Content Guide

1. What is a marketing strategy?

2. Marketing strategy templates

3. How to set marketing goals

4. Introduction to marketing roadmaps

5. Marketing roadmap templates

6. What is a marketing plan?

7. Marketing plan templates

8. What are some marketing job titles?

9. What is digital marketing?

10. What are the major components of a digital marketing plan?

11. What is product marketing?

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 1. What is a marketing strategy?

A clear marketing strategy is essential for business success. It defines the long-term plan for how a
product or service will achieve and maintain a competitive advantage in an identified market.
Establishing this upfront aligns the organization around how you will reach your target audience,
explain the benefits of your offering to them, and encourage them to become customers.

Why is marketing strategy important?

Setting a marketing strategy is essential to keeping your team in sync and performing well. It aligns the
entire company around shared market, business, and product assumptions. This is key to launching
campaigns and promotional activities that effectively engage potential customers, drive revenue, build
brand awareness, and strengthen the relationship with existing customers.

Your marketing strategy should establish:

 Goals that determine how success will be measured

 High-level efforts needed to achieve your goals
 Who will get the most value from your product or service
 What you know about the target market
 Benefits of using your product or service
 How to reach and communicate with your ideal customer
 How to establish a sustainable competitive advantage
Your strategy sets the direction for your everyday marketing activities. This keeps the team focused on
what matters most — so you can successfully acquire, keep, and grow customers.

How to create a marketing strategy:

Set marketing goals
Before you define your marketing goals, you must have a clear understanding of your company’s
overall vision and goals. This allows you to work backwards, setting marketing goals that serve
business objectives. For example, if the business goal is to increase revenue by 30 percent, consider
marketing goals around increasing the number of qualified leads or the trial-to-paid conversion rate so
you can achieve this.

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Here are some examples of marketing goals:

Goal: Drive leads to inside sales

Metric: +500 a month

Goal: Raise trial-to-paid conversion rate

Metric: +5%

Goal: Enhance social media presence

Metric: +800,000 followers by year end

Setting goals that are measurable and time-bound helps you demonstrate how marketing will deliver
against the company’s goals. It also helps the team plan campaigns and promotional activities that
deliver against companywide strategic directives.

Identify the target market

Your target market is the group of customers most likely to buy your product or service because it
provides a meaningful benefit to them. This is determined through an in-depth understanding of
customers who want or need what you are offering. It is important to identify specific customer
segments within your overall market so you can refine your marketing approach for each group.

Distill your analysis of each customer segment to include the following information:

 Geographic, demographic, and behavioral characteristics

 Market size and growth potential
 Competitive activity
 Risk factors
 Approach for serving the segment
This exercise helps you evaluate market opportunities and target the people most likely to buy your
products. Once you have defined your customer segments, create detailed personas that describe your
ideal customer. Include key characteristics, such as their goals, challenges, likes, and dislikes. This helps
the marketing team craft messaging that is tailored for each audience.

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Define marketing initiatives
Initiatives are the high-level efforts you will implement to achieve the marketing goals. They should be
set in a way that reflects the structure of your marketing team. For example, they might be organized
by function (such as product marketing, content, and digital) or by market segment (such as consumer,
small/medium business, and enterprise).

You likely have many options for initiatives based on market and customer opportunities that could
move your business forward. Consider each one based on the potential business value and the effort
required to accomplish it.

Here are some examples of marketing initiatives:

 Lead mobile app launch

 Enhance sales training
 Start a webinar series
 Launch social media campaign
 Introduce referral program
Link your goals and initiatives to show how your marketing strategy ties together. This makes it easier
to track progress as the actual work gets underway and keeps the team aligned around what matters
the most.

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Conduct market analysis
Evaluate the current and future attractiveness of your target market. This is essential to build a
sustainable business that connects the overall market need with what really matters to your customers.

Your analysis should consider a variety of quantitative and qualitative factors that address the
following questions:

 What is the current size of the market?

 What is the projected growth for the future?
 What are the current market trends and how could they impact your business?
 How does your product or service satisfy a market need?
 What external factors influence the need for your product or service?
 What are the challenges that might get in your way?
 What alternatives are available to your potential customers?
 Who are the main competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
 What are your strengths and weaknesses?
 What unique value does your product or service provide?
Considering these questions helps you assess market opportunities and threats — so you can define a
marketing strategy that sets you apart from the competition. There are a number of models available
to structure your analysis, such as SWOT, Porter’s 5 Forces, and PESTLE. Use these strategic planning
techniques to help you gain an in-depth understanding of the market environment and establish where
you fit.

Craft your positioning and messaging

Your positioning strategy determines what you will communicate in the market. It captures how you
will explain your product’s unique attributes to customers, drawing on a deep understanding of what
they value the most. This helps you establish a position in the market that aligns with what your target
customers want.

Here are the key elements to include in your positioning strategy:

 Vision

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 Mission
 Market category
 Tagline
 Customer challenges
 Company and product differentiators
 Core attributes you want to highlight
Distilling the problems your product solves and the value it provides helps the marketing team describe
the product in a way that resonates with potential customers. It also allows you to create a concise
positioning statement that explains how your product addresses customers’ needs better than any
other solution.

Here is an an example of how to structure your positioning statement:

For (target customer) who (statement of the need), the (product) is a (product category) that (key
benefit). Unlike (primary competitive alternative), our product (statement of primary differentiation).

Use the positioning statement as a guidepost to ensure your marketing strategy and tactics deliver on
your promise to customers.

Identify the key benefits

Customers buy a product or service because it fulfills a want or need. Marketing is how potential
customers learn about a product and determine if it might be a good fit. Your ability to articulate the
key benefits your product provides is, therefore, critical to business success.

To communicate with potential customers in a meaningful way requires a deep understanding of your
product and the problems it solves. Communicating the benefits gives meaning to features and helps
buyers make an informed choice of the value they will receive by purchasing the product.

Including this information in your marketing strategy helps the team consistently describe why
potential customers are going to love your product. This is key to launching integrated campaigns that
reinforce the same value proposition across all social channels, advertisements, and company-
published content.

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Define your marketing mix
The marketing mix captures all the the elements needed to successfully promote your product. This is
based on a model commonly referred to as the 10ps. It helps you formulate the best approach for
bringing your product to market.

The elements included in the 10ps marketing matrix are:

 Product: Primary way you satisfy your customer's needs

 Price: Amount it costs a customer to purchase your product
 People: Individuals who help to deliver your product
 Process: How you deliver products to your customers
 Promotion: Channels you use to communicate your product
 Programs: The specific activities you use to promote your product
 Place: Method of distribution for your product
 Physical environment: Space in which you interact with customers to deliver your product
 Partners: Other organizations that help you build or sell your product
 Positioning: How you describe the key attributes of your product.
Use the 10ps of marketing to define and review your strategy. It helps you understand the variables you
can control and how they interact so you can grow satisfied and loyal customers.

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How to use a marketing strategy
A marketing strategy establishes how you will achieve your company’s vision, mission, and business
goals. It brings together core building blocks that show a comprehensive understanding of the market
and where your product or service fits.

Your strategy should be clearly articulated and easily accessible to the team. This keeps everyone
aligned on the long-term plan and how success will be measured. You will need to review your strategy
regularly as market conditions change and you learn more about what your customers want and need.
This ensures that your marketing efforts stay in sync with the business and, most importantly,
effectively engage your customers.

2. Marketing strategy templates

A well-defined marketing strategy sets the overall plan for how you will reach your target market and
explain the benefits of using your product or service. Establishing your marketing strategy is key to
ensuring the campaigns you launch and the activities you manage will deliver the best results.

Strategy templates are a great way to capture and communicate what you know about the market and
your long-term approach. They make it easy to define your goals, identify your target market, describe
where your offering fits in the market, and understand your competition. The free examples included in
this guide are built in Excel and PowerPoint so you can quickly download and customize them. Each
one addresses a unique aspect of your strategy. Combined, they can be used to showcase your
comprehensive understanding of the market and your strategic plans.

