Getting Your Strategic Marketing Plan Together

Move from random acts of marketing to strategic effort that drives revenue

Jan 20, 2026

If 2026 will be the year that your business’s marketing goes beyond executing ad hoc tactics when someone has the time, here’s the approach to creating a strategy for success.

I have used this formula for developing a strategy for a company earning $100 million and a startup that is working to reach profitability. These basics are essential to get everyone aligned and focusing on activities that drive results.

Ineffective Marketing

Too many teams are:

Reacting to ideas from a senior leader, usually the founder/CEO, who has never run marketing beyond a certain stage
Producing quantity over quality without any strategic consideration
Don’t have a plan for activities beyond this month (not thinking about short-term and long-term marketing needs)
Spreading themselves too thin across channels without focusing on maximizing impact on the ones that are most important
Not focusing on a target customer, hoping their approach is one-size-fits all
Not clearly explaining the problems their solution solves, or worse, not clearly articulating the product/service
Misaligned with others across the organization so the message is mixed or marketing assets aren’t used
Unsure how to measure the effectiveness of their activities and how that leads to revenue

Marketing Strategy for Success

Make 2026 the year you get out of reactive mode and develop a meaningful marketing strategy to help accomplish your business goals.

1. Align on Objectives

The business needs clear objectives, both short and long term, so that you know how to align and measure success.

These could be revenue goals, pipeline/leads to get there, and branding/awareness. It could be entering a new market. It could be launching a new product.

Be clear, be aligned, so you’re all working toward the same thing.

2. Define the Market and ICP

Agree on who you are going to target. This doesn’t mean someone else can’t become a customer, but prioritize so you can research where they consume information, what they’re worrying about right now how they make buying decisions, etc.

Think about criteria like industry, size (revenue, employees, stage, etc.), roles, and others.

3. Develop Your Strategy

You know what you need to accomplish. You know who you want to reach. Now you’ll begin thinking about how you’ll do that, what you’ll need to invest, and the results you’ll measure.

The components of your strategy will include, at a minimum:

Goals/objectives
Target audience
Unique value proposition
Competitive analysis
Channel and tactics
Budget
KPIs and measurement

4. Identify Channels and Tactics

Where are the best places to reach your audience at different stages in their buying journey? How do they prefer to consume information? Your prior research helps define your focus on where to do your marketing.

When you are getting started, it’s better to do a few channels well than try to be everywhere. You can expand and add over time.

The most common B2B marketing channels are listed below, but your needs depend on your company’s growth stage, industry, target audience, etc.:

Content marketing
Email marketing
Social media
Search engine optimization (SEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO)
Paid advertising
Events
Account-based marketing (ABM)

5. Set KPIs and Metrics

Measurement helps you understand what’s working and contributing to success... although not all marketing influence is measurable. Decide how you’ll measure performance and use the data to update your plans.

You’ll likely want to include leading indicators like website traffic and engagement, leads and pipeline, and lagging indicators like revenue.