marketing strategy business project

5 Steps To Creating A Top-Notch Marketing Project Plan

You already know that marketing is crucial to your business. A good marketing function is not only essential for strengthening brand awareness and educating customers–it can also significantly impact your bottom line. In a typical business, marketing contributes a whopping 15-30% of revenue when it comes to net-new customers. 

So how do you max out on your marketing revenue? How can you get the most out of marketing for your specific business? It all starts with creating a marketing project management plan . 

Marketing campaign template

Take the guesswork out of planning and executing your digital marketing campaign and spin up successful projects in seconds.

Try our marketing campaign template

What is a marketing project plan? 

A marketing project plan is a report that outlines your marketing strategy for the upcoming month, quarter, or year. Typically, these plans include:

An overview of your business’s marketing, advertising goals, and competitors

A description of your business’s current marketing position

A timeline of when tasks within your strategy will be completed

Key performance indicators (KPIs) you will be tracking

A description of your business’s target market and customer needs.

This may feel like a lot of moving parts to research and manage. But we’ll narrow the focus in on five essential steps that will get you moving towards those marketing goals.

Key responsibilities of a marketing project manager when creating a marketing campaign project plan

The  role of a project manager  is to set up and head up a project so that everything runs smoothly.  Project managers  are given overall responsibility for the successful initiation, planning, design , execution, monitoring, controlling, and closure of a project. 

Projects will typically have fixed time-frames and fixed costs. And project managers need to make sure that tasks are completed within the set time-frames and budgets permitted. 

While planning and  tracking  these details is an essential duty in a project manager’s day-to-day, they also must be great communicators.  One of project managers’ biggest roles is to communicate with and manage their team members, making sure that each member knows what their responsibilities are and are staying on track.

Do you really need a marketing project plan?" 

The answer, from research and professional marketers alike is a resounding “Yes!” Learning how to write a marketing project plan forces you to think through the important steps necessary for effective marketing. And a well-defined plan will help you stay focused on your overall marketing goals.

But in addition to helping you get your head in the marketing game, creating a marketing project plan yields a few other significant benefits: 

According to one study from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, only 2.5% of organizations complete 100% of their projects.

A report from The Standish Group found that 90% of companies use some sort of project retrospective process to assess performance .

And Aditi Consulting says  3 in 5 projects companies execute are not relevant to their business strategy.

But, marketers who set goals have a 429 percent greater chance of reporting successful campaigns, and 81 percent of these marketers achieve their goals . 

Setting clear goals and building out a thorough marketing project plan is one of the most difficult tasks for marketers, but this work pays off. 

How to create a killer marketing project plan 

We’ve broken this process down into seven straight-forward steps. Soon you’ll be cranking out stellar marketing project plans like the pro you are! Feel free to peruse these  project management templates  as you read along.

1. Create a clear marketing strategy 

While a marketing project plan is like a  roadmap , a marketing strategy is like a destination. So, before you start walking, figure out where you want to go. Your marketing strategy will include areas of research like your business’s vision, values, and goals; your audience; and your available marketing channels. Let’s quickly examine each of these further.

First, identify and note your business’ vision, values, and goals. 

Your marketing strategy must align with your business’ overall vision, values, and goals. So identify what these are in your particular business. What is your company hoping to achieve? What makes you stand apart from your competitors? What values do your company refuse to compromise? Keep this back bone of your company in the forefront of your mind while filling out your marketing strategy.

Second, take a close look at your target audience. 

Your target audience are those people who you are gearing your services or products towards and who are most likely to purchase your products. They are the reason you’re in business. Knowing what your target audience is buying or interested in purchasing is absolutely necessary when developing a marketing strategy and plan. When quality products or services are tied to your audience’s personal preferences, you can make a big impact and a big ROI. 

Audience research and knowledge is at the core of good marketing strategies. In fact, successful marketers are 242 percent more likely to conduct frequent audience research. Additionally, 56 percent of professionals and experienced marketers say that they perform audience research at least once per month.

Lastly, your marketing strategy will include a list of your marketing channels .

Marketing channels are the venues you use to reach your customers. These channels are where you’ll publish the content that educates your buyers, generates leads , and spreads awareness of your brand. Lay out which channels you want to use during your marketing project, what you’ll use each channel for, and how you’ll measure your success on each channel.

Some of the most effective marketing channels that have been performing best this year include pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media, email marketing, a business website, content marketing using a blog , and word of mouth. Other marketing channels include influencer marketing, cold calling , billboards, or TV commercials.

Today, there are more online marketing platforms than ever before. As intimidating as that may sound, your overall online presence has the potential to be more connected than ever before. 

Pro tip:  Don’t give a speech to an empty auditorium. You could write the most riveting blog post, put together the most eye-catching Instagram post , or create the cleverest tweet, but if your audience isn’t on those platforms or channels, you might as well have spent that time binge-watching Netflix.

2. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals 

The next step to creating a strong marketing project plan is to start setting your  project goals . There are a number of goals you might be interested in. Maybe you want to increase brand awareness or drive more traffic to your website. Perhaps you’re hoping to increase mentions in the press, generate new leads, or funnel customers towards a new ebook or course. 

Whatever marketing agenda you have, set S.M.A.R.T. goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. For example, you could have the goal of increasing traffic to your website by 15% in the next 6 months. This way, you and everyone on your team can clearly understand each goal and analyze your progress.

3. Delegate tactics to reach your goals 

The next step in building a fool-proof marketing project plan is to break down your goals into specific tactics. For example, if one of your marketing project goals is to reach 1000 followers on your company’s Instagram account, you might break down that goal into the following steps: 

Post varied content that aligns with your target audience’s interests daily.

Seek out potential partners and engage with their content daily.

Pursue new followers by engaging with competitor companies’ following.

Once you have your list of smaller steps, you can start delegating. Good delegation begins with a good team. If you have people working with you that have proven themselves to be trustworthy and hard-working, delegate portions of the marketing project to the appropriate workers. 

Routine and straightforward tasks are the best ones to delegate. Otherwise, you will end up being the bottleneck of your own marketing project. By delegating tasks to trusted employees, you’ll free up your own time to do what you do best–managing your marketing project plan.

4. Recognize parameters and resources 

Include detailed information about the available resources for your marketing project. Factors like your timeline, budget, and available team members will help you write and run through the plan smoothly.

Without specific parameters around your marketing project plan, your projects will be as real as pies in the sky. Setting parameters around your marketing project plan will actually help you turn your goals into a reality and track your progress along the way. Try to get your numbers as specific as possible so that you can accurately manage and monitor each step of the project and know when you’re getting close to your budget or time limit.

5. Get everyone on the same page 

One of the biggest responsibilities of a marketing project manager is to communicate well with the team and keep everyone working smoothly together. No matter what kind of marketing campaign you’re managing, your marketing team needs a clear plan and great execution to make it a success. 

You know your team best, so decide whether it’s necessary to meet every morning for five minutes or once a week for an hour to make sure that everyone understands the goal of the project and their upcoming tasks and responsibilities. However often you decide, here are a few tips for keeping each member of your team on the same page:

Share the big-picture. Most of us work better when we know the ultimate goal. It can be motivating and empowering to your team members and employees to feel like their work is part of a larger company objective.

Clarify specific tasks and responsibilities. In addition to sharing the big-picture, make sure to clearly explain each of the smaller tasks as well. Offer clarity for each marketing teammate on their specific roles,  tasks , and responsibilities. That way, you can ensure a smooth progression through the extent of the project.

Post a Project Calendar. Share a schedule with a set due date for every assigned task in your marketing project plan. This will help every member of your team stay on track and keep themselves accountable. 

A calendar with the approaching launch day can also be a big motivator for the whole team, and coworkers will more easily be able to see the accomplishments and successes of each other’s work. Make sure your teammates can easily access your  project calendar  and celebrate them when they hit challenging deadlines.

Pay no attention to the man(ager) behind the curtain 

Behind every project, whether it’s organizing a wedding or building a skyscraper, there is an unknown leader–the project manager who kept everything and everyone on track. 

The  role of a project manager  is to deliver the desired result, anticipate potential problems, and fix them before they occur. Good project managers can delegate work to passionate employees and teammates. They run things excellently from behind the curtain so as to eliminate any hiccups and ensure the project’s success . 

Better Marketing Project Management: The Key to Successful Marketing Campaigns

It’s a challenging role for marketers, but when done well, marketing project management leads to incredible business success. Solid  project management  and communication with your team is even more important and challenging with everyone working from home this year. But we’re not about to leave you hanging. Check out  our guide  for working through the six biggest challenges you might encounter while managing your team from afar. 

Teamwork.com is the all-in-one platform for client work.

Push vs. pull marketing: Breaking down the differences

Product development process defined: An 8-step guide

Omnichannel vs. multichannel: Which marketing strategy is right for your clients?

What is an omnichannel strategy in marketing?

8 SEO growth hacks for better client results

Split testing: What it is and how it transforms your online presence

Stay updated by subscribing to the Teamwork.com newsletter. We’ll keep you in the loop with news and updates regularly.

Filter by Keywords

An In-Depth Guide to Creating a Marketing Project Plan

Sudarshan Somanathan

Head of Content

February 8, 2024

Careful research and planning are the cornerstones of any successful marketing strategy. 

If you don’t plan your marketing initiatives, there’s every chance your marketing charter will go off course. As a result, you’ll waste time, money, and precious resources on activities that won’t help you achieve your marketing goals .

That’s where a robust marketing project plan will help. It helps marketing professionals map out their marketing strategy for the year, quarter, month, etc.

You can include factors like budget, resource allocation, sub-division of tasks, and the end objective.

If you need help preparing a marketing project plan, this guide is just what you require. In this comprehensive guide, we will explain what a marketing project plan is, why it’s beneficial, and how to make one.

Let’s get started.

What is a Marketing Project Plan?

Essential elements of a marketing project plan, how to create an effective marketing project plan, the role of marketing project manager in crafting a plan, benefits of having a strong marketing project plan, common challenges in making a marketing project plan, ready to create a solid marketing project plan.

A marketing project plan details a company’s marketing strategies and execution steps. It comprises clear timelines for executing the strategy, a list of tasks to be accomplished, the marketing goals, and other essential details about the company’s marketing initiatives.

The purpose of having a marketing project plan is to organize tasks and streamline marketing processes to get the best results.

Make your marketing project plan as comprehensive and well-researched as possible. This will help you during the execution stage when you need to find some information.

While there are many factors that one should include, here are some essential elements you must add to your marketing project plan.

Marketing goals

This section will mention your company’s current position and what it wants to achieve next year.

Here, you’ll list all your marketing goals for the period and the metrics you’ll use to track the performance of your campaigns. Make sure your marketing objective aligns with your overall business objectives.

Some examples of broad business and marketing objectives are

• Raising brand awareness
• Generating more sales leads
• Improving website rankings
• Growing social media presence

Based on these broad objectives, you need to develop specific goals that help achieve these. Use the ClickUp Smart Goals Template to define and document your marketing goals.

Target audience

A description of your target customer segments and their buyer personas will make up this part of your marketing plan.

Include all the critical insights from your customer research data in this section of the marketing project plan. Add as many details as possible to ensure your team knows who they’re targeting through various marketing initiatives.

Competitor analysis

Here, include a list of key competitors and insights from competitor analysis data. It should help you get a quick overview of your competitor’s marketing strategies and their strengths and weaknesses. Use the ClickUp Market Competitive Analysis Template to create a visual competitor benchmarking dashboard.

Marketing tactics

This section of your marketing plan will include a detailed list of the marketing strategies you plan to execute. Go in-depth and make a detailed plan of all the marketing initiatives you want to implement in the next year.

For example, if you plan to grow your social media presence, list all marketing strategies you will use. This could be organic content posting, paid advertising, influencer marketing, and more.

Also, list the types of content you want to focus on. Videos, for example, are gaining much traction and should be a part of your content mix.

Marketing channels

List all the marketing and content distribution channels you will use for your marketing campaign. Don’t just rely on your website or blog. 

Instead, ensure you have a good mix of channels to reach a larger audience and generate more leads for your business. 

You should, for example, use at least one social media marketing channel. Choose the one that’s most popular among your target audience.

However, don’t go overboard and try to put too much on your plate. Choose a few strategic channels and target them well instead of trying to market on all possible channels and failing.

Go-to-market strategy

You will need a go-to-market strategy to promote a new product or collection or enter a new market. This includes your marketing plans for five key aspects—product, price, promotion, people, and place.

Many ready-to-use go-to-market strategy templates can help you create a detailed marketing strategy. Here’s a screenshot of the ClickUp Go-to-Market Strategy Whiteboard Template , which is perfect for this.

Use this portion of your marketing project plan to set an overall marketing budget. Also, allocate a part of your overall budget to the various marketing activities and strategies you have in the works.

Do market research to estimate the costs you will likely incur on multiple marketing activities to make a realistic and accurate budget plan.

Software and tools

You will need various marketing tools and software to implement your marketing strategy successfully. This includes marketing planning software , social media management tools, content scheduling tools, and more.

