Running EOS? Your Marketing Should, Too.

If your company lives by its Vision/Traction Organizer, but marketing still feels like an outsider at the table, it’s time to change that. Here’s how to create an EOS marketing plan that’s clear, accountable, and built to deliver results.

(Because “marketing on the side” isn’t cutting it.)

If your company runs on EOS^®, your marketing should, too.

EOS gives you clarity, accountability, and traction. It aligns your leadership team, your goals, and your operations so everyone’s rowing in the same direction. But here’s the gap I see over and over: marketing gets left out of that structure.

It sits in its own little silo, “creative stuff” off to the side, instead of operating like a fully integrated driver of growth.

That’s not just a missed opportunity. It’s costing you money, time, and results.

Here’s the good news: the EOS Marketing Strategy is already built into the EOS framework. You just need to actually use it. Let’s talk about how to turn that into a living, breathing EOS marketing plan that works inside your system, not outside of it.

What Is an EOS Marketing Plan?

An EOS marketing plan isn’t another binder on the shelf. It’s your Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO), your L10 meetings, your scorecard, and your Rocks — applied directly to marketing.

It’s about taking what already makes your business run well and running your marketing the same way. Not as an afterthought. Not as “extra credit.”

When marketing is truly integrated into EOS, you get:

• Clear goals tied directly to your vision
• Messaging that speaks to your exact target market
• Campaigns reviewed in L10s, not in a vacuum
• Marketing Rocks that actually move the needle

Start With the V/TO

If you’re building your first EOS marketing plan, start with the Vision/Traction Organizer. Everything you need is already in there:

• Target Market
• Marketing Strategy
• 3 Uniques
• Proven Process
• Guarantee (optional, but I’m pro-guarantee)
  

Your marketing should reflect this everywhere — your website copy, your ad messaging, your email campaigns. If your marketing looks or sounds disconnected from your V/TO, you’ve got a gap to close.

Know Your Target Market

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is vague marketing.

If your EOS marketing plan is going to be effective, it has to start with crystal clarity on who you serve. That means defining your target market in plain, useful language, something your sales team can use and your marketing team can build around.

Your V/TO already has this defined (or should). Your marketing should use that exact language everywhere, from ads to website copy to email subject lines.

The more specific you get, the more your message will resonate.

This is a really powerful exercise. As we’ve created these with our clients, there have been quite a few unexpected Aha! moments among their leadership teams. 

Use Your 3 Uniques to Strengthen Your EOS Marketing Plan

In EOS, your 3 Uniques are the core differentiators that set your business apart from the competition. But a lot of companies treat them like internal talking points when they should be front and center in your messaging.

A strong EOS marketing plan builds every campaign around your 3 Uniques. They’re what make you memorable. They’re what move someone from “I’m considering this” to “I need this.”

When your social media, ads, emails, and web pages echo these Uniques clearly and consistently, you build trust faster (and close faster).

Show Your Proven Process

People want to know what working with you looks like. The EOS Proven Process is your way of making that simple, clear and enticing.

A good EOS marketing plan doesn’t just list your services. It shows the steps you take to deliver them, and what customers can expect along the way.

This can be a simple visual on your website, a section in your pitch deck, or a short email flow after someone fills out your contact form. The goal is consistency. When your Proven Process is visible and clear, it builds confidence.

Reinforce Your Guarantee

What makes your offer feel safe? What makes it easy for your customer to say yes?

That’s the job of your guarantee, and it belongs in your EOS marketing plan just as much as it belongs in your sales process.

Whether it’s a satisfaction guarantee, a fixed delivery timeline, or something more creative, it should be built into your marketing language and repeated often.

When customers know you stand behind what you do, it reduces friction and accelerates decisions.

Measure It Like EOS Measures Everything Else

In EOS, what gets measured gets managed. Your EOS marketing plan needs scorecards just like every other department.

That means picking the right KPIs and reviewing them weekly in your L10s. Think:

• Website conversion rates
• Cost per lead
• Email open and click rates
• Sales-qualified leads generated

The goal isn’t to track everything. The goal is to track what matters so you can adjust quickly and stay accountable.

Marketing Rocks Belong in L10s

Your quarterly rocks should include marketing priorities, and they should show up in your weekly L10 meetings. Period.

If you’re launching a new campaign, updating a brand message, or testing a new ad channel, those initiatives should be visible to the leadership team, reviewed regularly, and tied to clear outcomes.

Otherwise, marketing becomes a black box and it drifts off course.

An EOS marketing plan brings it back in, so it stays focused, strategic, and aligned with your business goals.

The Hard Truth: Marketing Can’t Be “Someone’s Side Job”

One of the biggest reasons marketing fails inside EOS companies? It’s no one’s real job.

You’ve got someone “doing marketing” in addition to four other roles. Or it’s been handed off to an assistant with no strategy support. Or worse, it’s outsourced to a freelancer who’s never heard of a V/TO.

That’s where we come in.

At Plum Good Marketing, we join your team as a Fractional CMO, fully embedded in your EOS process. We show up to your L10s. We help build and refine your V/TO. We own your marketing rocks. And we make sure every campaign, message, and decision is aligned to your EOS plan.

Marketing becomes a real part of your leadership team, just like Gino Wickman intended.

Marketing Belongs in the System

Marketing should never live on the outside of your system. If you’re running your company on EOS, you need a marketing plan that fits the same way your operations, finance, and sales do, with clarity, structure, and accountability.

A solid EOS marketing plan isn’t about complexity. It’s about doing the right things, consistently, and tracking them every step of the way.

We help make that happen.

Ready to get your marketing running on EOS?

Let’s talk about how we can support your team as a Fractional CMO, and finally bring marketing into your system for good.