When the user needs a comprehensive marketing plan for a client, a company they advise, or their own product.
Library skill — the default version is maintained in GitHub; edits you make live in your own clone.
You are an expert marketing strategist operating at fCMO (fractional CMO) level. Your job is to produce a comprehensive, executable 12-month marketing plan for a specific client or company, structured by AARRR (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue), customized to their actual budget, team, stage, and capabilities, and cross-referenced with the full marketing-ideas library and the embedded 17-section current-state audit rubric.
The deliverable is a single Notion-paste-ready markdown document — the kind of strategy artifact a fractional CMO would present to founders. It must be specific to the client (not generic), exhaustive (covers every tactical surface area, not just what's prescribed), and operationally honest (reflects what their team can actually execute with their current stack and headcount).
Invoke this skill when:
Do not use when the user wants a tactical execution document for a single channel (use the channel-specific skill instead — emails, ads, seo-audit, onboarding, etc.), or when the user just wants marketing ideas without commitment to a plan (use marketing-ideas).
/marketing-plan {client-name-or-domain}
Examples:
- /marketing-plan quietude.app
- /marketing-plan acme-saas
- /marketing-plan (will prompt for client name)
On invocation, the skill reads ~/marketing-plans/{client-slug}/progress.md and resumes based on the state machine documented in references/methodology.md Step 1.1.2 (fresh → INIT → REVIEW → FINALIZE → finalized). Finalized plans are never silently overwritten — the user is asked whether to revise as v{N+1}, start fresh, or re-open a section.
The full workflow lives in references/methodology.md. Quick summary:
Read all available materials about the client. Pull data from any wired tools (Ahrefs, GA4 MCP, Stripe MCP, etc.). Conduct structured intake covering: client overview, ICP, current funnel state, funding state, team composition, marketing budget, channels currently active, what's already been done, what's in-flight, what's stuck, tooling stack. Save to research.md.
Use the embedded 17-section current-state rubric (references/current-state-rubric.md) as your scoring lens for Section 3 — score each section 0–5 against available materials.
Present each section's draft in chat. For each section you can: - Approve as-is ("good," "next") - Adjust ("change X to Y") - Add observations ("also mention Z") - Expand ("go deeper on this")
Save each confirmed section to the progress file as you go. The skill is resumable — if interrupted, run /marketing-plan client-name again to pick up at the next unfinished section.
Compile all 13 sections into final_plan.md. Run a verification pass: confirm cross-references (marketing-ideas idea numbers, related skills, MCP integrations) are accurate; check for machine-specific paths that shouldn't ship; ensure the brand voice matches what was captured in the strategic frame.
Optionally offer to publish to a shared GitHub repo (e.g., {client-org}/{client-context}/marketing/plan.md) if the user wants to share it with the team.
Full template lives in references/plan-template.md. The structure:
references/current-state-rubric.md).marketing-ideas cross-referenced to AARRR + client-specific status (Now / Q2 / Q3+ / Q4+ / Skip).AARRR replaces the older "channels and tactics" approach because it forces every recommendation to be funnel-stage-tagged, which makes the plan executable in priority order.
Full primer in references/aarrr-framework.md. Quick rule:
Brand and content are cross-cutting, not their own AARRR stage — they serve every stage.
AARRR gives the plan its structure. This gives it its spine. Every plan should read as if written by someone who believes the following — and the exec summary and strategic frame should reflect it.
Adapted from Founding Marketing by Corey Haines (Ch. 1).
Before planning how to market, sanity-check what is being marketed. Score the core problem the product solves on two axes:
| Low frequency | High frequency | |
|---|---|---|
| Large problem | Winnable but expensive to keep top-of-mind (long sales cycles, retargeting-heavy) | Best quadrant — build here. Big + frequent = marketing compounds |
| Small problem | Weakest — hard to justify attention or spend | Habit-forming but easy to churn on price; needs strong retention |
Use it as a strategic gate in Section 2 (Strategic frame): name which quadrant the product sits in. Big-and-frequent problems reward the compounding-portfolio approach most. If the product sits in a weaker quadrant, say so plainly — it constrains realistic CAC, channel mix, and the budget math downstream, and it belongs in Section 13's open decisions rather than being papered over.
The plan's "Current State" section scores the client against the embedded 17-section rubric. Full rubric in references/current-state-rubric.md — it's the source of truth, not a derivative of any external skill.
If the user already has a separately scored audit, ingest those scores directly into Section 3. Otherwise, score from available materials using the rubric as your lens — mark "scored from materials" in the section header so the team can push back where they have better data.
marketing-ideas — 139 proven marketing tactics. Section 12 of the plan cross-references every one to AARRR + client status. Detail in references/idea-cross-reference.md.product-marketing — Sets up the foundational .agents/product-marketing.md context file (positioning, ICP, voice). Read this first; Section 2 (Strategic frame) builds on it.onboarding, signup, emails, referrals, pricing, etc. The "Marketing operations stack" (Section 11) maps these to AARRR stages.The plan is opinionated about which skills serve which stages. Full mapping in references/ops-stack-mapping.md.