We also advise using the best marketing project management software to ensure seamless team collaboration and efficient task management.

List all the tools you have and plan to buy in the next year. If there are recurring costs, such as a subscription fee, then list those as well.

You now understand what a marketing project plan is and what elements it contains. Now, let’s discuss how you can create a marketing project plan that works for you and helps you run successful marketing campaigns.

Here’s a step-by-step guide. Follow the process to develop a solid project marketing plan.

1. Assess your current position

Determining your company’s current situation is the first step toward making any business plan. This will help you identify areas of improvement and set clear goals.

Start with a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for that. Take it further and write a possible action plan for each item on your SWOT matrix. See the example below to get an idea.

You should also conduct a competitor analysis to understand where you stand compared to your key competitors.

Once you have a clear idea of where you stand, move to the next step.

2. Clearly define your target audience

You need to identify and define your target customer segments at this stage. 

Because your marketing strategies and project marketing plan will depend on your audience and their interests and preferences.

Create buyer personas for your target customer segments. It should include:

• Demographic information : Age, location, job role, income, etc.
• Goals and pain points : What is the key challenge your product helps solve? What goals can you help them achieve via your products or services?
• Interests and preferences : Which marketing channels are they most active on? What types of content do they engage with?
• Behavioral traits : What is their online shopping behavior? What is their typical buying journey?

Use the ClickUp User Persona Whiteboard Template to visualize your buyer personas and bring them to life. Include characteristics relevant to your niche and enrich each buyer persona with as much information as you can collect. Using the ClickUp User Persona Template , create and manage several user personas from a single dashboard.

3. Set clear marketing goals

Next, you need to define your marketing goals clearly. What is it that you want to achieve with your marketing efforts?

Both your marketing plan and goals should be for a specific period. Ideally, this should be a fiscal year. 

Tracking your marketing performance yearly will help keep things organized. It’s also a long enough period for you to track and measure the results of your marketing activities.

Make your goals as specific and realistic as possible. Use the SMART framework to make your goals:

• Specific : Don’t be vague; set clear targets. For example, ‘drive revenue growth by 5% in the next quarter’
• Measurable : Identify metrics you can use to measure performance on said goals
• Attainable : Set realistic targets that can be achieved within the given time frame
• Relevant : Set goals that are relevant to your business
• Time-bound : All goals should have clear timelines

Once you have identified your goals, use good marketing project management software like ClickUp to document your goals.

Invest in the required analytical tools to measure your marketing campaign’s performance.

4. Set a budget

By now, you should clearly know what you want to achieve and who your target audience is. Now, it’s time to set aside a dedicated marketing budget to help you achieve your goals and create a solid marketing project plan.

How much of your budget should you allocate for marketing?

This is an excellent place to start, but there is no strict rule on how much you spend. It depends on how aggressive your growth plans and marketing goals are.

If your company is in the initial growth stage, you may want to spend more on marketing. If you have an established business, your marketing budget could be lower.

It also depends on how much money you want to spend. As such, you should assess your financial position and marketing goals to set a realistic budget.

5. Choose the right marketing strategies and channels

At this step of the marketing planning process , you have everything you need to create your marketing plan and decide which strategies and channels you will use.

Some popular marketing tactics include:

• Content marketing
• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Webinars and podcasts
• Video Marketing

Keep your budget in mind when choosing marketing strategies. For example, advertising is a good way to drive quick results, but you may not have the budget to allocate.

As for marketing channels, your website will be your primary channel for content and SEO, but you should also include other channels in the mix. Choose 1-2 social media platforms where your target audience is most active and focus on those. 

6. Assign tasks and create a schedule

This is where all your work so far comes to fruition, and you start executing your marketing strategies. Use the ClickUp Marketing Plan Template to create and allocate tasks and a marketing calendar.

Whether you’re working with an in-house team or outsourcing content creation, provide detailed creative briefs to your team. This will ensure all your marketing content is consistent, on-brand, and meets your requirements. If you need help with content creation, use the ClickUp AI to get an AI-powered writing assistant. It will help you create and edit content quickly and efficiently.

You should also use ClickUp to manage your marketing projects, as it’s a great project management tool. Use it to create a project plan, track the progress of each task, and meet deadlines. It allows you to view tasks in the Gantt chart view, a great way to visualize your project timelines and status.

ClickUp Docs can also help you create visual workflows, create docs for sharing your project plans, collaborate with your team on various tasks, and more.

It’s one of the best project management tools and can simplify marketing project management.

A marketing project manager plays a crucial role in creating and executing a marketing plan.

They are in charge of the initiative and are responsible for planning, designing, managing, and implementing it. They provide critical input and use the right marketing project management strategies to ensure that the company’s marketing initiatives are successful.

Marketing project managers are also responsible for allocating tasks and working with various marketing team members to ensure things are done correctly and on time. This requires them to be great communicators and leaders.

A well-researched and in-depth marketing project plan can help you better organize your marketing activities. But if you need more convincing on creating a plan, check out its various benefits.

Here are some key benefits:

• A plan gives everyone involved a strategic direction and plan of action. This helps you and your team stay on the right course to achieve your marketing goals
• It helps streamline the marketing processes and keep track of and manage the various tasks involved
• It gives you a better understanding of your target customers, competitors, and target market, allowing you to be better equipped to handle any unexpected challenges
• As you mention your goals and KPIs in a marketing plan, it also helps you assess if your marketing initiatives are working well or if you need to change your approach

Making a robust marketing project plan is crucial for success, but it isn’t easy. It requires careful planning, research, and brainstorming.

By learning about the potential challenges you may face, you will be better prepared when preparing a plan for your business.

Here are some challenges you may face when creating a marketing project plan:

• You may not know where to start and what to include in your marketing project plan. Using a marketing project plan template, however, can help with that
• Setting realistic goals is another area where managers struggle. It also requires a thorough analysis of your current business positioning and overall business objectives
• Conducting thorough competitor and market analysis is also a challenging part of making a marketing plan, one that takes a lot of time and effort

Planning will be more difficult if you’re a marketer without project management experience. Get help from experts, read more about how to do it right, and use project planning tips from various online resources to prepare yourself for the challenge.

If you’ve carefully read this article, you have all the information you need to create a winning marketing project plan.

Remember, it’s a challenging and time-consuming process, especially if you don’t have a marketing plan template or framework you use every year. 

Don’t worry; we’ve got the perfect solution for you. Use ClickUp’s marketing plan templates to make your job easier. ClickUp also offers various project management tools, templates, and features to help you plan and execute your marketing strategies.

Check out the ClickUp marketing project management software and explore its features to see if it fits your business correctly.

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

Receive the latest WriteClick Newsletter updates.

Thanks for subscribing to our blog!

Please enter a valid email

• Free training & 24-hour support
• Serious about security & privacy
• 99.99% uptime the last 12 months

How To Create A Marketing Project Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide

When you think of “big marketing mistakes”, you might think of that episode of The Office where Michael accidentally gives their biggest customer a Golden Ticket for a 50% discount.

And yes, giving away too much of your value for free is bad.

But actually, one of the biggest mistakes marketers make is: failing to plan.

You can have access to the best marketing project management tools but without a clear, documented marketing plan you’re bound to fail.

According to CoSchedule, marketers who plan are three times more likely to be successful than those who don’t.

In this blog, we’ve broken down everything you need to know on how to put together a marketing plan, including examples and templates.

What is a marketing project plan?

A marketing project plan is a report or presentation in which you outline your marketing strategy. It covers your marketing goals, the steps you will take to achieve these goals, and how to measure them. This could be for a specific period, for example, the next quarter or year, or for a specific event, such as a product launch. 

We’ll get into the specifics of what’s included in a marketing plan in a minute, but their basic purpose is to outline:

• Your goals and the metrics you’ll use to measure them
• The challenges you face in reaching them
• The actions you’ll take and resources required to overcome these

It’s the document your superiors will use to understand the project, that the marketing team will work from throughout, and that you’ll use to keep the whole thing on track.

Common formats for marketing plans are:

• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Equivalent products in Google Drive, e.g., Slides

We’ll show you more examples below, but here’s a quick example of an MS Word marketing plan by ProjectManager for now:

In a nutshell, a marketing plan helps you:

• Define the scope of the project (and minimize project scope creep !)
• Set out a timeline for completion and allocate resources
• Measure your success and adjust your tactics as your project evolves

Marketing strategy vs. marketing plan: what’s the difference?

The difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan is subtle but important. 

A marketing strategy is all about high-level thinking – that means how you’re: 

• Communicating your company values 
• Achieving your goals for long-term growth
• Securing a competitive advantage 

A marketing plan, on the other hand, is the more specific, day-to-day actions that will get you there. 

It’s a symbiotic relationship: a marketing plan needs a strong strategy to guide it, and a marketing strategy is useless if not accompanied by a good plan.

9 elements of a marketing plan

No two marketing projects are the same, so it follows that no two marketing plans will be either. However, most successful marketing plans will usually have these nine elements in common.

1. Target market 

If you’re working on an email marketing campaign, this might be which segments of the target audience you’ll be engaging. If you’re launching a new product it’ll mean outlining your ICP, or Ideal Customer Profile.

Buyer personas are useful to document your ICP. Here’s an example buyer persona template.

2. Project goals

Without goals in place, your marketing plan is dead in the water. They should be SMART – that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

In short, SMART goals are specific targets you want to hit in a defined period. Advantages for setting SMART goals include:

• Set clear, unambiguous goals for your marketing team
• Provide a way to measure progress and course correct if necessary
• Prevent your team from wasting resources on irrelevant work
• Build confidence with realistic and achievable goals
• Set clear start and end dates for your marketing projects

Here’s an example SMART goals planning template from HubSpot.

3. Competitive analysis

A competitor analysis might seem like it’s more relevant to a product launch project, but it’s equally important to your marketing efforts.

Depending on your marketing campaign, your competitive analysis can take different forms. For example, to analyze your SEO competition, you want to know:

• Who are my SEO competitors?
• How does a competitor’s content on Google?
• Am I missing any content that my competitors have?
• What kind of content drives results for my competition?

Here’s an example SEO competition analysis by Moz to include in your marketing plan:

4. Strategies

Now’s the time to define the important elements of your brand’s strategy. This will include things like:

• Your value proposition
• Your brand positioning
• Your mission statement

Here’s an example of a brand strategy slide from a brand marketing plan. It includes a brand strategy roadmap, which you can find out more about here .

The last thing you want to do when you’re outlining your big vision for brand expansion is crunched the numbers, but look at it this way: if you don’t crunch them now, they’ll come back to bite you later.

You need to budget for any costs, such as: 

• Focus groups 
• Visual assets

Here’s an example of a product marketing budget in Google Sheets:

6. Responsibilities and resource planning

A resource plan is a key component of any plan.

It involves identifying, acquiring, and assigning resources for your marketing project in order to meet the goals. Resources can be anything including people, tools, facilities, materials, or monetary budget.

The resource allocation process involves the following steps:

• Create your marketing project’s timeline.
• Identify resources you’ll need to get the project done.
• Find and book available resources.
• Create a plan for acquiring unavailable resources.

7. Metrics and measurements

Setting your metrics at the start of the project gives you the ability to track the success of the project in real-time and makes it clear to everyone on board what success would look like.

The best metrics will depend on your overall objectives.

Remember, though: beware of vanity metrics that look good on a graph but don’t give a reliable indicator of engagement, for example, social media impressions.

8. Tasks and schedule 

Do you know what we call a plan without a clear schedule attached to it? Just a nice idea.

Here’s a template to for creating a digital marketing plan in Excel .

Alternatively, you can also use a visual planning tool like Toggl Plan to plan a timeline for your marketing project.

9. Executive summary

We know what you’re thinking – doesn’t this usually go at the top of a marketing plan?

You’re absolutely right. But the reason we’ve left this part till the end of this list is that it’s actually the last thing you’ll write as part of your marketing plan.

The executive summary takes everything we’ve just discussed and boils it down into a brief overview at the start of the marketing plan.

Learn more about how to write an executive summary .

How to create a marketing plan

Now that you know the key elements of a great marketing plan, it’s time to get yours written. Here’s how to create a stellar marketing plan – in seven steps.

1. Identify stakeholders

The stakeholders are the people you need to please with this marketing plan, and you’ve got to identify them and what their needs are before you begin.

Examples of who your stakeholders might be:

Identifying which ones are the most important to this project and what their distinct needs are can guide your strategy and priorities.

For example, let’s say you’re running a campaign to generate leads for your sales team. Your sales team is a stakeholder in this campaign. You’ll need to consult them to find out their needs—not just high-level goals like “get more leads”, but things like:

• What does a qualified lead look like for them?
• What information do they need to contact these leads?
• How many leads do they need to meet their sales targets?

You can’t afford to skip this stage—only one in three organizations deliver projects that are likely to achieve stakeholder satisfaction.

2. Assemble your team

This is self-explanatory, right? To get the job done properly, you need the right people working on it.

Most project teams have only 6-10 people on them. The old saying “too many cooks spoil the broth” is as true in marketing as it is in the kitchen.

Instead, focus on getting a small group of people who have the right expertise, experience, and authority to get the job done.

