20 strategic planning tips for marketers preparing for 2026

With the seashore umbrella saved for the winter and the children again in class, it’s planning season for advertising and marketing groups.

Creating a strategic plan for the approaching yr is an annual job for a lot of advertising and marketing groups. It requires collaboration with different groups within the group to make sure company-wide priorities are included into advertising and marketing’s plans. It additionally requires reviewing all advertising and marketing sources, together with individuals, instruments, and budgets.

This listing of 20 ideas for 2026 strategic planning is split into 4 sections: one centered on the planning doc itself, one on the macroeconomic and world enterprise local weather that’s certain to be a spotlight on this yr’s planning, one on AI technique for 2026, and one every for B2B and B2C entrepreneurs.

Whereas strategic planning for the yr forward isn’t most individuals’s concept of enjoyable, the impression of AI and geopolitical occasions would possibly make 2026 planning notably nerve-racking.

Keep calm and plan on.

The strategic planning doc

1. Put readability earlier than complexity

The identify “strategic planning doc” conjures pictures of thick binders or dozens of slides. However your plan must be learn and understood by many individuals, from company management to the entrepreneurs who will execute it. It’s a good suggestion to maintain the core plan concise. In case you go over 5 to 10 pages, you danger stakeholders not studying it.

2. Embed your KPIs early

Obscure targets are a entice. All of us wish to elevate model consciousness, shut extra offers, and convert extra internet visitors. Tie each initiative to measurable outcomes and keep away from imprecise targets. We frequently give attention to the unfavourable with regards to targets. What if we fall brief? However what should you exceed them? Objectives work each methods.

3. Incorporate state of affairs planning

None of us know what’s coming. There may be quite a lot of uncertainty impacting markets, and plenty of issues are merely out of our management. For that cause, put together three fashions to your advertising and marketing group in 2026: optimistic, conservative, and disruptive. Having three fashions will provide help to stay agile within the face of uncertainty.

4. Don’t neglect cross-functional involvement

As pretty because it sounds typically, advertising and marketing doesn’t function in a bubble. You may’t create a strategic plan for the yr forward with out consulting with groups within the income group and past. At a minimal, you will need to embody gross sales, operations, finance, and buyer success if you’d like alignment.

Dig deeper: Think like a product manager, grow like a CMO

Macroeconomic and world enterprise local weather

It will likely be one other difficult yr, as uncertainty and disruption appear to be round each nook. A lot of that is past our management, so we suggest state of affairs planning.

5. Think about geopolitical dangers

Tariffs are only one instance of a geopolitical danger that impacts virtually every thing. In 2026, you’ll be able to anticipate foreign money fluctuations, commerce shifts, and provide chain points. In case you count on them they usually don’t come to fruition, that’s higher for all of us. However be prepared.

6. Is sustainability a part of your technique?

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) elements more and more form investor, regulator and buyer expectations however are additionally brand-dependent. One of the simplest ways to navigate the difficult problems with sustainability and the atmosphere is to know your prospects. If these are essential points to your prospects, you will need to deal with them in your 2026 plan.

7. Account for expertise fluidity

At this time’s workforce is world and infrequently hybrid (or distant). These buildings can work to your benefit as you propose as a result of they impression the place and the way you rent and compensate your staff. Workforces more and more comprise onshore, offshore and “digital” (i.e., AI) employees. Suppose strategically about how you should use them once you plan for 2026.

8. Create an financial uncertainty buffer

Planning for uncertainty sounds counterintuitive, however it’s a necessity. Hold your budgets versatile so your technique can pivot shortly when market circumstances shift.

9. AI technique for 2026

There can be some extent—in all probability very early on—in your 2026 advertising and marketing technique doc the place you’ll deal with AI. Be life like about what AI can and can’t do, what it does effectively, and the place people must be concerned (trace: virtually all over the place).

10. Outline your AI ambition

There are a number of methods to make use of AI in your advertising and marketing. AI can enhance effectivity, assist with buyer engagement, rework enterprise fashions, and extra. Be sure to element how, when and the place you’re utilizing it.

11. Construct AI governance and guardrails

There’s been a rush to make use of AI to spice up productiveness, automate the mundane, and get issues performed sooner, however establishing insurance policies and governance don’t transfer at fairly the identical pace. In the event that they haven’t already been addressed, it’s time to develop tips for the moral use of AI, knowledge transparency and bias mitigation as you propose for 2026.

