What a digital marketing plan includes
- Current situation: where your website traffic, leads and sales come from today.
- Goals: SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, such as “increase enquiries from organic search by 25% by December”.
- Target audience: the buyer personas you are focusing on.
- Channels and activities: for example SEO work, content, Google Ads campaigns, social media and email.
- Timeline: a month-by-month calendar of activities.
- Budget: spend per channel, including tools and people.
- KPIs and reporting: what you measure, where and how often.
How to create one
- Review last year’s results and your analytics.
- Set goals that tie directly to revenue.
- Choose the few channels most likely to reach your audience.
- Plan the activities, with an owner and a deadline for each.
- Agree on a budget, then review the results every month and adjust.
Plan vs strategy
A digital marketing strategy explains your overall approach and why; the plan is the schedule of work that carries it out. Keep the plan short enough that people actually use it.
Digital marketing plan example
A physiotherapy clinic writes a one-year plan. Goal: increase online bookings from 40 to 60 a month by December. Audience: office workers with back pain within 15 km. Activities: fix local SEO and Business Profile, publish six guides, run a Google Ads campaign for “back pain physio” at a fixed monthly budget and send a monthly email to past patients. KPIs: bookings, cost per booking, calls and reviews. The plan is reviewed every quarter.
Steps to build your plan
- Collect where visitors, leads and sales come from now.
- Set two or three goals with numbers and a date.
- Describe your main customers and what they search for.
- Choose the channels most likely to reach them and decide what you will not do.
- Put activities on a calendar with an owner for each.
- Set a budget, including tools and people.
- Agree the KPIs and the reporting dates.
Digital marketing plan mistakes
- Goals with no numbers or deadlines.
- Trying every channel at once on a small budget.
- Not leaving room to change the plan when data shows something is not working.
- Writing the plan once and never looking at it again.
Digital marketing plan FAQs
How long should a plan be?
Long enough to guide action. Many good plans are five to ten pages. See digital marketing and marketing objectives.
Plan or strategy?
The strategy says what you want to achieve and why. The plan says how, when and by whom. See advertising budget.