For example, in a content marketing project you might need:

• A project manager (that’s you)
• An SEO expert
• A content writer
• A social media manager to promote the content

Learn more about how to assemble your team in our resource allocation guide .

3. Create a communication plan

29% of project failures are due to poor communication.

A documented project communication plan could mean a difference between success and failure.

Decide how your team will communicate with each other from the outset, for example:

• The medium you’ll use, e.g., email, Slack, Microsoft Teams
• How often you’ll meet to discuss the project 
• What the chain of command is – who should your team members go to with questions and concerns?

One great way of increasing transparency and communication in marketing projects is through effective time tracking .

Some tasks will take longer than you expected them to—that’s just life. With time tracking , you can see when this is happening and react accordingly, whether by allocating more resources or having another team member jump in to help

This can help to reduce the stress of ambitious projects because team members are all on the same page, and they can work more efficiently together and independently, too.

4. Create a task list

Creating a task list for your project seems daunting at first, but we believe it can be broken down into three easy steps: 

• Establish project scope . What’s your job in this project, and what do you not need to worry about?
• Create a work breakdown structure ( WBS ) . Divide the project into phases you can then use to bucket your tasks – for example, market research might be the first phase of a product marketing campaign.
• Break each work phase into tasks . Within the market research example, you might have tasks like “put together focus groups”, “white paper”, or “case study.”

Your project’s activities should be ranked according to stakeholder priorities. For internal tasks consider using these prioritization techniques .

5. Make a schedule for your marketing plan

We’ve already shown you what a schedule in a marketing plan can look like in Excel, but there are numerous drawbacks to scheduling your marketing plan in a static document.

One of the biggest ones is its lack of interactivity, particularly when it comes to integrating with other platforms. There are many more sophisticated project management tools out there that allow you to see not just your team’s work for this one project, but to compare this to their other priorities, including milestones and deliverables.

A visual project schedule helps you identify the milestones, gaps, risks, and resources required for your marketing campaign.

6. Generate a risk management plan

Risk management practices are widely used across most organizations – only 3% of organizations say they never use risk management practices, while 27% say they always do.

One way that you can anticipate risk is by doing a SWOT analysis. That’s an overview of your:

• Opportunities

Here’s an example of what this looks like for a local Thai restaurant:

Another important step in preparing for risk factors in your marketing project is to utilize an agile planning model .

Originally conceived by software development teams, agile planning is all about using an iterative approach where you’re constantly evaluating and re-evaluating your methods as the project goes on.

Instead of sticking to your original plan through thick and thin, if something’s not working, you change it up. This minimizes the risk of total project failure, while also building on our final point.

7. Monitoring and reporting

We’ve already spoken about the importance of project time management. Tracking and regular reporting are key to delivering projects on time and successfully, and one way of doing this is through the time tracking tools as we mentioned earlier.

These will help you flag if team members are falling behind, as well as show you how much has been done on the project to date.

Throughout your project, you should constantly monitor your key metrics. And in fact, many good marketing project plans have a space for this kind of reporting built into them.

Marketing plan examples

We’ve already seen some snippets from marketing plans but here are three marketing project plan examples.

We showed this briefly above, but this marketing project plan example from Lush in Portugal exhibits almost all of the features we’ve outlined in this blog.

2. Gantt project plan

A Gantt chart is simply a chart that illustrates a project schedule. This marketing plan template from Microsoft gives you a good idea of how it looks and is like an offline version of time management tools like Toggl.

3. Microsoft Word

This simple marketing project plan example is created in Word. In just four pages, it offers a condensed version of what we’ve discussed above.

This streamlined format is ideal for simpler or shorter-term projects, or if you only have a limited time to present an overview of your project—for example, in a company updates meeting.

Create the Perfect Marketing Project Plan

Designing a dynamite marketing project plan is only the beginning. Now you’ve got all the information you need to do it, it’s up to you to see it through. But you’re not on your own—with these tips under your belt and the right planning tools , we know you’ve got what it takes to lead an amazing marketing project.

Join 30,000+ subscribers getting the best tips on productivity, work management, hiring and more!

We promise we won't spam you and you can unsubscribe anytime.

You might also like...

Related to Project Management

Trello vs Asana vs Toggl Plan: What’s the Best Project Management Tool (2022)

Project Planning: From Start To Finish

50 Project Management Quotes to Inspire You Before Your Next Project

Take a peek at our most popular categories:

See why the world’s best creative teams run on Workamajig

Marketing project plans: what you need to know [2023].

What is a marketing project plan?

What are the benefits of a marketing plan, what is included in a marketing plan, how to create a marketing project plan in 8 steps.

• Examples of marketing plans

How can Workamajig help you with your marketing project plans?

Browse more blogs.

“Hey team, says Big Boss, we need to market this business!”

“Sure Boss, says team, we’ll go ahead and…uh…”

Create a marketing plan, that’s what! Everyone knows that good marketing contributes hugely to the bottom line, but how many businesses take the time to thoroughly strategize and plan their marketing projects ?

In this blog, we’ll do a deep exploration into how marketing project plans can take your marketing from ‘meh’ to ‘YEAH!’

Let’s begin with defining what exactly a  marketing plan project is.

A marketing project plan consists of all the research and strategies required to successfully carry out a marketing venture. It involves documenting business goals, current business situation, target customers, and KPIs to track marketing success.

There’s no shortage of ways to market a business, but marketing your business in a way that will bring in your type of customer is a skill that requires careful planning.

1. Clarifies goals 

It’s easy to lose clarity of what exactly you’re trying to achieve in the vague, overarching pursuit of ‘marketing’. Having a marketing plan gives you focused direction and keeps you on track to succeed.

2. Identifies target customer

 If you wanted to market big, fluffy teddy bears, would you put print ads through old, pensioner’s letter boxes? A marketing plan identifies your target audience so that you can market your product in the most appropriate way, time, and place. 

3. Defines your USP 

To successfully market a product, you must first consider your unique selling point. Knowing what separates you from others allows you to broadcast your value so customers choose you over others.

4. Identifies competitors 

Why do you need to know who your competitors are? To get the most customers possible, you need to make sure people choose you over your competitors. Once you know who they are, you can take a look at what they are offering and see how a) you can do better, and b) market the aspects that you have but competitors don’t.

5. Creates consistency

Documenting a marketing planning project that all team members have access to promotes collaboration . When your team works collaboratively on a marketing goal, the chances of success are great, as opposed to when everyone works on something else.

1. Business Summary

Details of your company, e.g. name, location, and services to share with stakeholders .

2. SWOT analysis 

Identifies your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

3. Competitor analysis 

Analyzes who competitors are, what they are offering, and who their customers are.

4. Marketing goals

Defines what exactly you're trying to achieve with your marketing efforts and how that aligns with business goals.

5. Market research

Collects data on target customers, where they can be found, and how to best reach them.

6. Marketing strategy

Determines what activities will be included in your marketing campaign .

7. Budget 

Documents how much you can afford to spend on a marketing project.

8. Key performance indicators

 Identifies how you are going to track marketing success, e.g achieving a certain amount of views per month on social media.

9. Marketing channels

 Defines what channels you’ll use to broadcast marketing messages, e.g, email, TV, and social media.

10. Marketing Technology

Details what technology you’ll need for this marketing campaign, e.g, computers, marketing software , and what you’ll use each for.

11. Marketing team

 Plans who is going to be part of the marketing project.

11. Risk management plan

Clarifies what risks are involved and how they will be addressed. 

Now that we’ve defined what’s included in a marketing project planner, let’s talk about actually writing a marketing plan, using the steps below.

1. Conduct a business analysis

 Quite literally how it sounds, this first step involves taking stock of where your business stands internally and externally. A SWOT analysis tells you how you’re doing internally while researching competitors’ offerings and the current market gives you an external view of your business.

2. Identify stakeholders 

It’s important to clarify which people are involved/affected by a marketing venture. This will determine whom you need to run plans by and who needs to be communicated with.

3. Define the target audience

 In order to plan your marketing project effectively, you need to know to whom you are trying to bring your message. This includes their pain points, their age, and budget, to name a few.

4. Organize a team

Who is going to be involved in this project, and what role will each member take on? These questions are answered in this part of the project plan.

5. Define tasks

 A marketing project is made up of many tasks to achieve the ultimate goal. In this step, tasks should be broken down into SMART tasks -  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound. 

6. Create a schedule

 When are tasks going to be completed? With the deadline in mind, a timeline is created to fit each task in a timely manner.

7. Decide on a budget

How much can you afford to spend on this marketing project? Once this has been decided, the budget should be broken down according to tasks. In addition, someone must be put in charge and held accountable for the budget.

8. Create a risk management plan

As all PMs know, no project ever goes exactly according to plan. The difference though is how well risks are planned for . By thinking through potential risks, they can be preempted or dealt with successfully.

Examples of Marketing Plans

Marketing plans can take on various different forms. A few marketing plan project ideas are; a digital marketing project plan,  a social media marketing plan, and a print marketing plan. We’ll use a social media marketing plan in this example:

An established sports brand wants to promote a new type of sportswear material, designed to prevent sweat patches. They already have a strong media presence and want to leverage this to promote their new product. In order to successfully market the product, they need to plan this carefully, answering questions, like:

• What is our current business situation?
• What do we aim to achieve with this marketing project?
• Who is our target audience and where can we find them?
• What is our budget for this project?
• Who are the stakeholders in this project?
• Who is going to be on the project team?
• What are the risks involved and what will do about them?

Workamajig’s project management software is built just for creative teams and helps thousands of agencies plan and carry out projects on a daily basis.

With Workamajig, you get to:

• Know the full story with a real-time daily feed of all updates across projects
• See all items needing attention in one place with budget and timeline warnings
• Create, customize & export reports plus built-in Gantt & burn charts for your visual learners

Make manual project setup (and finicky spreadsheets) a thing of the past & create fully-scheduled projects with just a few clicks

• Workamajig’s powerful project templates help you kick off your creative projects with ready-to-go schedules & resourcing needs.
• The flexibility you need. Copy from a template & edit to match your new project's needs
• Easily view and manage the exact resources, hours, and budgets for new projects
• Visualize project tasks, dependencies, and complete timelines with built-in Gantt charts

Organize your marketing projects in one place from the very first touch

Related Posts

20 Marketing Agency Tools You Should Add to Your Arsenal in 2023

Marketing Campaign Management: A Must-Read Guide for Agencies

Marketing Workflows To Increase Your Team Productivity

Run better projects sign up for our free project management resources..

Get all our templates, tips, and fresh content so you can run effective, profitable, low-stress projects in your agency or team.

Free Marketing Project Plan Templates

By Joe Weller | July 10, 2020

• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

We’ve compiled the most useful free marketing project plan templates for marketers, enterprises, small businesses, startups, and others, as well as tips for getting started.

Included on this page, you'll find many helpful marketing project plan templates, including a simple marketing project plan template , a marketing project plan checklist template , a marketing plan example , and tips for planning and managing marketing projects .

Marketing Project Plan Template

This marketing project plan template helps guide you through the steps needed for the successful planning, execution, and evaluation of a marketing project. The customizable template serves as an all-purpose marketing project plan that you can use for single marketing project plans or as a record of multiple marketing projects’ details. 

Rows for planning, milestones, creative deliverables, and results intersect with columns for assignee, due date, and priority. Use the selectable drop-down options to stay on track. Keep the members of your marketing team apprised of project details by leveraging the dashboard view and flexibility that this template offers. 

Download Marketing Project Plan Template - Excel

Gain valuable insight on how to keep your marketing project on time and budget by reading about the micro and macro marketing project manager skills to master now .

Marketing Project Plan Checklist Template

Keep your project moving with this marketing project plan checklist template. You’ll find all major and minor steps in the marketing project plan process, along with columns for task name, team member (assigned to), deadline, and completion status with related drop-down options for each step. Regardless of your industry, this marketing project plan checklist template is an excellent tool to accurately record your project’s progress.

Download Marketing Project Plan Checklist Template - Excel

Marketing Project Management Calendar (2024) Template

This simple marketing project management calendar template offers week-by-week and month-by-month dashboard views. Universal in its application (regardless of marketing project plan type), the calendar template can be customized to fit the particulars of your unique marketing plan. Stay informed on the progress of all project tasks with this printable calendar template.

Download 2024 Marketing Project Management Calendar Template

Excel  | Google Sheets

Marketing Plan Template

Keep tabs on your marketing plan with this distinctive template that guides you through your strategic objectives, ensuring that your marketing plan aligns with your organization’s business objectives. This fully customizable marketing plan template allows you to enter or update info related to your plan’s core capabilities, goals, target information, marketing strategy, performance standards, measurement methods, financial summary, and other project-specific details. This marketing plan template is useful for determining the next course of action to ensure your project’s success.

Download Marketing Plan Template

Word | PDF | Smartsheet

One-Page Marketing Project Plan Template

Designed with accessibility in mind, this one-page template provides you with a streamlined method to plan, implement, and track your marketing project plan. 

