Your Marketing Plan Should Tell You What Not to Do
I’ve been looking at marketing planning again as Q4 approaches, mostly because this is the point in the year when sensible 2027 plans start filling up with more work than the team can realistically do.
Last year’s programs roll forward. Sales has requests. Leadership has a few new priorities. AI has created another set of things marketing could be doing. Someone wants a webinar program. Someone else has discovered that competitors are posting more on LinkedIn.
Most of those ideas can be defended individually. The problem appears when they all survive the planning process.
I think a useful marketing plan should tell you what you are choosing not to do, at least for now.
The claim needs a little qualification. I’m not suggesting every plan needs a ceremonial “stop doing” page. A choice can show up through sequencing, a budget limit, audience emphasis, a launch gate, or a decision to wait until the team has proof. The important part is that the trade-off is visible.
Michael Porter’s framing from 1996 still holds up here. Trade-offs create clarity because more time or money for one activity means less for another.
Q4 is when those trade-offs need to become explicit, before existing work quietly rolls into another year.
Quick Take
Start with the busin
