Clear, aligned, succinct – not the words typically associated with marketing plans. In fact, 57% of MLC members think strategic planning is the marketing activity with the greatest chance for improvement.
Marketing plans are often 20 to 100 page documents that cover every team’s goals and strategies, from the promotions team to the social media team. Though comprehensive, these longwinded plans are too confusing to help individuals understand how their goals align with those of the broader organization. Without alignment, marketers cannot create results, even when all the right elements are in place.
To tackle this problem, Marketing at MasterCard ruthlessly streamlined its annual marketing plan to one single page – the “Plan on a Page.” MLC members, see an example of a completed Plan on a Page here or download this customizable marketing plan template.
Keep it sweet and simple.
We took a look at how MasterCard built their “Plan on a Page.” A sampling of the Plan’s key traits:
Simplicity –the single-page rule limits the plan to the few goals that matter most.
Clarity – the plan links day-to-day tactics to high-level strategies (to help marketers understand how to achieve strategic goals).
Measurability – each goal, strategy, and tactic is tied to a clear measure of success.
The “Plan on a Page” not only saves planning time but also improves cross-functional understanding and alignment around strategic goals. It also lends legitimacy and discipline to the marketing division, which is great because 73% of CEOs say marketers lack credibility!
All of that makes this simple marketing plan pretty sweet.
MLC members, read more about how a “Plan on a Page” can help marketing deliver greater bottom-line value.




When we talk with heads of marketing about what “good” information flow between sales and marketing looks like, you can imagine the usual suspects that pop up: marketing updates provided to the sales team, sales providing feedback on messaging that’s resonating (or not resonating), and some type of ongoing win-loss analysis.
Einstein proffered that doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results is the very definition of insanity.

Last week, I wrote about 