You’ll find ample space for a business summary, business objectives, the problem, solution, competitive advantage, target market, marketing strategy and objects, and financial requirements. You can include details about product, price, place, promotion, marketing channels, performance standards, results measurement methods, and review in the project plan section. There’s even room to add customized steps for your marketing plan. You’re never far from the big-picture vision of your marketing project plan with this efficient one-page marketing project plan template.

Download One-Page Marketing Project Plan Template

Excel | Word | PDF

Business Marketing Project Plan Template

This comprehensive business marketing project plan template provides everything you need for to run a successful marketing campaign. Business-specific marketing project plan components include sections for a business summary, situational analysis, marketing capabilities, buyer persona, and a financial summary. A section for performance standards and measurement methods assures team members and managers that benchmarks are being met and you’re providing quantifiable metrics to gauge the project’s success.

Download Business Marketing Project Plan Template

Small-Business Marketing Project Plan Template

This template provides the big picture on actionable items for your marketing project. This fully customizable, small-business-specific template guides you in documenting the specifics on marketing goals; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis; target market; marketing strategy; and research results. You can save this small-business marketing project plan template as an individual file with customized entries or as a template for other marketing project plans.

For more on conducting a SWOT analysis, see “ 14 Free SWOT Analysis Templates .” 

Download Small-Business Marketing Project Plan Template

Marketing Project Plan Template for Startups

Designed specifically for startup businesses, this template uses a pre-built, all-inclusive marketing plan to provide guidance for new ventures. This template is completely customizable, with space to enter an executive summary, your vision statement, details of your marketing project plan’s situational analysis, your goals, your target market, your marketing strategy, and a financial summary. Take the guesswork out of creating a plan from scratch, and leverage the advantages that this startup-specific marketing project plan can offer you and your team. 

Find more useful solutions and tools for startups by reading “ Free Startup Plan, Budget & Cost Templates .” 

Download Marketing Project Plan Template for Startups

Strategic Marketing Project Plan Template

Manage the entirety of your marketing project plan with this comprehensive strategic marketing project plan template. A column for campaign types provides section-by-section rows for national marketing, local marketing, public relations, content marketing, social media, advertising, web, market research, and sales campaigns. These rows intersect with columns for target audience, clicks/response, notes, weight, and projected and actual cost. This template also comes with a quarter-by-quarter calendar, so you can plan in advance for upcoming strategic action, as well as gauge the effectiveness of the marketing strategies you already have in place.

For more on strategic marketing, read “ The Definitive Guide to Strategic Marketing Planning .”

‌Download Strategic Marketing Project Plan Template

Excel | Smartsheet

Marketing Project Plan Example

It’s crucial to have a marketing project plan that guides marketing teams through the entire process, from planning to implementation to retrospective assessment. Use this pre-filled template with step-by-step details as an example of a marketing project management plan.

By using an example for guidance, you can focus on delivering superb marketing project campaigns. This completed marketing project template includes the following detailed sections (we’ve provided instructions for reference): 

• Marketing Project Plan Background Creative Brief : Who will benefit from your marketing project, and what does the project entail? 
• Marketing Project Plan Performance Standards: What are your project’s timeline specifications? Are there opportunities for automation to eliminate redundancies? What are this project’s performance standards? 
• Marketing Project Plan Scope: What is the scope of your marketing project? Can you break up the project into sprints, stories, and tasks? What is the project’s delivery date? What are its milestones? 
• Marketing Project Plan Meetings: How will you keep apprised of your plan’s progress? Do you need daily meetings, sprint reviews, and a retrospective meeting once the project has been completed? 

With its built-in best practices, this marketing project management plan template is a useful tool for planning, strategizing, applying tactics, and gauging the project’s results. 

Download Marketing Project Management Plan Template Example - Word

Tips for Planning and Managing Marketing Projects

A marketing project plan provides an easy-to-follow design to guide you through the planning, execution, and evaluation stages for implementing a successful marketing campaign. 

It’s essential to keep tabs on your plan’s objectives by defining your offerings’ core capabilities, goals, strategy, performance standards, and measurement methods. 

Use a template to stay apprised of your marketing project’s status and follow these tips to help ensure success: 

• Who will benefit from your marketing project plan? 
• What does your marketing project entail? 
• How does your marketing project benefit your defined audience? 
• What resources do you need to complete this marketing project?
• What challenges or anticipated roadblocks should you define prior to project initiation? 
• Are there ways to automate some of the project’s processes? 
• Are there ways to eliminate redundancies (e.g., leverage efforts from another department or project)? 
• How can you execute your project successfully and reduce the amount of maintenance it otherwise might require? 
• What are your marketing plan’s performance standards? 
• What do you expect it to achieve? 
• How can you quantify your project’s success? 
• What is your marketing project’s delivery date? 
• Do you need to meet with team members to stay in sync with your project plan’s deliverables? 
• Are daily marketing project meetings needed? 
• Are review meetings and itineraries required? 
• Do you need a defined project retrospective meeting itinerary to gauge the success of your marketing project plan’s implementation? 

Regardless of your line of business, the templates offered in this article can help guide you through the steps of your marketing project’s planning, execution, and evaluation of project success. 

For more useful information about marketing plans, read our comprehensive guide on marketing project management .

Improve Project Planning with Smartsheet for Marketing

The best marketing teams know the importance of effective campaign management, consistent creative operations, and powerful event logistics -- and Smartsheet helps you deliver on all three so you can be more effective and achieve more. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Improve your marketing efforts and deliver best-in-class campaigns.

Run and collaborate on creative projects more smoothly.

Plan, manage, and track product launches and campaigns.

Stay organized and communicate critical details to teams.

Streamline and scale manufacturing operations.

See how TeamGantt helps teams like yours meet deadlines, streamline communication.

Successful marketing project starts with a plan.

Track event details and to-dos.

Scope out roadmaps and manage backlogs.

Manage design, copy, and video work.

Learn all about gantt charts and how to use them to manage projects more easily.

Hear real testimonials from real TeamGantt customers.

Strategic Marketing Plan Template & Examples

Imagine setting out to climb Mt. Everest guided only by intuition. You wouldn’t make it very far without a detailed plan (and an experienced sherpa) to guide the way. 

Marketing may not be an extreme sport with life-or-death consequences, but you’ve got big goals to reach nonetheless. And your team’s success relies on a lot more than gut instinct. 

That’s why a strategic marketing plan is a must, no matter your industry. Think of it as the roadmap that gets your business where it needs to go each and every year. 

Drafting your first marketing plan can feel intimidating, but don’t worry. We’ll walk you through the basics, show you what a strategic marketing plan looks like, and even give you a couple of free templates to get started. Here’s what we’ll cover:

What is a strategic marketing plan?

Essential elements of a strategic marketing plan, free marketing plan templates and examples.

Let’s start from square one and define what a strategic marketing plan is. 

A strategic marketing plan is a formal document that guides your team’s marketing efforts throughout the year. It maps your annual marketing goals to your company’s overall business objectives, while also outlining how you’ll spend your yearly marketing budget.

A good marketing plan clearly outlines:

• Your target market and key competitors
• Major goals for the year and how they’ll help you get ahead
• Key results that serve as indicators for success
• How you’ll use your money and resources to meet your goals 

Keep in mind that your plan may vary based on your industry and goals. Length and format don’t matter as much as the details you include. Do your research, and make it as easy as possible for company leaders to understand how your strategic marketing plan helps business grow.

What’s the difference between a marketing strategy vs. marketing plan?

A marketing strategy details how you’ll execute a piece of your marketing plan with a specific tactical goal in mind. You might do this by launching an email or social media campaign, publishing a blog series, offering a special promo, or hosting a live event. 

A marketing plan , on the other hand, is the high-level framework that drives all your marketing strategies. It’s a big-picture look at the who, what, and why behind your marketing goals, with a focus on tying them to larger organizational objectives. 

No two marketing plans are exactly the same, but they do share some common threads. Here are 6 important elements you’ll want to identify and research before you build out your next strategic marketing plan.

• Business objectives

Everything you do as a marketing team should support your company’s overall strategy and goals. So summarize your organization’s business objectives, and let it serve as your marketing plan’s true north. Your team and stakeholders should be able to clearly see how the marketing strategies and goals you outline in your plan align with your company’s top priorities.  

• SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis breaks down your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This enables you to assess both the internal and external factors that influence your success so you can build targeted strategies that close gaps and drive results. 

• Strengths and weaknesses : Take stock of your organization’s inner workings. Where does your team or company really shine? What’s working well, and what needs to be improved? Do you have any resource limitations?
• Opportunities and threats : Now look outward to consider your market and competition. Where do you have a chance to push ahead? Where are you struggling to keep up? Are there any market changes to consider?
• Market research

Research is the core of any marketing plan because it’s what you’ll use to shape your goals and strategy. Don’t be afraid to dive deep into the details here. A well-researched marketing plan is worth the time invested. 

Focusing your research energy on these areas will equip you with a solid base for smart marketing decisions.

It’s important to understand major movements in the industry you’re marketing to so you have a feel for the pulse of the market. Thoroughly research the industry your organization works in, and be sure to report on the general climate, as well as any noteworthy happenings. If your company serves any subindustries, don’t forget to include them in your analysis too. 

Target market

Marketing to the masses rarely pays off. That’s why narrowing down your target audience is a must for any marketing plan. Consider it the filter you run every marketing strategy through. 

The more specific you can get, the better. Answering questions like these can help you paint a clear picture of your ideal buyer so you know how to focus your resources for a bigger impact on the people you want to reach.

• What are your ideal buyer’s key demographics (e.g., age, location, job title)?
• What do they care about (e.g., interests, values)?
• What are their biggest challenges or pain points? 
• Where does your ideal buyer hang out (e.g., Twitter, LinkedIn, industry conferences or events)?

Competitive analysis

It’s also important to understand who and what you’re up against when it comes to attracting your perfect buyer. Identify the key players in your space, and give a brief rundown of what they’re doing to win. This groundwork will make it easier to see how to differentiate yourself from the competition. 

• Strategic marketing goals

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork, it’s time to talk strategy. Outline your strategic marketing goals for the year, and briefly explain how these strategies support company-wide goals. Use a gantt chart to establish a timeline for each goal and monitor results along the way. This is an easy way to set expectations and keep your team and stakeholders in the loop.

• Key marketing metrics

Metrics are where the rubber meets the road in your marketing plan. Use your market research to define specific KPIs or key marketing metrics that will serve as your measure for success. This will help you track progress so you know if you need to change course mid-project to ensure you hit your strategic marketing goals.

• Marketing channels

Marketing channels are the vehicles you’ll use to reach your target audience and grow your brand. Choose your channels wisely based on where you expect to get the most bang for your marketing buck. Briefly explain the purpose of each channel and how it supports your overall marketing strategy and business goals. 

Want to build a more detailed plan for each marketing channel so you can bring your ideas to life? Check out our free social media strategy plan and editorial content plan templates for more information on planning by channel. 

Marketing budget

Establishing a monthly budget for your marketing plan—and tracking it along the way—helps you maximize ROI and identify wasted spend before it drains your marketing dollars. 

Start by listing any ongoing expenses you have so you know what you can afford to spend on new initiatives. Then do your best to estimate any new costs you expect in the coming year. Don’t forget to account for any new hires, freelance workers, or third-party agencies you might need to rely on to get the work done. 

Not sure where to start? We’ve got you! Here are a few examples of how you might structure a marketing plan so you can easily start writing your own. 

Your marketing plan may shake out differently depending on the industry you work in or the goals you’re focused on. Use these marketing plan templates and samples as a guide to jumpstart the process and come up with a marketing plan structure that works for you. 

Google Docs marketing plan template and example

The most common way to create a marketing plan is simply to write it out as a text document. This format enables you to freely elaborate on any research findings you gathered during discovery, while also making a clear case for the marketing goals you’ve set for the year.

We put together a free Google Docs marketing plan template to help you save time so you can get your planning process off the ground faster. This marketing plan example is perfect for documenting and sharing the full scope of your strategic marketing plan with your team and stakeholders.

Here’s a basic breakdown of what the Google Docs marketing plan template covers:

• Company mission

Save a copy of the template to your Google Drive or download it as a Word document, and customize it to fit your own strategic marketing plan needs.  ‍

Use template in Google Docs

Gantt chart marketing plan template and examples

A plan’s no good if you set it and forget it. That’s where a gantt chart comes in handy. Use this free gantt chart marketing plan template to track your strategic marketing plan all the way to success. 

A gantt chart is a great way to lay your marketing plan out in a simple, visual timeline that’s easy to update as work progresses. It gives you a high-level view of your plan’s major goals and strategies, while enabling you to collaborate on and share your plan with your team and stakeholders.

How you use a gantt chart to put your plan into action is up to you. Build a timeline for the tasks you need to complete as you develop your marketing plan, like the example below. 

Once you’ve fleshed out the details of your marketing plan, you can use a gantt chart to define and track your strategic marketing goals. For example, you could break your marketing plan down by quarter to show when specific objectives will come into play and update progress as you close in on your goal. Here’s how that might look.

Use template in TeamGantt

Ready to build a strategic marketing plan of your own? 

