A advertising and marketing plan defines key goals and ensures your campaigns tie in to big-picture goals. Placing this plan in writing will get your complete workforce on the identical web page, working towards frequent objectives.
However that’s simpler stated than completed. Advertising and marketing plan templates exist to make the method simpler.
They arrive in all flavors, starting from a single web page to twenty+ pages with built-in mission monitoring capabilities. Listed below are the perfect locations to begin.
Easy advertising and marketing plan templates
Easy advertising and marketing plan templates are nice for rookies. These are hyper-focused on objectives and make it straightforward for small groups to outline key goals.
You may get began rapidly with out having to do in-depth analysis in your rivals or something like that. Most straightforward advertising and marketing plan templates might be accomplished in lower than an hour.
ClickUp: A advertising and marketing tracker that’s straightforward and streamlined for small groups
ClickUp’s advertising and marketing plan template has every little thing you could get began. You gained’t must spend a lot time shifting issues round to suit your wants (though the template is totally customizable if you wish to make adjustments).
Extra on ClickUp: ClickUp evaluate | ClickUp vs Notion | ClickUp vs Jira | ClickUp options.
This template’s major focus is defining key advertising and marketing goals.
From there, you’ll be able to create duties that can enable you attain these objectives. You’ll additionally be capable of set precedence ranges and phase your activity record into totally different classes.
Since ClickUp is a mission administration platform, this template goes past the starting stage and can be utilized to trace work by means of completion.
The one disadvantage is that it’s not downloadable and have to be used inside ClickUp. That stated, ClickUp has a free endlessly plan, and you’ll entry this template when you join.
Notion: A one-page model technique template
Whereas almost each advertising and marketing plan template tries so as to add additional parts to be distinctive, Notion goes in the wrong way by eliminating the entire nonsense. This one-page template is the right technique to articulate your model picture to make sure everybody concerned in executing your advertising and marketing technique on the identical web page.
Extra on Notion: Notion evaluate | Obsidian vs Notion | Notion vs OneNote | Coda vs Notion.
Whether or not you’re simply getting began or wish to refocus, this template forces you to maintain it easy.
First, you’ll outline your model. You then’ll define the place you wish to be within the subsequent one to a few years earlier than planning the strategic initiatives that can enable you attain these objectives.
It’s value noting that this template doesn’t include as many project-tracking options as different instruments. Nonetheless, you’ll be able to join a free Notion account and begin utilizing this template within the subsequent 5 minutes.
Airtable: Excessive-level goal planning for entrepreneurs
Whereas I usually wouldn’t say Airtable’s a easy software, its free advertising and marketing plan template provides a streamlined technique to plan goals and key outcomes.
Extra on Airtable: Airtable evaluate | Smartsheet vs Airtable | Airtable vs Notion.
Out of the field, the template features a desk for itemizing key outcomes and one other for tying these to goals. Key outcomes might be organized by quarter, effort-level, standing, begin and finish date, or high-level goal.
With Airtable’s unimaginable degree of customization, you’ll be able to rapidly construct extra performance as you want it.
Airtable additionally provides a spread of different free advertising and marketing templates, together with an AI powered advertising and marketing marketing campaign generator and a template for advertising and marketing useful resource allocation.
Its free plan is ample to get began with loads of room to develop.
Advertising and marketing plan templates for startups
Startups sometimes want a extra complete advertising and marketing plan as a result of they’re ranging from scratch. You’ll doubtless want extra granular consideration to element than different templates present, plus you might must current your advertising and marketing plan to buyers or your board.
All of those particulars grow to be much more necessary in the event you’ve by no means run a marketing campaign earlier than.
The templates on this part cowl advertising and marketing budgets, aggressive evaluation, and how one can outline key indicators for measuring success.
Phrase, Google Docs, and Smartsheet: An in depth template for startups
Smartsheet’s advertising and marketing plan template is by far essentially the most intensive possibility on my record. It’s a whopping 21 pages lengthy, masking each potential facet of your advertising and marketing strategy.
Extra on Smartsheet: Smartsheet evaluate | Smartsheet vs Jira | Smartsheet vs monday.com.
The template begins with high-level fundamentals, like your organization’s mission and imaginative and prescient statements. From there, it expands into situational evaluation earlier than masking your rivals, audience, objectives, and extra. You may as well use it to stipulate issues like your worth proposition, pricing technique, benchmarks, and KPIs.
