Marketing planning

Start from the constraint, not the calendar

Name the single thing limiting growth right now: not enough people know, not enough of the right people know, they know but do not believe, they believe but do not act, or they act but do not stay. Each implies a different plan. A plan that funds all five funds none properly.

Structure

1. Objective — one primary number with a date. Supporting metrics are supporting.
2. The constraint and the evidence for it.
3. Segments — who, in priority order, and who is explicitly out of scope this period.
4. Channel mix — three tiers:
   • Proven — working now; fund to capacity, then stop. Most channels have a ceiling and spending past it buys worse customers.
   • Scaling — evidence but not yet at capacity; the growth budget.
   • Experimental — capped at a share you can lose entirely without missing the objective.
5. Sequencing — what has to be true before each thing starts. Content before paid, positioning before content.
6. Budget — by tier and channel, with the fixed-versus-variable split visible.
7. Measurement — the leading indicator per channel and when it should first move. A channel with no stated read-by date runs forever.
8. Kill criteria — what result stops each experiment. Decided in advance, when it is cheap.

Pressure-test before committing

• What must be true for this to work, and which of those is least certain?
• What happens at half the budget? If the plan collapses, it has no core.
• Which line item would you cut first? If nothing, the plan is not prioritized.
• Where does this depend on another team delivering, and have they agreed?

Never

• Plan channel activity before positioning is settled.
• Fund an experiment you cannot afford to have fail.
• Report a plan without stating what did not get funded and why.