The Fundamentals of an Intentional Marketing Plan
Most marketing plans are built backwards.
They start with a list of tactics: social posts, ad campaigns, and events. The strategic decisions are often ignored. This approach leads to disjointed execution, scattered priorities, and uncertain results.
Our experience is that marketing plans should be developed differently. Start from the top, with clear decisions, defined outcomes, and intentional investments.
At Anduro, we call this Intentional Marketing Planning. It’s a system we developed through years of consulting and have tested with dozens of clients.
If you're tired of guessing, chasing trends, or overcomplicating your marketing, here’s a high-level look at the fundamentals of building a marketing plan that works.
Created by Jeff Nelson and Gemini
1. Decisions: Set Your Direction First
Every intentional marketing plan starts with decisions, not deliverables.
The first fundamental is committing to clear, strategic choices in four areas:
Business – What is your current position and your ambition?
Product – What are you offering, and what makes it valuable?
Market – Who are you trying to influence or persuade?
Marketing – How can you reach this audience?
Before you launch anything, you need to decide where you’re going, who cares, and why they may be interested. These decisions shape your intentions and set the direction for every tactic that follows. Without them, your plan will lack focus and alignment.
2. Tactics: Turn Decisions Into Action
Once your direction is set, it’s time to decide how you’ll act on it. Tactics are the second fundamental of intentional marketing.
Each tactic should support a specific outcome:
Trying to build awareness? Use paid ads, SEO, or PR.
Need to drive conversions? Focus on offers, landing pages, or demos.
Aiming to strengthen loyalty? Use newsletters, events, or customer stories.
Your tactics should never be random. They must reflect your decisions, serve your audience, and drive measurable impact.
3. Targets: Define Success Up Front
The third fundamental is setting measurable targets.
A tactic without a target is just activity. Targets give your team focus, create accountability, and make it possible to evaluate what’s working.
Clearly defining what you want your buyers to do is critical. These are specific behaviours.
Examples:
“Grow email subscribers by 15% in Q3.”
“Generate 100 qualified leads for the new product launch.”
“Increase website traffic from organic search by 25% in six months.”
Intentional targets turn your marketing plan into a performance plan.
4. Budget: Allocate Resources Intentionally
The fourth fundamental is budgeting, not just as a financial tool, but as a decision-making framework.
Once you’ve selected tactics and defined targets, your budget ensures those actions are properly resourced. It answers key questions like:
What will it take to achieve our goals?
Where should we invest first?
A well-structured budget helps prioritize what matters most. It also prevents wasted effort on underfunded or low-impact initiatives.
The Takeaway: Focus on the Fundamentals
Most marketing problems stem from weak planning, not poor execution. When your plan is grounded in the fundamentals (decisions, tactics, targets and budgets), you create the conditions for consistent success.
At Anduro, we help teams apply these fundamentals using our Intentional Marketing Planning system. The result is greater clarity, better alignment, and more confident decision-making.
Decide where you’re going. Choose how to get there. Invest with purpose.
That’s how you build a marketing plan that performs.
Ready to Apply the Fundamentals of Intentional Marketing?
We offer consulting and workshops to help businesses and teams create measurable, strategic, and effective marketing plans.