Strategy Isn’t Just a Deck: How I Build Marketing Plans That Actually Get Used
There’s no shortage of beautiful marketing strategy decks floating around in Google Drives and Notion pages. Impressive, polished, often unread after week two. As someone who’s built strategies for fast-paced startups, nonprofits, and scrappy brands with no time to waste, I can tell you this: the most effective marketing plans aren’t the flashiest. They’re the most usable.
In this post, I’m walking you through how I build strategic marketing plans that actually get used by the people doing the work. This isn’t about abstract frameworks. It’s about implementation, accountability, and shared ownership.
The Problem: Great Ideas That Never Get Activated
Most teams don’t struggle with ideas. They struggle with execution. A common scenario: A leadership retreat generates big-picture visioning. Someone builds a beautiful deck. Everyone nods. And then real work resumes. There’s no clarity on next steps. No owner. No time. The deck dies.
That’s not strategy. That’s documentation.
Real strategy shows up in your calendar, in your metrics, in how your team meets, communicates, and prioritizes.
My Approach to Strategic Planning That Sticks
Start with Business Objectives (Not Just Marketing Goals)
Every plan starts with the business bottom line. Are we trying to increase revenue? Grow retention? Launch a new product? Marketing does not exist in isolation. My strategic planning begins with interviews or working sessions with leadership to understand what the business needs from marketing and when.
Reverse Engineer the Funnel
Instead of listing tactics first, I look at the customer journey from awareness to advocacy and identify the key gaps. Where are we losing people? What’s underperforming? What’s working that we should double down on? Then, we build campaigns backwards from the desired outcome.
Create a Three-Tiered Strategy Structure
I break every marketing plan into three parts:
Core Strategy (vision, audience, positioning, goals)
Channel Strategy (what’s happening on email, social, paid, content, events, etc.)
Execution Framework (who owns what, when, with what tools, and how we’ll measure success)
This keeps everything connected. No floating Instagram strategy that doesn’t align with sales or brand voice.
Tools and Tactics That Make the Plan Work
One-Pager Strategy Summary: I create a distilled version of the plan for executives and cross-functional teams. No one reads 40 pages. They will read one.
Quarterly Channel Maps: What’s going out, on what channel, tied to which goal.
Ownership Grid: Who is responsible, accountable, consulted, informed (RACI).
KPI Tracker: A dashboard everyone sees and reviews weekly or biweekly.
Weekly Cadence: We revisit the plan weekly in team meetings, not quarterly. It stays alive.
What It Looks Like in Practice
Here’s how this looked in real time during my interim Director of Marketing role at a global B2B sales training organization.
Business Goal
Support revenue growth through stronger lead generation, better-qualified opportunities, and brand consistency across channels.
Marketing Strategy
We focused on improving inbound lead quality and volume through organic content, email campaigns, advertising optimization, and sales-marketing alignment.
Execution
Led transition to new ad agency (Embertribe) and collaborated on revised LinkedIn and Google ad strategy
Created and managed new content initiatives including newsletters, webinars, and podcast integration
Built a detailed playbook to support handoff, onboarding, and consistent execution across marketing channels
Improved SAL (sales accepted lead) tracking and alignment between marketing and sales teams
Launched biweekly LinkedIn newsletters, monthly nurture campaigns, and event-based email flows
Results (Q2 Performance)
Website traffic: 79,677 visitors (20% above goal)
New contacts: 881 (47% above quarterly goal)
Email open rate: 44.35% (exceeded 30% goal by 48%)
Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs): 155 (31% above target)
Opportunities generated: 136
Influenced revenue: $4.07 million in sales and marketing opportunities
None of this was built on a one-time strategy deck. It was the result of ongoing execution, weekly iteration, clear ownership, and strategic alignment across every channel.
What Makes a Strategy UsablE
✔️ It’s written in the team’s language
✔️ It includes real timelines and tools
✔️ It’s tied to actual roles and responsibilities
✔️ It’s revisited and adjusted regularly
✔️ It leaves room for iteration, not perfection
What to Watch Out For
Too many priorities: If everything is a priority, nothing is. I help teams choose what not to focus on.
No clear owners: If it’s not on someone’s plate, it won’t get done.
Lack of follow-through: Strategies fail not from bad planning, but from lack of rhythm. Make space in your calendar to manage the plan.
In Summary: Strategy Equals Clarity Plus Ownership Plus Rhythm
The next time you’re tempted to create a beautiful marketing plan, ask: Will the team use this? Will it live past the kickoff meeting?
That’s how I measure success.
