Be The Good Marketing

Marketing plan template

A marketing plan template you fill in online, then hand to the room.

Most templates hand you a blank grid and wish you luck. This one shows the nine sections, the prompts that make each one answerable, a worked example written for your industry, and the exact PDF and slide deck the finished plan turns into.

Start the plan onlineOr take the free checklist first

Free

The checklist

Thirty checks across the whole funnel. Useful before you write a plan, because it tells you which sections you already have evidence for.

Download it free

$39

The editable template

The nine sections with prompts and the filled examples for your vertical, ready to copy into your own doc. One-time purchase.

See the template

$149

The GTM Builder

Write the plan in the browser with your examples beside you, brand it, and export a PDF and a slide deck. Unlimited edits and exports.

Open the Builder

What you fill in

Nine sections, in this order

Pick your industry and every example below rewrites for it. The prompts are what I ask in a real strategy engagement, so a finished section reads like a decision rather than a description.

Examples below come from a real client engagement.

01

The position

One paragraph a stranger could read and repeat correctly. Everything downstream inherits it.

  • What do you sell, in the words a buyer already uses?
  • Who is it for, and who is it plainly not for?
  • What's the one claim you can prove that a competitor cannot copy this quarter?

Filled example, Bio Ag Management

A research-led agricultural biologicals company with genuine scientific authority, selling to growers worldwide rather than a single region. The provable claim was the research itself: field results and the science behind them, held by the agronomists on staff.

02

The buyer and the decision they are making

This isn't intended to be a persona sheet. The actual sequence of questions someone works through before they say yes.

  • Who signs, who evaluates, and who can veto?
  • What do they look at first, second, and third?
  • What are they comparing you against, including doing nothing?

Filled example, Bio Ag Management

Growers and their advisors evaluate a biologicals supplier in a fixed order: proven results first, the research behind the results second, the expertise standing behind both third. That order became the site's information architecture.

03

The market and the competitive set

Name the real alternatives, including the incumbent habit you are displacing.

  • Which three alternatives come up in real conversations?
  • What do they say better than you do right now?
  • Where's the gap you can credibly own?

Filled example, Bio Ag Management

The credibility existed in the field and in relationships. The gap was entirely in the shop window: a dated site that spoke locally to a worldwide customer base and did not represent the brand the team had already built.

04

The offer

What someone buys, at what commitment level, and what the first step costs them.

  • What's the entry point, and is it small enough to say yes to?
  • What's included and what's explicitly out of scope?
  • What proof accompanies the offer at the moment of decision?

Filled example, Bio Ag Management

Products stayed as they were. The change was making the entry point legible: results and research placed where a buyer could evaluate them without a phone call first.

05

The message architecture

One position, then the two or three supporting messages every channel is allowed to draw from.

  • What's the headline claim?
  • What are the two or three supports underneath it?
  • What language is retired, so the team stops reintroducing it?

Filled example, Bio Ag Management

Positioning and messaging rewritten for a worldwide buyer rather than a regional one, with results, research, and expertise as the three supports. Sales, the agronomists, and the site now share one position.

06

The channel plan

Two channels you will do properly beats six you'll do occasionally. Say what you are not doing.

  • Where does your buyer already spend attention?
  • Which two channels can you sustain for two quarters without heroics?
  • What are you deliberately declining, and why?

Filled example, Bio Ag Management

The site came first, because every other channel pointed at it. Nothing else scaled until the destination could carry the argument.

07

The proof plan

Proof is an asset with an owner and a date. List what exists and what must be created. (If it's unclear, what needs to be created, who's going to create it, and when.)

  • What evidence do you already have and where is it published?
  • What proof is missing at the exact point buyers hesitate?
  • Who owns creating it, and by when?

Filled example, Bio Ag Management

The research and field results already existed internally. The work was structuring them into site sections a grower could navigate, which is what the rebuild delivered.

08

The build and the owner

Every line has one name and one date. A plan without owners is a document, not a strategy.

  • What is being built, in order?
  • Who owns each item, including the internal approvals?
  • What must the team be able to do themselves after launch?

Filled example, Bio Ag Management

A full content migration and rebuild from WordPress onto a platform the internal team could update without a developer, delivered on the client's timeline in October 2025.

09

The measures

Two or three numbers tied to revenue behavior, plus the leading indicators you'll read weekly.

  • What business outcome would make this quarter a success?
  • Which leading indicator moves first if the strategy is working?
  • What would tell you to stop and change course?

Filled example, Bio Ag Management

Delivered on the client's timeline, the client's agency described the work as amazing and the workflow as flawless, and the engagement continued into further work rather than going back out to bid.

What comes out

The export, not just the worksheet

A plan only counts once someone approves it. The Builder produces both artifacts that conversation needs, branded with your company name, logo, and color.

Output one

The plan PDF

  • Branded cover with your company, author, and plan date
  • All nine sections in order, one page or less each
  • Owners and measures carried through so nothing is anonymous

Output two

The slide deck

  • One slide per section, built for a leadership review
  • Editable PPTX, so your team can adapt it in the meeting
  • Preview before download, so formatting holds before it is sent
Build the plan
bioagmanagement.com
BIO AG MANAGEMENT website, the plan in practice

The plan in practice

BIO AG MANAGEMENT

The default example column in the template comes from this engagement, where the position had to speak to growers worldwide rather than one region.

Sections two and three set the information architecture: results first, the research behind them second, the expertise standing behind both third.

Read the case study
A template is not the hard part. Deciding what you are not doing is, and that is the section most plans quietly skip.
Janie Windmiller, Be The Good Marketing

Questions

Before you start filling it in

What goes in a marketing plan template?
Nine sections in order: position, buyer and the decision they are making, market and competitive set, offer, message architecture, channel plan, proof plan, build and owners, and the measures you will judge it by. Each section is an input to the one after it, which is why a plan that starts with tactics falls apart a quarter in.
Is the marketing plan template free?
The section prompts and the worked examples on this page are free to read and use. The editable template is $39, and the GTM Builder, which writes and exports the plan for you, is a one-time $149 unlock with unlimited edits and exports.
How long should a marketing plan be?
One tight paragraph per section. If a section runs past a paragraph, the thinking underneath it is not finished yet, and finding that out now costs far less than finding it out after the spend.
Can I export the plan for a leadership meeting?
Yes. The GTM Builder exports a formatted PDF and a slide deck carrying your company name, logo, and brand color, so the plan arrives in the format the room approving it already reads.

Next step

Not sure the position is right yet?

Section one decides the other eight. A marketing audit answers it with evidence: where you actually sit, what your buyer evaluates first, and what the next two quarters should do about it.

Start with an AuditSee the Work