1. T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S
G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G

2. Every marketer knows what it’s like to be buried in spreadsheets from the second
half of Q4 to the middle of Q1. That magical time of year when you get out of the
day-to-day to look back and plan ahead while sales lunges toward the finish line on
last-minute deals.
There’s a real satisfaction to be had in a year’s worth of analysis — combing
through campaign stats and mining the answers to marketing’s toughest
questions: What worked? What turned out to be an epic failure? What haven’t you
tried yet?
A solid plan, backed by data from your previous campaigns and performance, is
more important than ever. Why? Because there’s more noise than ever. You need
to rise above the din to stand out and connect. You need to engage your audience
with authentic conversation and programs that move the needle — and this year,
you have even more competition.
According to Content Marketing Institute, 70% of survey respondents say they’re
creating more content than they did a year ago. And no one creates content for
the sake of it. Rather, marketers need content to survive.
Content is at the heart of every B2B digital marketing campaign — serving to unite
the prospect with the brand at the exact moment of googling. And once that
connection is made, your job is to not screw it up.
T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G 2
A solid plan, backed by data from your
previous campaigns and performance,
is more important than ever.

3. T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G 3
Albert Einstein had a compelling approach to problem solving: “If I had an hour to solve a
problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about
solutions.”
As marketers, are we so different? Not really — especially these days, with access to so
much data. Many of us spend more time in Salesforce poring over dashboards and running
reports than we do running actual campaigns. And that’s not a bad thing.
To be a modern marketer is to be a data-driven marketer, with a keen understanding of
strategies that work and how to convert leads to real sales opportunities. That’s why your
marketing plan is essential: a solid plan means you’ve done a thorough job of
understanding the problems you’re trying to solve first. Only then will you nail the landing.
L E T ’ S D I V E I N T O 2 0 1 7
P L A N N I N G W I T H A F O C U S
O N 5 K E Y A R E A S :
1. Get honest about 2016
2. Set your vision for 2017
3. Create an agile marketing plan
4. Build a programs budget
5. Define your metrics
Many of us spend more time running
reports in Salesforce than we do
running actual campaigns.

4. T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G 4
BEFORE WE BEGIN
We have a lot to cover so let’s lay the
foundation with a few assumptions.
SALES & MARKETING1
Let’s assume that sales and marketing have a shared understanding
of the goals and numbers required in 2017.
YOU2
Let’s assume you’re ready to embrace change and do things
differently by rallying around a theme of “how to be a smarter team
in 2017.” Either that or you’re in a new role and ready to shake some
major action in the new year.
TOUGH QUESTIONS3
Let’s assume you’re ready to ask them, face the answers, and tackle
your marketing plan accordingly.
BUDGET4
Let’s assume you have one and you know what it is.
Whether you’re B2B or
B2C, a lean team or a
global operation, this
guide provides real-world
insights to strengthen
your plan and energize
your team.

5. T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G 5
GETTING HONEST
A YEAR IN REVEIW
Your plan for the upcoming year is only as good as your audit of the past 6 to 12 months.
Take a look at your goals and review questions like:
• Did the company achieve its revenue target? What did marketing contribute?
• Which campaigns generated the most leads? The fewest?
• Which campaigns had the highest impact on sales pipeline?
• How did the funnel perform compared to your assumptions?
• What did you learn about specific strategies, tactics, or processes in 2016?
If you already do quarterly reviews, great! But there’s nothing like a look back at Q1 when
you’re at the end of Q4. Those “what were we thinking?” moments will seem like ancient
history — and serve as a reminder of where NOT to spend your money in the year ahead.
You’ll also realize how far you’ve come, so there’s that.
Get the data, do the analysis, and document it as Section 1: The Year in Review of your
marketing plan. Your executive team will love it, and the marketing team can refer to it as a
sanity check during the (many) strategy meetings to follow.
1
R E S P E C T T H E PA S T
It’s not uncommon for teams to
breeze through the year in
review, but the upcoming year is
only as good as your audit of the
past 12 months.

6. T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G 6
The end of the year is the right time to get your sales and marketing
leaders in a conference room for an afternoon. Your goal? To discuss
revenue targets, confirm a shared understanding of the demand waterfall,
and agree on how many opportunities sales will need to create in order
to achieve the revenue plan.
From there, you’ll plug in your lead to opp conversion rate(s) to figure out
how many leads marketing will need to generate to support the sales
pipeline.
See why this matters? Only once this exercise is complete can you even
begin to think about the campaigns and programs that will drive the
leads you need.
2 YOUR VISION, YOUR PLAN
#marketingGOALS
Lead and OPP
Targets to Achieve
Revenue Goals
Average Sales Price (ASP)
Lead to OPP Conversion Rate
Sales Cycle
Revenue Goals
T H I N K O F I T T H I S W AY:
B O N U S
Not super mathy? Download this Lead to
Revenue Template to help you get started.

