SOSTAC Marketing Planning and Execution Training Course

Course overview

Marketing teams often have channel activity, campaign calendars and performance data, but lack a single defensible plan connecting commercial targets to customer insight, budget choices and measurable action. This SOSTAC Marketing Planning and Execution Training Course addresses that gap. Participants learn to turn a business brief into a structured marketing plan using SOSTAC: Situation analysis, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action and Control. The result is a planning approach that enables marketing leaders to explain why activity is being funded, how it supports revenue or growth goals, and how performance will be reviewed.

Across five days, participants apply the SOSTAC framework to a live business scenario or their own organisation. They conduct market, customer, competitor and channel analysis; define SMART and KPI-linked objectives; develop segmentation, targeting, positioning and value proposition decisions; and translate strategy into campaign tactics. The course also covers RACE planning, customer journey mapping, channel selection, budget allocation, ownership models, implementation timelines, dashboards and corrective-action routines.

Teaching combines instructor-led framework sessions with worked examples, planning clinics, peer challenge sessions and practical use of Excel, Google Analytics 4, Looker Studio and HubSpot Marketing Hub. Each participant builds a structured marketing plan, including situation-analysis evidence, strategic choices, a prioritised tactical programme, a 90-day action plan, KPI scorecard and reporting cadence. This provides a usable document for stakeholder review rather than a theoretical course workbook.

The course is designed for experienced marketing practitioners and managers who need a repeatable method for planning integrated campaigns, improving marketing accountability or bringing consistency to planning across teams, markets or product lines.

Course objectives

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

• Construct a SOSTAC marketing plan that links commercial goals, customer needs, channel activity and performance measures
• Conduct a situation analysis using SWOT, PESTLE, competitor benchmarking, customer insight and channel-performance evidence
• Define SMART marketing objectives and KPI trees that connect awareness, acquisition, conversion, retention and revenue measures
• Develop segmentation, targeting and positioning decisions supported by personas, value propositions and customer journey maps
• Select integrated campaign tactics using the RACE Framework and channel-role planning
• Build a 90-day marketing action plan with owners, dependencies, milestones, budget assumptions and approval gates
• Design a marketing measurement dashboard using GA4 metrics, campaign parameters and Looker Studio reporting views
• Present and defend a SOSTAC plan through an evidence-based stakeholder review and optimisation recommendation

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Marketing Managers — who need to convert annual or campaign briefs into accountable integrated marketing plans
• Digital Marketing Managers — who must connect paid, owned and earned channel activity to commercial KPIs
• Brand Managers — who need to align positioning, messaging and campaign execution across customer touchpoints
• Campaign Managers — who coordinate multi-channel launches, budgets, agencies and delivery schedules
• Product Marketing Managers — who need a disciplined route from market insight to launch and adoption plans
• Marketing Analysts — who support planning decisions with customer, competitor, web and campaign-performance data

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience of marketing campaigns, content, digital channels, brand activity or customer acquisition, and should understand basic terms such as target audience, conversion, campaign KPI, budget and customer journey. Familiarity with spreadsheets and the ability to interpret simple web or campaign reports is expected. Bringing a current marketing brief, plan or performance report is strongly recommended. Prior use of Google Analytics 4, Looker Studio or HubSpot is helpful but not required; demonstrations use realistic examples. No advanced statistics, coding, media-buying certification or formal marketing qualification is required.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led explanations of each SOSTAC stage, followed by guided application to a running business case or a participant’s own planning challenge. Teams interrogate market data, competitor examples, campaign results and customer journeys before building plan sections in sequence. Planning clinics focus on objective quality, strategic trade-offs, channel roles, budgets and controls. Participants use spreadsheet templates and reporting examples from GA4 and Looker Studio, then present their completed plan for peer and instructor challenge. The final session converts feedback into a practical 90-day implementation roadmap.

Course outline

Day 1: Situation: Establishing the planning evidence base

• SOSTAC framework stages and planning logic
• Marketing brief diagnosis and problem definition
• SWOT analysis with evidence prioritisation
• PESTLE analysis for market and category forces
• Competitor benchmarking and share-of-voice review
• Customer insight sources and persona evidence
• Channel and campaign performance baseline analysis

Workshop: Participants create a situation-analysis pack for a case organisation, producing prioritised SWOT findings, key assumptions and planning implications.

Day 2: Objectives and strategy: Making deliberate market choices

• SMART objective design for marketing outcomes
• KPI trees from business goals to channel metrics
• RACE Framework for customer lifecycle planning
• Segmentation criteria and audience prioritisation
• Target-market selection and exclusion decisions
• Positioning statements and value proposition design
• Customer journey mapping and moments of truth

Workshop: Participants write an objective and strategy section that includes a KPI tree, priority segment definition, positioning statement and journey map.

Day 3: Tactics: Designing integrated campaigns and channel roles

• Marketing mix decisions within the SOSTAC tactics stage
• Paid, owned and earned channel-role mapping
• Content pillars, message architecture and offer design
• Campaign funnel design and conversion pathways
• Email, search, social and landing-page integration
• Media budget allocation and test-and-learn prioritisation
• Agency briefing requirements and creative evaluation criteria

Workshop: Participants build an integrated campaign architecture, producing a channel-role matrix, content sequence, offer logic and initial budget allocation.

Day 4: Action: Turning strategy into an executable operating plan

• 90-day action planning and critical-path sequencing
• RACI matrices for marketing delivery ownership
• Campaign workback schedules and milestone control
• Budget phasing and resource-capacity assumptions
• Marketing technology and data dependency mapping
• Approval workflows, governance and escalation routes
• Risk registers for campaign execution and brand compliance

Workshop: Participants convert their tactics into a 90-day implementation plan with RACI ownership, milestones, dependencies, budget phasing and risk controls.

Day 5: Control: Measuring, optimising and presenting the plan

• Control stage design and reporting cadence
• GA4 campaign measurement and UTM conventions
• Looker Studio dashboard requirements and KPI views
• HubSpot Marketing Hub lifecycle and campaign reporting
• Variance analysis against objectives and budget
• Optimisation triggers and corrective-action decisions
• Stakeholder presentation and plan approval techniques

Workshop: Participants complete and present their SOSTAC marketing plan, producing a KPI scorecard, dashboard specification and prioritised optimisation actions.

Tools & standards covered

Google Analytics 4, Looker Studio, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Microsoft Excel

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