We’ve created a free marketing plan template for you in TeamGantt so you can jump right in!

Customizing the template is quick and easy, thanks to TeamGantt’s drag and drop simplicity. And since everything’s online, your whole team can collaborate on activities in real time.

Here are a few pointers to help you get the most out of our free TeamGantt strategic marketing plan template.

Drag and drop tasks to schedule your plan

Configuring your marketing plan is as easy as dragging and dropping tasks—or entire task groups—into their new rightful place. Click and drag the edges of each taskbar to set a new task duration. 

Communicate with comments 

Collaboration is easy with TeamGantt's discussion feature . Share documents and chat with your team directly from a task’s Comments section. Use Notes to communicate important information—like goals, target audience, and budget—at the project level. 

Have a more formal marketing plan document? Attach the file or link to your project so everyone has easy access to it.

Share a copy with stakeholders

Plans are meant to be shared, so we made it easy to keep even the most inquisitive stakeholders in the loop. Export your plan to a printer-friendly PDF , or share a view-only link to your project so stakeholders can see your marketing plan progress in real time. 

Sign up for a free TeamGantt account today , and save time on project setup with this free marketing plan template!

• Search Search Please fill out this field.

What Is a Marketing Strategy?

• How It Works
• Marketing Strategies vs. Plans

How to Create a Marketing Strategy

The bottom line.

• Marketing Essentials

Marketing Strategy: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Create One

Investopedia / Daniel Fishel

A marketing strategy refers to a business’s overall game plan to facilitate the buying and selling of its products or services. A marketing strategy determines how to reach prospective consumers and turn them into customers. It contains the company’s value proposition , key brand messaging, data on target customer  demographics, and other high-level elements.

A thorough marketing strategy covers the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.

Key Takeaways

• A marketing strategy is a business’s game plan for reaching prospective consumers and turning them into customers of their products or services.
• Marketing strategies should revolve around a company’s value proposition.
• The ultimate goal of a marketing strategy is to achieve and communicate a sustainable competitive advantage over rival companies.

Understanding Marketing Strategies

A clear marketing strategy should revolve around the company’s value proposition, which communicates to consumers what the company stands for, how it operates, and why it deserves its business.

This provides marketing teams with a template that should inform their initiatives across all of the company’s products and services. For example, Walmart ( WMT ) is widely known as a discount retailer with “everyday low prices,” whose business operations and marketing efforts are rooted in that idea.

Marketing Strategies vs. Marketing Plans

The marketing strategy is outlined in the marketing plan —a document that details the specific types of marketing activities that a company conducts and contains timetables for rolling out various marketing initiatives.

Marketing strategies should ideally have longer life spans than individual marketing plans because they contain value propositions and other key elements of a company’s brand, which generally hold constant over the long haul. In other words, marketing strategies cover big-picture messaging, while marketing plans delineate the logistical details of specific campaigns.

For example, a marketing strategy might say that a company aims to increase authority in niche circles where their clients visit. The marketing plan puts that into action by commissioning thought leadership pieces on LinkedIn.

Benefits of a Marketing Strategy

The ultimate goal of a marketing strategy is to achieve and communicate a sustainable competitive advantage over rival companies by understanding the needs and wants of its consumers. Whether it’s a print ad design, mass customization , or a social media campaign, a marketing asset can be judged based on how effectively it communicates a company’s core value proposition.

Market research can help chart the efficacy of a given campaign and can help identify untapped audiences to achieve bottom-line goals and increase sales.

Creating a marketing strategy requires a few steps. Here are some of the steps you should consider when creating your marketing strategy.

• Identify your goals: While sales are the ultimate goal for every company, you should have more short-term goals such as establishing authority, increasing customer engagement, or generating leads. These smaller goals offer measurable benchmarks for the progress of your marketing plan. Think of strategy as the high-level ideology and planning as how you accomplish your goals.
• Know your clients: Every product or service has an ideal customer, and you should know who they are and where they hang out. If you sell power tools, you’ll choose marketing channels where general contractors may see your messaging. Establish who your client is and how your product will improve their lives.
• Create your message: Now that you know your goals and who you’re pitching to, it’s time to create your message. This is your opportunity to show your potential clients how your product or service will benefit them and why you’re the only company that can provide it.
• Define your budget: How you disperse your messaging may depend on how much you can afford. Will you be purchasing advertising? Hoping for a viral moment on social media organically? Sending out press releases to the media to try to gain coverage? Your budget will dictate what you can afford to do.
• Determine your channels: Even the best message needs the appropriate venue. Some companies may find more value in creating blog posts for their website. Others may find success with paid ads on social media channels. Find the most appropriate venue for your content.
• Measure your success: To target your marketing, you need to know whether it is reaching its audience. Determine your metrics and how you’ll judge the success of your marketing efforts.

Why Does a Company Need a Marketing Strategy?

A marketing strategy helps a company direct its advertising dollars to where it will have the most impact. Compared with the data from 2018, the correlation between organization and success in marketers jumped from being almost four times more likely to almost seven times more likely in 2022.

What Do the Four Ps Mean in a Marketing Strategy?

The four Ps are product, price, promotion, and place. These are the key factors that are involved in the marketing of a good or service . The four Ps can be used when planning a new business venture, evaluating an existing offer, or trying to optimize sales with a target audience. It also can be used to test a current marketing strategy on a new audience.

What Does a Marketing Strategy Look Like?

A marketing strategy will detail the advertising, outreach, and public relations campaigns to be carried out by a firm, including how the company will measure the effect of these initiatives.

They will typically follow the four Ps. The functions and components of a marketing plan include market research to support pricing decisions and new market entries, tailored messaging  that targets certain demographics and geographic areas, and platform selection for product and service promotion—digital, radio, Internet, trade magazines, and the mix of those platforms for each campaign, and metrics that measure the results of marketing efforts and their reporting timelines.

Is a Marketing Strategy the Same as a Marketing Plan?

The terms “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” are often used interchangeably because a marketing plan is developed based on an overarching strategic framework. In some cases, the strategy and the plan may be incorporated into one document, particularly for smaller companies that may only run one or two major campaigns in a year. The plan outlines marketing activities on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, while the marketing strategy outlines the overall value proposition.

Companies need to sell their products and services to generate revenue and put them on the path of being a successful business. To sell their products or services, they have to let consumers know of them. They must also convince consumers to buy them as well as convert consumers from competitors. Having a marketing strategy that outlines this process and more is a crucial step in converting consumers into customers.

Walmart Corporate. “ About .”

CoSchedule. “ Trend Report: Marketing Strategy 2022 .”

• How to Start a Business: A Comprehensive Guide and Essential Steps 1 of 25
• How to Do Market Research, Types, and Example 2 of 25
• Marketing Strategy: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Create One 3 of 25
• Marketing in Business: Strategies and Types Explained 4 of 25
• What Is a Marketing Plan? Types and How to Write One 5 of 25
• Business Development: Definition, Strategies, Steps & Skills 6 of 25
• Business Plan: What It Is, What's Included, and How to Write One 7 of 25
• Small Business Development Center (SBDC): Meaning, Types, Impact 8 of 25
• How to Write a Business Plan for a Loan 9 of 25
• Business Startup Costs: It’s in the Details 10 of 25
• Startup Capital Definition, Types, and Risks 11 of 25
• Bootstrapping Definition, Strategies, and Pros/Cons 12 of 25
• Crowdfunding: What It Is, How It Works, and Popular Websites 13 of 25
• Starting a Business with No Money: How to Begin 14 of 25
• A Comprehensive Guide to Establishing Business Credit 15 of 25
• Equity Financing: What It Is, How It Works, Pros and Cons 16 of 25
• Best Startup Business Loans 17 of 25
• Sole Proprietorship: What It Is, Pros and Cons, and Differences From an LLC 18 of 25
• Partnership: Definition, How It Works, Taxation, and Types 19 of 25
• What Is an LLC? Limited Liability Company Structure and Benefits Defined 20 of 25
• Corporation: What It Is and How to Form One 21 of 25
• Starting a Small Business: Your Complete How-to Guide 22 of 25
• Starting an Online Business: A Step-by-Step Guide 23 of 25
• How to Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business: Essential Tips 24 of 25
• How to Start a Successful Dropshipping Business: A Comprehensive Guide 25 of 25

• Terms of Service
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices

• Contact sales

Start free trial

What Is a Marketing Plan and How Do I Make One? (Template Included)

Marketing planning doesn’t get the respect that it’s due. No matter how great the product or service, it will wither on the vine and die if no one knows about it. That’s where marketing comes in. But marketing doesn’t just happen: You’ll need to create a marketing plan. You might even say it’s like a project because it is. And any project manager can tell you that without a marketing plan, a project is aimless and destined for failure.

All businesses need a marketing plan to succeed. Yet so many businesses think they don’t have the time or money to invest in one. When funds get tight, it’s usually the marketing budget that suffers the cuts. This is unfortunate because a marketing plan it’s what can return a business to profitability.

If you’re looking to get the most out of your marketing strategies, then take the time to learn how to create a marketing plan for your business.

What Is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan consists of all the strategies that a company will execute to reach its marketing goals over a period of time. Marketing plans usually outline marketing activities on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis.

Therefore, the first thing to know about a marketing plan, as any project manager will tell you, is to do the research. A plan is not created in a vacuum. It must have context. For one thing, there are likely to have been similar marketing efforts in the past. These can provide valuable historic data to guide your new plan.

Project management software can help you make a marketing plan more effectively. ProjectManager is software with multiple project views to help you plan, schedule and track your marketing plan. To get started, list all your marketing activities, due dates, assignees and more on the list view. Once you’ve organized your marketing plan, you can view it as a Gantt chart to allocate resources and share it as a kanban board for your marketing team to execute their work. All views are updated in real time to keep everyone working better together. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

Elements of a Marketing Plan

Some examples of marketing strategies that can be part of a marketing plan are online advertising, email marketing, content marketing, social media management, events, etc. Marketing plans vary greatly but they all share these basic elements:

• Executive Summary: Summarizes the content of your marketing plan. It’s also used for business cases and project proposals.
• Marketing Goals: Define the goals that your marketing plan will achieve, and how those align with the strategic goals of your business plan.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Every marketing strategy needs key performance indicators you can use to measure its success.
• Brand Strategy: Here you’ll need to define important aspects of your brand’s strategy such as your value proposition, marketing mix and growth strategy.
• Market Research: Market research is critical for the success of your marketing plan. You’ll need to define what’s the total addressable market for your product, what’s your market share and what’s your target market. Additionally, you need to conduct a competitive analysis to identify your competitors and how to outperform them.
• SWOT Analysis: This analysis allows you to do an assessment of your strengths and weaknesses and how those relate to the opportunities and threats of your market.
• Marketing team: Assemble a marketing team to achieve your goals.
• Marketing Budget: Create a marketing budget to manage the resources and costs associated with each marketing activity. You can use our free marketing budget template to get started.
• Marketing Strategies: Some marketing plans may require several marketing strategies that are executed simultaneously. Here you’ll want to describe all the marketing activities that you’ll execute, such as your content marketing plan, social media marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, and other marketing channels.

Structure & Approval Process

The marketing plan is also part of a larger business plan. The marketing plan, however, is mostly concerned with advertising and marketing efforts related to the overall strategy of the organization and specifically its marketing goals.

There is a formal structure to most plans and a marketing plan is no different. It will contain historic data, predictions for the future and marketing activities to reach the goals set by the plan. As noted, the first step is to identify a customer need to target and then devise how to exploit that for profit.

The marketing department of an organization is responsible for the making of a marketing plan, which will have to be approved by the executive in charge of that department before being presented to their superiors.

How to Create a Marketing Plan

When making a strategic marketing plan it’s helpful to seek the help of the experts within your marketing team. Marketing managers are responsible for planning big and small projects and their expertise is helpful to guide a marketing plan. The emphasis here is on the plan, which regardless of the industry, shares a common marketing plan template .

Here are 7 steps to creating a marketing plan.

1. Identify Stakeholders

In project management, the stakeholders are like the clients or customers. When creating a marketing plan, your stakeholders are the executives you are reporting to in your organization. They’re the ones who are the reason for the marketing plan. Think of this as the market research part of the plan. You want to identify the stakeholders within your organization, so you can tailor a marketing plan to meet their requirements and achieve the marketing goals of the company.

Assemble Your Team

Any plan must be executed and that’s where the team comes in. You need to ensure that your marketing team members have the skills that you require to get the job done. For example, you’ll need digital marketing experts if you intend to execute a content marketing plan that involves social media marketing, paid advertising, search engine optimization and blog posting.

2. Create a Communication Plan

Project managers, like marketers, understand the importance of effective communications. The project manager is not only managing their team and making sure the project is on course, they also have to communicate the project’s progress to the stakeholders and directions to the marketing team. How this is done and with what frequency is decided in your communication plan. You can easily make your own with this communication plan template .

3. Create Task List

Every marketing campaign is made up of smaller projects, called marketing strategies or marketing activities. For example, if your marketing goal is to increase sales by 10 percent, then you’d put that on top of a work breakdown structure, which allows you to break down the marketing activities that build up to it.