12. Spend money on AI-ready expertise

Investing in AI-ready expertise contains your current staff members. Develop organization-wide AI literacy and cross-functional experience. It is advisable embody this in your strategic plan for 2026 as a result of a) it’s in all probability going to require some funds for coaching, and b) AI literacy is step one in executing the components of your plan that lean on AI. With out the proper expertise, your staff will wrestle to ship.

13. Rebalance human and machine creativity

To elucidate the place you propose to make use of AI in 2026, you additionally want to debate the place you gained’t use it. Be clear the place you’re snug placing AI to work and the place you should depend on people. AI is sweet at serving to advertising and marketing groups scale. It’s not as robust once you want storytelling or it’s time to create a model second. Deploy AI accordingly.

Dig deeper: GTM misreporting is a risk your company can’t afford to take

Strategic planning ideas for B2B entrepreneurs

14. Anticipate extra shopping for group complexity

B2B entrepreneurs ought to develop a strategic plan for 2026 that accommodates longer, consensus-driven buying cycles. The bigger the B2B buy, the extra roles can be concerned — every with totally different targets and desires. To additional complicate issues, AI search makes it troublesome for advertising and marketing groups to get visibility into the method. Stakeholders are more and more turning to AI for assist with their analysis and to establish distributors and capabilities.

14. Put together for account-based every thing

Account-based advertising and marketing (ABM) was simply step No. 1 in aligning income organizations round an inventory of accounts the place they need to focus their efforts. With a little bit of assist from AI, creating bespoke account experiences is less complicated than ever, and ABM can lengthen past better-targeted show advertisements and e-mail and into occasions and content material customized on the account (and even private) stage. It’s a cross-functional technique that ought to embody the gross sales and buyer success groups.

15. Rev up that RevOps engine

When you’re collaborating along with your colleagues in gross sales, finance, and buyer success, talk about your RevOps technique. The aim is to create a unified, environment friendly, customer-centric income engine, however what that appears like will differ from one group to a different. In case you’ve already established a RevOps technique, annual planning is a chance to evaluate its efficiency and whether or not it must be adjusted to fulfill market and organizational modifications.

16. Make the transfer to signal-based advertising and marketing

The reliance on MQLs and lead scoring is fading at many B2B organizations. Lead scoring is being changed by intent-driven engagement. Nevertheless, what makes for a dependable intent sign is a matter of debate, and it additionally differs from one group to a different. In case you plan to introduce intent indicators to your advertising and marketing technique in 2026, part it in alongside lead scoring. In case you’ve already established intent indicators, work to enhance them and experiment with totally different knowledge sources to see the way it impacts your outcomes.

Strategic planning ideas for B2C entrepreneurs

17. Put together for commerce all over the place

Commerce is shifting off retail web sites virtually as quick because it moved to them. B2C entrepreneurs planning for 2026 should contemplate all of the channels, as their prospects can now make purchases on social media platforms (social commerce), search, streaming platforms, video games, and extra. Augmented and digital actuality may very well be the following channels to make a dent in web site gross sales, and we’ve but to see whether or not AI platforms will leap into the commerce sport as effectively.

18. Deploy personalization with out creepiness

Personalization tends to stroll the tightrope between useful and creepy. Nonetheless, as advertising and marketing groups more and more flip to AI to mine their knowledge and uncover nuggets of details about their prospects, there’s the potential for issues to go mistaken. In case you plan to make use of AI to scale your personalization technique in 2026, make sure you’re doing it responsibly with clear opt-ins. You should additionally guarantee your knowledge is correct and ruled correctly to keep away from violating compliance rules and your prospects.

19. Use subscriptions and loyalty fashions to enhance retention

B2C entrepreneurs planning for 2026 must pay shut consideration to retention methods as buyer acquisition prices (CAC) proceed to rise. Subscription and loyalty methods enhance buyer retention and are a helpful supply of first-party knowledge to energy personalization.

20. Discover experience-first methods

Immersive buyer experiences are one other technique value exploring in 2026 due to their potential to assist retain prospects and collect first-party knowledge. Immersive buyer experiences ship greater than a transactional relationship with prospects. They mix content material, group, and commerce and switch the acquisition expertise into one thing stickier and lasting.