Your marketing strategyneeds a strategy
Only 17% of marketing teams have their whole strategy written down. This is a free tool to prioritize yours, so the team leaves focused on what will make the most impact this quarter.
A guided session you can run with your team, not just a simple template. Free, no login, shareable by link.
Most marketing strategy is remembered, not written
“47% of surveyed marketers said portions of their strategy are documented, 22% said they don't currently document but plan to document their strategy, 17% said they document their entire strategy, and 14% said they have no documented strategy.”
So roughly one team in six has the whole thing written down. The rest is carried in heads, random notes, and meetings, which means it puts all of your execution at risk.
The same survey found top marketers were 414% more likely to report success when they documented their strategy. Writing it down is the fastest path to success by far.
- CoSchedule, 2022 Trend Report on Marketing Strategy. Survey of 515 marketers in 75 countries, closed December 2021.
- 1. Set the goal
Pick what this quarter is actually for. Distribution, conversion, speed, or making a small budget go far.
You get. A stated goal at the top of the plan, and weightings that follow from it. Every score afterwards is measured against this, not against everyone's private idea of good.
- 2. Brainstorm wide
Everyone adds the channels and activities they think are worth a shot, starting from a seeded library rather than an empty grid.
You get. One list with everything on the table, including the ideas that usually die because nobody senior said them out loud.
- 3. Tidy up
Merge the duplicates, cut the ones that were never serious, and agree what each entry actually means.
You get. A shortlist the whole team reads the same way. This is the step that stops “content” and “blogging” being scored as two different bets.
- 4. Score independently
Each person scores every idea 0 to 5 on benefit and cost, on their own, before anyone compares notes.
You get. Honest numbers. Scoring alone first keeps the loudest voice from setting the ranking, and every cell where you disagreed by two points or more gets flagged.
- 5. Reveal and override
Look at the ranking the math produced, argue about where it feels wrong, and move what you want to move. A reason is required for any big move.
You get. A ranked plan split into what to test now, what to keep warm and what to drop. Plus a deck, a PowerPoint file and a written strategy file, with each override recorded next to the math.
This is not a template
You can get a prioritization spreadsheet anywhere. You know that the blank grid isn't the hard part. The hard part is getting six people to agree what goes in it, score it honestly, then write down what they decided. This is a conversation, a mini workshop — and the way to document and stick to your actual strategy.
Expect to spend a real meeting on it. You leave with a ranked plan, a deck you can present, and a written strategy file. Even a file to drop in and keep your AI marketing agents honest. In the end, so much more than just those random notes and memories.
Grab the free spreadsheet →
It opens straight into your own copy, so you are never editing ours. It will not flag where your team disagreed and it will not write the plan up — that is what the guided version is for.
What you leave with
A ranked list your team actually agrees with, or knows exactly where it doesn't.
A benefit-versus-cost map that shows the quick wins and the money pits at a glance.
The cells where the team's scores spread out by two points or more — that's your agenda.
Every override, with the one-line reason someone gave for moving a channel or activity.
A deck, web and PowerPoint, ready to present without a screenshot in sight.
Why written beats (poorly) remembered
Score once with your team and you leave with a quarterly marketing plan everyone can point back to.
Marketers who document strategy were 414% more likely to report success (CoSchedule).
Half of CMOs say short-term needs crowd out long-term planning (Gartner). A scored plan is the thing you point at.
Forrester calls it a plan of record: one reference the team stops re-litigating every week (yikes!).
Get the plan written down this week
Free, no login, and shareable by link. Bring the team, or start on your own and invite them once the list is up.
Questions marketers ask before they start
What is a marketing prioritization matrix?
A marketing prioritization matrix scores each candidate channel or activity on a fixed set of benefit and cost criteria. It applies the team's weights and ranks every option by net score. That replaces gut feel with a number the whole team argued over.
How do you prioritize marketing channels?
1. List every channel and activity you could run. 2. Agree the four to seven things that matter: reach, conversion, shareability, ease of outsourcing, hard cost, effort, and lead time. 3. Weight them for your current goal. 4. Score each item 0 to 5 per criterion and rank by net score. 5. Override the ranking where the team knows something the model does not, and write down why.
How is the score calculated?
Benefit = Σ(score ÷ 5 × weight) across benefit criteria, Cost = the same across cost criteria, both 0–100. Score = 50 + (Benefit − Cost) ÷ 2, so a channel or activity with maximum benefit and zero cost scores 100 and one with zero benefit and maximum cost scores 0.
What weights should I use?
Start from the goal. Optimising for distribution (the default) puts most weight on reach and effort. Optimising for conversion moves weight to high conversion. Optimising for speed moves it to lead time. The presets encode those; change them once the team disagrees with a ranking and can say why. The Distribution preset weights benefit as reach 30%, high conversion 40%, shareability 10% and ease of outsourcing 20%, and cost as hard cost 30%, effort 40% and lead time 30%.
How does this compare to ICE or RICE scoring?
RICE and ICE are product prioritization formulas with fixed factors: reach, impact, confidence, and effort. Marketing Priority Planner keeps the same weighted idea for channels and activities but lets the team choose the factors. It splits benefit from cost so the trade-off is visible. It scores by several people so disagreement shows up as data.
Why score as a team instead of one person?
One person's scores encode one person's assumptions. When four people score independently and the tool shows where they diverge by two or more points, those cells are the conversation the meeting should be about.
What if the ranking is wrong?
It usually is, somewhere. Drag a channel to where the team thinks it belongs; if it moves more than two places the tool asks for a one-line reason, and the deck shows both the computed and the team order with those reasons.
Which marketing channels are included by default?
Thirty-five B2B channels and activities, grouped as owned, earned, paid, partner and community. Owned options include the internal blog, SEO content hubs, and guest placements. Earned and paid options include PR, directories, review sites, co-marketing, paid newsletters, LinkedIn ads, events, and analyst relations. Add your own or archive any.
Is Marketing Priority Planner free? Do I need an account?
Free, no account. A scorecard is a link: send the edit link to your team, the view link to everyone else. Downloading the PowerPoint deck asks for an email.
What do I get at the end?
A ranked list, a benefit-versus-cost map with quick wins and money pits, the cells the team disagreed on, the overrides and reasons, and a top-five shortlist with first steps, as a web deck and a PowerPoint file.
How often should we re-score channels?
Quarterly, or whenever the goal changes. Duplicate last quarter's scorecard so the weights, channels, and activities carry over and only the scores reset.
Who is this for?
Marketing teams of two to ten at B2B companies deciding where the next quarter's distribution effort goes: directors and VPs of marketing, product marketers, founders doing marketing.
How does this run the Bullseye framework?
Bullseye, from Gabriel Weinberg's book Traction, says brainstorm broadly, then narrow to an inner ring you actually test. Marketing Priority Planner runs that loop with your whole team. Everyone adds channels and activities and scores them on benefit and cost. The ranking comes from the math, not the loudest voice. Ideas land in the Inner, Middle, or Outer ring by team rank. Re-run it next quarter with the same list.