RACE Digital Marketing Planning Framework Training Course

Course overview

Marketing teams often run paid media, email, social and website activity as separate workstreams, then struggle to explain how those activities contribute to qualified demand, sales conversion and customer retention. The RACE framework—Reach, Act, Convert and Engage—provides a structured way to connect channels, content, journeys, budgets and measurement to commercial objectives. This course helps participants replace channel-led campaign planning with a measurable digital marketing plan that identifies priority audiences, lifecycle gaps, conversion barriers and accountable performance targets.

Participants learn to apply the RACE planning process from situation analysis through to implementation and optimisation. They assess digital maturity, define SMART objectives and KPIs, build audience and customer-journey maps, select channel roles, create content and media plans, and design conversion and retention activity. The course covers practical use of Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager and Looker Studio to establish measurement requirements, review performance and communicate results to stakeholders.

Delivery combines instructor-led RACE framework walkthroughs with workshops built around a realistic organisation or the participant’s own business context. Each day develops a component of an integrated plan, including a channel audit, objective tree, persona and journey map, campaign plan, measurement framework and optimisation backlog. By the end of the week, participants leave with a completed RACE digital marketing planning pack that can be refined with internal teams and used to brief agencies, secure budget approval or guide the next planning cycle.

The course is particularly valuable for marketing professionals who already manage digital activity but need a consistent planning method across acquisition, conversion and customer engagement. It also supports managers responsible for making channel investment decisions and improving the quality of marketing performance reporting.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply the RACE framework to structure an integrated Reach, Act, Convert and Engage marketing plan
• Audit current digital channels, customer touchpoints and competitor activity using a RACE gap-analysis template
• Define SMART commercial objectives and a KPI hierarchy linking marketing metrics to revenue and retention outcomes
• Build audience personas and customer-journey maps that identify content, channel and conversion requirements
• Create a channel-role and content plan for paid, owned and earned media across the RACE lifecycle
• Design conversion-rate and customer-engagement interventions using landing-page, email and remarketing tactics
• Configure a practical measurement framework using GA4 events, campaign tagging and Looker Studio reporting requirements
• Produce a prioritised 90-day RACE action plan with owners, budget assumptions, milestones and test hypotheses

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Digital Marketing Managers — who need to coordinate channels against measurable acquisition, conversion and retention goals
• Marketing Managers — who must turn annual commercial targets into an integrated digital activity plan
• Performance Marketing Specialists — who need to connect media optimisation to the wider customer journey
• Content Marketing Managers — who need to plan content by audience intent and lifecycle stage
• E-commerce Managers — who are accountable for improving traffic quality, conversion rate and repeat purchase
• Marketing Agency Account Managers — who need a repeatable framework for planning and presenting client activity

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience of digital marketing activity, such as managing campaigns, publishing content, reviewing website performance or working with an agency. Familiarity with common concepts including target audiences, landing pages, conversion metrics, email marketing, paid search or paid social is assumed. Participants should be able to interpret basic marketing data such as sessions, leads, conversion rate, cost per acquisition and revenue. Access to a laptop is required for workshop work. Prior hands-on administration of Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager or Looker Studio is helpful but not required; the course focuses on planning and measurement decisions rather than platform certification.

Training methodology

The week is delivered through instructor-led framework sessions, guided planning demonstrations and practical workshops. Participants work with a RACE planning workbook, using either a provided case organisation or their own business context. They assess channel evidence, map lifecycle journeys, set objectives and KPIs, allocate channel roles, and translate findings into campaign and measurement requirements. Small-group critiques test the logic of each plan against commercial constraints. The final session is an application workshop in which participants assemble, present and refine a 90-day RACE action plan with instructor feedback.

Course outline

Day 1: RACE foundations and digital opportunity analysis

• The Reach, Act, Convert and Engage lifecycle and its planning logic
• Aligning digital marketing objectives with revenue, pipeline and retention targets
• RACE digital maturity assessment across strategy, channels, data and capability
• Digital channel audit methods for paid, owned and earned media
• Competitor benchmarking using search visibility, content and customer-experience evidence
• SWOT and TOWS analysis for digital marketing priorities
• Customer lifecycle gaps and opportunity scoring

Workshop: Participants complete a RACE maturity and channel-gap assessment for a case organisation or their own business, producing a prioritised opportunity list.

Day 2: Audience, journeys and Reach planning

• Segmenting audiences by value, need, intent and buying context
• Persona development using behavioural, firmographic and first-party data
• Customer-journey mapping across awareness, evaluation, purchase and loyalty stages
• Search intent analysis for organic and paid discovery activity
• Reach channel roles for SEO, paid search, paid social, partnerships and display
• Media targeting principles in Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager
• Content themes and message propositions for early-stage demand generation

Workshop: Participants build a priority persona and Reach-stage journey map, then define channel and message roles for each key touchpoint.

Day 3: Act planning and conversion design

• Act-stage micro-conversions and lead-capture pathways
• Content offers, interactive tools and calls to action by audience intent
• Landing-page anatomy, message match and form-design principles
• Conversion-rate optimisation hypotheses and prioritisation models
• Nurture sequence design for email, remarketing and sales follow-up
• Convert-stage checkout, enquiry and booking journey analysis
• Experiment design using A/B test objectives, audiences and success metrics

Workshop: Participants diagnose a weak landing-page-to-conversion journey and produce a prioritised conversion optimisation backlog.

Day 4: Engage planning, measurement and reporting

• Engage-stage retention, repeat purchase, advocacy and customer-value objectives
• Lifecycle email and CRM communication planning
• Customer feedback, reviews and social proof as engagement mechanisms
• KPI trees linking RACE measures to commercial outcomes
• GA4 event, conversion and audience requirements for RACE reporting
• UTM campaign-tagging conventions and attribution limitations
• Looker Studio dashboard design for lifecycle performance reviews

Workshop: Participants create a RACE KPI framework and reporting specification, including GA4 measurement requirements and a dashboard wireframe.

Day 5: Integrated plan, investment choices and implementation

• Consolidating RACE findings into a one-page strategic planning framework
• Setting 90-day objectives, milestones and accountable owners
• Prioritising initiatives using impact, effort, confidence and dependency criteria
• Budget allocation principles across acquisition, conversion and retention activity
• Agency and internal-team briefing requirements
• Marketing governance, review cadences and optimisation routines
• Presenting a RACE business case to senior decision-makers

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a 90-day RACE digital marketing plan containing priorities, channel actions, KPIs, budget assumptions and test roadmap.

Tools & standards covered

Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, Looker Studio

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions