Believe it or not whilst there seems to be plenty of planning and campaign frameworks around for marketing and digital marketing, I've rarely come across any that are not either overly stuffed with complexity and jargon or missing seemingly critical steps. An honourable mention should go to PR Smith's SOSTAC® model which I think is very good. Most of the models (including SOSTAC®) that I'm aware of follow a simple process that essentially answers the same few key questions: Where we are now? Where do we want to be? How do we get there? How do we know when we've got there? These sound like obvious steps in the process but in my experience it does no harm to remind ourselves of the fundamentals.
My own version of this differentiates at the start between understanding where we are in the context of our assets/resources/competitive context, and understanding who our audience are (a different job likely involving different processes and different tools). We then set an objective of where we're going. Then its about our strategy – a high-level direction, the approach to solving our problem, and the basis by which we make choices about what to include and what not to include (because good strategy is all about making choices). Our plan is 'the sequence of events that allows one to move with confidence from one state of affairs to another' (this differentiation is similar to SOSTAC® but in my case is inspired by Lawrence Freedman via Noah Brier, since strategy and planning are not the same thing). Execution is about the co-ordination of resources in order to make stuff happen. And I also like to put emphasis on not just measurement but on evaluation, optimisation and learning and so my last stage is about reviewing. So it works to the acronym of PROSPER – Prepare, Research, Objective, Strategy, Plan, Execute, Review.
There's more behind each of these stages of-course but I've put the key question I think that we're attempting to answer at each stage, and some further questions to show some of the deeper elements:
P = Preparation
The question we’re answering: Where are we now, and what do we need in order to succeed?
What assets do we have access to?
What is the competitive context?
Who are the key stakeholders?
What competencies/tools might we make use of?
R = Research
The key question we’re answering: What are the key insights providing the foundation for our campaign?
Who are our key audience segments?
What do we know about them, and how can this help our planning?
What is our brand position/tone/point of view?
O = Objective
The question we’re answering: Where do want to get to?
What is our key (smart) objective?
How will we measure success?
Are our key KPIs aligned to our over-arching objective?
S = Strategy
The question we’re answering: How do we get there?
How does our end point relate to our start point?
What is the basis for the choices we're making?
What channels are we selecting to achieve our objective?
How will we ensure that our activities are integrated?
P = Plan
The question we’re answering: What are the specific steps we will take?
What is the sequence of events that we’re proposing?
How will we utilize the channels we have selected?
E = Execution
The question we’re answering: What are the key actions that we are taking?
Who is Responsible/Accountable/Consulted/Informed?
How might we work with external agencies?
How can we optimise performance?
R = Review
The question we’re answering: How did we perform, and can we do better?
How will we know when we have achieved our objective?
What did we learn? What is the key insight?
How can we apply and share that learning?
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