7. T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G 7
BIG YEAR, BIG THEMES
Now that the math is out of the way (just kidding,
those numbers will change a lot before you land on
the final plan), here comes the fun part — the reason
most of us wanted to be marketers in the first place:
themes and strategy.
Think of your themes for the year like umbrellas,
under which all of your campaigns and tactical plans
will fit. Themes are the guideposts to keep the
marketing team focused on what really matters and
help you spot extraneous activities that won’t help
you achieve your goals.
A S Y S T E M T H AT S U P P O RT S Y O U
Sign up for the Systematize Your Funnel Webinar to learn how
to implement your demand waterfall from an ops perspective.
For inspiration, look to the brands
you admire. Remember that great
line from Cary Grant? “I pretended
to be who I wanted to be, until I
became that person. Or he
became me.”
Here are a few examples of themes ripped from actual marketing plans:
AWARENESS – This is the year we step up PR and social for brand awareness.
TARGET PERSONA – This is the year we tighten up who we’re marketing to and
abandon generic offers catered to everyone and no one.
DATA – This is the year we increase our marketable database by 50% by engaging
existing leads and increasing net new leads through targeted marketing programs.
INBOUND – This is the year of “them finding us.” We focus on creating content to be
repurposed across channels and SEO optimized. We’ll experiment with ungated
content and minimal forms that drive conversion.
Of course, these are just examples to get you started. You’ll know what’s appropriate
for your team based on the strategic goals of the company. For mature teams at large
enterprises, a reasonable goal might be to optimize lead nurturing to decrease time
to revenue, whereas startups might focus on a foundational goal like, start doing
email marketing.
IDEA:
Why not do a marketing crush session? Talk about the
companies and campaigns you admire and
brainstorm how to make them your own.

8. T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G 8
STOP. START. ADJUST.
Stop, Start, Adjust is an exercise that forces brevity and clarity around where you’ve been and where you want to go.
Once you’ve nailed lead and opp targets and you have an idea of themes for the year, dedicate a session to outline the practices that need to go
away completely, that need to begin in earnest, and that need to be optimized for better performance.
Here are some real-world examples from a recent planning session:
• Stop running programs that don’t
convert leads to opps at an agreed
rate
• Stop reacting and stay on course to
deliver higher quality leads that
convert better
• Stop defining all leads by company
type and do a better job of targeting
by job title/role
• Stop getting distracted by minor data
points and start looking at trends
S T O P
• Start defining a weekly top of the
funnel (TOFU) lead goal, middle of
the funnel (MOFU) lead goal, and a
goal for demos and trials
• Start running end-to-end campaigns
that target different stages of funnel
• Start piloting highly targeted
programs (LinkedIn, content
syndication, webinars) to capture the
right persona
• Start assessing vendors to pilot ABM
• Start segmenting and nurturing
prospects by their by job title and role
S TA RT
• Adjust the balance between highly
targeted campaigns and “catch alls”
that influence opps and still contribute
to the waterfall
• Adjust content strategy to focus more
on MOFU assets and less on
snackable pieces
• Refine the business development
program and enable them with fresh
email templates, follow ups, and
scripts
• Refine the feedback loop between
sales and marketing on campaign
effectiveness and lead quality
A D J U S T

9. T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G 9
3 MAJOR CAMPAIGNS VS. AGILE
WHY YOU NEED BOTH
So far we’ve covered annual planning and how it relates to themes and
strategy. But when you think about the year ahead, consider the need for
flexibility.
Let’s say your team plans to roll out two big campaign themes in the first half
of the year, with various multi-channel programs rolling up under those
themes.
You’re on track with your campaigns, but you’re not hitting the number of
leads you planned. Your goals and themes won’t change, but your tactics
might have to — and that’s what agile is about.
If social is proving ineffective for driving leads, for example, you’ll need to
rethink your social strategy or consider replacing it with another tactic to
close the gap.
A close relationship with sales and a pulse on real-time metrics are key — if
something’s not working, you need to react quickly to turn things around
while there’s still time to impact pipeline. Simply looking back at the end of
the quarter and saying, “That didn’t work; we should have done something
else,” helps no one.
GOAL
250 opportunities
1953 leads (conversion rate = 12.8%)
CONTENT WEBINARS CONTENT WEBINARS EVENTS
Helping agencies
do more with less
Driving efficiency
in the cloud
Content
Syndication
Search/
display
Social
Email
Content
Syndication
The 80/20 rule applies well here: 80% of your campaigns and activities
(and thus, resources) should be planned in advance, while the
remaining 20% can be committed later as you test, learn, and iterate.
Website
Social
Email
Website
Search/
display
Social
Email
Website
Social
Email
Website
Email
Website
Social
BIG CAMPAIGN 1 BIG CAMPAIGN 2
Channels for
Promotion
=

