Marketing Planning 101: How to Create Your Annual Roadmap (Template)
Marketing plans are critical for helping businesses identify target audiences and outline strategies and tactics to achieve objectives. A well-crafted plan provides clear direction for how your marketing strategy will be successfully implemented.
Use this outline as a guide to craft your plan. Instructions and prompts have been provided in each section. An editable template can also be downloaded below!
Executive Summary
Provide a brief, big-picture summary of the key elements in your plan. Generally, this section is written last and is one or two paragraphs in length.
Business Information
Identify your organization’s mission statement, service offering, planned expansion and growth, and any other information that may be relevant to your marketing strategy.
Situational Analysis
This section should provide a clear explanation of the industry landscape and the organization’s market position. It can include the following elements:
Unique selling proposition (USP)
Market Research
Competitive Analysis & Positioning
SWOT Analysis
Objectives
Define current marketing objectives and how your team will measure success. To provide a clear roadmap for evaluation, ensure that all goals are SMART.
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Relevant
T – Time-Bound
Target Market
Describe the target audience(s) and markets for your marketing activities. Be as specific as possible by outlining key demographic characteristics, geographic location, audience size, psychographic qualities, etc.
Marketing Strategy
Describe the overarching strategies you will employ to meet your objectives. What resources will you leverage? How will you position your organization? What’s your deployment approach?
Tactics
In this section, dive into the weeds of the owned, paid, and earned media assets you will utilize to support your marketing strategies. Determine what channels are most effective for your message, audience, and budget.
Budget
Define your total marketing budget and how it will be allocated to each initiative. When assigning funding, it is important to consider how each tactic will support your objectives and the prioritization of those objectives.