This is how you define the marketing efforts that your plan must take in order to achieve your marketing goals. These tasks can be collected into what project managers call milestones , which are phases of the project. Once done, these marketing activities are prioritized.

4. Make a Schedule for your Marketing Plan

Once you have a thorough list of all the marketing activities and their priority, you can set them up on a project timeline , with start dates and end dates. The schedule is the backbone of any marketing plan and requires a lot of thinking through to make sure you give everything the time it needs to get done while remaining on a timetable that suits the business plan.

5. Generate a Risk Management Plan

Marketing projects, no matter how well they’re planned, never go as intended. There are risks inherent in everything we do, but with so much at stake in your marketing plan, you’ll need to think about what could go wrong and then have a risk management plan in place to resolve it if and when it does.

6. Monitoring and Reporting

Each marketing activity is tied to a deliverable, whether that’s typography for a print ad, casting a commercial or printing direct mail. You’ll want to track those deliverables as you move through the marketing plan to make sure they’re staying within budget and on schedule. This is best done with thorough reporting that can track various project metrics to measure your progress. It also helps to have good reporting when presenting to your stakeholders.

Marketing Plan Example

The best way to explain how to create a marketing plan is an example. Let’s create a marketing plan for a small business. Here’s the marketing plan outline for an email campaign for company XYZ.

XYZ Marketing Plan

Brand Strategy

• Value Proposition: Increase sign-ups by 20 percent.
• Marketing Mix: Email 75 percent, 10 percent paid online ads and 15 percent banner ads on our website.
• Growth Strategy: Click-through rate of 50, free trial 25 percent and 20 percent sign-ups.

Marketing Goals

• Increase revenue by 10 percent for the quarter.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Click-through rate, sign-ups.

Market Research

• Total Addressable Market: Customer base and those who engage on our LinkedIn group and other communities that would benefit from our product.
• Market Share: Only 25 percent, room to grow.
• Target Market: Mid-level executives.
• Buyer Personas: Management, mid-level executive in the financial division of a company.
• Competitive Analysis: Niche is wide open as competition targets leadership.

SWOT Analysis

• Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. Strengths are the capabilities that allow the company to compete such as its intellectual property and R&D while weaknesses are the internal limitations that the company might have such as lack of production capacity. Opportunities and threats refer to external factors. An opportunity could be an untapped market and a threat could be new competitors.

Marketing Planning

• Marketing team: Part in-house and contract with the agency
• Marketing Budget: $10,000
• Marketing Strategies: Blog posting, social media marketing, webinars and virtual events.
• Content Marketing Plan: Create email content and art, banner ads for our website and posts targeting LinkedIn groups and other online communities.
• Target Audience: Mid-level financial executives.
• Social Media Marketing: Post to all social platforms.
• Search Engine Optimization: Keyword research.
• Email Marketing: Delivered by the agency.
• Marketing Channels: Email, online communities, social.

Free Marketing Plan Template

Our free marketing plan template is a great place to start creating a marketing plan for your organization. We also have many project management templates that can help you manage your marketing projects.

Marketing Plan Basics

As noted, the marketing plan is a course of marketing strategies that are executed to achieve the marketing goals of an organization. Therefore, when creating a marketing plan it is crucial to have a thorough understanding of the following aspects.

What is the market you’re targeting? Once you’ve identified it, research it and gather all the data points necessary to provide a sharp picture of that market and its needs. This includes customers in that market, but also any market dynamics, patterns and sales history.

Competition

It’s unlikely that you’ll be the only business offering a product or service to a market. Therefore, you’ll have competition. Who are they? How will you differentiate yourself from them with your value proposition? A SWOT analysis can help you understand your position in the market.

Any marketing plan must be built on a strategic plan that coordinates advertising, direct marketing, training, trade shows and any other arm of the campaign.

All plans are anchored to an agreed-upon amount of money to fund them. This starts with the marketing executives who decide on what goals the market plan should achieve and how much they estimate the cost to reach them. The project budget must be realistic and within the financing constraints of the larger business.

All plans have a goal, and the goal should be attainable. It’s not a vision statement aiming high, but realistic objectives for the marketing plan. This large goal is the rule by which marketing success will be ruled.

Marketing Mix

The traditional marketing mix consists of the “four Ps” which are product, price, place and promotion. However, there are other types of the marketing mix that add more “Ps” such as people, process and physical evidence. Regardless of the one you choose for your marketing management purposes, you’ll need one to meet the needs of their customers and return a maximum profit for the company.

No plan can gauge its success if it’s not tracking and analyzing its actual versus planned results. Tracking the success of the marketing programs is key, but so is tracking the deliverables that are part of the plan. Tracking the execution of the plan is something that a project manager does all the time, and we’ll get to that in a moment. Tracking the progress the marketing plan is making towards its goal requires key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure and adjust as needed to stay on track.

ProjectManager and Marketing Plans

If a project manager can help marketers make marketing plans work better, then marketers should use the same tools as project managers. ProjectManager is that project management tool: it’s an award-winning software that helps marketing teams plan, manage and track their projects with accuracy and ease.

The project plan can be a pain, collecting and scheduling tasks, defining resources and so on. It’s a lot of work and made more complicated by difficult spreadsheets. But with ProjectManager the tasks are easy to manage and assign. Add deadlines, and they’re automatically charted across a timeline. You’ve got a schedule that easy.

But a plan isn’t just a schedule. The online Gantt chart in ProjectManager gives you more control over tasks that might be tied to other tasks. If you don’t identify those early on, they’ll be trouble later. The Gantt is simple to edit, as even the best laid plans change.

How do you get the plan and your team on the same page? You can start by assigning them to tasks right from the Gantt. Then they can manage their work and collaborate with their teammates, while you track how they’re doing while theye’re doing it.

Multiple Views Make Things Easy for Everyone

Marketing plans involve more than one team. There can be creative teams that are building the ad materials and a Gantt chart could make their eyes glaze over. ProjectManager has multiple views to suit everyone on the marketing team.

One of those project views is a kanban board . It shows teams what tasks are ready for them to work on and gives you transparency into their workload, which keeps projects on track.

You need to monitor the project and stakeholders want progress reports. ProjectManager has you covered. Because ProjectManager is cloud-based, all status updates are instantly reflected throughout the software, including the dashboard, which shows up-to-the-minute data in easy to read charts. You can’t find a better tool to plan your next marketing campaign.

Related Content

Creating a marketing plan can be overwhelming, especially for new marketing managers. That’s why we’ve created blogs, e-books, templates and guides to help you with your marketing management needs. Here are some of them.

• 10 Free Marketing Templates for Excel, Word and More
• Marketing Implementation 101: How to Implement Your Marketing Plan
• Why Marketing Teams Absolutely Need a Project Manager
• 3 Project Management Tool Tips for Marketing Teams

ProjectManager is a cloud-based project management software with features to help marketers with every step of their marketing plan and execution of marketing campaigns. Plan, monitor and report on your marketing plan with one software that gives your teams the tools they need to collaborate for greater productivity. Make better marketing plans with ProjectManager today with this free 30-day trial .

Deliver your projects on time and under budget

Start planning your projects.

60+ Marketing Related Project Ideas: Every Marketer Must Know

Are you looking for marketing related project ideas, if so then you are at the right place. However, marketing is crucial to any business, whether a small start-up or a large corporation. Effective marketing strategies can help businesses reach new customers, increase brand awareness, and drive revenue growth. However, developing and executing successful marketing campaigns can be challenging with the ever-evolving landscape of consumer behaviour, technology, and competition.

This blog will explore 60+ marketing related project ideas that can be effective strategies for marketing success.

What is Marketing?

Table of Contents

Marketing refers to promoting and selling products or services to customers. It involves identifying customer needs and preferences, creating products or services that meet them, and promoting them effectively to reach the target audience.

Marketing encompasses various activities, including market research, product development, pricing, promotion, and distribution. It also involves developing and maintaining strong customer relationships and analyzing and adapting to changes in the marketplace and consumer behavior.

The ultimate goal of marketing is to generate revenue and profit for a business by satisfying customer needs and wants. Effective marketing strategies can help businesses increase their customer base, build brand loyalty, and achieve their objectives.

Role of Marketing Projects

A marketing project is crucial in helping businesses achieve their marketing goals. Marketing projects are typically designed to address a specific marketing challenge or opportunity, such as launching a new product, increasing brand awareness, or entering a new market.

Some of the key roles of a marketing project include:

1. Identifying Customer Needs And Preferences

A marketing project can help businesses gather information about their target audience, including their needs, preferences, and purchasing behavior. This information can be used to develop more effective marketing strategies and tactics.

2. Developing Marketing Strategies And Tactics

 A marketing project can help businesses develop and implement effective marketing strategies and tactics, such as advertising, promotions, and social media campaigns. These strategies can help businesses reach their target audience and generate more leads and sales.

3. Measuring And Analyzing Marketing Performance

A marketing project can help businesses track and measure their marketing performance, including metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and customer engagement. This data can be used to refine marketing strategies and improve overall performance.

4. Building Brand Awareness And Loyalty

A marketing project can help businesses build brand awareness and loyalty among their target audience. By developing and implementing effective branding strategies, businesses can differentiate themselves from competitors and create a strong connection with their customers.

Here in this section, we will tell you more than 60+ marketing related project ideas. Read all the marketing related project ideas if you want to become a good marketer. 

1. Social Media Marketing Campaign

Develop a comprehensive marketing campaign targeting your ideal customer profile on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

2. Email Marketing Campaign

Create an email marketing campaign that engages your subscribers with valuable content and promotions.

3. Influencer Marketing Campaign 

Partner with influencers in your industry to promote your products or services to their followers.

4. Content Marketing Strategy

Develop a content marketing strategy that includes blog posts, videos, and other types of content to engage and educate your target audience.

5. Search Engine Optimization (Seo) Strategy

Improve your website’s visibility in search engine results by developing an SEO strategy that includes keyword research, on-page optimization, and link building.

6. Pay-Per-Click (Ppc) Advertising Campaign

Create a PPC advertising campaign on platforms like Google Ads or Bing Ads to drive traffic to your website and generate leads.

7. Customer Referral Program

Implement a customer referral program that incentivizes customers to refer their friends and family to your business.

8. Trade Show Participation

Participate in trade shows and other industry events to showcase your products or services and network with potential customers. Strategically selected marketing events provide unparalleled opportunities to increase visibility, generate leads and accelerate sales.

9. Product Launch Campaign

Develop a product launch campaign that builds excitement and anticipation for your new product or service.

10. Branding And Logo Design

Develop a new branding strategy and logo design that reflects your business’s values and mission.

11. Customer Retention Program

Create a loyalty program that rewards loyal customers and incentivizes them to continue doing business with you.

12. Mobile App Development

Develop a mobile app that makes it easier for customers to interact with your business and access your products or services.

13. Web Design And Development

Redesign your website to improve its usability, functionality, and aesthetics.

14. Social Media Advertising Campaign 

Create a social media campaign on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to reach a broader audience.

15. Market Research

Conduct market research to understand your target audience’s needs, preferences, and purchasing behavior.

16. Customer Segmentation

Segment your customer base based on demographics, psychographics, or behavior to effectively target your marketing efforts.

17. Sales Funnel Optimization

Optimize your sales funnel to improve conversion rates and generate more revenue.

18. Customer Journey Mapping

Map out the customer journey to identify areas where you can improve the customer experience and drive more sales.

19. Video Marketing Campaign

Create a video marketing campaign that engages and educates your target audience through entertaining and informative videos.

20. Podcast Marketing Campaign

Launch a podcast that discusses topics related to your industry and promotes your products or services.

21. Event Marketing Campaign

Plan and execute an event marketing campaign that promotes your business and generates leads.

22. Loyalty Program

Implement a loyalty program that rewards repeat customers with exclusive perks and discounts.

23. Employee Advocacy Program 

Encourage your employees to become brand ambassadors and promote your business on social media and other channels.

24. Public Relations Campaign 

Develop a public relations campaign that generates positive media coverage and enhances your brand’s reputation.

25. User-Generated Content Campaign

Encourage your customers to create and share user-generated content that promotes your products or services.

26. Cross-Promotion Campaign 

Partner with other businesses in your industry to cross-promote each other’s products or services.

27. Customer Feedback Program 

Implement a customer feedback program that gathers and uses it to improve your products or services.

28. Affiliate Marketing Program

Partner with affiliate marketers who promote your products or services to their audiences in exchange for a commission.

29. Localization Strategy

Develop a localization strategy that tailors your marketing efforts to different geographic regions and cultures.

30. Website Personalization

Personalize your website’s content and user experience based on visitors’ browsing history, location, and other data points to increase engagement and conversion rates.

31. Chatbot Implementation

Implement a chatbot on your website or social media channels to provide quick and personalized customer support and answer frequently asked questions.

32. Customer Advocacy Program

Create a customer advocacy program that rewards loyal customers for promoting your business and referring new customers.

33. Community Building 

Build an online or offline community around your brand or industry to foster engagement, loyalty, and advocacy.