10. T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G 10
4 BUDGETS & PROGRAMMING
3 TIPS TO WHITEBOARD
Now that you’ve outlined your goals and themes for the year, it’s time to think budget and programming.
The results of the Stop, Start, Adjust exercise will help you identify programs that will need more or less
funding in the new year.
Here are 3 guidelines to throw on your budget whiteboard right now:
1. Be bold enough to kill anything that isn’t working. Do not be afraid of losing leads. If you have
campaigns or channels that generate leads with abysmal conversion rates, take them out back and shoot
them. Free up that budget to try something new. You have nothing to lose.
2. Revisit your target personas. Funny how we lose sight of who we’re actually marketing to in the midst
of all this number crunching. Make sure everyone is clear on who your target personas are and aren’t —
and evaluate whether your programs do a good job of reaching them.
3. Budget with agility. We talked about marketing agility, and the same is true of budgeting. Start with the
big buckets and assign budgets accordingly. Then plan a budget review every two weeks and adjust as
necessary. Give your team the freedom to spend smarter on campaigns that move the needle.
P R O T I P
If you have budget to spend at the end of the year, spend it. Start evaluating
new technologies and queuing up campaigns to accelerate deals.
Sales reps are desperate to
hit Q4 numbers, so
negotiate a deal on new
technologies you want to
pilot in the new year.
Thinking about ABM? Start
assessing vendors, lock in
the deal, and implement
for a January kick off.

11. T H E M O D E R N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O 2 0 1 7 P L A N N I N G 11
5 METRICS
MEASURING WHAT MATTERS
We all agree that B2B marketing and analysis is tough. Our systems are difficult and not fully integrated. We invest in automation platforms like
Marketo, Pardot, and Hubspot, yet still rely on Salesforce and Excel for most of our reporting. Our roles have evolved into a unicorn-like mix that
requires deeply analytical and uniquely creative thinking.
Regardless of the complexities you face, 5 metrics will help you stay the course:
1. Lead to opp conversion. Sure, this metric relies on sales follow up and performance, but it also reflects
lead quality. Track this conversion rate monthly but also go back a year or two and observe trends.
2. Campaign opportunity influence and ROI. Whatever you do, have access to a dashboard that shows
which campaigns and content are influencing opportunities during the quarter.
3. Email open rates and engagement. Opens and click-throughs are a great way to check the
temperature of your nurture campaigns. Email is still the best way to engage leads once they’re in your
database. Poor performance could be a sign of exhaustion and/or lack of compelling offers.
4. Funnel velocity. Work with marketing ops to ensure you have a way to track lead flow from beginning
to end. When the CEO asks, “How long does it take a lead to convert to an opportunity?” you should
probably have the answer ready to go.
5. Happiness. You read that right. Don’t lose sight of your team and your customers. Don’t get so caught
up in analysis paralysis and hitting your numbers that you sacrifice quality and sanity.
Enjoy the 2017 planning process, and may you do truly amazing marketing work this year!
TA L K I T O U T ?
If you’re in the midst
of planning and
analysis, Sponge can
help. Talk to a
demand gen expert
and get some fresh
perspective.
“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” – Sherlock Holmes
CONTACT US

12. A B O U T U S
Sponge is an all-in-one marketing planning & analytics solution that helps users model different revenue
scenarios, create data-driven marketing plans, and measure performance to understand which campaigns
are driving results.
Founded by demand gen leaders frustrated by the lack of visibility into core operational metrics, Sponge
drives sales and marketing alignment by enabling users to work back from revenue goals to calculate lead
and opportunity goals, manage campaigns, and analyze performance across channels — all without Excel.
Want to see how Sponge can automate your funnel math?
SIGN UP FOR EARLY ACCESS: http://spongesoftware.com/beta