That is superb for any startup that’s nonetheless within the early planning levels and must current data to stakeholders or potential buyers. It’s extra of an govt blueprint versus one thing you’d share or distribute amongst your advertising and marketing workforce.
Whereas it’s not set as much as observe particular campaigns, it’s a fantastic place to begin.
Excel, Google Sheets, and GanttPro: A easy spreadsheet for monitoring advertising and marketing duties
GanttPRO’s easy advertising and marketing plan template is finest described as an in depth guidelines of 140 duties it is best to full when constructing a advertising and marketing plan from scratch. Along with defining the duties and the standing of every, the template helps you to outline priorities, set deadlines, and observe prices related to the work you do.
You’ll undergo the fundamentals, like performing a SWOT evaluation and detailing your audience.
However the template goes even deeper, masking the sources you’ll want to achieve your goals and defining your finances for various advertising and marketing classes.
One disadvantage is that this template doesn’t truly embrace the instruments you could full all of those duties. For instance, there’s not a SWOT evaluation template. You’d want to try this elsewhere, and use this template to trace the progress of your work.
This template works finest whenever you’re modifying it straight in GanttPRO. The software program isn’t free, however you’ll be able to obtain the Excel model of this template and open it with Excel or Google Sheets without charge.
Advertising and marketing motion plan templates
Motion plan advertising and marketing templates transcend big-picture with instruments to interrupt down long-term strategic initiatives into obtainable goals that may then be divided into advertising and marketing campaigns.
The main focus is popping your high-level objectives into an actionable and measurable plan of assault.
ClickUp: A advertising and marketing plan template for attaining SMART objectives
The advertising and marketing motion plan template from ClickUp forces you to remain on observe by serving to you develop SMART objectives designed to get you the place you wish to go.
Much more on ClickUp: Asana vs ClickUp | ClickUp vs Trello | Smartsheet vs ClickUp.
Regardless of the template’s simplicity, it’s versatile sufficient to plan broad areas, like your promoting finances, and get deep within the weeds on the place you’ll spend it. You should utilize it for planning totally different advertising and marketing initiatives, like content material or social media too.
It’s flexibility makes it appropriate for all various kinds of groups needing assist turning concepts into one thing actionable — step-by-step.
With that stated, you’ll doubtless must customise it and add new fields to make it be just right for you and your workforce.
ClickUp’s free plan is greater than sufficient to get you began.
Google Sheets, Google Docs, Excel, and Phrase: Observe motion gadgets
HubSpot’s motion plan template helps you to outline and prioritize key duties with due dates and assignments. Total, it’s very simple and designed for many who love spreadsheets however wish to keep away from pointless complexity.
Extra on HubSpot: HubSpot CRM evaluate | HubSpot vs Salesforce | HubSpot vs Mailchimp.
Certainly one of its coolest options is a area for monitoring various kinds of danger. Doing so makes it straightforward to assume by means of and doc potential roadblocks earlier than they occur.
The template additionally features a activity abstract part, the place customers can see accomplished duties and overdue duties at a look. As you mark duties as completed, the numbers replace robotically with real-time progress perception.
One potential drawback with this template is its scalability. It really works effective for small initiatives, however it may possibly get overwhelming and arduous to make use of as you surpass a number of hundred duties.
I like to recommend beginning managing totally different goals in several sheets so it’s simpler to remain organized.
Superior advertising and marketing plan templates
Superior templates present high-level planning and mission administration options to execute your technique. Past the fundamentals, you’ll be able to incorporate mission timelines, budgeting, and danger administration into your advertising and marketing plan.
These templates are higher for advertising and marketing executives or mission managers overseeing mid to large-sized groups.
TeamGantt: A feature-packed template for digital entrepreneurs
True to its identify, TeamGantt is a strong software for creating Gantt charts on-line.
Gantt chart views can be found from different template suppliers and mission administration instruments on my record. However when you begin constructing them in TeamGantt, you rapidly notice these various views really feel like an afterthought. Right here, they’re clearly the highest precedence.
Extra on TeamGantt: TeamGantt Assessment – Options, Pricing, and Options.
By default, the template is organized for digital advertising and marketing plans. You may customise it by including different non-digital channels, however I actually like the way in which this default structure is structured for digital marketing campaign planning.
