It’s time to start marketing. Where do you get started? Ask yourself, the following questions:

1. What is the company goal?

2. How will the marketing team set objectives to support that goal?

3. Which marketing strategies will best drive those objectives forward?

4. What tactics should we execute for that strategy?

Ideally, the company has one primary company goal. For each relevant goal, you’ll want one to a few objectives. For each objectives, one to a few strategies. For each strategy, one to a few tactics.

Here’s an example of what the startup marketing plan might look like:

With this template, yo do the following. State a) the company goal, b) the marketing department objectives, c) the strategies each team in the department may support and d) the tactics the individual contributors will execute upon.

Your final framework might be a more detailed version of something like this:

This is called a GOST framework, standing for Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Tactics. Whether you don’t know where to get started, need a way to manage up, or wish to create clarity for your team, the GOST framework is a great way frame your plan.