Annual Marketing Plan & Marketing Hire Brief

The first 10 questions

This is where the conversation starts. Each answer shapes what gets asked next.

1. 01Looking back over the past year, what marketing actually worked — the channel, campaign, or content that clearly moved the needle?
2. 02What did you try that didn't work, or that you're not sure was worth the time?
3. 03Are you considering a first marketing hire or contractor, or is this purely a planning exercise for now?
4. 04What's your actual budget and time capacity for marketing in the year ahead — realistically, not aspirationally?
5. 05What would change if you had dedicated marketing help — what's not getting done today because you're stretched across everything?
6. 06If a hire is on the table, is a full-time employee, part-time, or contractor actually the right call at your stage?
7. 07What's the biggest risk in this plan — overcommitting to channels that worked once but might not scale, or under-investing in something promising?
8. 08Priorities: the 3-5 things marketing needs to accomplish in the next year, ranked.
9. 09Channel plan: which channels get investment, which get maintained, and which get dropped.
10. 10Content/campaign cadence: the realistic recurring rhythm (e.g. SEO content, launches, case studies) for the year.

+ 7 more questions across discovery, validation, and the creative brief — each one adapting to what you've already said.

Related marketing project types

• Customer PersonaBuild a sharp, evidence-based profile of the specific person who buys and uses your product — so anyone on your team knows exactly who you're building for.
• Name Your StartupChoose a name you can defend, spell out loud, and actually own — working from positioning criteria rather than word games, with live domain checks on the shortlist.
• Competitive PositioningMap your competitive landscape, find the position that's genuinely yours to own, and build the case for why your approach beats the alternatives for the customers who matter most.