Marketing policy example: a template you can copy, section by section

A marketing policy is a short internal document that says who may publish on behalf of the company, what claims may be made, how approvals work, and how customer data may be used. A usable one runs to two or three pages and has eight sections: purpose and scope, roles and approvals, brand and tone, claims and evidence, data and consent, channel rules, use of AI, and record keeping. The example wording below can be copied and edited.

Most marketing policies fail for the same reason: they are written as an essay nobody reads. A policy earns its place when a new starter can open it, find the rule that applies to the thing they are about to post, and act without asking. That means plain sentences, named owners and a decision for every common situation.

What a marketing policy is, and what it is not

Keep four documents apart. The policy says what is allowed, who decides and what records are kept. The plan says what you are doing this quarter and what it costs. The guidelines say how it should look and sound. A procedure is the step by step for one task. The policy is the one that holds up in an argument with a regulator, a customer or your own legal team, so it stays short, dated and owned by one person.

The example policy

Replace the bracketed parts. Everything else is ready to use.

1. Purpose and scope

This policy governs all marketing and promotional communication published by [Company] or by anyone acting on its behalf, including employees, contractors, agencies, resellers and paid creators. It applies to the website, email, SMS, social media, paid advertising, events, print, packaging, PR and sales collateral. Internal staff communication and contractual notices to customers are governed separately.

2. Roles and approvals

The [Marketing Director] owns this policy and reviews it every twelve months. No marketing communication is published without the approval recorded in the table below. Approval is recorded in [the project tool] before publication, not after.

Type of communication	Approved by	Second approval needed when
Social post, no claim, no offer	Marketing executive	It names a customer or a competitor
Blog post, case study, webinar	Content lead	It states a performance figure or a price
Paid advertising, any channel	Marketing manager	Spend is above [limit] or the audience includes minors
Email or SMS to a customer list	Marketing manager	The list is newly acquired or the content is transactional
Price, availability or contractual terms	Finance and Legal	Always
Health, financial, safety or legal claims	Legal and the relevant subject expert	Always
Press release, analyst or investor material	[CEO] and Legal	Always

3. Brand and tone

All communication follows the current brand guidelines for the logo, colour, typography and product naming. We write in plain language. We do not use superlatives we cannot support. We do not copy competitor wording, imagery or layout. Third party trademarks are used only to identify the owner accurately and never in a way that suggests endorsement or partnership that does not exist.

4. Claims and evidence

This is the section that keeps companies out of trouble, so it is worth writing properly.

Every factual or comparative claim must have evidence on file before publication. Evidence is a document, a dataset, a test result or a written customer permission, stored in [the claims register] with the date and the person who verified it. Claims about typical results must reflect what typical customers achieve, not the best case. Comparisons with named competitors must compare like with like, must be accurate on the date of publication, and must be rechecked every [six] months or withdrawn. Testimonials and reviews must be genuine and attributable to a real customer who has given written permission. Any incentive given for a review or an endorsement is disclosed in the same place as the endorsement.

Regulators are consistent here. The UK Advertising Standards Authority enforces the CAP Code rule that claims are substantiated before an ad runs, and the US Federal Trade Commission says the same about endorsements in its Endorsement Guides. Both look for the evidence file, not the intention.

5. Customer data and consent

Personal data is collected only for stated purposes, with a lawful basis recorded for each marketing use. Direct marketing by email or SMS is sent only to people who have given consent or who fall within a documented exception, and every message carries a working unsubscribe that is honoured within [48 hours]. Lists are never bought, rented or scraped. Suppression lists are kept permanently and checked before every send. Consent records show what the person agreed to, when, and the wording they saw.

UK teams can check the detail of the email and SMS rules in the ICO direct marketing guidance. In other markets, name your own regulator here rather than leaving it generic.

6. Channel rules

• Website. Published pages carry an owner and a last reviewed date. Pricing pages are checked against the current price list monthly.
• Email and SMS. Sender name, physical address and unsubscribe appear in every campaign. Frequency caps are set per audience and respected.
• Social media. Only named account holders post from company accounts. Employees posting in a personal capacity about the company identify themselves as employees. Negative comments are answered or escalated, never deleted, unless they contain abuse, personal data or illegal content.
• Paid advertising. Landing pages must match the ad claim. Targeting excludes protected categories where the platform or the law requires it.
• Influencers and affiliates. Contracts require clear disclosure of the commercial relationship in the content itself, and give us the right to require a correction.

7. Use of AI tools

AI tools may be used to draft, edit, research and produce marketing material. A named person reviews and approves every AI assisted output before publication and is accountable for its accuracy. Facts, figures, quotes and citations produced by an AI tool are verified against a primary source. Customer data and confidential information are not entered into tools [IT and Legal] have not approved. Synthetic imagery or audio that could be mistaken for a real person or event is labelled.

8. Record keeping, breaches and review

Published assets, approvals, claim evidence and consent records are retained for [three] years. A suspected breach of this policy is reported to the policy owner within one working day, the asset is withdrawn or corrected, and the correction is logged. This policy is reviewed every twelve months and after any regulatory change affecting our markets.

How to put it into use

A policy that lives in a shared drive changes nothing. Put the approval table into the tool where work actually happens, so the approver is a required field rather than a memory test. Start the claims register on the day you issue the policy and backfill the claims already live on your site. Then run one short session with marketing, sales and legal in the room so the edge cases get decided once instead of weekly.

This page covers the internal marketing policy document and gives example wording for each section. For the goals, budget and campaign calendar, write a marketing plan. For logo, colour and typography rules, write brand guidelines.

What gets asked about marketing policy example

How long should a marketing policy be?

Two to four pages. Anything longer gets skimmed. If a section needs detail, such as the email consent rules, link out to a separate procedure and keep the policy itself to the decision and the owner.

Who should own and sign the marketing policy?

One named person in marketing owns it and keeps it current. Legal reviews it before each version is issued, and a director signs it so the approval table carries weight. Shared ownership means no ownership.

Does a small business need a marketing policy?

Yes, and a small business benefits fastest because the rules are usually in one founder's head. Writing them down is what lets you hand marketing to a new hire or an agency without re-explaining every decision.

What is the difference between a marketing policy and a social media policy?

A social media policy covers conduct on social platforms, including personal accounts. A marketing policy covers all promotional communication in every channel. Many companies make social media a section inside the marketing policy, which keeps the two consistent.

How often should a marketing policy be reviewed?

Annually as a fixed date in the calendar, plus immediately after any change in advertising or data protection rules in a market you sell into. Record the review date on the document itself so readers can see it is current.

One clause worth adding this year

Buyers increasingly ask an assistant before they ask a supplier. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google's AI Overviews now answer category questions directly, and they answer them differently from each other, naming different companies and citing different sources. What those answers say about your pricing, your coverage and your claims is marketing communication about your company that you did not write.

That is worth one line in section eight: a named person checks quarterly what the main assistants say about the company, and factual errors are corrected at the source the assistant is reading, which is usually your own site, a directory listing or a third party profile. Checking it is a simple exercise, ask your buyers' real questions in two or three assistants and keep your company name out of the prompt so the answer is not led. AI Knows Us is a tool built for running that check on a schedule.