I’ve been creating full on marketing plans and online audits for longer than AI has been around. We’ll come to AI and its usefulness in a minute. Mostly I write up full on marketing plans using the S.O.S.T.A.C model.
I gave up knitting porridge though.
What is a SOSTAC Plan?
It stands for Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Actions and Control. I recommend them because they focus your thinking, budget and act as a benchmark.
Have I ever completed a SOSTAC plan? No. The reason is even though the time frame may be short, eg a business quarter, circumstances will ALWAYS CHANGE.
Situation – where are we now?
Objective – where do we want to be?
Strategy – what is our positioning and point of difference, how do we show it?
Tactics – what are the elements that can make the strategy work?
Actions – what are the steps/tasks needed?
Control – how will we track progress and what do we need (people and budget)?
It’s simple so why are these plans never completed? Because the data shows another way, competitors have done this, the market is changing, seasonality hits, people move on, the budget doesn’t stretch that far. Many, many reasons but that’s OK.
Action Plans Rule
When you know what you are doing and you know what you want in marketing (to make money) you can pursue the actions as long as you have Control. Control usually takes the form of a dashboard (spreadsheet) which will have SMART Goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable Relevant, and Time-Discipline. It can list your KPIs, website health, anything that may lead to an ACTION.
Risk-Reduction Rate
Risk-Reduction Rate (RRR) This is an idea created by Conversion Rate Experts.
The RRR Process reframes projects in terms of risk and then identifies, scores, and prioritises tasks that will give the highest risk-reduction rate (RRR).
- List the reasons the plan could fail
- Write a risk-reduction task next to each of these statements
- Score each row
How critical is each reason? How quickly does the risk-reduction task reduces the risk? Look up the Conversion Rate Experts website /rrr to get a template.
AI Usefulness
I’ve found chat.gpt useful to interrogate the plan, indeed write the plan BUT I always make sure to ask for proof and sources of information. I also have enough experience to dismiss marketing twaddle and what won’t work.
Your Actions
- Read up about SOSTAC, created by Andrew Smith.
- Have a project in mind? Write up a list of actions, the Risk Reduction Rate and the control.
- Test you action plan with AI.
Take care,
About Conversion Detectives
Conversion Detectives is a full-service digital marketing agency in Hertfordshire.
We find the best quality traffic for your website and convert more of that traffic into sales or sales leads.
Services
Digital Marketing Strategy | Creative Content Marketing | Email Marketing |
Lead Generation | Content Strategy | Social Media Marketing |
Video Marketing | SEO (Basics) | SEM | Shopify Marketing |
Podcast scripting
About Post Author