34. Cause Marketing Campaign 

Develop a cause marketing campaign that aligns your brand with a social or environmental cause and resonates with your target audience’s values.

35. Branded Content Partnership 

Partner with publishers or other businesses to create branded content that provides value to your target audience and promotes your brand.

36. User Experience (Ux) Design 

Improve your website or mobile app’s UX design to enhance usability, navigation, and user satisfaction.

37. Product Bundling And Upselling 

Offer product bundles or upsell opportunities to increase your average order value and revenue per customer.

38. Interactive Content Marketing 

Create interactive content such as quizzes , calculators, and games that engage and educate your target audience.

39. Customer Onboarding Program

Develop a customer onboarding program that provides new customers with a seamless and personalized experience and sets them up for success with your product or service.

40. Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Implement an ABM strategy that targets high-value accounts or customers and delivers personalized marketing messages and experiences.

41. Virtual Reality Marketing Experience

Create an immersive VR experience that allows customers to interact with your products or services.

42. Augmented Reality Product Catalog

Develop an AR app that enables customers to visualize and try out your products in their own environment.

43. Gamification Campaign

Design a game-based marketing campaign where customers earn rewards or discounts by completing specific tasks or challenges.

44. Voice Search Optimization

Optimize your website and content for voice search queries to capture traffic from voice-enabled devices like smart speakers.

45. Personalized Packaging

Enhance customer experience by creating personalized packaging or adding custom messages to surprise and delight customers.

46. Micro-Moments Marketing

Identify key micro-moments in the customer journey and develop targeted campaigns or content to address those specific needs.

47. Geo-Targeted Campaigns

Use geolocation technology to deliver targeted ads or offers to customers based on their physical location.

48. Social Listening and Sentiment Analysis

Monitor social media platforms and online forums to gather insights about your target audience’s preferences, needs, and sentiment towards your brand.

49. Cause Marketing Campaign

Partner with a nonprofit organization or support a social cause, aligning your brand with a purpose and giving back to the community.

50. Interactive Live Webinars

Host live webinars where participants can ask questions, participate in polls, and engage in real-time discussions.

51. Subscription Box Service

Create a subscription box service that delivers curated products to customers on a regular basis, providing a unique and convenient shopping experience.

52. Data-Driven Personalization

Leverage customer data and behavior to deliver personalized marketing messages, offers, and recommendations.

53. Experiential Marketing Pop-up

Set up a temporary physical space where customers can experience your brand through interactive installations, workshops, or product demos.

54. Virtual Trade Show

Host a virtual trade show where businesses can showcase their products or services to a global audience.

55. Virtual Product Launch

Host a virtual event to unveil and showcase a new product, complete with interactive presentations, demos, and Q&A sessions.

56. Interactive Packaging

Incorporate interactive elements, such as free QR code or augmented reality, into your product packaging to provide additional content or a unique user experience.

57. Social Media Storytelling Campaign

Develop a series of engaging and compelling stories on social media platforms that highlight your brand values, mission, or behind-the-scenes content.

58. Branded Podcast

Create a podcast that focuses on topics related to your industry or niche, providing valuable insights and establishing your brand as a thought leader.

59. AI-powered Chatbot Marketing

Utilize artificial intelligence to develop advanced chatbots that can engage with customers, answer inquiries, and provide personalized recommendations.

60. Interactive Digital Signage

Use interactive digital signage in public spaces or events to capture attention, deliver targeted messages, and collect customer data.

61. Partnership with Local Artists or Designers

Collaborate with local artists or designers to create limited-edition or co-branded products that generate buzz and attract new customers.

• What is retail marketing
• Research Topics for Marketing By Experts

Elements of Marketing Projects

Marketing projects typically involve several key elements, each important in achieving the project’s objectives. Here are some of the key elements of a marketing project:

1. Project Objectives

The objectives define what the marketing project intends to achieve. This may include increasing sales, improving brand awareness, launching a new product or service, or entering a new market.

2. Target Audience

The target audience refers to the people or businesses the marketing project intends to reach. Defining the target audience is essential to ensure the project’s messaging, branding, and tactics align with their needs and preferences.

3. Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy outlines the project’s approach to achieve its objectives. This may include tactics such as advertising, public relations, social media marketing, email marketing, or content marketing.

The budget outlines the financial resources available to the project. This includes creative development, media buying, and other marketing expenses.

5. Timeline

The timeline outlines the project’s schedule and deadlines. This ensures the project stays on track and all tasks are completed on time.

6. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs measure the project’s success in achieving its objectives. This may include metrics such as website traffic , conversion rates, social media engagement, or customer acquisition costs.

7. Creative Assets

Creative assets refer to the visual and messaging components of the project, such as advertising copy, branding, and visual design. These assets are designed to capture the target audience’s attention and effectively communicate the project’s messaging.

Things to Consider While Doing Marketing Project

Creating a successful marketing project requires careful planning and execution. Here are some of the key things to consider while doing a marketing project:

1. Define Project Objectives

Before beginning any marketing project, it’s essential to define them clearly. This involves understanding what you want to achieve through the project and setting measurable goals aligning with your business objectives.

2. Know Your Target Audience

Understanding your target audience is critical to developing effective marketing strategies and tactics. Conduct market research to identify your ideal customer profile and tailor your messaging and tactics to resonate with their needs and preferences.

3. Develop A Comprehensive Marketing Strategy

Based on your project objectives and target audience, develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that outlines the tactics you’ll use to achieve your goals. Consider incorporating traditional and digital marketing tactics to reach your target audience effectively.

4. Set A Realistic Budget

Developing an effective marketing project requires a budget considering the costs of creative development, media buying, and other marketing expenses. Set a realistic budget that aligns with your business goals and resources.

5. Establish A Clear Timeline

Creating a marketing project involves multiple tasks that must be completed within a specific timeframe. Establish a clear timeline that outlines the project’s milestones and deadlines.

6. Monitor And Measure Performance

Track and measure the project’s performance against the established KPIs to identify what’s working and needs improvement. Regularly analyze the data and adjust your tactics to improve the project’s effectiveness.

7. Leverage Data And Insights

Incorporate data and insights into your marketing project to inform your decision-making and improve your outcomes. Use data to identify emerging trends and insights to refine your strategies and tactics.

Ways to Find Best Marketing Related Project Ideas

Here are some ways to find the best marketing related project ideas:

1. Conduct Market Research

Conduct market research to identify gaps in the market, unmet customer needs, and emerging trends. Use this information to brainstorm project ideas that address these gaps and needs.

2. Analyze Your Competition

Analyze your competition’s marketing strategies and identify areas where you can differentiate yourself. Use this information to generate project ideas that stand out from your competitors.

3. Engage With Your Audience

Engage with your audience on social media, email, or other channels to understand their needs, pain points, and preferences. Use this information to develop projects that address their needs and preferences.

4. Analyze Your Data

Analyze your marketing data to identify areas where you can improve your performance. For example, you may notice that your email open rates are low, indicating a need for a new email marketing campaign.

5. Look For Inspiration

Look for inspiration from other industries or brands that are doing innovative and successful marketing. Use this inspiration to generate new ideas that are relevant to your business.

6. Attend Industry Events

Attend industry events such as conferences, webinars, or workshops to learn about the latest trends and best practices. Use this knowledge to develop projects that leverage these trends and practices.

7. Brainstorm With Your Team

Brainstorm project ideas with your team to leverage their expertise and insights. Encourage an open and creative environment where everyone can contribute ideas.

This is the end of this post which is about marketing related project ideas. On the other hand, businesses can undertake countless marketing related project ideas to improve their marketing effectiveness and achieve success. By utilizing the right strategies and techniques, businesses can increase brand awareness, engage with their target audience, generate leads, and drive revenue. It is important to conduct thorough research, analyze data, and seek inspiration to generate the best marketing related project ideas for your business. 

Additionally, implementing these projects requires careful planning, execution, and monitoring to ensure they achieve the desired results. By prioritizing marketing effectiveness and leveraging the power of innovative and creative marketing strategies, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and achieve long-term success.

Q1. What are some creative marketing project ideas for small businesses?

a) Designing and implementing a guerrilla marketing campaign to create buzz and attract attention. b) Creating and distributing personalized direct mail or email campaigns to targeted customer segments. c) Organizing a local event or workshop to showcase products/services and engage with the community. d) Collaborating with complementary businesses for cross-promotion and co-branded campaigns.

Q2. How can I leverage digital marketing for my project?

a) Utilize search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to improve website visibility and organic traffic. b) Develop a content marketing strategy by creating valuable and relevant blog posts, videos, or infographics. c) Run targeted online advertising campaigns on platforms such as Google Ads or social media platforms. d) Leverage social media platforms to engage with customers, share content, and run promotional campaigns.

Q3. Are there any low-budget marketing project ideas for startups?

a) Utilise the power of social media marketing by creating compelling content and engaging with the audience. b) Implement a customer referral program to incentivize existing customers to refer new ones. c) Collaborate with local or micro-influencers who use your brand values and target audience. d) Leverage email marketing by building a subscriber list and sending targeted, personalized emails to customers.

Related Posts

Best Ever Topic for Accounting Research Paper

Topics for Dissertation in Accounting And Finance by Experts

• Starting a Business
• Growing a Business
• Small Business Guide
• Business News
• Science & Technology
• Money & Finance
• For Subscribers
• Write for Entrepreneur
• Entrepreneur Store
• United States
• Asia Pacific
• Middle East
• South Africa

Copyright © 2024 Entrepreneur Media, LLC All rights reserved. Entrepreneur® and its related marks are registered trademarks of Entrepreneur Media LLC

Want to Be the Next Apple? Here's the Secret Sauce Used By Steve Jobs to Build Consumer Trust

• Lock How to Build a 'Brand Vault' For Your Business – With a Little Help From Steve Jobs
• Lock Here's How Steve Jobs Dealt With Negative Press and Avoided Brand Disasters

Want to Be the Next Apple? Here's the Secret Sauce Used By Steve Jobs to Build Consumer Trust There are many marketing and branding strategies out there — but here's the one Steve Jobs used grow Apple.

By Jessica Wong • Apr 9, 2024

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Take a look at any ranking of the world's leading brands, and one name appears toward the top of that list every single tim: Steve Jobs' Apple . Like countless startups today, Steve Jobs began his journey in a garage with little more than a vision.

So, how did he build one of the world's most recognizable and trusted brands? Steve Jobs relied on one simple philosophy to set his company apart from its competitor: He viewed Apple's branding as a bank account or a vault.

Read on to discover how you and your team can replicate his strategy to grow your business.

Depositing Credibility into Your Bank Account

A brand represents the intangible assets that entrepreneurs possess, while branding is the process of enhancing the brand by instilling credibility and trust. A good brand is one that consumers trust to create a high-quality product or deliver great service. Where that level of trust exists, there is room for errors. Great brands are not infallible, but they handle problems well, for example, by admitting to mistakes and taking care of their customers through difficult situations.

Make Deposits, Avoid Withdrawals

Steve Jobs' idea is simple: Every time a company does something good, it deposits something into its bank account or adds something to its vault. Launching a successful product is just as much a deposit as finding a mutually beneficial resolution when there has been a problem. Whenever your customers walk away feeling that they have been treated respectfully, trust in the brand increases.

At my marketing company, we don't sell products, but we still find efficient ways to make deposits on a regular basis. Deposits can take a variety of forms: customer service, partnerships, feedback loop, etc. During this time, every single blog post prospect customers read and find useful, every leadership piece they enjoy and share is another small deposit into our "brand bank account."

On the other hand, whenever someone has a negative experience with your business, a withdrawal is made from your vault. Launching an unsuccessful product would be a large withdrawal. But even an unfriendly interaction on a customer service hotline can cause your brand to lose a consumer's trust.

How Do You Have a Healthy Brand Bank Balance?

Just like your team works hard to maintain a positive balance in your company's actual bank accounts, every team member should understand the importance of maintaining a healthy brand bank balance . In theory, it is as simple as ensuring that deposits outnumber withdrawals. In practice, that is not always so easy, and no brand is immune to making mistakes or being unlucky.

Here's a good example of when Apple avoided a heavy withdrawal. When the company launched its then-revolutionary face recognition technology for iPhone X in 2017, the technology simply did not work. This temporary glitch put a dent in Apple's stock market value for some time. However, due to the company's well-established brand reputation and history of innovation, loyal customers and supporters remained steadfast. Apple swiftly addressed the technical issues, demonstrating its commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. As a result, trust in the brand was restored, and within a short period, Apple rebounded, showcasing the resilience of a robust brand bank account.

Maintaining a healthy brand bank balance requires constant deposits, small and large. Withdrawals, even if they seem incredibly small, need to be taken seriously. A small issue can quickly snowball and create significant damage to a brand.

Companies that Use Steve Jobs' Banking Anology

The concept of brand bank balances is not just for large or well-established businesses. Every interaction, online or off, can lead to deposits or withdrawals.