The very best half about this template is the timeline performance. Because you’re working with a Gantt chart, you’ll be able to plan campaigns and methods throughout a number of channels, even those who run concurrently. Even with a number of campaigns and initiatives, it doesn’t really feel visually overwhelming.
You may as well color-code your timeline primarily based on class, particular channel, or each. This makes it simpler to zoom out and assess every from a hen’s eye view.
The template is drag-and-drop-friendly, so you’ll be able to rapidly add new actions by dragging them in your timeline primarily based on how lengthy you assume it’ll take. From there, all that’s left is tagging your workforce, assigning duties, and watching your plan roll out with progress bars that replace in real-time.
TeamGantt has a restricted free endlessly plan that’s effective for solo work. However I like to recommend upgrading to a premium model to get essentially the most out of it. You may strive these free for seven days.
Confluence: Features a roadmap planner, finances, and danger evaluation
Confluence is a sophisticated resolution for collaborative work. It’s free for as much as ten customers and comes with limitless pages, limitless areas, and dozens of free templates.
This specific template seems to be easy on the floor. However Confluence helps you to get as deep within the weeds as you’d like with loads of room to construct on.
Extra on Confluence: Confluence vs Jira | Confluence vs Notion | Confluence Options.
You’ll begin with the fundamentals, like figuring out your advertising and marketing objectives and goals, earlier than offering detailed details about your goal market. From there, you’ll be able to assign metrics to every purpose so that you and your complete workforce perceive the definition of success.
There’s additionally room for performing a aggressive evaluation, operating a SWOT evaluation, and defining positioning and model values.
Confluence’s roadmap planner can be included. It’s designed to point out totally different phases of labor with milestones, lanes, and timelines. However creating one requires some follow utilizing keyboard shortcuts, making it harder for people who find themselves new to the platform.
In case your workforce is utilizing Trello or Jira (two platforms owned by Confluence’s father or mother firm), you’ll be able to even incorporate playing cards from these instruments into your Confluence advertising and marketing plan.
Lastly, you’ll be capable of plan and allocate your finances, and assess potential dangers to your technique. One factor that’s lacking is the flexibility so as to add your precise spending towards your deliberate finances, however that’s not the top of the world.
Templates for advertising and marketing businesses
As a advertising and marketing company, you’ll have a distinct strategy to marketing campaign administration. Since all your shoppers have totally different objectives, group turns into much more necessary — particularly when you’ve got workforce members engaged on initiatives for a number of shoppers.
On high of that, you might wish to invite shoppers to contribute with out them with the ability to see duties for everybody else.
Templates on this part make it straightforward to collaborate, see every little thing in a single place, and drill into the main points of every shopper with out pointless complexity.
monday.com: Plan and handle shopper campaigns in a single place
monday.com’s advertising and marketing plan template is particularly for freelancers, contractors, and businesses managing campaigns on behalf of their shoppers.
It comes with a single dashboard displaying a high-level overview of each marketing campaign, however you even have the flexibility to create particular person dashboards for particular initiatives. This makes it straightforward for managers and their workers to see every little thing they should do their jobs.
Extra on monday.com: monday.com evaluate | Notion vs monday.com | ClickUp vs monday.com.
Monday.com makes it straightforward to collaborate along with your shoppers as effectively. You may invite them to their board to allow them to see what you’re engaged on with out peeking at different shoppers.
You may even arrange customized kinds the place shoppers can submit requests which might be robotically added to your activity record.
There are many methods you’ll be able to arrange and examine duties within the system. From color-coded Gantt charts to calendar view, everybody can use the layouts that work finest for them.
Though monday.com has plenty of highly effective capabilities on paid plans, the free tier is greater than sufficient to get began.
Stackby: Align your work with every shopper’s high-level objectives
Not like the monday.com template, this one from Stackby isn’t particularly for businesses. Nonetheless, it’s versatile sufficient to work simply as effectively whether or not you have got a handful of shoppers or a number of hundred.
At a excessive degree, you can begin by defining initiatives and goals. From there, you’ll be able to assign them to a shopper and assign the work required.
The great thing about this template is that customers get big-picture context whereas taking a look at duties.
They now not must click on backwards and forwards between views or fly blind hoping they perceive what they should accomplish.