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The key components of marketing strategy
A marketing strategy is based on deep research and analysis, factoring what can positively or
negatively impact your business success. This research forms the foundation of your overall marketing
plan and sets the direction for how to achieve your company’s vision, mission, and business goals.

You will need to update your strategy as market and business conditions change. This allows you to
respond quickly to new opportunities and challenges. It also ensures that your marketing activities stay
closely aligned with the company’s overall objectives.

The table below defines the key components of an overarching marketing strategy. You will find these
core building blocks in the templates included in this guide.

Component Purpose

Marketing goals Define a set of time-bound and measurable marketing goals that support your
overarching business goals.

Marketing Capture the high-level efforts needed to achieve your marketing goals and the
initiatives timeline for completing.

Target market Segments of customers who share common characteristics and the marketing
approach for each one.

Market analysis External market factors that could impact the success of your business.

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 SWOT analysis Make better marketing decisions based on your strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats.

Positioning Articulate where your product fits in the market, what sets it apart, and why
strategy customers should care about it.

Marketing mix Define the right marketing mix to promote your product (often using the 10Ps
model).

Buyer personas Create a detailed description of your ideal target customer so you can develop
relevant market campaigns and content.

Competitor Identify other companies competing in your market and rank them based on
analysis their strengths and weaknesses.

Marketing strategy templates

This guide includes nine templates that will help you build your marketing strategy. You can download
each one for free and customize to fit to your specific needs.

Marketing goals

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This template is designed to help you set annual strategy and show the success metrics for each goal. It
is useful, for example, when you need to provide a strategic overview of your marketing strategy to
executives or advisory boards. You can also use this template to align the marketing team around a
common set of objectives.

Marketing initiatives
Use this template to visualize the high-level work needed to achieve your marketing goals. You can
change the color of each bar to track the status of your initiatives. This makes it easy to share your
planned initiatives and report on the progress. It also provides the marketing team with high-level
direction for planning activities such as go-to-market launches, campaigns, and content.

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Target market
Identify your target market using this segment profile template. It captures the geographic,
demographic, and behavioral characteristics of each customer segment. It also allows you to assess the
market opportunity for potential and existing segments by including important information, such as
market size, growth potential, and risk factors.

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Market analysis
Analyze market factors that could negatively impact your business success. This template is based on
Porter’s 5 Forces model, so you can capture existing and potential threats. It allows you to create a
realistic marketing strategy that considers external factors beyond your control.

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SWOT analysis
Use this marketing SWOT analysis template to identify key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats. Assess the effectiveness of your product and your overall marketing approach. Identify what
you are doing well and where you can improve to keep your marketing strategy relevant.

Positioning strategy
Use this positioning template to capture your vision and mission. Articulate the unique value your
product provides and the challenges it solves. This keeps your company and product messaging
consistent and helps the marketing team develop campaigns and content that resonate with your
target customers.

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Marketing mix
This template is based on the 10Ps of marketing. It is a useful way to describe the attributes that make
up your overall marketing mix, such as price, place, promotion, people, and product. Capturing this
information in one place lets you show how each element contributes to your marketing approach.

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Buyer personas
Use this buyer persona template to put a human face on your target customers. It allows you to capture
important insights about what each persona wants and needs. Include relevant details, such as each
persona’s goals, challenges, likes, and dislikes. This helps the marketing team understand who they are
talking to so they can create targeted messages that resonate with potential buyers.

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Competitor analysis
Use this template to visualize the market landscape. It allows you to identify competitors and rank
them based on their strengths and weaknesses. By understanding the alternatives available to your
customers and where you fit in the overall market, you can define strategies that address the needs of
your target market better than your competitors.

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 3. How to set marketing goals?

Goals are an essential component of your marketing strategy. They are often the place you start. Goals
set the direction for what needs to happen for your product or service to do well in the market and are
the foundation of the plan you build to get there.

The purpose of marketing is to reach your target audience and communicate the benefits of your
product or service — so you can successfully acquire, keep, and grow customers. So, your marketing
goals must relate to the specific business objectives your company wants to achieve. A top-down
hierarchy of goals keeps your marketing plan aligned with the business strategy and shows the impact
of marketing.

Setting focused, realistic, and quantifiable goals upfront establishes a true north for your marketing
efforts. This demonstrates the strategic importance of what the team is working on and empowers you
to show leadership why your marketing plan is the best approach.

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Marketing goal frameworks
Many organizations use a goal management framework to set marketing objectives. Frameworks
provide a structured approach for creating relevant and actionable goals. Some of the most popular
frameworks include mnemonic devices to help teams remember the elements.

Here are a few popular goal-setting frameworks:

CLEAR goals
CLEAR is a goal-setting approach that combines logical and emotional reasoning. CLEAR goals
recognize the collective power of the team in achieving outstanding results and focus on emotionally
engaging people in the work they do.

Collaborative Create goals collaboratively to drive momentum and internal buy-in.

Limited Set goals that are limited in scope and duration.

Emotional Choose words that make an emotional connection with the team, so everyone
embraces them with energy and passion.

Appreciable Be ready to break large goals down into tactical action items.

Refinable Be willing to refine and modify your goals in response to new situations and
findings.

OKRs
Objectives and key results (OKR) is a management framework for setting company, team, and
employee objectives. Three to five objectives are defined at each level and associated with key results.
Objectives are often set on a quarterly basis and reviewed monthly or weekly.

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 Objectives Define three to five objectives that are qualitative, time-bound, and
actionable.

Key results Quantify each objective by setting three to five results that are based on
things you can measure.

SMART goals
SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timebound. Using
the SMART structure to set goals helps you identify exactly what you want to accomplish so you can
deliver against your strategy.

Specific Define goals that are clear and unambiguous so the team understands what you
want to achieve and why.

Measurable Identify a quantifiable outcome so you can measure progress and determine if
you meet the goal or not.

Attainable Set goals that are challenging but possible to achieve, taking available resources
and potential obstacles into consideration.

Relevant Relate your marketing goals with the company’s overall vision and mission.

Time-bound Establish a start and end date to create a sense of urgency and help the team
plan what can be accomplished during the timeframe.

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Elements of a marketing goal
Regardless of the framework your organization chooses to use, what matters is defining goals in a way
that clearly communicates what you want to accomplish and defines the criteria for success.

Here are the essential elements your marketing goals should include:

Description of impact
Defining a clear description of what you want to achieve and why it matters is key to achieving the
desired outcomes. It helps everyone contributing to the goal to understand exactly what needs to be
done and sets a clear scope for making effective prioritization decisions.

Metrics for success

Establishing a success metric for each goal gives you a clear way to measure progress and determine if
the team meets the goal or not. The metric you set should be challenging but possible, taking into
consideration the available resources and any potential obstacles.

Timeframe for completion

Establishing a timeframe for completing marketing goals creates a sense of urgency and helps the
team plan what they can realistically accomplish. Each goal should have a start and end date so you can
see how you are tracking against it and review your overall success at the end.

Supporting initiatives
Initiatives describe the high-level work required to achieve your goals. They are big efforts — such as
themes or projects — that the team will implement during a specified timeframe to deliver against your
marketing strategy.

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This is an example of a set of marketing goals. One goal is presented in detail and a 2x2 matrix is also used
to represent the effort and value of each objective.

How to set marketing goals

The most effective marketing goals directly align with the direction of the company. For example, if a
company has a business goal to increase revenue from customers in Europe by 30 percent, marketing
should set a goal to drive more leads in that geography. Following this top-down approach ensures
your marketing goals are relevant and demonstrates how your efforts will propel the business forward.

Taking our previous example, here is how to define a marketing goal to increase leads in target
countries in Europe to help the business meet its revenue objectives:

Description: Increase the number of leads generated in England, France, Italy, and Spain.
Success metric: +500 leads a month.
Timeframe: 2019.

The goal described in the example above makes it clear what needs to be achieved. The marketing
team can then determine how they will achieve the goal — such as by launching a localized digital
advertising campaign that targets specific countries.

