“Show me the money.“
Remember that line? Tom Cruise knew what mattered. One thing. Not five things. Not a complicated plan with twenty steps. One clear win.
Your marketing needs the same focus. Right now, you’re probably running ads on three platforms, posting on five social channels, sending two newsletters, testing a podcast, and wondering why nothing’s working. The 1-3-1 marketing rule strips all that away. One goal. Three actions. One number to watch.
Small teams win when they stop trying to do everything. Business owners get clear on what matters. Marketers stop jumping between tasks. When everyone focuses on the same target, results show up.
What Is the 1-3-1 Marketing Rule?
The 1-3-1 marketing rule keeps things dead simple. First, pick one goal for the next three months. Second, choose three things you’ll do every week to hit that goal. Finally, watch one number that tells you if it’s working.
That’s it. No fancy systems. No complex charts. Just three limits that force you to focus.
Here’s the breakdown:
- One clear goal
- Three things you do every week
- One number you track
Why Business Owners and Marketers Need This
Most marketing plans fail because they ask for too much. Run six campaigns. Post daily. Track fifteen metrics. Send three emails per week. Build a community. Launch a podcast.
Stop. Nobody has time for all that. Teams burn out. Money disappears. Nothing gets done well.
Problems This Rule Fixes
Here’s what kills marketing in most companies:
- Chasing multiple goals at once
- Jumping between channels every month
- Watching too many numbers that don’t matter
- Nobody owns the results
The 1-3-1 rule cuts through all of it. You make hard choices upfront. Then you execute without second-guessing.
How the 1-3-1 Marketing Rule Works
Step 1: Pick One Goal
Choose one thing you want to achieve in the next three months. Make it about money or growth. Not fluffy stuff like brand awareness.
Good goals look like this:
- Get 100 new leads
- Book 25 sales calls
- Sign up 50 customers
- Get 20 people to buy again
Skip goals you can’t measure. More visibility means nothing. 50 demo requests tells you exactly what you need.
Step 2: Do Three Things Every Week
Pick three things that push you toward the goal. Do them every single week. Don’t change them. Don’t add more.
Set it up like this:
- One thing where you create something
- One thing where you get it in front of people
- One thing where you follow up and close
For example: write one case study, post it on LinkedIn, email everyone who downloads it. That’s your week. Every week. For three months.
Don’t get fancy. Don’t add a fourth thing because you got bored. Stick with these three and get really good at them.
Step 3: Watch One Number
Pick one number that shows if you’re moving forward. Check it every week with your team.
Numbers that actually matter:
- Leads you got this week
- What each lead cost you
- Sales calls you booked
- Money those leads brought in
Forget about likes, shares, and page views. Those feel good but don’t pay bills. Track the number that connects directly to your goal.
What Business Owners Do With This Rule
Owners set the direction. They don’t do the daily work.
Your three jobs:
- Pick the one goal that matters most
- Approve the three weekly tasks
- Look at the number every week
That’s it. You’re not in the weeds. You’re not checking every social post. You set the target and let your team hit it.
This stops you from micromanaging. Your team knows what success looks like. They do the work without asking for permission twenty times.
Small teams need this clarity most. No time for confusion. No budget for mistakes.
Why This Makes Your Life Easier
Running a business means people pull you in fifty directions. Every team member has ideas. Everybody wants budget for their pet project.
The 1-3-1 rule gives you one clear answer: does this help our goal? If yes, we talk about it. If no, we wait until next quarter.
Weekly check-ins take ten minutes. Look at the number. If it’s going up, keep going. If it’s flat, figure out which of the three things isn’t working. Fix it or change it.
What Marketers Do With This Rule
Marketers do the work and get better at it every week.
Your three jobs:
- Do the same three things every week
- Get faster and better at them
- Report the one number clearly
No more guessing if you should try a new channel. No more wondering if your boss wants different results. You have three tasks. Do them well.
Teams using this rule make decisions faster and get better results. Less time in meetings. More time doing what works.
Why This Makes Your Work Better
Marketing teams usually feel scattered. Your boss wants results from every channel. Coworkers suggest new ideas every week. The work that matters gets pushed to tomorrow.
The 1-3-1 rule protects your time. When someone suggests trying TikTok, you point to your three agreed tasks. We’ll look at that next quarter becomes your easy answer.
You finish things instead of starting ten projects and completing none.
What This Rule Gets Rid Of
Stop doing these things that waste your time:
- Chasing five goals at once
- Testing every new channel you hear about
- Creating reports nobody reads
- Fighting about what to do next
When you adopt this rule, meetings get shorter. Decisions happen in minutes. Your campaigns actually launch instead of sitting in draft mode forever.
What You Get From Using This Rule
Here’s what changes when you use the 1-3-1 rule:
- Decisions take minutes, not days
- Everyone knows who owns what
- Less money wasted on random tests
- Work gets done the same way every week
Plus, new people on your team get up to speed fast. Show them the goal. Teach them the three tasks. Explain the one number. They’re ready to go.
Your results improve because you’re not scattered anymore. You stop chasing every shiny new tactic and master the basics that work.
