Free marketing plan template

Quickly summarize your marketing priorities to grow your business and create a competitive advantage

How will this marketing plan template help me and my business?

A marketing plan is an essential tool to compete and grow your business since it gives focus to your marketing activities by setting realistic, achievable priorities within your budget. It simply defines what you want to gain from your investment in marketing and how you will achieve these goals through selecting the best marketing strategies and channels to acquire and retain customers.

Many marketing plan templates were created long ago for larger businesses and aren’t so relevant to small and startup business competing in today’s marketplace where effective digital marketing is essential. Long plans with sections labelled ‘mission and vision statement’ and ‘corporate strategies’ are irrelevant for smaller businesses. This template is far more practical since it relates to the real-world challenges and opportunities of a smaller business. The template shares the key features of our RACE Growth System since it is designed to be:

• Quick to create and implement an actionable plan with simple steps
• Data-driven, defining SMART objectives based on forecasts
• Practical to implement using a 90-day planning approach to give you focus
• Designed for smaller businesses, but relevant for larger businesses too.

How is the template structured?

The marketing plan template is structured around our RACE Growth System, and follows the OSA process, splitting key areas into Opportunity, Strategy and Action points. Each section contains 5-steps to complete and features a recommended resource for each to help you get started. The 5 steps in each section will help you answer these key questions to fuel your marketing plan:

1. OPPORTUNITY – Where are we now, and what do we want to achieve?
2. STRATEGY – How will we prioritize investment to achieve our goals?
3. ACTION – How will we implement and resource our plan?

Resource Details

• Author: Dr. Dave Chaffey
• Format: 5-page Microsoft Word document.

Related resources:

• Business marketing plan guide – create a solid marketing plan to grow a business
• Marketing strategy and planning toolkit  – learn how to create an integrated marketing strategy and plan

About the author

Dr. Dave Chaffey

Dave is co-founder of Smart Insights and creator of the Smart Insights RACE planning framework. For his full profile, or to connect on LinkedIn or other social networks, see the About Dave Chaffey profile page on Smart Insights. Dave is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognized by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing.