Plan Template — The 13-Section Structure

The canonical template for every marketing plan generated by this skill. Each section has a purpose, a structure, and inline prompts for what to draft.

The Quietude plan (see references/example-quietude.md) is the canonical reference implementation.

Title block

# {Client} — Marketing Plan v1

**Prepared by:** {Author / fCMO name}
**For:** {Founders / leadership team}
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Status:** Draft v1 — for team review

Section 1 — Executive summary

Purpose: Lift-and-share. A founder should be able to paste this into a board update or investor email without editing.

Length: 400–700 words. Tight.

Structure:

1. One-sentence frame. What does this plan optimize for? Not "more revenue" — something specific to this client at this stage.
2. Three big bets, ranked by leverage. Each is a paragraph. Bet = a high-conviction thesis about where the team should focus capital and attention.
3. What twelve months looks like, plausibly. Bullet list. The plausible outcome state at end of plan horizon. Investor-readable.
4. 90-day priorities. Numbered list. The six (give or take) moves that ship in the first quarter.

Voice notes:

• Match the client's voice
• Direct, founder-readable, no marketing-speak
• Use names and numbers (specific channels, specific metrics) — not abstractions
• Tradeoffs named explicitly when they matter

Section 2 — Strategic frame

Purpose: Distill positioning, ICP, business-model logic, and brand voice into a single page that any team member or new hire can read to orient.

Length: 800–1500 words.

Structure:

What {Company} is, in one sentence

Pulled from positioning doc / seed deck / founder language.

The category we're claiming

Is the company creating a new category, redefining an existing one, or competing in a defined category? Name it. State the category-defining frame in 2–3 sentences. Reference the source (founder's words, ICP doc, etc.).

Who we're for (ICP, distilled)

Demographics / firmographics + stated problem vs. real problem + what they're actually buying. Tight, 4–6 bullets.

The business model logic

How does the company make money? What's the customer-acquisition unit economics theory? What's the compounding channel thesis (if any)? Pulled from seed deck / financial model / founder narrative.

Brand voice (the non-negotiable)

If the client has documented voice rules, list them. YES / NO vocabulary. CTA rules. Tone. Core method (initiatory, explanatory, narrative, etc.). Every other section of the plan must respect these.

Voice notes:

• This section is the most "lift from existing materials" — don't invent positioning. Surface what's there.
• If positioning is unclear or contradicted across materials, flag it in Section 13's open decisions.

Section 3 — Current state

Purpose: Anchor the plan in reality. What's the team, budget, in-flight work, and stuck work today?

Length: 1000–2000 words.

Structure:

Team composition (marketing surface area)

Table of every person with marketing surface area:

Be honest about gaps. If there's no dedicated marketing hire yet, name when one becomes necessary and what role (see references/team-and-agency-model.md — first hire should be π-shaped strategist titled Manager or Lead, not VP/CMO).

Marketing budget (current)

• Paid acquisition: $X/mo
• Tooling stack: list with estimated cost
• Retainers / fCMO: list
• Headcount: list
• Blended CAC: $X (must include salaries, content costs, tools, retainers — not just paid spend; see references/budget-planning.md for the calculation)
• Current spend as % of ARR: X% (compare against 5–40% range)

State the funding-stage tier this maps to (see references/funding-stage-unlocks.md). Implication: what 90-day plan must produce without lever pulls that require future budget.

Phase of SaaS growth

Name the current phase: $0–10K ARR / $10K–100K / $100K–1M / $1M–$10M / $10M+. Each phase has its own binding constraint and dominant growth pattern (see references/growth-patterns.md). Section 10 sequences the move into the next phase.

What's already done (acknowledge, then build on)

Table:

This is where past launches, PR moments, content pillars, certifications, notable users get acknowledged. Critical: don't write a plan that ignores work the team is proud of.

What's in-flight (drafted but not shipped)

Table:

Be honest about blockers. Where the blocker is "no time" or "no decision," that goes to Section 13's open decisions.

What's stuck (and needs to unstick this quarter)

Table:

Stuck things are the most leverage-positive places to focus the first weeks of the 90-day plan.

Audit rubric snapshot

17-section scored snapshot using the embedded current-state rubric. See references/current-state-rubric.md for the full rubric and scoring guides.

If a prior scored audit exists, paste those scores in. Otherwise score from available materials and note "scored from materials" under the heading.

Total: X / 85 (Y%). Note the shape of strength and weakness — that shape is the gap the rest of the plan closes.

Voice notes:

• Honest > polished. If the client's metrics are bad, name them. Founders read past sugar-coating.

Section 4 — Acquisition

Purpose: Answer "how do strangers become aware of us?" Map every channel: current state, planned moves, skipped (with reason).

Length: 1000–1800 words.

Structure:

Current state

Brief. What's working today, what's not, what the data shows about channel mix.