When to Start Using This
Use this rule when your team feels stuck. Start it when growth feels random. Try it when you have ten priorities and nothing’s moving.
This works best for:
Startups with small budgets and tiny teams.
Small businesses where one person wears five hats.
Growing companies moving from chaos to process.
Bigger companies that got too complicated.
The rule works for solo founders up to teams of five people. Bigger than that? Each department runs their own version.
Real Companies Using This Rule
Software Company Example
Goal: Book 50 product demos Three tasks: Write one customer story weekly, post it on LinkedIn, email people who downloaded past stories Number to watch: Demos booked per week
This team quit Twitter. Stopped their general blog. Paused the podcast. They put everything into customer stories. Three months later, demo bookings doubled.
Local Service Business Example
Goal: Get 20 good leads Three tasks: Post one project photo, boost it to local people, call everyone who comments Number to watch: Leads per week
The owner stopped Instagram Stories. Quit blogging. Skipped networking events. He focused on one simple loop. Leads became steady and predictable.
These examples prove one thing: limits work. When you cut options, you get better at what’s left.
Mistakes People Make
Adding More Tasks Mid-Way
You see slow results. You panic. You add a fourth task. This breaks everything.
Instead, get better at one of your three tasks before adding anything new.
Watching Too Many Numbers
You report five different numbers. Nobody knows which one matters.
Pick one number. Track other stuff in the background if you want. But only report one.
Picking Weak Goals
Get more awareness sounds like a goal. It isn’t. You can’t measure it. You can’t act on it.
Pick goals with real numbers. Get 100 leads tells you exactly what to do.
Switching Too Fast
Marketing takes time. You try something for two weeks and quit.
Stick with your three tasks for the full three months. Then decide if they worked.
How This Works With Other Marketing Ideas
The 1-3-1 rule doesn’t replace other marketing methods. It works alongside them.
Your big-picture strategy tells you where to go. The 1-3-1 rule tells you how to get there. One sets direction. The other handles the daily work.
For example, your strategy might say target small businesses. Good. Now the 1-3-1 rule makes you pick: which goal helps small businesses buy? Which three tasks reach them? Which number proves it’s working?
Think of it as the doing part of strategy. Strategy is the what. This rule is the how.
Using This Rule With Different Team Sizes
Solo founders can run multiple loops. One loop for getting leads. Another for keeping customers. Each loop follows the same pattern.
Teams of three to five people share one loop. Everyone helps with the three tasks. This keeps everyone aligned without complicated meetings.
Bigger teams split into departments. Sales runs their loop. Marketing runs theirs. Product runs another. Every quarter, check that all loops point the same direction.
Checking and Changing Your Plan
Look at your plan every three months. Ask these questions:
Did we hit the goal? If yes, pick a new goal or aim higher. If no, figure out which task didn’t work.
Should we change a task? Only change it if data proves it’s not helping. Otherwise, just get better at doing it.
Does the number still matter? Sometimes what matters changes as you grow. Swap the number when needed.
This keeps you flexible without changing things so often that nothing works.
Tools You Need
You don’t need much to run this rule. A spreadsheet tracks your weekly number. A simple to-do list assigns the three tasks. A calendar blocks time to do the work.
Skip fancy automation tools until the basics work. Fancy tools hide bad execution. Master the simple system first.
After six months of good results, add automation. Use it to make your proven tasks faster, not to cover up unclear strategy.
Making This Stick
Write down everything you’re doing now. Every campaign. Every channel. Every number you track. The list will shock you.
Now cut it down. Pick one goal for the next three months. Choose three tasks most likely to hit that goal. Select one number that shows progress.
Tell your team what’s changing. Explain what you’re stopping and why. Yes, saying no to good ideas feels wrong. But focus beats trying everything.
Run this for three months without changing anything. Look at results. Adjust for the next three months. Repeat.
FAQs
The 1-3-1 marketing rule is a simple way to focus your marketing. Pick one goal, do three tasks every week, and watch one number. It helps business owners and marketers cut through confusion by limiting choices to what actually drives results.
Most marketing methods focus on planning strategy. The 1-3-1 rule focuses on doing the work. It works alongside your strategy by giving you a simple structure for daily execution. Strategy tells you what to do. This rule tells you how to do it consistently.
Run each plan for three full months without changes. Marketing needs time to work and show results. Switching too soon stops you from learning what works. Check results every three months, then adjust based on real data, not impatience.
First, make sure you’re doing them the same way every single week. Most failures come from inconsistent work, not wrong tasks. If you’re executing well but results aren’t coming, check if your tasks actually connect to your goal. Replace the weakest task, not all three.
Start with your goal and work backwards. What tasks directly create that result? Pick tasks you control completely, not things that depend on outside factors. Choose one task for creating, one for getting it seen, and one for closing the deal.
This works best for teams of one to five people. Bigger teams should create separate plans for different departments. Each department follows the same pattern but with their own goal, tasks, and number. Check every three months that all departments point the same direction.
You’re probably thinking too small about tasks. For example, write blog post, edit blog post, and publish blog post should be one task: publish weekly blog post. Combine related steps into single complete tasks that produce finished work.