Here is an example of how to set a marketing goal to achieve a business objective of increasing overall
market share in the upcoming year:

Description: Rank number one on Google for key search terms.

Success metric: #1 ranking for our top five keywords.
Timeframe: Q2-Q3.

In the example above, ranking first for specific keywords will drive more organic visits to the company’s
website. The marketing team can create a plan to boost the company’s ranking by delivering content
optimized for search engine. This increases awareness of your products and services so you can acquire
new customers and grow your overall market share.

This example shows how to create a marketing goal focused on increasing revenue from existing
customers:

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Description: Drive more add-on sales to existing customers.
Success metric: 10 percent of existing customers upgrade to premium-level plan.
Timeframe: Q4.

The goal above focuses the marketing team on activities that will motivate customers to upgrade to
their account. Based on this goal, you might prioritize an email campaign or webinar that targets
existing customers, explains the benefits of upgrading — to drive more add-on sales.

How to set success metrics for marketing goals

Establishing clear success metrics for your marketing goals is essential for driving the desired results.
The metrics you choose determine how the impact of marketing is measured and give the team clarity
on the outcomes they are working towards.

Try to focus on the following characteristics:

 Business-driven
Select marketing metrics that contribute directly to your company’s growth and align with how
your company’s overall business objectives are measured.

 Improvable
Make sure you pick metrics that have potential for improvement so you can track progress against
them and see the impact of your work.

 Actionable
Your success metrics should inspire action so the team knows where to focus and what to do to
achieve the desired outcomes.

Once you have defined success metrics for your goals, you can use various performance indicators to
monitor how your activities are performing against those goals. This helps you understand the
effectiveness of your programs and campaigns, so you can adjust your plans as needed to achieve the
best results.

Here are some examples of commonly used metrics for online marketing activities:

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 Bounce rate
 Channel-specific traffic
 Click-through rates
 Conversions
 Cost per lead
 Lead to close ratio
 Marketing leads
 New sessions
 Page views
 Session duration
 Social media mentions
 Time on page
 Total visits

Make sure your goals are accessible to the team — so everyone knows what they are striving for.

4. Introduction to marketing roadmaps

What is a marketing roadmap?

Marketing is the engine that drives most business today. But for many marketing teams, it can be
difficult to connect corporate strategy to the tactical work the team plans to get done. This is where a
marketing roadmap is a useful tool — it captures high-level strategy and shows the work required to
achieve it. It is a visualization of how your activities will meet a set of business objectives.

Most marketing teams are still fairly reactive today, shifting between priorities and racing to meet
near-term deadlines. It can be hard to know where to focus longer term while completing day-to-day
activities. You may not know if the work is actually helping your company gain a sustainable
competitive advantage.

A marketing roadmap helps you organize the chaos. It defines what you want to accomplish and shows
what you will do to get there and when. As you get clear on what you want to achieve, your marketing

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roadmap will also help you communicate the team’s overall strategic direction and align cross-
functional groups around an integrated plan.

What are the benefits of a marketing roadmap?

Marketing roadmaps are a visual way to capture and communicate your marketing plans. And while
each marketing roadmap you create will have a specific purpose depending on the target audience, the
benefits are the same.

 Alignment
Rally the team around the “why” of your marketing strategy and the work required to achieve it.

 Coordination
Build marketing roadmaps for each team function, program, or customer segment so each group
can deliver in sync and on schedule.

 Visibility
Keeps the entire organization informed of when the next marketing campaigns and product
launches are happening.

 Impact
Track progress and show the impact of your marketing efforts against the overall business
objectives.

 Communication
Share your plans with internal teams to show marketing direction and progress to company
leadership and internal teams.

How to create a marketing roadmap?

Building a marketing roadmap is a collaborative effort. The first step is to consider the company’s
overall business objectives. Speak with leaders across the organization to understand where marketing
support is needed. Gathering this input upfront will help you build a roadmap that aligns with efforts
from other cross-functional teams.

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Next, you will need to identify your audience so that you can choose what to include on your marketing
roadmap. This starts with understanding how the information will be used and the elements you need
to include to effectively convey your message. Then, you can create different types of roadmaps to
support a wide range of scenarios.

Some marketing teams use spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents to create marketing
roadmaps. Others use purpose-built roadmapping software to capture their strategic planning
information in one place and keep it up-to-date.

Who are the audiences for a marketing roadmap?

Many teams across your organization can benefit from greater visibility into your marketing plans. But
each team will have a different focus and interest based on how your marketing plans impact their
work.

Here are a few of the common audiences for a marketing roadmap (listed in alphabetical order):

Customer support teams
Executive leadership
IT and development teams
Marketing teams
Support teams that interact directly with customers want to know
what marketing messages are being shared so they can anticipate
customer response. For example, an email campaign might spawn a
flurry of tickets. Sharing a marketing roadmap that includes activities
with the potential to spark customer outreach will help these teams
prepare accordingly.
Management wants to see how marketing programs and campaigns
roll up to the corporate strategy. Presenting these planned efforts in
context with your strategic goals and initiatives helps you visualize to
executives how that work will impact the business.
You need to keep your IT team informed of marketing work that may
impact the overall technology infrastructure. For example, imagine
you are planning to implement a new marketing automation system.
Creating a roadmap helps you coordinate your implementation
timeline with IT.
The entire marketing team benefits from an integrated plan that

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 shows what you want to accomplish and when. Visualizing upcoming
marketing activities on a roadmap improves collaboration and
focuses the team on the work required to achieve your strategic
goals.
Product teams Product and marketing teams need to work closely together to drive
product success through effective launches. Building a go-to-market
roadmap is an effective way to coordinate the timing of marketing
campaigns with product launches so you can maximize promotional
opportunities.
Sales teams Sales teams want to know what marketing activities are happening
and when. Communicating this information on a marketing roadmap
is an effective way to share key events (such as a webinar or
tradeshow) as well as the availability of new tools — such as an
updated competitor analysis or success story.
What are the elements of a marketing roadmap?
Once you have defined your audience, the next step is to consider the information you want to present.
At a high-level, a roadmap provides a visual overview of your plans on a timeline. But there are many
different elements you can include depending on who the roadmap is for and how it will be used.

Here are the key elements that are commonly included in marketing roadmaps:

Timeframe
Roadmaps typically include dates to show when program and campaign activities will be completed.
Choose the time scale (such as days, weeks, months, and quarters) depending on the level of detail you
need to share.

Goals
Goals are measurable, time-bound objectives. Display your marketing goals on a roadmap to show
what you want to achieve and the criteria for success.

Initiatives

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Initiatives are the big efforts or themes of work. Include them on your roadmap to show the key focus
areas that are required to achieve your goals.

Schedules
Visualize your major programs, campaigns, and events on a roadmap to communicate what is
happening and when.

Activities
Marketing activities represent discrete units of work that are required to deliver your plans. Include
activities — such as landing pages, press releases, or sales tools — on your roadmap to provide more
details about what is coming.

Status
Status indicators for goals, initiatives, plans, and activities are a useful way to show how the team is
progressing against your roadmap.

What are the types of marketing roadmaps?

If you are new to building marketing roadmaps, it is important to remember that there is no universal
template. What matters is creating a visual representation of your marketing plans in a way that
captures and communicates your overall direction. You can use different types of roadmaps to deliver a
tailored message to your audience.

Shown below are different types of marketing roadmaps:

Strategy roadmap
A strategy roadmap shows how strategic marketing initiatives tie to your overall goals. This type of
roadmap is useful when you need to show leadership or board members how your marketing initiatives
and programs contribute to the company’s objectives.

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This is an example of a strategic marketing roadmap.

Portfolio roadmap
A portfolio roadmap is a useful way to align plans across different marketing functions — such as
digital, content, and product marketing. Creating an integrated view of your marketing programs
shows how you are progressing against your initiatives and keeps the team moving in the same
direction.

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This is an example of a marketing portfolio roadmap.

