAC, which leaves room for mistakes while you learn.
You do not need perfect numbers — rough ones beat none. Add up last quarter's marketing spend, count the new customers, and divide. Estimate LTV from your average order and how often people return. Marketing without these two numbers is gambling with extra steps.
Side by side
Broken vs. healthy unit economics
| Broken | Healthy | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to win (CAC) | $80 | A fraction of lifetime value |
| Lifetime value (LTV) | $60 | At least 3× CAC |
| The verdict | No tactic can save it | Room to learn and scale |
Build brief
Estimate your CAC and LTV right now with rough numbers. What's your ratio? If it's under 3:1, which side would you fix first — lowering acquisition cost or raising lifetime value?
Saved
Your 90-day plan
A 90-day plan beats a 12-month plan because you will learn too much in the first month for month six to survive contact with reality. The plan has three parts: one stage to strengthen (from your framework), one experiment per month to strengthen it, and the number you will watch to know if it worked.
Keep each experiment small and cheap. Month one: add three customer reviews to the homepage and watch conversion rate. Month two: start a simple email welcome sequence and watch repeat purchase rate. Month three: test one new traffic source with a $200 budget and watch cost per lead. Small bets, clear numbers, fast learning.
At day 90, you keep what worked and kill what did not — then write the next 90 days.
One more rule: never run more than three experiments at once. Every experiment needs a clean read, and five simultaneous changes turn your results into soup. Small bets, clear numbers, fast learning — that is the whole game. Plans are for learning, not for predicting.
Build brief
Write your 90-day plan: the one stage you'll strengthen, one experiment per month, and the single number you'll watch for each. Keep every experiment under $300.
Saved
Dana's bakery spends $1,200 a month on ads and wins 30 new customers. Her average customer spends $25 per visit and visits about 3 times total. What's the diagnosis?
Your turn: Fill in your framework: for each of the four boxes (Awareness, Trust, Conversion, Retention), list your current tactics, the number you'll track, and last month's value for that number.
Saved.
Your next 24 hours
Calculate your rough CAC and LTV today with last quarter's numbers — even approximate ones. Write the ratio on a sticky note where you'll see it daily until it improves.
Steal this template
90-DAY MARKETING PLAN
Stage to strengthen: ___
Month 1 experiment ($___): ___ → watch: ___
Month 2 experiment ($___): ___ → watch: ___
Month 3 experiment ($___): ___ → watch: ___
Keep / kill review date: ___
Cheat sheet
- Draw your framework: Awareness → Trust → Conversion → Retention, with tactics under each.
- Blank boxes are the diagnosis — the emptiest stage is your first project.
- CAC = marketing spend ÷ new customers. LTV = average total spend per customer.
- Target LTV at least 3x CAC; fix the math before scaling the spend.
- 90-day plans: one stage, one experiment per month, one number to watch.
- Plans are for learning — keep what works, kill what doesn't, rewrite.