Free Marketing Strategy Planning Template

Download my Marketing Strategy Planning Template
(No registration required).

As I speak with people from around the world -- those who have read my book The New Rules of Marketing and PR (published in 26 languages from Bulgarian to Vietnamese) or who have seem my dozens of talks a year -- many tell me that they struggle with how to get started.

Most of the implementation challenges people describe involve the shift from marketing products and services to the much more effective approach of focusing on a buyer personas and creating information that helps solve problems for buyers.

A secondary challenge is to get marketers away from a reliance on offline marketing techniques and started with online initiatives.

I have distilled my solution to these challenges -- drawing from The New Rules of Marketing and PR -- to create a simple, two-page Marketing Strategy Planning Template.

Download the free Marketing Strategy Planning Template now (no registration is required).

Feel free to blog it, tweet it, post it on your site or print copies. I’ve put a Creative Commons license on it encouraging you to share.

I created this as a way to get marketers goals oriented to reaching buyers directly. I want everyone to shift out of the comfort zone of preaching about products and services and advertising features and benefits.

For example, if someone says: "I want to start a blog" I would point them first to the template and have them start planning there.

Who are you trying to reach with the blog?

Is a blog the best tool?

What problems can you help solve?

What value do you bring?

What search terms are people entering to find you (will help you name the blog and title posts)

What sort of person are you and what is the company personality (for design).

What do you want people to do? (Buy, donate, subscribe, etc.)

I want to thank my friends Toby Jenkins and Adam Franklin for creating this with me. Toby and Adam run Bluewire Media, a Brisbane web strategy firm. They had been working on a similar strategy template and shared their draft with me. Our ideas were so similar that we collaborated to create this. Thanks guys. Now, when are you going to have me come to Australia so we can surf together?

I am interested in your feedback on the template.

Am I missing anything?
Is this useful?

Comments

[Tim Washer]

David - this is the most concise approach I've seen in help folks articulate their compelling story. I love "How are you remarkable?" they should teach this in business school. congrats, and thanks for sharing.

[David Meerman Scott]

Yeah, Tim, maybe next time we speak at Harvard together we can use it!! Thanks.

[Rob Longert]

This is great for helping to identify influencers for everything from WOM to strategic PR, events etc..

Thanks for sharing this, David.

[Deb Mallett]

So helpful to see the plan laid out this way - to see the big picture and all the components in a couple of pages. Makes the thoughts of a marketing plan much less intimidating and easier to understand. Thank you so much!

[Carolyn Winter]

Wow - this is perfect! I am taking this to the cottage for further contemplation! WIll report back next week.

Thanks so much

Carolyn

[Melody]

This is great. Thank you so much. You are inspirational.

Melody

[David Meerman Scott]

Glad you all like it. Please share!!

[chandani]

Another great work David. This template is not only useful for companies but also for personal branding, like you mentioned starting a blog for company or personal use. Getting the right template to value and design. It guides you through every step. The overall marketing picture in two pages brilliant.

[Greg Jameson]

It always amazes me that most Internet marketing experts think that the solution to becoming rich and famous is through some kind of magical "SEO". This is a great compilation that shows how Internet marketing is really done - a great complement to your book "World Wide Rave" and my book "Grow Your Online Sales" (www.GrowYourOnlineSales.com). thanks David, I am going to repost this.

[Toby_Jenkins]

Hi David,

Thanks for the acknowledgement in your post! It's super exciting to see the feedback too. Thank you all for your comments.

As David said - please share it!

(I've got a couple of places in mind for a surf too David so looking forward to getting you out here sometime - soon hopefully!)

[David Meerman Scott]

chandani -Great point -- the template also works for personal branding!

Greg - SEO (the technical stuff) is important. But if the underlying content stinks, SEO makes it slightly less stinky, not good.

Toby -- It was indeed a pleasure working with you on this!! I am at my surf house on Nantucket Island this week. A couple of great days!!

David

[Colin Warwick]

Hi David, This is a great! Any chance of making it available in an editable format like Google docs or Microsoft Word? Or alter the settings in the PDF writer so that it's not just readable and printable but also fill-out-able (i.e. an editable form: not sure of the technical details but I think there are different saving modes in Acrobat that let you do this.) I'd like to fill in the blanks electronically so I can email my plans to others.

Thanks!

[Richard Randolph]

David:

Thank you for all your great messages and tips – you are helping reshape the practice of Marketing for the better!

I appreciate your Marketing Strategy Planning Template. May I add one element I find particularly useful?

It's a COMMUNICATION PLAN.

WHO needs to know?
WHAT do they need to know?
WHEN do they need to know it?
HOW will we tell them?

I find it helps to break it out this way, and to be explicit about each of the steps, normally into some kind of grid framework. When you begin with WHO needs to know, you can identify different target audiences who you'd like to reach. WIth WHAT do they need to know, you can specify different messages or intended outcomes for each of the different target audiences. For example, a new product launch might include as WHO: your Target Market, Media, Industry reps, etc. Each of those may require a different message, or different timing, or a unique messaging method...

Hope this is of some interest to you. Keep up your great work. LOVED your story about "working" in Japan!

//Richard

[David Meerman Scott]

Richard -- thanks for the suggestion.

Colin -- Don't have anything like that now. Let me think about it. No time to work on it right now...

David

[Marino Fadda]

Thanks. I'll try it immmediately!

[Steve Laswell - The People Developer]

Thank you for investing your time, energy, and wisdom into this very practical tool. Aweome!

Your book is great; now this serves all of us working to "get it" and "do it".

David, you are setting a standard and raising the bar in so many ways.

I am grateful and appreciate you and your touch on my own journey as an entrepreneur...and right on time; for such a time as this!

Celebrating freedom,
Steve

[David Meerman Scott]

thanks Steve...

[Celeste]

Thanks David - I was looking for something like this.

[Ron Carter]

David:

You are a very generous person. Since reading both of your books, I can say that my approach to public relations and marketing have changed. Your Marketing Strategy Planning Template is a gift I will cherish. Thanks.

Ron

[darwinjalen]

what a great work David , I like very much. Thanks for sharing.

[BWD]

Hi David, its really a very good work. Thanks for sharing it.

[Kickofftopic]

Brilliant! My clients and colleagues will love it too. I so appreciate you sharing the important things most small businesses either forget about or neglect, and they don't even realize what impact the change will make until they do it! First step to all marketing strategies is to have a clear goal and plan... Thank you so much for your wonderful spirit of giving David!

Karmen :)
@kickofftopic (on Twitter)

[soha]

Hi David,

Love this post, thanks for sharing.

[Bill Gluth]

Excellent planning tool, David. Concise, easy to get thoughts out of the head and on to paper where they can become actionable and it ties in nicely to New Rules for Marketing and PR 2nd Edition. I can look there for further elaboration on specific tools mentioned on page 2 of the document. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you for sharing it.

[David Meerman Scott]

Glad that so many of you find this helpful. I enjoy making things available (for free) that help others to improve their business and their life!!

David