Activities roadmap
Build out a roadmap of planned work activities. This will keep cross-functional teams — such as sales
and support — informed about exactly what is coming and when. You can show when the next
campaigns and product launches are happening and provide specific details about new marketing
assets that will be delivered.

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This is an example of a marketing activities roadmap.

Custom roadmap
Marketing roadmaps can be tailored to support a wide variety of use cases. For example, you can
create a roadmap to show how your marketing plans support different customer segments or products.
Here is a roadmap that shows how marketing supports consumer, SMB, and enterprise customer
segments.

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This is an example of a custom marketing roadmap.

Marketing roadmaps are the best way to create a long-term view of how you will promote your product
or service to reach the right customers. This aligns the entire organization around what you want to
achieve — so you can focus on delivering the right programs and advertising campaigns to get there.

5. Marketing roadmap templates

A marketing roadmap provides a visual way to capture and communicate your plans. You can show
what you want to accomplish and the timeline to get there — all in one view. This is an effective way to
communicate the overall marketing direction and keep the team focused on what matters most.

Today many marketing teams use purpose-built roadmapping software to visualize their marketing

plans. If you want to define your strategy, build visual roadmaps, and analyze the results in one
centralized place, you can try Aha! free for 30 days. If you are not yet ready to do that, download the
Excel and PowerPoint marketing roadmap templates below.

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This is an example of a strategic marketing roadmap created using  Aha!

Components of a marketing roadmap

Marketing roadmaps can be used for a wide range of purposes. It is important to think about your
audience and the information you want to share. For example, you might want to create a high-level
roadmap that communicates your strategic marketing goals and initiatives to executive leaders. Or you
might want to create a detailed roadmap that shows the timeline for delivering programs and
campaigns to sales and customer support teams. Determining what you want to communicate with
your roadmap will help you decide the right template to use.

The following components are commonly included in marketing roadmaps:

Time frame Time can be shown in weeks, months, and quarters.

Goals Marketing goals show the strategic importance of what the team is working
on.

Initiatives The high-level marketing efforts or themes of work that are required to
achieve the goals.

Schedules Programs, campaigns, and events on a timeline that map to strategy.

Activities Key marketing activities — such as landing pages, press releases, or sales

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 tools.

Status Color-coded indicators show the current status.

Marketing roadmap templates

There are many different types of roadmaps. The templates included in this guide are purpose-built for
marketing teams. You can also download these roadmap templates for product teams. Each template
is crafted to help you deliver the right message to the right audience.

The templates follow a strategy-first approach starting with goals and ending with marketing activities.
You will also find examples for visualizing your plans in different ways — such as by marketing function,
customer segment, product, and geography. You can download these templates for free and
customize each one to meet your specific needs.

Here is a list of the roadmap templates included in this guide:

Roadmap Purpose

Marketing goals Define a set of specific and measurable marketing goals and show the
timeline for achieving them.

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Roadmap Purpose

Marketing Create a roadmap that shows the big efforts of work needed to achieve
initiatives your marketing goals.

Integrated Build an integrated plan that shows the initiatives each team is working on
marketing and when they will be completed.
roadmap

Customer Visualize how planned programs, campaigns, and product launches relate
segment roadmap to specific customer segments.

Product marketing Show how your marketing plans align with your product portfolio.
roadmap

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 Roadmap Purpose

Field marketing Build a roadmap to visualize your marketing efforts by geographical region.
roadmap

Marketing project Use a Gantt chart for planning and scheduling projects — such as product
roadmap launches and integrated campaigns.

Marketing Provide a visual overview of your marketing programs and the key activities
programs that need to be completed.
roadmap

Marketing Show the marketing activities that will be completed each month to deliver
activities roadmap your plans.

Marketing goals roadmap

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A goal-focused roadmap is useful for setting annual strategy and communicating the high-level plan to
executives or advisory boards. Include a success metric for each goal and change the color of the bars
to indicate the status.

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Marketing initiatives roadmap
This template provides a way to visualize your planned initiatives and report on the progress. It also
provides the marketing team with high-level direction for planning activities such as go-to-market
launches, campaigns, and content.

Integrated marketing roadmap

Create a combined view of your marketing plans organized by team function. You can show the
initiatives that each team is working on and key milestones — such as program, campaign, and product
launches. Expand each section to see how milestones relate to specific product initiatives.

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Customer segment roadmap
This marketing roadmap shows how planned programs, campaigns, and product launches relate to
customer segments. Use this template to show executive leaders how your marketing efforts support
the growth of target sets of customers. The bars are colored by marketing function so you can see
which team is responsible for delivering each effort.

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Product marketing roadmap
This roadmap template is useful if your marketing team supports multiple products. You can show the
product team how marketing efforts are propelling the business forward. It also aligns everyone around
the timing of key product releases so you can maximize promotional opportunities.

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Field marketing roadmap
Build a roadmap to visualize your marketing efforts by geographical region. This is a useful way to
visualize marketing activities in the regions or countries where your company has a presence.
Capturing this information in a single view keeps local teams aligned with the overall strategy.

Marketing project roadmap

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Gantt charts help marketing teams plan and manage complex projects — such as product launches and
campaigns. You can highlight the key phases of your launch process and schedule tasks so they are
completed on time. You can also identify and track dependencies.

Here is an example of a Gantt chart for managing a go-to-market process.

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You can use this Gantt chart template to plan and launch an integrated marketing campaign.

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Marketing programs roadmap
This roadmap template provides a high-level overview of your strategic marketing programs. It is
useful when you need to show key areas of focus with executives and other stakeholders. You can
highlight key activities that will be implemented to achieve each program.

Marketing activities roadmap

This roadmap template is useful for displaying near-term marketing activities. It helps the team plan
their work each month and provides a detailed view about what is coming to internal teams, such as
sales and customer support.

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 6. What is a marketing plan?

Marketing plans define what work you will do to achieve the marketing strategy. These plans help you
establish what you want to accomplish and build a timeline to get there. Your plan should ideally follow
a top-down approach that starts with the overall marketing and business goals and ties major areas of
effort (such as programs and campaigns) with the activities required. Showing how your marketing
activities move the strategy forward gives the team the clarity they need to do great work and make an
impact with customers and the market.

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Why is a marketing plan important?
Your marketing plan describes the work that needs to be done and when it should be finished so you
can meet a set of business objectives. Setting a firm plan is essential to keep the team moving in the
same direction.

But there are additional benefits to creating a marketing plan as well including:

 Alignment
A strategy-driven marketing plan aligns the team around goals and initiatives.

 Impact
Including performance targets in your plan shows the impact of your work.

 Focus
A clearly defined plan serves as a framework for prioritizing activities and requests.

 Coordination
Creating a timeline with key milestones keeps everyone in sync and on schedule.

 Visibility
A visual plan communicates direction and progress to leadership and internal teams.

You should regularly revisit the plan and evaluate progress based on what is working and what is not
going so well. This allows you to continuously evolve your plans to successfully achieve your goals.

What are the components of a marketing plan?

There are many ways you can build marketing plans — such as by team function, program, or customer
segment. What matters is establishing a clear timeline for completing work and communicating it in a
way that everyone can understand and act on.

Listed below are the key components your marketing plans should include:

 Goals

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 Define a measurable goal for each campaign and program. This helps the team understand what
you are trying to achieve and the business value of your marketing efforts.

 Timeline
Include key dates to show when campaigns and program activities will be delivered. The time scale
depends on the level of detail required — such as days, weeks, quarters, and sometimes years.

 Channels
Define the most effective channels to connect with and engage customers based on their
demographics and behavior. Many campaigns use multiple channels to reach potential customers
on a variety of platforms.

 Programs
Specify the high-level work streams that require the team’s focus to meet its goals. These are areas
like the website or email communications that are ongoing and act as containers for campaigns and
specific activities.

 Campaigns
Define a specific set of activities and assign a deliverable date through a series of campaigns. While
campaigns tend to be more oriented towards advertising — they do not necessarily need to be.
Campaigns can also be used to track partner marketing activities or media and analyst outreach
work.

