Marketing Planning

Build rigorous marketing strategies using proven frameworks — from situation analysis to OKRs to quarterly execution plans.

What This Skill Does

The Challenge: Most marketing plans are tactical lists masquerading as strategy. They lack situation analysis, defined objectives, prioritized channels, and success metrics. Without structure, effort disperses and results stay unpredictable.

The Solution: Marketing Planning skill applies RACE, SOSTAC, and STP frameworks to produce structured marketing strategies with situation analysis, target segment definitions, channel mix rationale, OKRs, budgets, and quarterly execution roadmaps.

Activation

Implicit: Activates when user requests marketing strategy, marketing plan, go-to-market, or annual planning.

Explicit: Activate via prompt:

Activate marketing-planning skill to create [annual/quarterly/campaign] plan for [product/company]

Capabilities

1. SOSTAC Framework

Six-phase strategic planning model.

S — Situation analysis: Where are we now? (SWOT, market share, channel performance) O — Objectives: Where do we want to be? (SMART goals, OKRs) S — Strategy: How do we get there? (STP, positioning, channel mix) T — Tactics: What specifically do we do? (Content calendar, ad campaigns, email sequences) A — Actions: Who does what by when? (Task owners, deadlines, resources) C — Control: How do we measure success? (KPIs, dashboards, review cadence)

2. STP Framework

Segment, Target, Position — define WHO and HOW.

Segmentation dimensions:

## Market Segments
- Segment A: [firmographic/demographic] + [behavioral] + [psychographic]
  Size: X companies / Y people
  Reachability: [channels they use]

- Segment B: ...

Positioning statement template:

For [target segment] who [need/pain],
[Product] is a [category] that [unique benefit].
Unlike [competitors], [product] [key differentiator].

3. RACE Framework

Plan across full customer lifecycle.

R — Reach: Build awareness (SEO, social, PR, ads) A — Act: Drive engagement (content, landing pages, free tools) C — Convert: Generate leads and sales (email, demos, trials) E — Engage: Retain and grow (onboarding, NPS, upsell)

Budget allocation guide:

Stage	Early	Growth	Scale
Reach	20%	40%	50%
Act	30%	25%	20%
Convert	35%	25%	20%
Engage	15%	10%	10%

4. OKR Planning Templates

Structured objectives with measurable key results.

OKR example:

## Q2 2026 Marketing OKRs

**Objective**: Build top-of-funnel pipeline for enterprise segment

Key Result 1: Generate 500 qualified enterprise leads (from 200 in Q1)
Key Result 2: Increase organic traffic to enterprise pages by 60%
Key Result 3: Launch 2 enterprise case studies with $100K+ ARR customers
Key Result 4: Achieve 4.5 / 5 rating on G2 Enterprise category

Prerequisites

Company/product background information
Historical marketing data (traffic, leads, revenue)
Budget range and team capacity
Target market definition

Best Practices

1. Situation before strategy You can’t plan where to go without knowing where you are. SWOT and data analysis first.

2. Fewer objectives, deeper execution 3 OKRs executed well beats 10 OKRs done poorly.

3. Review monthly, plan quarterly Situations change. Monthly metric review allows course correction without abandoning annual direction.

Common Use Cases

Use Case 1: Annual Marketing Plan

Scenario: SaaS company planning marketing for next fiscal year.

Workflow:

Situation analysis: Pull GA4, CRM, ad data from last 12 months
SWOT with leadership team input
Apply STP: Define 2-3 primary segments
Set annual OKRs (3 objectives, 4 KRs each)
Build RACE budget allocation
Create quarterly roadmap with milestones
Define weekly/monthly review cadence

Use Case 2: Campaign Planning

Scenario: Q3 campaign for product launch.

Workflow:

Define campaign objective (Awareness / Consideration / Conversion)
Select primary channel mix based on segment research
Map content to RACE stages
Set campaign-specific OKRs with baseline and target
Build execution calendar (8-week campaign)

Troubleshooting

Issue: Plan approved but never executed Solution: Add “Actions” section with specific owners and weekly check-in. Plan without ownership is decoration.

Issue: OKRs not connected to business outcomes Solution: Trace each KR to a revenue or retention metric. If you can’t, reconsider the KR.

Marketing Ideas - Tactic library for the Tactics phase
Analytics - Situation analysis data
Competitor - Competitive landscape analysis
Campaign - Execute individual campaigns

/ckm:plan - Create implementation plan
/ckm:analyze - Analyze performance data for situation