# The annual marketing plan on four pages

Four pages: the goals and the numbers, the strategic choices, the programs with their budget and owners, and how you will measure and adjust. Each page has the headings and tables to fill in. A plan this short gets read by the CEO and the CFO and can be checked against results every quarter.

## How to use it

Draft page 1 with the CFO before you write the rest. If the targets and the budget do not agree on page 1, nothing on pages 2 to 4 will fix it.

Keep each page to one page. If something does not fit, it belongs in an appendix or in a team's own plan.

## Page 1. Goals and the numbers

- **Company goals for the year.** [The two or three company goals marketing contributes to, in the CEO's words.]
- **Marketing's contribution.** [The targets marketing owns: pipeline, revenue from new customers, retention or expansion where marketing runs programs, brand measures.]
- **Budget.** [Total marketing budget, as an amount and as a share of revenue, and the change from last year.]
- **Assumptions.** [The conversion rates, prices and costs the targets rest on, each with its source.]

Targets:

| Target | Last year | This year | Definition |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Marketing-sourced pipeline] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| [New customers] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| [Brand measure] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |

## Page 2. The choices

- **Who we are for.** [The segments you will spend on, in order, and the ones you will not.]
- **Why they choose us.** [The position you will defend, and the evidence for it.]
- **Three bets.** [The three strategic choices that shape the year, each with the result that would prove it right and the date you will know by.]
- **What we will stop.** [Programs, channels or segments you are dropping, and the money and time that frees.]

## Page 3. Programs, budget and team

- **Budget by line.** [Labor, martech, agencies, paid media, other: amount and share of the marketing budget, against last year.]
- **Team.** [Headcount by function, open roles and when they start, and what agencies cover.]
- **Reserve.** [The share of budget held back for in-year reallocation, and who can release it.]

Programs:

| Program | Goal it serves | Owner | Budget | Quarter | Measure |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |

## Page 4. Measurement, cadence and risks

- **Scorecard.** [The numbers you will report every month or quarter, with definitions. The marketing scorecard template on this site has twelve to start from.]
- **Review cadence.** [Who reviews what, how often, and what decisions each review can make.]
- **Risks and triggers.** [The risks to the plan, the signal for each, and the response ready to go.]
- **Decisions needed.** [What you need from the CEO, CFO or board, and by when.]

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From CMO Tribune: https://www.cmotribune.com/tools/annual-marketing-plan