As a startup founder or a small business owner, you can look at businesses around you for examples and inspiration or consider these household name brands :

• The Ford Motor Company. In 2023, Ford noticed an issue with brake hoses and windshield wipers. Both could have endangered drivers, their passengers, and other road users, and the manufacturer decided to recall up to 1.5 million vehicles. Is that a deposit or a withdrawal? At face value, a recall would be a withdrawal. However, by being open with customers about the reasons for the recall, and streamlining the process to minimize the inconvenience for clients, Ford strengthened consumer relationships throughout the process.
• Peloton . Exercise equipment manufacturer Peloton did not fare so well when reports of potential safety issues started surfacing, including the death of a child. Rather than dealing with the reports proactively and initiating a recall, the company dragged its heels and eventually faced a $19 million fine.

While that is a significant physical withdrawal from the company's bank account, it is arguably an even larger withdrawal from the company's brand bank account. Re-building consumer trust after being seen to be careless with the safety of users and their children will likely cost more time and investment than a timely recall would have done.

Start Thinking Like Steve Jobs

Prioritizing consistent deposits into your brand bank account forms the basis of customer loyalty and significantly contributes to brand longevity. Even small deposits will add up over time like compound interest does in a real bank account. This concept is what makes this analogy so useful for businesses of any size and at any stage of their development. No matter whether your business is a very early-stage startup or you are working as a sole trader, Steve Jobs' 'secret sauce' can help you transform your business.

In the next article, we discuss strategies for making better and smarter deposits into your brand bank account. If you are not yet a subscriber, join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

More in Entrepreneur+ Exclusive Series

How to build a 'brand vault' for your business – with a little help from steve jobs, here's how steve jobs dealt with negative press and avoided brand disasters.

Successfully copied link

50 Small Business Marketing Ideas for 2024

Published: February 20, 2024

Whether you’re launching a new business or already running one, I can tell you firsthand that a small business marketing strategy with a strong online presence is essential.

That’s why I’ve collected this list of 50 small business marketing ideas to help you get started.

As the former head of marketing for two small businesses, I’ve learned that e-commerce isn’t going anywhere. In fact, one estimate has projected the number of global e-commerce customers to grow to two and a half billion by 2028.

If you’re a small business owner with little experience in online marketing, creating a strategy to boost your online presence may feel overwhelming. But have no fear — I’ve got you covered.

In this post, I’ll help you build and optimize your small business marketing strategy using inbound marketing , setting you up to attract new clients and grow your business.

Small Business Marketing

Marketing is meant to raise brand awareness and build a pipeline of qualified leads that turn into sales. But getting the word out can be challenging when running a small business.

You’ll likely have less visibility and fewer resources (like budget or time).

However, several strategies can help you scale your small business marketing efforts.

Whether you’re struggling with a limited budget, a smaller team, or a lack of strategic direction, a marketing plan appropriate for your business can guide you as you scale.

Small Business Marketing Strategies

• Know your audience.
• Emphasize your value proposition.
• Stay focused on singular goals and objectives.
• Capitalize on short-term plays.
• Double down on what works.
• Understand the power of existing customers.
• Use free promotional tools.
• Create a website to own your online presence.
• Consider blogging to attract prospects to your website.
• Promote yourself on social media.
• Collaborate with influencers to create brand awareness.
• Create short-form video content.
• Stick to a social media posting schedule.
• Invest in ads.
• Make sure you're capturing web prospects’ information.
• Use email marketing to nurture leads.
• Manage relationships with a CRM.
• Lean into word of mouth as a promotion channel.
• Connect with other local businesses.

The strategies below can help you generate awareness and revenue for your organization:

1. Know your audience.

A key mistake is thinking that “anyone” is your buyer. Larger companies may be able to appeal to a wide market, but they say “the riches are in the niches” for a reason.

You’ll have the most leverage as a small business owner if you choose a niche. To develop a niche and appeal to buyers within it, you must understand their pains, problems, triggering events, and priorities.

What is pushing them to make a purchasing decision? What does it look like if they succeed? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you craft messaging that resonates and makes a compelling case for your solution.

As SMB Marketing Consultant Tabitha Naylor explains:  

“Developing a customer persona helps frame your marketing messages for a specific audience. It ensures you’re speaking to your ideal customer’s needs, goals, and preferred channels for content consumption.”

To get started, consider your existing customers and who you’d like to work with. Then, create a buyer persona to get into your ideal client’s head.

The State of Marketing in 2024

HubSpot's Annual Inbound Marketing Trends Report

• Top Marketing Channels
• AI in Marketing
• Managing Privacy
• The Future of Marketing

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

6. Understand the power of existing customers.

On average, acquiring a new customer costs five times more than upselling to an existing one. You shouldn’t stop marketing to someone just because they’ve already purchased.

To the contrary, identify opportunities for repeat purchases, upselling, and cross-selling. Your existing customers have already purchased, which means they know, like, and trust you.

If you’ve provided a good experience, you’ve given them a reason to do business with you again.

Even if the need doesn’t arise (i.e., one-and-done purchases with no upsell opportunities), you should still delight your customers. After all, word of mouth is a powerful (and free) promotional tool.

7. Use free promotional tools.

Speaking of free promotional tools, it’s important to note that since you’ve committed to a limited goal and scope, there’s no need to inflate your overhead with gadgets.

In my experience, it’s best to use free promotional tools wherever possible. Only commit to paid tools if you know they will drastically improve existing operations or performance.

Here’s a list of marketing tools (some free, some paid) that may be useful.

8. Create a website to own your online presence.

A professional-looking website is one of the most important assets you can create for your small business. This is where you show who you are, what you offer, your location, and how a potential customer can contact you.

It is a marketing channel you will always own. In addition to being a place to send traffic from advertising and other marketing initiatives, it can generate organic traffic.

Your website isn’t just a simple brochure, either. With an understanding of how to convert traffic and turn those leads into customers, you can turn your site into a 24/7 salesperson.

Business Researcher Jennifer Dublino notes that a website can be an incredibly powerful tool for any small business, sharing:

“By presenting clear, consistent and easy-to-find information, your website can help you earn repeat business and foster customer loyalty.”

To get started, consider checking out HubSpot’s CMS — one of the best website-building tools on the market.

9. Consider blogging to attract prospects to your website.

Blogging is a great way to generate organic traffic, particularly for those prospects who have not yet reached a purchasing decision . In addition, it can establish credibility in your space and position you as a thought leader.

To start a blog, you can use an inexpensive or free website tool to make a simple site. These tools even offer templates you can use to get started right away.

Once you start writing, you can add calls-to-action (CTAs) to your posts, encouraging your visitors to subscribe to your blog or receive emails.

Even if you only publish once a week, it will improve your website’s visibility online and help educate your potential customers on why they should trust your company.

You can also check out this beginner’s writing guide if you plan to write the posts yourself.

It can take some work, but a blog is a great way to start collecting leads and offering potential customers who aren’t yet ready to buy a way to learn more about you and your industry.

9 Pivotal Marketing Trends to Watch in 2024, According to Experts

The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Strategies & How to Improve Your Digital Presence

Diving Deep Into Marketing in Construction (My Takeaways)

11 Recommendations for Marketers in 2024 [New Data]

The Top 5 B2C Marketing Trends of 2024 [New HubSpot Blog Data + Expert Insights]

5 Marketing Trends That Might Not Survive in 2024 [HubSpot Research + Expert Insights]

Everything You Need to Know About Webinar Marketing

7 Marketing Questions Teams are Asking in 2024 (+Data & Insights)

How Luxury Brands Market and What You Can Learn

Diving Deep Into Marketing for Dentists (My Takeaways)

HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. HubSpot will share the information you provide to us with the following partners, who will use your information for similar purposes: Litmus, Rock Content, Search Engine Journal. You can unsubscribe from communications from HubSpot at any time. For more information, check out HubSpot's Privacy Policy . To unsubscribe from Litmus's communications, see Litmus's Privacy Policy . To unsubscribe from Rock Content's communications, see Rock Content's Privacy Policy . To unsubscribe from Search Engine Journal's communications, see Search Engine Journal's Privacy Policy .

Data from over 1,400 marketers across the globe.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

In-person on-demand session

The Future of Adobe Workfront - S302

English closed captions will be added in early April.

Laurel Hahn Zimmer

Director, Product Management, Adobe

Brent Rudewick

Sr. Director, Head of Adobe Workfront Product Management & Strategy, Adobe

Featured Products

Adobe Workfront

Session resources

No resources available for this session

Session Resources

ABOUT THE SESSION

It’s said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. Join Adobe Workfront product leaders, Brent and Laurel, to get a sneak peek of the future of strategic planning and workflow. Learn about the team’s focus on strategic themes that align with a mission, customer needs, and market opportunities. These themes address business capabilities across the entire marketing lifecycle — all with an AI-first approach to automate work, simplify user experiences, and boost productivity. 

In this session:

• See how Workfront powers Adobe's Content Supply Chain Solution to unlock content velocity and personalization beyond human scale
• Gain deep insights and visualize the marketing lifecycle by unifying operational data, taxonomies, and systems across the enterprise
• Unlock critical capabilities for digital agencies to manage work and delivery of world-class client services

Track: Planning and Workflow

Presentation Style: Thought leadership

Audience Type: Advertiser, Campaign manager, Digital marketer, IT executive, Marketing executive, Web marketer, Operations professional, Project/program manager, Product manager, Marketing practitioner, Marketing analyst, Marketing operations , Business decision maker, Content manager, IT professional, Marketing technologist, Omnichannel architect, People manager, Social strategist

Technical Level: General audience

This content is copyrighted by Adobe Inc. Any recording and posting of this content is strictly prohibited.

By accessing resources linked on this page ("Session Resources"), you agree that 1. Resources are Sample Files per our Terms of Use and 2. you will use Session Resources solely as directed by the applicable speaker.

ADOBE GENSTUDIO

Meet Adobe GenStudio, coming soon, a generative AI-first product to unite and accelerate your content supply chain.

Director, Product Management

Laurel leads product for Workfront native integrations across Adobe solutions. Prior to joining this team, she was responsible for leading strategies and key initiatives tied to the Creative Cloud streamlining of business workflows and expanding to new personas. Laurel has over twenty five years of experience at Adobe and has an enormous amount of passion for customers and customer experiences.

Sr. Director, Head of Adobe Workfront Product Management & Strategy

As Sr. Director, Head of Strategy and Product Management for Adobe Workfront, Brent is responsible for driving the vision and strategic roadmap to deliver the industry leading Enterprise Work Management application that powers Adobe’s Content Supply Chain. Brent’s vast experience, including building an Enterprise System of Record through scaling Workfront in his previous marketing operations role at Charles Schwab along with 24 years managing some of the largest brands at Tyson, USAA, and Charles Schwab, led to the delivery of a library of curated, relevant content to support customers and a category-leading work management maturity model that provides a roadmap for customers developing capabilities around planning, executing, and measuring work, as well as aligning strategy to execution.

Language Navigation

China needs a new economic plan that focuses less on exporting and more on domestic growth, 'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says

• China will stagnate if it relies on manufacturing and exports to grow, Nouriel Roubini wrote in Project Syndicate.
• That growth model is outdated and worked in a time when foreign markets were more open to Chinese products.
• Beijing must instead stimulate domestic demand and service-led GDP growth, the famed "Dr. Doom" economist said.

China can't grow out of its economic problems if it stays focused on manufacturing and exports, says famed "Dr. Doom" economist Nouriel Roubini . Though this strategy sparked decades of impressive growth, it could now put China on course for stagnation, he warned on Thursday.

"The old Chinese growth model is broken," the perma-bear economist wrote for Project Syndicate , later adding: "China therefore needs a new growth model concentrated on domestic services — rather than goods — and private consumption." 

His pushback comes as Beijing increasingly focuses on advanced manufacturing, boosting exports of products such as electric vehicles and solar panels .

Related stories

When China's economy was smaller, this form of growth made sense, as its exports were still manageable for foreign markets, Roubini said. 

But with geopolitical tensions now rising, protectionism is starting to hamper the world's appetite for Chinese products, and could leave the country stranded with excess supply, he warned. 

"Now that it is the world's second-largest economy, any dumping of its excess capacity will be met by even more draconian tariffs and protectionism targeting Chinese goods," he said. Other analysts have evened warned this could spark a trade war as soon as next year . 

To avoid this and still generate growth, Beijing must instead invest in domestic demand, allowing services to take on a greater share of GDP, Roubini said. 

His concerns are well-cited, as analysts have long pointed out China's low household consumption rates as a worrying set back for growth.

"The situation demands larger pension benefits, greater health-care provision, unemployment insurance, permanent urban residency for rural migrant workers who currently lack access to public services, higher real (inflation-adjusted) wages, and measures to redistribute SOE profits to households so that they can spend more," Roubini wrote.

But Beijing's leadership looks unwilling to bolster private-sector and household confidence, something Roubini blames on President Xi Jinping, citing that he's surrounded himself by advisors sympathetic to the current growth model. 

Previously, economist Paul Krugman explained Xi's unwillingness to boost support for consumers and businesses due to a strong ideological dislike for for stimulus and welfare aid.

Watch: Protesters in China are trying to break out of quarantine

• Main content