I understand things take time and everyone is not as forgiving anymore. The effort to make heads or tails of the way Steem can be promoted is not an easy task and one thing I would also like to see is real actions that can be taken. By Steemit INC., by users etc. Plans are good and they need to materialize so I hope this post's brainstorming and even the ones you've done yourselves (internally, slack, steemit.chat) will show some actual implementation strategies.

My povs:

Referrals:

• To start referring people they need to like what they see when they arrive (not just the $ signs on the posts). I say this UI wise
• There needs to be a clear tracking and referring way. We have great devs around that can whip up a referral analytics platform to be used for Steemit.com
• Referral rewards: for sign ups. These can be as an initial rewards for every new sign-up and maybe additional bonus % when the referred accounts powerup

Steemit for Dummies

• a Steemit official kb detailing everything about Steem in a simple way
• constantly updated as there are changes every other month
  PS. Please add a note on the steem.io website that the WhitePaper is obsolete.

Make it easier for people to buy/sell Steem:

• Easy implementation for conversion straight from the Steem account to BTC etc. Partnership with Blocktrades for a dedicated button in the Steemit wallet page, why not
• Paypal or any other fiat processor conversions. This would be awesome if added through a 3rd party partner

Big Names:

• we need big names to start joining and blogging, building content for Steemit even if it isn't exclusive. They have the ability to drag millions of followers with them. Marketing should reach out to those influencers and have them sign up with certain benefits

Apps built on the blockchain:
This is something that has been said about Steem from day one yet no real app is allowed into the blockchain. Yes there are changes in the recent forks to pave the way towards rewards sharing but an official process needs to be developed for existing and future apps, to be audited by Steemit Inc., declared as official Steem apps and rewarded from the Steemit INC development fund.
New app ideas could be:

• Twitter clone
• 9gag clone
• Disqus for commenting
• wordpress add-on to have your steemit articles on your blog

Misc:

• Tipping
• anonymous transactions

Final note. When you guys publish the plan next week, I hope there will also be a well thought budget included. You can't base the platform's marketing just on the user's involvement and the reward pool. As the proverbial saying: Put your money where your mouth is!