Most marketing plans fail because they list ambitions instead of decisions. This playbook is a sequence of decisions: what you fund, what you stop, and what evidence you accept as proof.
Start with one measurable objective
Pick a single commercial outcome for the year — qualified pipeline, trial starts or repeat purchases. Every channel then earns its place by contributing to that one number.
Split the budget before you plan the work
Fix the split first so campaign ideas compete inside a fixed envelope rather than expanding it. A durable starting point is roughly forty per cent to demand capture, forty per cent to demand creation and twenty per cent held for experiments.
Build the funnel you can actually staff
A five-stage funnel with two people is a fantasy. Map each stage to a named owner and a weekly output, and delete stages nobody owns.
Publish on a rhythm, not a burst
Two strong pieces a week beat twelve in a launch month followed by silence. Rhythm compounds; bursts decay.
Measure quarterly, adjust monthly
Judge channels on rolling ninety day windows. Monthly reviews are for reallocating spend, not for declaring winners.
Cut with the same discipline you spend
At each quarter end, stop the lowest performing channel outright and move its budget into the experiment pool. Continuous pruning is what keeps the plan honest.
