top of page
0001.jpg

DIGITAL MARKETING PLANNING TEMPLATE

Creating a marketing strategy using the RACE framework

Authors: Dr. Dave Chaffey, James Story, Matt Chappell and Lyndon Baker

​

Adaption by Magnadism Solutions Private Limited

DM Planning Template: About Us

INTRODUCTION

DM Planning Template: Text

HOW TO USE THIS RACE PLANNING TEMPLATE

Aims of this template

This template will help you rapidly review and present a simple digital marketing strategy. It is based on the Smart Insights RACE planning framework and six pillars of digital marketing success which ensures complete and comprehensive coverage of all the marketing activities needed to increase leads and sales across the customer lifecycle.

​

How to use this template

For each of the six pillars, you will be presented with a number of questions about your current digital marketing activities.

Use the checkboxes to quickly identify those activities that are in place. Next, review the unchecked boxes and fill in the corresponding area of the table with the actions required in priority order, where possible.

​

Turning your plan into action with Smart Insights resources

This template will give you a good starting point. To fully implement your plan we will highlight specific Smart Insights resources to support action across all the essential activities

0002.jpg
DM Planning Template: About

THE SIX PILLARS OF EFFECTIVE DIGITAL MARKETING

PLANNING AND GOVERNANCE

  • Strategic initiatives

  • Marketing integration

  • Digital transformation

  • Business and revenue models

  • Budgets and ROI

  • Systems, structures and processes

  • Resources and skills

  • Marketing technology

GOALS AND MEASUREMENT

• Forecasts
• Digital KPIs
• Digital dashboards

• Customer profiles

• Attribution

MEDIA

  • Paid media

  • Owned media

  • Earned media

  • Offline/online integration

  • Always-on and campaign investment

CONTENT

  • Content marketing strategy

  • Top-of-funnel (TOFU)

  • Middle-of-funnel (MOFU)

  • Bottom-of-funnel (BOFU)

EXPERIENCE

  • Website customer journeys

  • Landing pages

  • Multichannel path to purchase

  • Conversion Rate Optimization

  • Personalization

CONVERSATIONAL MESSAGING

  • Email marketing

  • Mobile messaging

  • Human-assisted chat

  • Automation and CRM

DM Planning Template: List

The six pillars simplify digital marketing complexity from hundreds of tools and communications that could potentially be used. Our research shows that many people invest time and money without a plan, goals or measurement. Madness! Our six pillars highlight the key investment areas that every organization, regardless of size or sector, needs to consider when they are developing their plans and priorities for interacting with and selling to consumers or businesses online.
We recommend that you review these success factors across each part of the RACE framework which you will be guided though in this template.

DM Planning Template: Text

1. PLAN

DM Planning Template: Text

KEY PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

Situation review (current output) | Set goals and objectives | Define prioritized strategy

PLAN: DEFINE YOUR STRATEGY

To create an effective digital marketing strategy, you must first have a good idea of what you’re currently doing, as well as your strengths and weaknesses.
It’s also important to understand the market and your competitors’ activities.
This will help highlight areas to focus on and enables you to create actionable, measurable goals.

SUCCESS FACTORS AND DELIVERABLES FOR THIS PLANNING STAGE:

  • Quantified opportunities based on benchmarking competitor activity

  • Clearly defined goals and objectives

  • A data-driven process through customized analytics and KPI dashboards

  • A defined strategy with prioritized investments in digital marketing

  • Defined customer personas and online value propositions

ACTION POINTS:

Identify all your current digital marketing activities.

Work out your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT/ TOWS frameworks are useful for this.

Outline goals and objectives and make sure they’re Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely (SMART).

​

Define transformation

Changes to people, skills, process, structures and marketing technology.

DM Planning Template: List

2. REACH

DM Planning Template: Text

KEY PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

Unique visitors | Value per visit | Fans/followers

REACH: GROW YOUR AUDIENCE

Reach involves building awareness of your brand, products, and services on other websites and in offline media to build traffic to different web presences like your main site, microsites or social media pages.
It involves maximizing reach using continuous inbound communications and planned campaigns to create multiple interactions using different paid, owned and earned media touchpoints.

