Easy breakdown of marketing strategy and planning
Also - the better way to get mentors and a personal board of advisors
In this edition:
Easy Breakdown of Marketing Strategy and Planning
The Better Way to Get Mentors and a Board of Advisors
POLL: The Marketing AI Use Case With The Most Potential
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Easy Breakdown of Marketing Strategy and Planning
There’s a tremendous amount of work that goes into marketing planning and strategy.
Getting this right is critical to deliver repeatable results that scale.
Here are the 5 core components of marketing strategy and planning—and what each one includes.
1️⃣ Marketing Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is where we make sure everything makes sense at a high-level, and for the long-run. It includes aligning with leadership, conducting market and trend research, capturing voice of customer insights, and mapping out team structure and resourcing.
2️⃣ Goal Setting & OKRs
This connects business and marketing objectives to measurable outcomes. Includes setting KPIs, forecasting targets, aligning with GTM, sales, and product, and prioritizing through an OKR framework.
3️⃣ Finance, Budget, ROI
Covers how marketing allocates and tracks budget. Includes forecasting, customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), cost per acquisition (CPA), ROI attribution models, and performance tracking across investments.
4️⃣ Campaign Planning
This is the execution engine. Defines campaign objectives and themes, builds the integrated channel plan, supports content calendar development, and coordinates the overall marketing mix strategy.
5️⃣ Operational Excellence
This is the layer that keeps everything moving. Includes quarterly planning cadences, performance reviews, legal and brand approvals, and now partnerships for technology and AI adoption.
When these 5 components are strong, marketing becomes a strategic growth function—not just an execution engine.
Big thanks to Chloe, Jenny, and Thao for giving me direction on this graphic!
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How to Build Your Personal Board of Advisors (Without Making It Weird)
A lot of people overthink mentorship.
They think they need one perfect mentor to guide their entire career. But in practice, it rarely works like that.
What’s more useful is building your personal board of advisors—a rotating group of people you trust, each with a different strength or perspective. Some might be long-term relationships, others just one or two great conversations.
1. Keep it informal, but intentional
Some of the most helpful conversations I’ve had came from a single coffee chat. No recurring meetings, no “Will you be my mentor?” energy. Just people generously offering advice when I needed it.
2. Be prepared—especially with senior folks
When you’re meeting with someone more senior, preparation makes all the difference.
Here’s what I usually do:
Send a short agenda ahead of time
Share a few specific questions
Come ready with examples
I also like to share my plan. For example, when I had an idea I wanted to pitch internally, I ran the pitch by my mentor first. I didn’t just explain the idea—I gave her the actual deck, walked through my thinking, and asked for feedback. That’s when the conversation becomes really productive.
3. Present your thinking, then ask: “What would you do differently?”
Try this:
“Here’s a problem I’m working through. Here’s how I’m thinking about solving it. What’s your take? What would you do differently?”
4. Use the problem to find the right person
Sometimes you don’t need a mentor—you need someone who’s solved the same problem before.
Start with the challenge you’re facing, then ask around:
“Has anyone dealt with [insert challenge]?”
If they have, ask if they’d be open to chatting about it. Even just one or two conversations can make a huge difference.
5. Think range, not hierarchy
Your personal board shouldn’t be just executives or people ten years ahead of you. Some of the most useful advice I’ve gotten came from peers or folks slightly ahead of me.
Look for:
A peer who’s strong in an area you’re not
Someone junior who’s deep in a new tool or platform
A senior leader who’s seen the big picture play out
You want a mix of perspectives, not just one “type” of mentor.
6. Get curious—even when you're the most experienced person in the room
It’s easy to default to thinking you have more experience, but if you stay curious and ask, “What would you do in my position?” you’ll uncover strengths and perspectives that are totally different from your own.
This requires humility—but it’s worth it. I’ve walked away from conversations with junior teammates completely rethinking my approach.
7. Make it easy to say yes
If you want to reach out to someone, keep it clear and simple.
Something like:
“I admire how you [do X]. I’m working on something related, and I’d love to ask you a few specific questions. Would you be open to a 20-minute call?”
That makes it easy for them to say yes—or to suggest another time or format.
8. Remember: Most people like being asked
If you’re hesitant to reach out, keep this in mind: Most people actually enjoy being asked for their opinion or advice—especially if they know you’re going to take action on it.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need one mentor for everything. You need a group of people with different perspectives you can tap into when you need them.
It doesn’t have to be formal. It just has to be thoughtful.
Prepare, be specific, stay curious, and treat every conversation as an opportunity to grow—and you’ll be surprised at how many people are willing to help.
POLL: Which AI Use Cases Will Drive the Most Marketing Business Impact?
Top Commentary from Social
Everything starts with analytics for me! Cutting-edge analytics could enable businesses to work smarter, not harder--which would ultimately enable more efficient content creation, ad & campaign optimization, and workflow automation. - Leslie K. White
Re: Workflow Automation, eliminating some of Marketing's manual "busy work" via AI insertions has massive potential to drastically improve velocity and operational efficiencies. Sanjiv Verma
For the businesses I've worked with the answer would be All of the Above. My approach starts with integrating AI into the broader Marketing and Growth strategy, then breaking it down into specific use cases-identifying where AI can have the most impact (which tasks and areas to focus on) and how to implement it effectively (which tools to leverage, what foundational elements need to be in place within our tech stack, and how our data is structured and accessed). This includes ideation, data and information analysis, content creation, predictive analytics, workflow automation, etc. Brooke Heron
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