In partnership with
Marketing goals often sound more specific than they really are. “Increase qualified leads”, “improve retention”, or “grow awareness with this audience” might give the team a destination, but they don’t tell you what is preventing you from getting there.
There could be dozens of explanations. Lead volume might be fine, but quality is poor. Retention might be falling in one customer segment rather than across the board. Awareness might not even be the real problem.
And each explanation leads to a very different marketing plan.
The problem with jumping straight from goal to tactics is that someone has to fill in everything in between. If you ask ChatGPT to create the plan, it will happily make those assumptions for you.
A better first use of AI is to uncover the questions that need answering before you decide what to do.
Try this prompt:
You are a senior marketing strategist. Help me turn the marketing goal below into a decision-question map that my team can use before we develop a strategy or plan.
Marketing goal:
[INSERT GOAL]
Business context:
[ADD ANY RELEVANT CONTEXT]
Do not recommend campaigns, channels, tactics, or solutions yet. First, identify the questions that could materially change what we decide to do.
Organize the question map into:
1. The business problem we are actually trying to solve
2. What we already know
3. What we need to understand about the audience
4. What we need to understand about current performance
5. Assumptions we need to validate
6. Decisions the team will eventually need to make
7. Evidence or data needed to make each decision
8. Stakeholders who may hold missing information
Prioritize the questions that would have the biggest impact on our eventual strategy.
Then recommend the next three actions we should take to move from this goal to a well-informed marketing plan.
If the goal itself is too broad, ambiguous, or poorly defined, flag that first and explain what needs to be clarified.
A marketing goal is not a strategy. It is the start of a better set of questions.
Happy prompting!
Yes, that Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He has a newsletter on beehiiv. So do Codie Sanchez, Jay Shetty, David Begnaud, Colin & Samir, and Joanna Stern.
They could publish just about anywhere. They chose beehiiv to build a direct connection with the people who want to hear from them most. And you can do the same, whether you’re world-famous or just at the start of your plan for world domination.
Leave Granola and get up to 12 months free of Wispr Flow Notetaker + Dictation
If you have paid time left on an individual Granola plan, we'll match it with a Wispr Flow subscription that includes Notetaker and dictation, and add bonus time, up to 12 months total. Sign in or create a Wispr account and submit proof of your plan to check eligibility.