How to create a digital marketing plan using PR Smith’s SOSTAC® Planning model
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SOSTAC® is a widely used tool for marketing and business planning which is rated in the top three most popular marketing models in the Smart Insights review of Marketing Models that have stood the test of time.
In this post, I give an example of how I have applied PR Smith’s SOSTAC® Planning Model — which is my interpretation of SOSTAC®.
Further guidance and examples are available in the Smart Insights Guide for Expert members by PR Smith and this post by Dave Chaffey giving an overview of the SOSTAC® model.
Created in the 1990s by writer and speaker PR Smith, the SOSTAC® framework has built an authoritative reputation as the framework of choice for different scales of business including multinational and start-up organizations across the world.
The SOSTAC® process covers six key areas which I’ll explain in this post:
- Situation Analysis
- Objectives
- Strategy
- Tactics
- Action
- Control
If you’re looking for a visual example, the process for creating a digital marketing plan has also been summarised in this Multichannel Marketing Plan infographic. My recommendations cover many of these planning and management activities, but not all, due to space.
Stage 1. Situation Analysis
Stage 1 of implementing this digital marketing planning framework is setting out the situation analysis. The situation should provide an overview of your organization — who you are, what you do, and how you interact and trade online by addressing internal and external factors impacting the business.
This section should be painting a picture of your organization and to do this, consider using some of the following methods to bring this section to life:
- Who your digital customers currently are (how do they interact with the brand, the platform/s used, demographic breakdown.
