Marketing plan templates
Last updated: April 2024
Your marketing plan guides the implementation of your marketing strategy. It describes exactly what work needs to be done and when — so you can reach your marketing efforts and business goals. Setting a firm plan helps keep the team in sync and on schedule.
Marketing teams use a variety of plans for different team functions, programs, or customer segments. When deciding how to build your plan, it is important to consider how it will be used and who the audience is. For example, strategic roadmaps are ideal for capturing high-level plans, Gantt charts are useful for planning a complex launch, and a marketing calendar is a great way to show an ongoing cadence of work for programs such as content or social media.
This guide includes several marketing templates to try. These are nice starting points. When you need something more dynamic, try a marketing workspace in Aha! Roadmaps.
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This is an example of a marketing roadmap built in Aha! Roadmaps.
Quick planning tips
In order to help drive a business forward, you need to be clear on where you are going and why. In other words, it is time to get out of react mode and build a marketing strategy.
Go goal-first: Start with your marketing and business goals and identify the work required to achieve them.
Get visual: Build a visual timeline of the work to communicate what is coming and when.
Add dates: Set key dates for when activities need to be completed.
Stay current: Regularly review and evolve your plan based on new learnings and opportunities.
Make it known: Make sure the plan is readily accessible to all team members.
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Marketing planning templates
The free Excel and PowerPoint templates included in this guide are a great starting point to build marketing plans that keep the team on schedule. Choose from a wide range of examples and tailor each plan to your specific needs, target audience, and marketing tactics.
If you prefer to use a web-based tool to collaborate with colleagues on your marketing plans in real time, try Aha! Roadmaps free for 30 days. This purpose-built marketing planning software helps marketing teams of all sizes define marketing strategy, build visual plans, and report back on the results of their campaigns.
Organize your marketing activities in Aha! Roadmaps — start a trial.
Strategic marketing plan
This template shows how your marketing goals, initiatives, and activities are connected. It is useful when you need to gain alignment with executives around your strategic marketing plan and to provide status updates. You can also use this template to share the big-picture context of what needs to be accomplished with the team.
Marketing themes plan
Use this template to establish the themes of your work. Set out the major promotional campaigns for the year and the time frame for delivering them. You can also include other big efforts, such as launches and customer events.
Building your marketing plan around key themes gives the team the direction they need to successfully make an impact with your target market. This plan can also help ensure that your marketing mix is meeting your buyer personas and will help with decisions about how to best allocate your budget.
Campaign plan
This Gantt chart template is useful for planning a promotional campaign. Capture all of the tasks that need to be completed and include details such as start and end dates, duration, and status. Use this template to coordinate all of the cross-team activities that need to happen to successfully launch your campaign.
Marketing programs plan
Use this template if you are managing multiple marketing programs. It provides a simple way to group planned activities by program in a single view. You can also include the date that each activity will be completed. This template is helpful when you need to present an overview of your program plans to executives.
Product launch plan
Use this template to plan complex product launches. It allows you to schedule launch tasks in the order they need to be completed and track progress against time. Visualize cross-team activities and everything that needs to happen to bring your release to market — including website updates, media outreach, sales training, and more.
Integrated marketing plan
Create a consolidated view of all your marketing activities in one view. Use this template to combine your content, digital, and product marketing calendars to see exactly what will be delivered and when. This helps with high-level resource planning and allows teams to coordinate implementation plans.
Defining your marketing plans is an ongoing process. Be sure to revisit and adjust your plans to align with business and product objectives. The best marketing plans incorporate a mix of views — timelines, roadmaps, and Gantt charts — so that the team can understand the "why," "what," and "when" across various activities.
