Marketing plans do not need to be long to be useful. In fact, the plans that get used are usually the short ones. If you have been searching for a marketing plan template ahead of the new year, this guide shows how to do your year-end marketing planning in a single afternoon and leave with priorities your team can act on in January.
Look back with clear eyes
Before planning 2027, be clear about what actually happened in 2026. Not what you hoped would happen or what felt busy, but what produced enquiries and won work.
Pull together a simple view of the year:
- Where did your enquiries come from? Referrals, website, LinkedIn, events, repeat customers, partners?
- Which of those sources turned into won work, and which mostly produced time-wasters?
- Which clients were the most profitable and the easiest to work with? How did you find them?
- What did you spend time and money on that produced little or nothing?
- Where did deals stall or get lost?
If you cannot answer some of these because the data was not captured, that is itself a priority for next year. A CRM that records lead source and outcome will make next year's review far easier.
Set the ambition
With the review done, decide what 2027 needs to deliver. Keep it to a few clear targets that connect marketing to the business plan.
- Revenue. What do you need to achieve, and how much of that is already secured through existing contracts or repeat business?
- Mix. Which services, sectors or customer types do you want more of? Which do you want less of?
- New vs repeat. How much needs to come from new clients, and how much from growing existing ones? The marketing approach for each is quite different.
Work backwards from the gap. If you know your average deal value and your typical conversion rates, you can estimate roughly how many qualified enquiries you need. That number turns a vague ambition into something marketing can be measured against.
Choose the few priorities
This is where most plans go wrong. Faced with a long list of good ideas, teams try to do everything and finish very little. Pick no more than three priorities per quarter.
A good priority is specific, owned by a named person and tied to the ambition. For example:
- Rewrite the three main service pages around buyer problems and add a case study to each.
- Set up a monthly email to existing clients and lapsed customers.
- Agree a follow-up process so every enquiry gets a reply the same working day.
Sequence them sensibly. Fixing follow-up and your website usually comes before investing in more traffic, because there is little point sending more people to a site that does not convert. Leave space for the unexpected; plans that fill every week tend to collapse by March.
Book the reviews
A plan that is never revisited becomes a document in a drawer. Before you leave the room, put the reviews in the diary.
- Monthly numbers. A short check on enquiries, sources, proposals and wins. Thirty minutes is enough. The aim is to spot problems early, not to produce a report.
- Quarterly reset. A longer session to review progress on the three priorities, decide what to stop, and choose the next quarter's three.
Keep the format consistent so trends are easy to see over time.
A half-day agenda for your year-end marketing planning
Block out an afternoon with the key decision-makers, ideally away from day-to-day interruptions. Send the look-back questions a week beforehand so people arrive with information rather than opinions.
- 13:00 to 13:15, set the scene. Purpose of the session and what you will leave with.
- 13:15 to 14:00, look back. Review enquiry sources, wins, losses and what consumed time without return.
- 14:00 to 14:45, set the ambition. Agree revenue target, desired mix and the split between new and repeat business.
- 14:45 to 15:00, break.
- 15:00 to 16:00, choose priorities. Brainstorm options, then cut to three for Q1 and a provisional three for Q2. Assign an owner to each.
- 16:00 to 16:30, agree measures and reviews. Decide the monthly numbers you will track and book every review for the year.
- 16:30 to 17:00, write it up. Capture the plan on a single page before anyone leaves.
Frequently asked questions
What should a simple marketing plan template include?
At minimum: a short look back at what worked, your targets for the year, the few priorities for each quarter with named owners, the numbers you will track and the dates you will review them. If it fits on one page, it is more likely to be used.
When should I do year-end marketing planning?
Ideally in November or early December, so the plan is agreed before the holidays and the team can start in January with clear priorities. Leaving it until the new year often means the first quarter is lost.
Who should be involved in the planning session?
The managing director, whoever leads sales and whoever leads marketing. In smaller businesses that may be two or three people. Keep the group small enough to make decisions, and share the finished plan with the wider team.
Capture your plan on one page
Download our free one-page marketing strategy template to structure your afternoon and record the outcome. If you would like an outside facilitator to run the session with your team, get in touch.