As a relational database software, Stackby is extra superior than the opposite options on my record — it’s doubtless overkill until you actually wish to use this template or construct complicated programs and workflows.
With that stated, it does have a free plan you should use to strive it out.
Kinds of advertising and marketing plan templates
Advertising and marketing is a really broad time period — as such, there are plenty of various kinds of templates, every specializing in various kinds of advertising and marketing actions. From technique and purpose setting to content material, editorial calendars and social media, there’s quite a bit to consider.
For those who’re in search of one thing extra particular than a common advertising and marketing plan template, this part will information you to the correct place.
Advertising and marketing technique
A strategic advertising and marketing plan is a high-level doc that sometimes covers market alternatives and methods to edge out the competitors. They embrace a good quantity of market analysis to make sure your model can keep forward of any adjustments in your trade or market panorama.
SEE: Take a look at my favourite advertising and marketing technique templates.
Content material advertising and marketing
Content material plans are hyper-focused in your content material advertising and marketing technique. Every part from blogs to emails, social media posts, podcasts, and YouTube movies would fall into this bucket. Past fundamental planning, content material advertising and marketing plans enable you align your content material technique with big-picture advertising and marketing goals.
SEE: Take a look at my favourite content material plan templates.
Social media advertising and marketing
Social media planning zooms in in your social media advertising and marketing technique. It’s an effective way to remain organized whilst you’re mapping out a publishing schedule at scale — particularly in case your model is lively on a number of channels. Most of those templates additionally allow you to plan out social media content material alongside different advertising and marketing plans.
SEE: Take a look at my favourite social media planners.
Advertising and marketing calendars
Advertising and marketing and editorial calendars make it straightforward to visualise long-term publishing schedules. Most often, each bit of content material is plotted on an precise calendar to point out you the density and consistency of your publishing exercise.
SEE: Take a look at my favourite editorial calendar templates and actual property advertising and marketing calendar templates.
Go to market technique
A go to market technique is used whenever you’re launching a brand new services or products, but it surely will also be used in the event you’re increasing your present model choices into a brand new market. They sometimes embrace a advertising and marketing motion plan and clear steps to take earlier than, throughout, and after your launch.
SEE: Take a look at my favourite go to market technique templates.
Advertising and marketing finances templates
Your finances is without doubt one of the most necessary items of any advertising and marketing plan, technique, or calendar. Many companies like to trace that alongside their work so it’s all the time high of thoughts.
Whether or not you could plan out the month, quarter, or yr, many of the templates I’ve already lined embrace some type of finances monitoring. For those who choose to separate it out of your work and observe it someplace else, there are devoted templates for that as effectively.
SEE: Take a look at my favourite advertising and marketing finances templates.
Key parts of a advertising and marketing plan template
There are lots of of components you’ll be able to embrace whenever you’re making a advertising and marketing plan. Whereas the weather you embrace rely upon what you’re doing, it’s finest to begin easy and develop from there.
Just a few key parts embrace:
- Advertising and marketing objectives.
- Key goals that align along with your objectives.
- KPIs and definitions of success.
- Timeline and sources.
You might also wish to embrace a aggressive evaluation, finances tracker, activity administration capabilities, and extra.
When to make use of a advertising and marketing plan template
Advertising and marketing plan templates are extraordinarily versatile and can be utilized in numerous eventualities. Frequent examples embrace:
- Throughout the preliminary planning levels for a startup.
- Annual or quarterly planning classes.
- Creating a brand new high-level advertising and marketing technique.
- Focusing on a brand new viewers or increasing your market.
- During times of progress or change (like new management).
- Launching a brand new marketing campaign or exploring a brand new channel.
For this reason you’ll discover so many various kinds of advertising and marketing plan templates — as there’s actually no “one-size-fits-all” possibility.
I like to recommend in search of the best possibility that meets your wants and increasing the template by yourself. Most often, it’s a lot simpler so as to add than it’s to remove.
How usually must you replace your advertising and marketing plan?
It’s best to replace your advertising and marketing plan at the very least as soon as per yr.
Some companies prefer to assess their advertising and marketing plan each quarter, which may work effectively in case your campaigns are likely to run lower than a month. It’s finest to attend a number of months, reside along with your plan, and perceive the problems earlier than you begin making adjustments.