The plan

Numbered "Moves." Each move is a paragraph (3–6 sentences) describing the channel, the thesis, and the specific work. Common moves:

• Move 1 — SEO (and content) — Reference the SEO plan if one exists (seo/plan.md). Otherwise: keyword research, pillar/spoke structure, content cadence.
• Move 2 — App Store / Play Store optimization (for consumer apps) — Listing rewrite, screenshot tests, ASO keyword targeting.
• Move 3 — Founder-led channels — LinkedIn for B2B/SaaS, Twitter/X for tech, Instagram for consumer. Cadence, topics, owners.
• Move 4 — PR amplification — What's the credibility anchor? How to amplify it.
• Move 5 — Events (if applicable) — Live events, conferences, webinars. Acquisition vs. activation role.
• Move 6 — Hardware / commerce surface (if applicable) — Shopify storefront, Amazon, retail.
• Move 7 — B2B sales support — Case studies, partner pages, vertical-specific content.
• Move 8 — Paid layer (when budget unlocks) — Apple Search Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, Google. Held until specified funding stage.

90-day acquisition moves

Week-by-week breakdown of the ships in the first quarter.

12-month acquisition outlook

Quarter-by-quarter outcome state (Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4).

Skills + tools

• Skills: list relevant marketing-skills repo skills (seo-audit, ai-seo, ads, social, competitors, etc.)
• MCPs / APIs: list connections (Ahrefs API, GA4 MCP, Typefully MCP, Stripe MCP for LTV math, etc.)

Section 5 — Activation

Purpose: Answer "once someone tries us, do they have an experience that converts?"

Length: 800–1500 words.

Structure: Same as Acquisition (Current state / The plan / 90-day / 12-month / Skills + tools).

Common moves:

• Bedrock fixes (broken signup, broken onboarding gates, etc.)
• Onboarding tests / rebuild (often the most leveraged move at this stage)
• App Store listing rewrite (cross-references to Acquisition)
• Lifecycle Flow ship order (when to ship onboarding emails vs. hold for product stability)
• Paywall + pricing review (often Activation × Revenue)

Skills + tools

onboarding, signup, paywalls, copywriting, marketing-website-design, ab-testing, etc.

Section 6 — Retention

Purpose: Answer "once someone converts, do they stay and deepen?"

Length: 800–1500 words.

Structure: Same as above.

Common moves:

• Lifecycle email flows (post-purchase, lapsed user, win-back)
• Subscription / preference centers
• Churn reconciliation (often metric definitions don't match across surfaces)
• Hardware → software activation paths (for hybrid businesses)
• Annual plan default tests (cross-references to Revenue)

Skills + tools

emails, churn-prevention, copywriting, paywalls, etc.

Section 7 — Referral

Purpose: Answer "do retained users bring more users, and at what cost?"

Length: 500–1200 words.

Structure: Same as above.

Common moves:

• Ambassador / affiliate program launch (if inbound interest exists, lead with it)
• Share-after-value moments built into product
• Founder amplification (founder as referrer-zero)
• Long-game expert / Guides / certified-host network
• Gifting flows (for consumer / hardware)

Skills + tools

referrals, social, emails (for ambassador lifecycle), copywriting, etc.

Section 8 — Revenue

Purpose: Answer "what do we charge, who pays, and how does it compound?"

Length: 500–1200 words.

Structure: Same as above.

Common moves:

• Pricing audit (what's actually charged today vs. listed?)
• Annual plan default tests
• Hardware → software bundling formalization (for hybrid businesses)
• Storefront / commerce page optimization
• B2B case studies + sales material
• Long-term value pools (data licensing, enterprise expansion) — flagged not executed in 12-month plan

Unit economics

Required table:

These feed the budget math in Section 10. If any of these are unknown, flag in Section 13 as top open decision.

Skills + tools

pricing, paywalls, sales-enablement, revops, ab-testing, etc.

Section 9 — 90-day roadmap

Purpose: The tactical execution layer. Every move ships within a named week, with an owner.

Length: Tables, not prose. Should fit on one printed page if possible.

Structure: Four 2–3-week sprints:

Weeks 1–2 — Unblock

Highest-confidence, lowest-cost changes. Removing things that are broken.

Weeks 3–4 — Foundation

Pillar/foundational work. Domain consolidation. First content. First flows shipping. First tests live.

Weeks 5–8 — Velocity

Compounding work begins. Content cadence. Repeat tests. Channel scaling.

Weeks 9–12 — Compound

Second-order moves. Layered tactics. 90-day review prep.

Section 10 — 12-month outlook

Purpose: Quarterly milestones with explicit funding-stage capability unlocks named, anchored against a defensible growth pattern.

Length: Four sub-sections, one per quarter. ~250–400 words each. Plus a short framing paragraph at the top naming the budget method and growth pattern.

Framing (top of Section 10)

State explicitly:

• Budget method used. Method 1 (Revenue-Based 5–40% of ARR) or Method 2 (Goal-Based formula). See references/budget-planning.md. Show the math.
• Annual budget total + the experimental buffer (+10–20%).
• Resulting end-of-year ARR goal. Honest forecast, not a guarantee — see the forecasting reality check in references/measurement-framework.md.
• Growth pattern expected. Linear (predictable $X MRR added per month), step-function (plateau between deliberate jumps), or layered S-curves. For VC-backed Series A+, anchor against 3-3-2-2-2 and show whether the plan matches it or explicitly chooses a different trajectory. See references/growth-patterns.md.

