The marketing planning process: the seven stages, the output of each, and the review that keeps it alive

The marketing planning process is the sequence that turns a business objective into a plan somebody can run on Monday. It has seven stages: audit the current position, set objectives with numbers on them, choose segments and a position, decide the strategy, build the mix and the tactics, set the budget and the schedule, then control and review. Each stage produces one written output, and a stage without an output has not happened.

The reason to follow it in order is that each stage limits the next. Tactics chosen before objectives give you a list of activity nobody can judge, and objectives set before an audit are usually somebody's hope with a percentage attached.

The seven stages, with the output of each

Stage	What you do	The output
1. Audit	Read your own numbers, the market, the competitors and the forces around you	A two page position statement with the evidence attached
2. Objectives	Convert business goals into marketing goals with a number and a date	Three objectives, no more
3. Segmentation, targeting, positioning	Divide the market, pick who you are for, write the position	One page per target segment, and one positioning sentence
4. Strategy	Decide where growth comes from: more from existing buyers, new buyers, new markets or new products	A named route to the objective
5. Mix and tactics	Product, price, place and promotion decisions that serve the strategy	A channel plan with owners
6. Budget and schedule	Cost each tactic, phase it, and name the person responsible	A dated schedule and a budget that adds up
7. Control	Set the metrics, the review cadence and the triggers to change course	One dashboard and a monthly meeting in the calendar

Stage one: the audit, done in a week

Audits expand to fill whatever time they are given, so cap it. Four inputs are enough for most companies: your own sales and enquiry data for the last two years, the acquisition numbers by channel, a read of the competitors, and a scan of the external forces. The competitor part is where most audits go soft, and the method in competitor analysis keeps it pointed at decisions. For the demand side, the five step method in keyword research shows what buyers in your category are actually asking for, which is harder evidence than opinion.

Summarise the audit as a SWOT if your organisation expects one, but write the position statement first. A SWOT with no evidence behind each line is the most common decorative page in planning.

Stage two: objectives with numbers

Three objectives, each with a measure, a number and a date. "Grow brand awareness" is not an objective. "Lift qualified enquiries from the south region from the current monthly average to a stated target by 31 March" is one, because at the end of March everybody knows whether it happened.

• Tie each objective to a business outcome so finance recognises it.
• Pick measures you already collect, or set the collection up in week one.
• Record the baseline on the day you set the objective. A plan without a baseline cannot be judged later.

Where the objective lives in a specific channel, social marketing goals shows the pattern of picking the metric that belongs to the goal.

Stages three and four: who you are for, and where growth comes from

Segmentation divides the market into groups that buy differently. Targeting picks the ones you will serve. Positioning is the sentence that says what you are, who for, and why you rather than the alternative. Write it as one sentence and test it on somebody in sales, because a position nobody in sales can repeat does not exist.

Strategy then names the route: sell more to current customers, win customers from competitors, enter a new segment or geography, or launch something new. One route per objective. Plans that pick all four spread the budget thin enough that none of them moves.

Stages five and six: the mix, the budget and the schedule

Every tactic has to trace back to an objective. If it does not, cut it. Write the mix as decisions rather than intentions: the price point and why, the channel and the margin it leaves, the message and the proof behind it, the offer and its terms. The marketing mix in a business plan shows the section written out, and the one page structure in the marketing plan template is the format worth putting it in, because a plan nobody reopens is a plan nobody follows.

Budget from the tactics upwards, then check it against what the business can afford, then cut from the bottom of the priority list rather than shaving every line. Where search is part of the plan, where search fits in the whole plan covers the sequencing, since search work pays back on a different curve from paid media.

Stage seven: control, which is the stage people skip

• One dashboard. The three objective measures at the top, the channel numbers underneath, nothing else.
• A monthly meeting in the calendar for the year. Forty five minutes: what moved, what did not, what changes.
• Named triggers. The number that says stop, the number that says double. Written in advance, so the decision is not made in the heat of a bad month.
• A quarterly re-plan, not a rewrite. Reopen the same document, change what the evidence says to change, and keep the version history.
• An honest measurement model. The approach in marketing analytics and attribution keeps the review from turning into an argument about which channel gets credit.

This page covers the planning process itself. For the one page document it produces, see the marketing plan template above, and for the external forces that feed stage one, work through the audit sources listed there.

What gets asked about marketing planning process

What are the stages of the marketing planning process?

Audit, objectives, segmentation and targeting and positioning, strategy, mix and tactics, budget and schedule, then control and review. Seven stages, each with one written output.

How long should marketing planning take?

Two to four weeks for an annual plan in a small or mid sized company, with the audit capped at a week. Longer than that and the market has moved before the plan is signed.

What is the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan?

The strategy is the choice of where growth comes from and who you are for. The plan is the dated, costed set of actions that delivers it. Strategy fits on a page, and the plan has owners and dates.

Who should be involved?

Marketing leads it, with sales, operations and finance contributing to the audit and signing off the schedule. Sales hears the objection first, operations says what can be delivered, finance holds the budget.

How often should the plan be reviewed?

Monthly against the dashboard, with a proper re-plan each quarter. Annual plans that are only opened at year end become reports rather than plans.

What is strategic marketing planning?

The same process run at the level of the whole business and over a longer horizon, usually three years, feeding the annual plan underneath it. The stages are identical and the objectives sit higher.

Stage one needs a new row in the audit

The audit stage of the planning process looks at the market, the competitors and your own position. Add what assistants say to that audit, because it is where many buyers form their first view.

Control, stage seven, can then include it: the same question, asked each quarter, compared with the last. The plan stays alive because it has something new to react to. AI Knows Us stores each quarter's answer for that comparison.