The number one mistake in annual planning is creating a marketing strategy in a vacuum. A plan disconnected from company-wide goals, such as a major product launch, results in resource misalignment, budget shortfalls, and missed growth opportunities.
True organizational buy-in isn't just a C-level activity. It's a "layer cake" where leaders at each level—from the CMO to ICs—have tailored conversations with their cross-functional partners to ensure shared understanding and commitment to the plan.
ICs are closest to the day-to-day execution. They provide immense strategic value by using these "bottoms-up" insights to make opinionated recommendations on what initiatives to cut. This helps leadership make necessary trade-offs and avoid spreading resources too thin.
To prevent rigid plans that break, maintain consistency in your high-level strategic pillars for the year. However, build in flexibility by allowing the specific tactics used to achieve those pillars to change quarterly based on performance and new learnings.
Combat the tendency for teams to ease into the new year by anchoring them around what must be completed in the first month. This creates a "fast start," builds early conviction in the annual plan, and prevents playing catch-up in February and March.
This framework provides a structured approach to planning by answering five questions: What's our aspiration? Where will we play (ICP)? How will we win (pillars)? What capabilities do we need? And what management systems (budget, headcount) are required?
To balance execution with innovation, allocate 70% of resources to high-confidence initiatives, 20% to medium-confidence bets with significant upside, and 10% to low-confidence, "game-changing" experiments. This ensures delivery on core goals while pursuing high-growth opportunities.
Go beyond using AI for data synthesis. Leverage it as a critical partner to stress-test your strategic opinions and assumptions. AI can challenge your thinking, identify conflicts in your data, and help you refine your point of view, ultimately hardening your final plan.