1. [Company Name] [Business Unit] Marketing Plan [Year/Date]
Note: This template is usually highly customized depending on the business and industry. Feel free to edit, add or delete where needed.
If done right, it should not be overly lengthy. Content can be short and to the point as long as you have enough detail and clarity to provide direction for the business.
This is a template for a tight presentation of the plan. You may need other formats or templates to capture the fully detailed analysis and marketing strategy (the homework you do before you use this final presentation).
This template was created by Kevin Namaky, Founder at Gurulocity. For more articles, tips, tools and templates to up your marketing game, visit gurulocity.com.

2. Agenda Business Vision/Strategy Summary
Condensed 5-slide version would be:
Business Vision/Strategy Summary
Key Issues/Opportunities This Year
[Year] Marketing Plan Summary
Marketing Calendar
Budget
Agenda
Business Vision/Strategy Summary
Key Issues/Opportunities This Year
[Year] Marketing Objective and Goals
Marketing Plan Summary
Strategies and Tactical Detail
Marketing Calendar
Research Plan (optional)
Budget
Appendix
Situation Analysis (Category, Competitive, SWOT, etc.)
Targeting Strategy
Positioning Strategy

3. Business Vision/Strategy Summary
Insert a one page overview.
Insert a one-page overview of the high- level business strategy/direction that this marketing plan supports. It should include where the business is headed long-term (i.e., 5 years out or more).
This should already exist. Otherwise, you may want to tackle the business strategy separately first.

4. Key Issues/Opportunities This Year
Key issue/opportunity 1
Supporting point/data/fact
Key issue/opportunity 2
Key issue/opportunity 3
A key issue is something that stands in our way right now—between us and our long-term goal. Serve up the key issues you want to address in your marketing plan.
You may also identify key opportunities. Perhaps they are not problems the business faces, but they are opportunities that we can choose to pursue that also advance us toward the long-term vision.
Important: You should only serve up issues here that you have specific goals/strategies against (on upcoming slides). No more and no less.

5. [Year] Marketing Objective and Goals
[Year] Marketing Objective: Spell out your objective here.
Goals:
Goal 1
Goal 2
Goal 3
It is best to boil down your objectives to just one or two for the year. If you are a brand with a very big budget and lots of resources, you might get away with 3, tops. But… Stay focused. Examples: successful product launch, surpass a competitor, etc.
You will typically have more goals than objectives. Goals are binary and help you make progress towards the larger objective (e.g., grow volume, take share, increase penetration, rank #1, leads, conversion, loyalty, etc.)
Important: Your goals on this page should correspond to the key issues/opportunities you just set up on the previous slide. For example, if a key issue is that no one knows you exist, then a goal on this page should be to build awareness.

6. Marketing Plan Summary
Goals
Strategies
KPIs
Goal 1
Strategy 1
Strategy 2
KPI 1, KPI 2, KPI 3
Goal 2
Strategy 3
Strategy 4
KPI 4, KPI 5, KPI 6
Goal 3
Strategy 5
Strategy 6
KPI 7, KPI 8, KPI 9
Goals slot in from the previous page. You should then have specific marketing strategies against each goal (at least one per goal).
Examples: If “build awareness” is a goal, your strategies might include “launch new media campaign,” or “create a website.” If “generate leads” is a goal, then a strategy might be to “create premium gated content.” If “increase in-store presence” is a goal, then you might “design and launch 3 new in-store displays at our top 3 accounts.”
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are how you will know that your efforts were successful. Ask yourself: How will you specifically measure success? Examples include impressions, CPM, visits, search rankings, sales lift, leads generated, downloads, new accounts, market share, etc.

7. Strategy 1 (rename as needed)
Tactical Content and Detail
Now you will create a page for each strategy that lays out the details. What it is, what it looks like (include pictures), etc.
It is advantageous to group all of your tactics by strategy because it helps you tell a linear story. From goals to strategy to tactics, it’s easy to follow and understand the strategic logic behind the plan.
However, there may be some instances where tactics support multiple strategies or goals. If so, you could instead choose to organize this section by tactic (TV, digital, in-store, print, partnerships, promos, etc.). Some marketers may choose to organize by the 4Ps (price, product, place, promotion). None of these approaches is right or wrong. Choose what fits your specific situation.

8. Strategy 2 (rename as needed)
Tactical Content and Detail

9. Strategy 3 (rename as needed)
Tactical Content and Detail

10. Strategy 4 (rename as needed)
Tactical Content and Detail

11. Obviously this is just an example format. Customization is required.
Marketing Calendar
Tactics
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Media
Campaign 1
Campaign 2
In-Store
Promo 1
Promo 2
New Offering
Launch 1
Launch 2
Support
Material Refresh 1
Support Initiative 1
Events
Event 1
Obviously this is just an example format. Customization is required.
You can choose to organize this calendar by tactic type, by strategy, by channel, etc. All that matters is that it’s clear and easy to understand what’s happening when, and how everything fits together.
Color-coding can also be helpful. You can color the bars on the calendar by strategy or tactic type to bring additional clarity and understanding.
Strategy/Key Initiative 1
Strategy/Key Initiative 2
Strategy/Key Initiative 3

12. Research Plan (optional)
What do you want to learn? Test? Questions you want answers to?

13. Budget
Financial Breakdown: How much are you spending? On what? What’s the difference in spend versus last year? What’s your mix?
Spend on media, product, promotion, research, etc. is often presented in a spreadsheet list with the previous year as a comparison.
One approach is to list your budget on left, and then show your spending mix on the right (i.e., show a pie chart that highlights the % of budget you are spending on the various tactics or strategies).
In the end, this page should show what your organization specifically needs and expects to see.

14. Appendix Situation Analysis (Category, Competitive, SWOT, etc.)
Targeting Strategy
Positioning Strategy
For the purposes of this tighter presentation format, your strategic homework is placed in the appendix.