 Activities
Define the activities that are needed to deliver each campaign or program. This can include a wide
variety of tactics such as digital advertising, email marketing, blog posts, videos, whitepapers, and
more.

 Budget
Allocate your marketing budget across programs and channels based on customer acquisition,
retention, and growth goals. This helps you assess the return on investment across your marketing
efforts.

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 Dependencies
Identify cross-team dependencies so you can proactively plan ahead to meet target due dates. This
is especially important when you need to coordinate launch activities with other teams such as
product, engineering, sales, and customer support.

What are some types of marketing plans?

Marketers use a variety of plans for different campaigns, programs, or teams. Listed below are some of
the common types of marketing plans and how they are used.

Marketing plan Purpose

An advertising campaign is a focused effort to engage target audiences with a

specific message and encourage them to take the desired action.
Advertising plan

A campaign plan sets out the major promotional efforts for the year. It also defines
the goal and duration of each campaign. To manage the launch of each campaign,
you will also need a detailed timeline that includes what activities are due and
when.

Communications Communications marketing covers all aspects of your strategy to get your
plan company message heard and increase your visibility in the market.

A communications plan should identify key audiences — such as customers,

partners, investors, analysts, and media channels — and set an ongoing schedule
for communicating your message to them and how.

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Content Content marketing is the strategic approach to creating and distributing relevant
marketing plan content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience.

A content marketing plan considers the informational needs of your target

audience and sets an ongoing cadence for delivering content that matters to that
audience and to the business. Your plans should also define which channels you
will use to distribute your content and when.

Digital marketing Digital marketing includes a wide range of online paid marketing activities
plan including search engines, social media, and email.

A digital marketing plan identifies relevant online channels for reaching target
customers. It helps you determine how and where you invest your budget. Your
plan should also define the schedule for implementing based on your customer
acquisition, retention, and growth goals.

Product launch A product launch is how you go to market with a new product or customer
plan experience. From a marketing perspective, this includes deciding how the launch
will be announced, creating new messaging and content, and what channels you
will use to promote it.

A product launch plan sets a date and time for the launch and details all of the
cross-team activities as needed. Your plan should clearly show when required
tasks are due and the dependencies between them — so you can launch on time.

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 Social media plan Social media marketing helps you grow your online following so you can gain
market share, generate leads, share thought leadership, and generate awareness.

A social media marketing plan should identify the social networks that matter to
your customers and set a schedule for how often, when, and what to post. Your
plan should also consider strategies to boost your social media following.

What does a marketing plan look like?

The best marketing plans use visual timelines to show what activities will be delivered and when. Many
teams use calendars and Gantt charts to create program schedules and define plans.

A calendar is a great way to display what will be delivered and when. The example below shows a
consolidated view of digital, content, and product marketing activities by month. This kind of view
helps the team see what is coming next and encourages cross-team collaboration.

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Gantt charts are useful when you are creating detailed plans that have multiple phases of work — such
as managing a cross-channel advertising campaign or complex launch. These charts allow you to
schedule activities in the order they need to be completed, identify key milestones, and track progress
so you can deliver on time. The one below shows all the marketing efforts related to an upcoming
product launch.

Your marketing plan guides the implementation of your strategy and sets a timeline to achieve it. It is
important to have up-to-date plans readily accessible — so everyone knows exactly what needs to
happen and when.

Many teams use tools such as Excel and PowerPoint to capture their marketing plans. Choose from a
wide variety of free marketing plan templates to keep everyone on schedule.

7. Marketing plan templates

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.

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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, Gantt charts are useful for planning a complex launch or campaign, while a
marketing calendar is a great way to show an ongoing cadence of work for programs such as content or
social media.

Here are some tips for creating a marketing plan:

 Goal-first
Start with your marketing and business goals and identify the work required to achieve them.
 Visual
Build a visual timeline of the work to communicate what is coming and when.
 Timebound
Set key dates for when activities need to be completed.
 Up-to-date
Regularly review and evolve your plan based on new learnings and opportunities.
 Accessible
Make sure the plan is readily accessible to all team members.

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! 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.

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

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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 product
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.

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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.

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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 Gantt chart 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.

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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.

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 8. What are some marketing job titles?

By definition, marketing refers to the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a
product or service. So marketing teams do just that — work together to create compelling campaigns
and programs that grow the business.

Marketing roles are needed across industries and at organizations of all sizes. If you are interested in a
career in marketing, there are many different opportunities within the field — especially considering
the fact that the marketing landscape has dramatically changed in recent years.

Outbound vs. inbound marketing

Historically, almost all marketing was outbound — paid advertising to attract prospective customers.
This is also known as “interruptive” marketing because it involves interrupting your audience with your

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message in order to convince them to purchase your product. Examples of outbound marketing include
billboards, pop-up ads, and telemarketing.

However, with today’s average consumer being inundated with interruptive advertising and ad-
blockers on the rise (eMarketer reports that 27.5% of American internet users — almost 80 million
people — used ad-blockers in 2018), marketers cannot rely on outbound marketing alone for their
entire marketing strategy.

Inbound marketing, by contrast, is a relatively recent approach. Also known as “permission” marketing,
inbound marketing involves attracting a qualified target audience to a product or company by creating
content that potential customers will want to engage with and share.

The goal of inbound marketing is for the customer to reach out to the company for more information
or to make a purchase. Examples include creating blogs, videos, and social media campaigns, as well as
performing activities related to search engine optimization (SEO) like keyword analysis.

In the modern world, these two types of marketing can blend into each other, creating a hybrid model.
For example, a content marketing team might create a blog post intended to engage their audience
(inbound marketing), which the digital marketing team will actively promote in banner ads (outbound
marketing). It is important to know the strengths and weaknesses of each marketing philosophy to
reach your target audience effectively.

Marketing skills and job titles

All that change requires a variety of marketers — with varying skills — to get the work done. And this
can bring on some confusion.

There are many different job titles used for marketing roles in different organizations. There are also
other job titles and disciplines that are often folded into the marketing team, such as internal
communications or public relations. Marketing is a collaborative discipline by nature, so there will
always be some overlap between roles.

Here are the most common focus areas in marketing, along with a list of job titles that are commonly
associated with each:

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General marketing
Most marketers have been a generalist at some point, planning and overseeing a variety of marketing
activities. They are often referred to as marketing managers. This role is common in smaller companies
or mid-sized organizations with more limited resources. A generalist performs tasks that might
otherwise be spread across several specialists at a large company with a more complex structure.

A marketing generalist does it all — manages email marketing campaigns, plans content, crafts
product announcements, and maintains relevant social media accounts. This role represents marketing
at cross-functional team meetings, supports the sales team, and measures the success of the
marketing programs.

Senior-level marketing leaders can also be grouped under general marketing. For example, the chief
marketing officer (CMO) reports directly to the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief operating officer
(COO) and is responsible for all marketing activities within a company, promoting the company’s brand
as well as the products and/or services it produces. CMOs depend on a thorough understanding of
market trends and work with other chief executives and the board to create bold vision for the future.

Under the CMO is often a vice president of marketing who works across multiple teams and
departments to ensure that everyone is aligned towards the same strategic goals. They are adept at
uniting cross-functional teams under a common purpose and work with other executives to develop a
marketing strategy with measurable outcomes. Depending on the size of the company, there may be a
director-level marketing role as well.

Some common job titles for marketing generalists include:

 Chief marketing officer

 Director of marketing
 Marketing analyst
 Marketing coordinator
 Marketing consultant
 Marketing manager
 Marketing and promotions manager

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 Marketing specialist
 Vice president of marketing
Brand marketing
A company’s brand is its identity. Branding is more than just logos, color schemes, and fonts — it
involves every quality that a customer associates with the company. For example, if a customer
associates a company with intuitive design or personable service, they are more likely to seek out that
company’s products (and try any new products that company might introduce in the future).

A brand marketer’s job is to ensure that the company and its products are associated with the right
message. The goal is not just to convert prospective customers to actual customers, but also to convert
customers to brand advocates who will identify themselves with the company and act as a megaphone,
sharing that core brand message.

Some common job titles for brand management marketers include:

 Brand activation manager

 Brand manager
 Brand marketing manager
 Brand strategist
 Director of brand marketing
 Director of brand strategy
Content marketing
Content marketing is at the core of inbound marketing. It is a content marketer’s job to create a variety
of media, including blog posts, videos, podcasts, newsletters, and landing pages. Content marketers
must reinforce information about the product or service, geared towards the target audience. So, a
content marketer must understand who they are creating content for and the types of messages the
audience will be most receptive to in which mediums.

On a day-to-day basis, content marketers build and manage an editorial calendar that delivers content
aligned with the company’s objectives and business goals. They ensure that all content is on-brand —
in terms of style, quality, and tone — and they optimize the content for search engines and social

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promotion. The content marketing manager is also responsible for tracking the performance. At the
management level, some content marketers manage creative resources as well, including designers
and writers.

Some common job titles for content marketers include:

 Content director
 Content manager
 Content marketing manager
 Content marketing producer
 Content specialist
 Content strategist
 Content writer
Digital marketing
At its simplest, digital marketing encompasses any marketing effort that exists online. Digital channels
include search engines, social media, company websites, blogs, and online advertisements. Because so
many people spend so much of their time online, it is rare to find a marketer today whose role does not
involve digital marketing in some capacity.

Digital marketers, however, specialize in those channels. They are data experts and thrive at the pace
of real-time campaign analytics. They craft digital marketing strategies, design content to fit each
digital channel, and constantly monitor the analytics to measure the efficacy of each campaign.
Content and product marketers depend on digital marketers for performance insights, and marketing
managers depend on them to measure the success of the programs.

Some common job titles for digital marketers include:

 Digital marketing manager

 Digital strategist
 Director of digital marketing
 Director of web marketing
 Director of SEO operations

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 Internet marketing specialist
 Internet marketing specialist
 Paid search manager
 Pay-per-click manager
 SEM manager
 SEM specialist
 SEO manager
 SEO specialist
 Web marketing manager
 Web marketing specialist
Email marketing
With email marketing, a company can tailor its message to existing and potential customers. This
message might be as simple as a coupon code, product announcement, or monthly newsletter. At a
deeper level, the email marketer is responsible for establishing an ongoing relationship between the
company and its audience.

Email marketers need to work cross-functionally with every marketing team to make sure that the
email strategy is consistent with the organization’s overall messaging. This work relies heavily on data,
as email marketers need to closely monitor analytics related to email performance, audience
segmentation, and A/B tests.

Email marketers must also be proficient in campaign automation. At some companies, email marketers
may write and design the emails themselves or they might partner with a content or design team. At
ecommerce companies, email marketers play an especially important role since their channel has the
potential to drive meaningful business.

Some common job titles for email marketers include:

 Campaign manager
 Demand generation manager
 Director of email marketing

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 Ecommerce content specialist
 Ecommerce marketing analyst
 Ecommerce marketing director
 Ecommerce marketing manager
 Email developer
 Email marketer
 Email marketing strategist
 Email operations manager
Marketing communications
When the marketing team sets the marketing strategy, marketing communications (sometimes
abbreviated as “marcom”) is the team responsible for acting as the megaphone for the company
message. Communications marketers work to enhance a company’s visibility in the market — to
customers, the public, the media, and sometimes to investors.

This essentially makes the communications manager the voice of the company. They work with
designers, writers, and digital marketers to research the audience and create engaging pitches,
compile analyst briefings, update their CRM, or talk with advertisers. Public relations is a facet of
marketing communications as well, which means that the communications manager needs to foster
relationships with the press.

Some common job titles for marcom include:

 Analyst relations manager

 Analyst relations specialist
 Corporate communications assistant
 Corporate communications manager
 Director of communications
 Marketing communications manager
 Marketing communications specialist
 Media relations coordinator
 Public relations manager

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 Publicity assistant
 Public relations intern
Marketing research
Market researchers provide insights to other marketers about how to position the right products at the
right price to the customers who need them. They plan, design, and implement research campaigns,
using tools like user interviews, data analytics, and focus groups to gather quantitative and qualitative
information. In addition to having strong analytical skills, market researchers have the ability to distill
large amounts of data into conclusions that their audience can understand and act on.

Some common job titles for market researchers include:

 Director of market research

 Insights analyst
 Market research analyst
 Market research interviewer
 Marketing data analyst
 Product research analyst
 Qualitative research assistant
Partner marketing
Partner marketers seek symbiosis. They look for opportunities for two or more brands to collaborate to
promote each other, to their mutual benefit. Partnerships allow brands to access new audiences,
ideally offering a more complete customer experience together than either would separately.

These partnerships can be financially incentivized (e.g. affiliate marketing) or involve non-financial
promotional benefits (e.g. bundling products and services together or sharing content).

Partner marketers identify potential partners, work with the partner to establish a relationship, and
then collaborate with that partner to design and implement co-marketing campaigns — all while
balancing their own company’s goals with their partner’s needs. They also need to be able to teach
their company the value of the partnership and track the ability of the partner program to meet the
marketing objective.

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Some common job titles for partner marketers include:

 Affiliate marketing manager

 Channel marketing director
 Corporate partnership marketing manager
 Director of influencer marketing and partnerships
 Partner marketing advisor
 Partnership marketing director
 Partnership marketing manager
Product marketing
Product marketing managers thrive in the area between product management and marketing. They
need to be experts in the market (e.g. competitive landscape, buyer personas) and in the product itself.
It is the product marketing manager’s job to ensure that the market understands the value of the
company’s product and to drive customer demand and product adoption.

Product marketing managers are responsible for the go-to-market strategy. They position the product
before it launches (or releases new functionality) and work closely with the product team throughout
the development process. They also educate sales and support teams on benefits of the product and
how to discuss it with customers.

Some common job titles for product marketers include:

 Digital product marketing manager

 Director of product marketing
 Junior product marketing associate
 Portfolio marketing manager
 Product marketing manager
 Senior product marketing manager
 Solutions marketing manager
Social media marketing

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Social media platforms have one thing in common — communities of people who share information.
Companies and products play a large role in these social communities, marketing to and interacting
directly with existing and potential customers, as well as brand advocates and influencers. Social media
marketers are experts in this space. They work closely with content and digital teams to design
campaigns and social content that will create demand for the product and increase awareness of the
brand.

Social media marketers need to be numbers-savvy, working with data analytics tools to understand the
audience and real-time measurements of social activities. At the same time, social media marketers
need to be highly creative since they will be working with content and design teams (or doing the work
themselves) to create social-specific content that will be successful on every channel.

Some common job titles for social media marketers include:

 Community manager
 Digital communications professional
 Digital media director
 Director of social media
 Director of social media marketing
 Engagement coordinator
 Engagement manager
 Multimedia communications specialist
 Social media editor
 Social media manager
 Social media marketing manager
 Social media strategist

9. What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is a broad term that is generally associated with internet-based marketing efforts —
including search marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and online display advertising.

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But the term also includes marketing approaches using mobile devices, such as sending text messages
to customers and mobile app advertising. For many companies, it is a strategic imperative to embrace
digital tactics to acquire, grow, and retain customers to compete in today’s highly competitive
markets.

Why is digital marketing important?

At its core, marketing is still about communicating the benefits of your product or service in a way that
resonates with customers. Digital marketing approaches provide new ways to go beyond traditional
methods and deliver a relevant, personalized, and frictionless experience to better engage audiences.
This is why, no matter what type of product or service your company provides, it is essential to interact
with your customers where they are — online and on their mobile devices.

Here are a few statistics about digital usage to consider:

 Over 4.3 billion people were using the internet by the end of 2018, according to data published
by the International Telecommunication Union.
 Pew Research Center reported that 69 percent of American adults use at least one social media
platform to connect with one another and share information.
 Consumers spend three hours and 48 minutes a day on digital media, according to a 2018
Nielson report.
 A 2017 Gartner survey found that 83 percent of B2B customers use digital channels to inform
purchase decisions — even in the late stages of the buying journey.

Digital marketing timeline

The internet has had a deep impact on marketing practices over the last 30 years. During this time,
digital marketing tactics have increasingly complemented — if not replaced — traditional marketing
methods such as print, television, and radio advertisements.

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1990s In 1991, the world wide web became publicly available. As the number of internet users
grew, new digital marketing methods emerged and companies embraced new ways to
promote products online.

 Search engines such as Yahoo! (1994), Ask Jeeves (1996), and Google (1997) were
launched, enabling users to quickly find information. In response, companies
recognized the need to optimize their websites to achieve higher search rankings.
 CRM vendors (such as Oracle, SAP, and Siebel) combined database marketing
with contact management, providing businesses with a better way to manage
customer relationships. Salesforce.com was founded in 1999, pioneering the
software-as-a-service model for CRM.
 Online advertising emerged following the launch of the first banner ad in 1994 by
Wired magazine’s digital affiliate HotWired.
 Cookie technology made it possible for digital marketers to collect user data and
target audiences based on previous searches.

2000s During the 2000s, the internet became increasingly interactive, enabling users to connect
directly with other users and businesses.

 Google released Adwords in 2000, giving marketers the ability to advertise their
products on Google and only pay when people click the ads.
 Social media platforms such as WordPress, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and
Twitter gained popularity, giving companies new channels to reach target customers,
distribute content, and promote products.
 Smartphones transformed the way people use mobile technology. The release of
the Apple iPhone in 2007 and the availability of mobile apps made social media
platforms broadly accessible and created mobile advertising opportunities.
 Email became a commonly used method for sending out mass communications,
enabled by marketing automation tools such as Eloqua, Marketo, and Hubspot.

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 2010s The 2010s are often described as the “digital marketing age.” Users are now technology
dependent, requiring businesses to make effective use of digital advances to refine the
customer experience and meet business goals.

 Google Analytics gave marketers a way to analyze website traffic in real time. It
continues to be a foundational tool for helping digital marketers understand online
audiences and improve the customer experience.
 Personalized marketing technologies — such as retargeting, contextual
advertising, and optimized paid search — help companies communicate the right
message to the right audience at the right time.
 Native advertising options provide an online promotional experience that
supplements rather than disrupts the target audience’s online experience. Examples
include recommending content on a web page that matches the look of the media
format in which it appears.

Components of digital marketing

There are continually new ways to engage target audiences and communicate your message. Today,
nearly all marketing work involves a digital component. Read this guide on the major digital marketing
components to learn more about the broad range of online marketing campaign options that are
available today.

Here is an overview of the most commonly used digital marketing methods:

 Advertising
Online advertising involves bidding and buying relevant ad units on third-party sites — such as
display ads on blogs, forums, and other relevant websites.
 Content marketing
Content marketing attracts potential customers through a regular cadence of high-quality, relevant
content online that helps establish thought leadership.

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 Email marketing
Email is a direct marketing method that involves sending promotional messages to a segmented
group of prospects or customers.
 Mobile marketing
Mobile marketing is the promotion of products or services specifically via mobile phones and
devices.
 Paid search
Paid search allows companies to bid for keywords and purchase advertising space in the search
engine results using a pay per click (PPC) or cost per mille (CPM) model.
 Programmatic advertising
Programmatic advertising is an automated way of bidding for online advertising space based on
the sites you want your ads to be displayed and who you want to see them.
 Reputation marketing
Reputation marketing focuses on gathering and promoting positive online reviews to influence
potential customer buying decisions.
 Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) focuses on increasing organic traffic to your website by
improving rankings and increasing awareness in search engines.
 Social media marketing
Social media marketing combines organic and paid efforts to reach and interact with potential
customers via social platforms.
 Video marketing
Video marketing provides a visually engaging way to advertise your products and share educational
content with potential customers.
 Web analytics
Web analytics provide real-time insights into online customer behavior so you can continuously
optimize your digital marketing efforts.
 Webinars
Webinars are virtual events that allows companies to present relevant content — such as a product
demonstration or seminar — to a targeted audience in real time.

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Benefits of digital marketing
At the most basic level, digital marketing offers ways to engage your audience in the channels they use
and build trust in a way that influences their buying decisions.

There are additional benefits to digital marketing including:

 Cost-effective
Digital marketing can be more cost effective than traditional marketing methods, giving businesses
of all sizes the opportunity to compete for market share.
 Data-driven
Marketers can analyze real-time traffic data to get valuable insights into customer behavior and
quickly optimize the experience.
 Measurable
Businesses can measure the return on marketing investments by increasing conversion rates and
improving the cost per lead.
 Personalized
Marketers can engage with specific customer segments more effectively, delivering personalized
messages that meet the need and intent of each customer.
 Targeted
Digital marketing gives companies the ability to reach larger global audiences while applying
behavioral and psychographic profiling to target ideal buyers.

Getting started with digital marketing

Digital marketing looks different for every company. This is because every company has a unique vision
and set of marketing and product goals. And every company has its own target audience with different
needs and wants.

Regardless of what your company does, creating a digital marketing plan is essential to getting started.
It ensures your online activities support your overall business strategy and make a positive impact with
customers. Regardless of the marketing activities you undertake, what matters most is delivering clear
and benefit-centered messages that resonate with customers and drive results.

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 10.What are the major components of a digital marketing plan?

Every marketing plan today includes a digital strategy. This is because marketing goals usually put a
focus on how the business can reach more potential customers, retain existing customers, and increase
sales. And today, your customers are online. Digital marketing has become one of the most effective
ways to communicate because you can connect with your customers in their preferred channels.

But the broad range of digital marketing options can make it overwhelming to know where to focus.
Organizations that want to set themselves apart in the market understand that effectively reaching
and engaging with potential customers matters most. This means using creative ways to connect with
the right people in the right place and delivering a compelling message that helps them decide if a
product might meet their needs.

What is a digital marketing plan?

A digital marketing plan defines what you want to accomplish within a given time frame, so you can
meet a set of business objectives. When creating a digital marketing plan, it is important to remember
that marketing is still about communicating the benefits of your product or service in a way that
resonates with customers. So your plan should focus on the marketing tactics that will help your
company engage your target audience with a cohesive experience.

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This is an example of a set of digital marketing initiatives.

One of the benefits of digital marketing is that you can test different approaches and quickly adjust
your plan based on what is working and what is not. There are many different areas that often get
umbrellaed under the term “digital marketing.” From marketing automation and research to tactical
activities such as pay-per-click ads, there are many different components to a digital marketing plan.

Components of a digital marketing plan

Advertising
Online advertising involves bidding and buying relevant ad units on third-party sites, such as display
ads on blogs, forums, and other relevant websites. Types of ads include images, text, pop-ups, banners,
and video. Retargeting is an important aspect of online advertising. Retargeting requires code that
adds an anonymous browser cookie to track new visitors to your site. Then, as that visitor goes to other
sites, you can serve them ads for your product or service. This focuses your advertising efforts on
people who have already shown interest in your company.

Content marketing
Content marketing is an important strategy for attracting potential customers. Publishing a regular
cadence of high-quality, relevant content online will help establish thought leadership. It can educate
target customers about the problems your product can help them resolve, as well as boost SEO
rankings. Content can include blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, and other materials that provide
value to your target audience. These digital content assets can then be used to acquire customers
through organic and paid efforts.

Email marketing
Email is a direct marketing method that involves sending promotional messages to a segmented group
of prospects or customers. Email marketing continues to be an effective approach for sending
personalized messages that target customers’ needs and interests. It is most popular for e-commerce
business as a way of staying top of mind for consumers.

Mobile marketing

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Mobile marketing is the promotion of products or services specifically via mobile phones and devices.
This includes mobile advertising through text messages or advertising in downloaded apps. However, a
comprehensive mobile marketing approach also includes optimizing websites, landing pages, emails,
and content for an optimal experience on mobile devices.

