Follow this step-by-step guide to learn the modern process of writing an effective marketing plan in Milanote, a free tool used by top creatives.
Why do brands like Nike, Apple, and Starbucks enjoy such strong brand awareness and cultural relevance? It’s not by chance, these successes are built on robust marketing plans that guide their products and services in the right direction.
If you want to identify your brand goals and find the right marketing strategies to achieve them, starting with a marketing plan is essential. It will help steer your marketing efforts, keep you focused, and enable you to adapt to changes in the market.
In this guide, we'll walk through the process of writing a marketing plan using Milanote. Whether you’re a business owner or a professional marketer, starting with a well-crafted marketing plan keeps your team is aligned during every step of your marketing efforts.
To get everyone on the same page, begin by outlining the brand's backstory. Briefly describe the brand’s history and vision, as well as highlight any important milestones and achievements that have shaped the brand's journey. This provides clear context to the brand and sets the foundation for your marketing strategy.
Next summarise the brand's purpose, mission, and the unique value it brings to the market. This approach not only sets the stage for your marketing but also ensures that everyone involved knows what the brand stands for and aims to achieve.
Create a new board for your marketing plan.
Drag a board out from the toolbar. Give it a name, then double click to open it.
Choose the built-in Marketing Plan template.
Each new board gives you the option to start with a beautiful template.
Now it's time to gather research to inform your strategy and next decisions. "Who's your target audience and who are you competing with?" These are two crucial questions to answer as part of your plan.
Start by understanding your target audience and exploring their preferences, behaviours, and demographics. This deep understanding will help shape your messaging and channel selection.
The best marketing plans are based on strong research, so conduct a thorough market analysis to understand industry trends, and perform a competitor analysis to identify and evaluate your main competitors.
Add a note to describe your target audience.
Start typing then use the formatting tools in the left hand toolbar.
When writing a marketing plan, shift the focus from the product or service itself to the experience it offers. How does it make the customer feel? What problem does it solve in their life?
Next, clearly define your marketing goals. Are you trying to increase your brand awareness, drive website traffic, boost sales, etc? Once you've listed your goals, break them down into actionable strategies. For example, to improve brand awareness, consider strategic partnerships or influencer collaborations. To drive customer engagement, prioitize engaging with customers on social media platforms by comments, messages and tags.
By laying out clear goals and strategies, you provide yourself or your team with a clear path to follow and a simpler way to measure accomplishments.
Add a note to list your goals.
Start typing then use the formatting tools in the left hand toolbar.
The next step is to identify the channels you'll use to effectively reach your target audience. Begin to prioritise these channels based on your goals and target audience.
Examples of potential marketing channels:
Map out your marketing channels using sub-boards.
Drag a board out from the toolbar. Give it a name, then double click to open it.
Now the goals and channels are in place, it's time to determine a realistic budget for your marketing activities, factoring in expenses like content creation and advertising costs.
Keep tabs on your budget and performance metrics with a table in Milanote. When setting up your budgeting table, consider including the following:
Use a table to calculate your budget.
Create a table
Drag a table out from the toolbar. You can add simple formulas, dates, currencies and more.
Now that you have gathered all the necessary information for your Marketing Plan, it's time to organize your content. Presenting key information in a clear, easily digestible format, helps everyone understand what you're trying to achieve and improves overall clarity of the project. It also ensures that you've covered every aspect of your marketing plan—from background and research to strategies and implementation.
Create a column to organize each part of your plan.
Name it, then drag any relevant notes, images or boards into your column to stay organized.
Strengthen your plan by gathering feedback from team members or clients. Their insights can provide valuable perspectives and identify potential blind spots or areas for improvement in your marketing plan. This ensures everyone is aligned on direction, goals, and strategies before proceeding with marketing initiatives. Use this feedback to make any necessary revisions to the plan before finalizing it.
Invite a team member or client to provide feedback.
Open the "Share" menu from the title bar of your board. Add email addresses of the people you'd like to collaborate with—they'll receive an invitation via email.
Start a comment thread.
Drag out a comment from the toolbar on the left and place it on your board. Other editors can reply to your comment.
Mention teammates to get their attention.
Type '@' in any text field to mention someone who has access to your board. They'll receive a notification and be able to respond to your comment.
When you’ve made any final changes to your marketing plan, it’s time to share the completed plan with everyone involved. Organize a kickoff meeting to ensure everyone is on the same page and ready to dive in.
Share a link to the brief with your team.
Click Share in the top right of your board. You can add a Welcome message for viewers, allow comments, set a password or embed the board in another app or website.
Now that your marketing plan is complete, you have a great foundation to build on. Make sure to check back and review your plan regularly to stay on track with your marketing efforts.