SUCCESS FACTORS AND DELIVERABLES FOR THIS PLANNING STAGE:

  • A clear picture of how your digital media channels collectively perform

  • Standard campaign tracking and attribution for reviewing performance

  • A gap analysis for target keywords based on different consumer search types to show opportunities for organic and paid search

  • A social media campaign plan to promote the right content to the right people and work with relevant influencers

  • A paid and display media budget and schedule defining investments to reach your audience

ACTION POINTS:

  • Perform keyword research to find areas of strength and opportunity - both paid and organic.

  • Define your key brand messages, focussing on growing audience awareness, familiarity and purchase intent.

  • Create segments and goals in Google Analytics.

DM Planning Template: List

REACH

Audit of current capabilities

Thanks for submitting!

DM Planning Template: Sales Lead

3. ACT

DM Planning Template: Text

KEY PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

Leads | Dwell time | Shares/comments/likes

ACT:

​PROMPT INTERACTIONS, SUBSCRIBERS AND LEADS

Act is aimed encouraging interactions to generate leads. Rather than immediately focussing on conversion, you need to inspire interactions with your content and social media profiles.
You can then create a plan that will persuade site visitors to take the next step on their buying journey.

SUCCESS FACTORS AND DELIVERABLES FOR THIS PLANNING STAGE:

  • Identified website improvements to make customer journeys more efficient

  • Optimized landing pages and content hub to maximize conversion to lead

  • Clearly defined lead scoring based on customer personas, relevance to your business/service and level of buying intent

  • A budgeted content marketing strategy to support acquisition

  • An editorial calendar and campaign plans

ACTION POINTS:

  • Review existing landing pages qualitatively and quantitatively (analytics and user benefit).

  • Decide which customer actions make them a valuable lead.

  • Identify key ‘moments’ to encourage signups.

DM Planning Template: List

4. CONVERT

DM Planning Template: Text

KEY PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

Sales (on and offline-influence) | Revenue/profit | Average order value

CONVERT: ACHIEVE SALES ONLINE OR OFFLINE

This is the conversion from lead to sale. It focuses on getting your audience to take that vital next step which turns them into paying customers.
It’s important to remember that payment can be made through online e-commerce transactions or offline channels.

SUCCESS FACTORS AND DELIVERABLES FOR THIS PLANNING STAGE:

  • Effective email and ad nurture and retargeting process

  • A plan to implement personalization elements to your site based on customer behaviour

  • A website that is fully optimized for mobile browsing

  • A multichannel marketing plan that lets customers reach you through different ‘conversation marketing’ options such as email, LiveChat, and product demos

  • A list of key pages to be optimized through AB testing

ACTION POINTS:

Identify conversion funnels and paths to purchase.
Understand what level of personalization can be achieved with your current resource.
Establish a communication process between your marketing and development teams.

DM Planning Template: List

5. ENGAGE

DM Planning Template: Text

KEY PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

Repeat purchase (lifetime value) | Satisfaction and loyalty | Advocacy

ENGAGE: ENCOURAGE REPEAT BUSINESS

Customers are great, but repeat customers are even better. Now you need to keep adding value to your brand experience so that buyers become brand advocates.
This can be achieved through post-sale nurturing, such as storytelling, case studies and engaging social content.

SUCCESS FACTORS AND DELIVERABLES FOR THIS PLANNING STAGE:

  • A welcome sequence for onboarding new customers

  • A list of website elements that promote customer engagement and loyalty

  • A refined customer service process to deal with queries through multiple channels

  • Email marketing campaigns designed to keep customers interacting with your site and your products.

  • A social media plan that amplifies the human element behind people who have already bought from you.

ACTION POINTS:

Outline your onboarding process using email and online messaging
Establish your multi-channel customer service process
Identify post-sale customer data for areas you can use in remarketing communications

DM Planning Template: List

FILL UP YOUR OWN PLANNING TEMPLATE

For each of the six pillars, you will be presented with a number of questions about your current digital marketing activities.

Use the checkboxes to quickly identify those activities that are in place.
Next, review the unchecked boxes and fill in the corresponding area of the table with the actions required in priority order, where possible.

DM Planning Template: Feedback Form
bottom of page