Some CEOs and Marketing Managers may wonder what should be included in a strategic marketing plan. Here’s a summary to get you started, and it can double as your table of contents in your plan. This has been developed using both industry “real-life” best-practices and leading academic frameworks. Included are some tips that include strategy frameworks designed to take your plan to the next level.

Executive Summary

• Write this last, include the main takeaways from each of your major sections.

Situational Analysis

3C’s Analysis: Company, Competition, Customers

The Market and Customers: market needs, growth trends (total addressable market, serviceable available market, serviceable obtainable market) demographics. Is there a requirement for market research?

• Customer Persona (B2B or B2C)
• Demographics and buying behavior
• Market segments (accessibility, size, profitability)

Company: SWOT analysis, Mission, Vision, Product/service offering, Positioning

• Company strategic discussion (McKinsey 7S Framework) and alignment between business strategy and strategic marketing plan

Competition: direct and indirect competitive analysis including features, pricing, positioning, branding, customer targets, products, distribution, and competitive advantages and disadvantages (strengths and weaknesses)

• Porter’s 5 Forces analysis
• Competitive vs Collaborative market strategy

Strategic Marketing Plan

Your Firm’s Value Proposition

• Porter’s Value Chain analysis

Critical Issues

• May include Root Cause analysis of issues and “forcefield analysis”

Financial Objectives

• Sales, profitability, market share

Marketing Goals and Objectives

• Market share, sales, brand awareness, beat the competition, first to market, product launch, defend market, market-entry, diversification, or other objectives?
• SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound)
• Is there a requirement for market research?

Segmentation Strategy (Target market strategy)

• Which market segments to approach, in which order, and why?

Brand Management Discussion

• Brand equity development, brand revitalization, and other branding activities

Marketing Mix

Product

• Product requirements document
• Product design and features
• Product portfolio analysis
• Product roadmap

Pricing

• Pricing strategy: skimming, low-cost leadership, freemium, willingness-to-pay (WTP pricing), price discrimination, value-based pricing, time-based pricing, market penetration, loss-leader, psychological pricing, competitive pricing, and other strategies
• Is there a requirement for market research on pricing, price elasticity, and demand forecasting with a sensitivity analysis?

Promotion

• Creative Campaign Thematics
• Web/digital
• Identity Collateral / Print including Business Cards/Identity/email nameplates
• Advertising (TV, Radio, PPC/Adwords, Sponsorships)
• Media Planning and Buying
• Social Media (earned/organic, paid)
• Youtube and influencer Marketing, Viral marketing
• Public Relations (earned/sponsored articles)
• Email and Direct Response
• Outdoor/transit/Out of Home (OOH)
• Service (People)
• Event marketing (Webinars/online, Traditional)
• Guerilla marketing and other tactics
• Is there a requirement for promotional/creative market research? (a/b/N testing/focus groups? prior to ad spending?)

Sales Plan

• Sales Strategy and process
• CRM
• Collateral (PDFs/Print/Folders)
• Sales funnel analysis
• Incentivization and compensation plan, KPIs and metrics

Optional:

• Packaging (for FMCG)
• Processes (for service-oriented, professional and quality-driven firms)
• Physical Evidence (for online firms)

Financials

Break-even analysis

Sales Forecast

Expense Forecast

Linking Expenses to SMART Objectives

Contribution Margin

Return on Marketing Objective (ROMI) and other KPIs/Metrics (reach, impressions, CPA, CPL, CPS, CLV)

Controls and Project Timeline

Roles and responsibilities

Implementation plan and controls

Marketing organization, structure

Gantt Chart (Timeline)

Risk and Risk Management

Risks and Contingency plans

The expected value of risks and scenario analysis