Paid search
Paid search increases search engine visibility by allowing companies to bid for certain keywords and
purchase advertising space in the search engine results. Ads are only shown to users who are actively
searching for the keywords you have selected. There are two main types of paid search advertising —
pay per click (PPC) and cost per mille (CPM). With PPC, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
With CPM, you pay based on the number of impressions. Google Adwords is the most widely used paid
search advertising platform; however, other search engines like Bing also have paid programs.

Programmatic advertising
Programmatic advertising is an automated way of bidding for digital advertising. Each time someone
visits a web page, profile data is used to auction the ad impression to competing advertisers.
Programmatic advertising provides greater control over what sites your advertisements are displayed
on and who is seeing them so you can better target your campaigns.

Reputation marketing
Reputation marketing focuses on gathering and promoting positive online reviews. Reading online
reviews can influence customer buying decisions and is an important component of your overall brand
and product reputation. An online reputation marketing strategy encourages customers to leave
positive reviews on sites where potential customers search for reviews. Many of these review sites also
offer native advertising that allows companies to place ads on competitor profiles.

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) focuses on improving organic traffic to your website. SEO activities
encompass technical and creative tactics to improve rankings and increase awareness in search
engines. The most widely used search engines include Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Digital marketing
managers focus on optimizing levers — such as keywords, crosslinks, backlinks, and original content —
to maintain a strong ranking.
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Social media marketing
Social media marketing is a key component of digital marketing. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter,
Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and even YouTube provide digital marketing managers with
paid opportunities to reach and interact with potential customers. Digital marketing campaigns often
combine organic efforts with sponsored content and paid advertising promotions on key social media
channels to reach a larger audience and increase brand lift.

Video marketing
Video marketing enables companies to connect with customers in a more visually engaging and
interactive way. You can showcase product launches, events, and special announcements, as well as
provide educational content and testimonies. YouTube and Vimeo are the most commonly used
platforms for sharing and advertising videos. Pre-roll ads (which are shown for the first 5–10 seconds
before a video) are another way digital marketing managers can reach audiences on video platforms.

Web analytics
Analytics allow marketing managers to track online user activity. Capturing and analyzing this data is
foundational to digital marketing because it gives companies insights into online customer behavior
and their preferences. The most widely used tool for analyzing website traffic is Google Analytics,
however other tools include Adobe Analytics, Coremetrics, Crazy Egg, and more.

Webinars
Webinars are virtual events that allow companies to interact with potential and existing customers no
matter where they are located. Webinars are an effective way to present relevant content — such as a
product demonstration or seminar — to a targeted audience in real time. Engaging directly with your
audience in this way gives your company an opportunity to demonstrate deep subject matter
expertise. Many companies leverage attendee lists in other marketing programs (email and retargeting
advertisements) to generate new leads and strengthen existing relationships.

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This is an example of a board used to define and manage digital marketing activities.

How to create a digital marketing plan

Digital marketing methods provide a wide variety of ways for marketing managers to engage potential
customers. However, it is important to invest in the channels and media that help you acquire, grow,
and retain customers.

The following questions can help marketing teams understand the right digital activities to pursue:

 What are your business and marketing goals?

 What is your digital marketing budget?
 Who are your target customers?
 Can you describe your audience with discrete buyer personas?
 Which online channels does your audience use?
 What customer outcomes do you want to achieve?
 What benefits are you going to promote?
 What alternative solutions are your potential customers selecting?
 What change is needed to improve the customer experience?
 How would digital marketing methods improve the experience?
 What data does your company need to better understand customer behavior and preferences?
 How will success be measured?
 Who do you need to share your plan with?

Use these marketing plan templates to help you define which digital marketing programs to invest in.
As you learn more about where your customers go online and their digital preferences, you can
incrementally adjust your plan to improve the results.

11. What is product marketing?

Product marketing ensures that customers and internal teams understand the unique value of a
product and what sets it apart in the market. Product marketers focus on knowing the customer’s pain
points and how the product or service can help them — translating technical functionality into

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compelling benefits. The function of product marketing sits at the intersection of product
management, marketing, and sales.

Product management and product marketing work together closely to evangelize the product and
bring new customer experiences to market. While product management focuses on planning
the product roadmap and delivering new functionality, product marketing communicates the benefits
of using the product and implements the go-to-market strategy. Both roles collaborate with internal
teams at various stages of the product lifecycle.

Why is product marketing important?

At its core, product marketing ensures the product is presented to customers and internal teams in a
clear way that highlights its benefit — so you can increase demand and usage. No matter what type of
product or service your company provides, a strong product marketing team plays an essential part in
driving the growth of the business, especially when it comes to the overall go-to-market strategy.
However, this is just one small portion of what the average product marketing manager does each day.

Responsibilities of a product marketing manager include:

 Research the competitive landscape and define buyer personas so you can determine the best
way to market your product.
 Create launch plans and coordinate cross-functional activities required to bring new customer
experiences to market.
 Craft positioning and messaging to make sure that products and features (new and existing) are
presented in a consistent way that resonates with target buyers.
 Make sure customer-facing teams — such as sales and support — know how to talk about the
product externally and have the training and sales collateral they need.
 Collaborate with the broader marketing team on a variety of programs that drive customer
adoption, such as webinars, success stories, and website updates.

Product marketing deliverables

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Product marketers deeply understand the product, market, and customers. This expert knowledge is
applied in a number of ways. Listed below are some of the key deliverables product marketing teams
produce — often in collaboration with product management.

Buyer personas Buyer personas describe your ideal customer and include key characteristics, such
as their goals, challenges, likes, and dislikes. This helps other cross-functional
teams (including the broader marketing team) craft tailored messaging that
resonates with target buyers.
Case studies Case studies (or “success stories”) describe how customers are realizing their
goals by using your product and show how your product is delivering real
benefits. These content pieces can provide social proof for potential buyers.
Channel partner Channel partners can play an important role in the business success of a product.
support There are different types of partnerships — such as reseller and VAR partners,
technology partners, service partners, and OEM partners. Product marketers
work closely with partners to ensure they have the support and materials they
need to be successful.
Demos and Product marketing delivers demonstrations to illustrate a product’s functionality
presentations and benefits. Product marketing may present this information to an individual
customer, in virtual webinar events, or as part of a conference.
Launch plans Launch plans include all of the cross-functional activities required to support a
new product or release — including marketing, sales, and support. A launch
checklist can help team members communicate regularly and hold them
accountable.
Messaging Messaging is how you describe your product externally. It distills the fundamental
value your product provides into concise statements and is used to guide the
development of marketing activities, such as website copy, advertising
campaigns, social media posts, and press releases. The goal is to have a
consistent product message across all channels.
Positioning Positioning is an internally focused document that describes the unique benefits
of your product or service and why your solution is better than what
your competitors have to offer. This is a strategic exercise and can be developed
for new products or to frame up enhancements to an existing product, such as

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 new functionality.
Press and analyst Press and analyst briefings provide an opportunity to share relevant strategic
briefings developments. Vendors present their business strategy and share important
product releases. Product marketing often creates the briefing presentation,
translating technical concepts into a compelling story about how the product is
addressing market and customer needs.
Pricing Pricing is a core component of the marketing mix. Pricing models should be a
simple equation optimized for your target market that indicates how your
product will be sold. Common strategies for software products include per-seat,
concurrent usage, or usage-based pricing.
Sales enablement Sales enablement materials — such as competitor analysis, presentation decks,
materials data sheets, evaluation guides, or an ROI calculator — support the sales team as
they guide the buyer through different stages in the customer journey.
Target channels Product marketers understand which channels their customers use to inform
purchase decisions. They provide channel-specific messaging to reach and
engage their target audience. Product marketers often participate directly in
industry forums, at conferences, and other places where customers interact.

Getting started with product marketing

Product marketing is needed to effectively communicate a product’s value and to drive business
growth. The best product marketing managers convey passion and energy to both internal and
external audiences. They work cross-functionally to deliver a Complete Product Experience that
customers love.

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