Structure (per quarter)

Q{N} — Months {X}–{Y}

Funding state: {tier} per funding-stage-unlocks.md

Focus: One-sentence focus theme for the quarter.

Outcomes by end of Q{N}:

• Bulleted outcome list (5–8 items)

KPI targets: 3–5 specific numerical targets.

Channel/Product/Market S-curve position: Which curves are growing, which are plateauing, which is the next one being staged for this quarter (see growth-patterns.md — layering principle).

Section 11 — Marketing operations stack

Purpose: The fCMO differentiator. Show how a small team + agentic tooling executes the plan without hiring at every channel.

Length: Tables + brief explanation.

Structure:

The thesis

1–2 paragraphs explaining the principle: small team + marketing-skills library + MCP integrations = output of a larger team.

Skills mapped to AARRR stages

MCPs / APIs mapped to stages

A concrete example

Pick one operational moment that proves the stack works (e.g., "Customer.io MCP let the non-technical founder draft a flow live on the kickoff call"). Anchor the abstract claim in a specific event.

Capability unlocks by funding stage

Team and agency model (RACI)

Apply the principle from references/team-and-agency-model.md: strategy in-house, execution often outsourced.

If the team is missing a strategic owner for one of these functions, the first 90-day move (Section 9) should be the hire — Manager or Lead title, π-shaped if possible, not VP/CMO.

If execution capacity is the gap, name the contractor or small niche agency in the right cell rather than the team's existing IC.

Pull from references/funding-stage-unlocks.md.

Section 12 — Tactical idea bank

Purpose: Cross-reference all 139 ideas from the marketing-ideas skill against AARRR stages, with client-specific status.

Length: Long — tables can easily total 150+ rows.

Structure:

Intro paragraph

Explain the cross-reference: Sections 4–8 prescribe what's being done. This section maps what's possible.

Status legend

• Now (Q1) — already in 90-day plan
• Q2 — post-foundation layer-in
• Q3+ — post-seed-close or post-GA expansion
• Q4+ — long-game
• Skip / off-brand — incompatible with brand voice or business model

12.1 Acquisition ideas

By status (Now / Q2 / Q3+ / Q4+ / Skip), tables of relevant marketing-ideas by number.

12.2 Activation ideas

12.3 Retention ideas

12.4 Referral ideas

12.5 Revenue ideas

12.6 Cross-cutting / brand foundation ideas

Idea-bank summary

• Counts per AARRR stage
• Counts skipped, with rationale
• What the plan covers as a % of the available tactical surface area
• What this proves about the client's stage

Use references/idea-cross-reference.md as the source-of-truth mapping. Apply client-specific filters during draft (brand voice rules out some; funding stage shifts timing of others).

Section 13 — Measurement, RACI, open decisions, appendix

Purpose: Operational close. Define how the plan gets measured, who owns what, what's still TBD, and where to find the deeper docs.

Structure:

Measurement — the metrics that matter

North star (proposed): One metric that captures the business-model thesis. For Quietude it was blended-LTV-to-blended-CAC; for a B2B SaaS it might be NRR × NPS; for a marketplace, take-rate × monthly transacting users. Make it specific to the company.

Leading indicators by AARRR stage: Table:

Review cadence:

• Weekly: who syncs with whom, on what
• Monthly: who reviews what
• Quarterly: plan recalibration trigger

RACI

Common domains: strategic plan, brand voice, app/product implementation, lifecycle, SEO content, App Store, founder-led social, events, ambassadors, B2B sales, pricing, investor narrative, future hires.

Open decisions blocking the plan

Ranked by impact. Each is: name + impact + what's blocked.

1. (highest impact) ...
2. ...
3. (lowest impact) ...

Appendix — deep-dive links

Published in this repo / shared with team: {relative paths to docs in the shared repo}

Founder-authored strategic context (internal knowledge base): {names of docs the team has access to outside the plan repo}

fCMO working drafts (not yet published): {names + how to access from author}

Closing line

*{Client} Marketing Plan v1. Prepared by {Author}, {Date}. For team review and discussion.*

Per-section heuristics for "is this section done?"

• Section 1 — A non-Quietude reader could understand the company's growth thesis from this alone.
• Section 2 — Brand voice rules are explicit enough that any new copywriter could follow them.
• Section 3 — All "in-flight" items have an owner and a blocker named.
• Sections 4–8 — Each move names a skill (some-skill) and a tool (Customer.io MCP / Stripe MCP / Ahrefs / etc.).
• Section 9 — Every row has an owner.
• Section 10 — Each quarter names the funding stage explicitly.
• Section 11 — At least one concrete operational example proves the stack thesis.
• Section 12 — Skip list has rationale, not just absence.
• Section 13 — North-star is specific to this company (not generic "ARR growth").