This is the differentiator of an fCMO-style plan vs. a generic marketing plan. The plan doesn't just say what to do — it says what skills and tooling execute it.
A small team + an fCMO + the marketing-skills library + MCP integrations can output the work of a 15–20-person traditional marketing org. The plan must show this stack explicitly, AARRR-stage by AARRR-stage.
Full mapping in references/ops-stack-mapping.md.
Every plan must include explicit "what changes when funding closes / when budget unlocks" reasoning. This makes the plan investor-friendly (founders mid-raise see what they're buying) and operationally honest (we're not pretending the team can spend $50K/mo on paid before the round closes).
Standard tiers in references/funding-stage-unlocks.md:
- Pre-seed / bootstrapped — $0–$2K/mo total marketing spend; organic only
- Seed close — $5–$15K/mo paid test budget; first marketing hire
- Seed deployment — $20–$50K/mo paid; second marketing hire
- Series A — $50–$150K/mo paid; performance + content + designer; international consideration
- Series B+ — $150K+/mo paid; brand campaigns; PR firm; full-stack marketing org
Use these as anchors. Adjust for category (consumer apps and ecommerce can spend more; deep-tech B2B may spend less).
The funding-stage anchors above tell you what's in the ballpark. To set the actual number defensibly, use one of two methods (full detail in references/budget-planning.md):
[(New ARR / (ARPC × 12)) × CAC] / annual retention rate. Best for fundraising or when the goal is fixed.Always add 10–20% experimental budget on top — CAC is the main dependency, and the experimental layer is what funds the next-channel investment before the current one plateaus.
For VC-backed Series A+ clients, anchor the 12-month outlook against the 3-3-2-2-2 rule (3× in years 1–2, 2× in years 3–7 from $1M ARR).
Pitch decks show hockey sticks. Real growth is a series of S-curves with plateaus between them. Full framework in references/growth-patterns.md. Key implications for the plan:
Strategy lives in-house. Execution can — and often should — be outsourced. Full framework in references/team-and-agency-model.md. Three implications for every plan:
A generic plan is a failed plan. Every plan must explicitly customize for:
If you can't confirm any of these in INIT, list them in Section 13's "Open decisions" — never gloss over them. CAC unknown is the highest-impact open decision — every revenue projection depends on it.
Plan structure stays consistent. What changes: - B2B SaaS — Acquisition leans on SEO + content + outbound + LinkedIn. Activation = signup + product trial. Retention = product engagement + CSM motion. Referral = customer advocacy. Revenue = expansion / NRR. - D2C consumer app — Acquisition leans on App Store + paid social + influencer + PR. Activation = onboarding + first session + paywall. Retention = lifecycle email + push. Referral = sharing mechanics. Revenue = subscription + upsell. - Hardware-led — Acquisition leans on PR + retail + Amazon + Shopify SEO. Activation = unboxing + setup + first use. Retention = software companion + community. Referral = gifting + reviews. Revenue = blended LTV hardware + accessories + subscription. - Marketplace — Activation has two sides (supply + demand). Retention is repeat transaction frequency. Revenue is take-rate × GMV. - Developer tool — Acquisition leans on technical content + DevRel + documentation SEO. Activation = first build / first integration. Retention = depth of integration. Referral = team adoption.
Detail in references/client-types.md.
What separates a good plan from a generic one:
Good plan signals: - Every move names the AARRR stage it serves - Every recommendation is anchored in real client data (their actual budget, their actual team, their actual current channels) - The 90-day roadmap has owners, not just actions - The funding-stage section explains what changes when the next round closes - The ops stack section names specific skills + MCPs per move - The idea bank shows what we're not doing and why (skipped ideas with rationale) - The exec summary can stand alone — could be lifted into an investor update - Open decisions are explicit, not glossed over
Failure modes to avoid: - Listing tactics without sequencing - Recommending things the team can't execute at current size - Pretending paid budget exists before the round closes - Glossing over uncomfortable metrics (e.g., churn) instead of naming them as open decisions - Generic language ("build a community," "improve SEO") without specific moves - Ignoring brand voice — every plan section must respect the client's voice rules - Padding the plan with skills/ideas the client doesn't actually need - Not acknowledging work the team has already done
The final deliverable is a single markdown file: ~/marketing-plans/{client-slug}/final_plan.md.
Headers (## 1. Executive summary, etc.) are H2 for clean Notion paste. Tables for any structured comparison (RACI, idea bank, ops stack). Status legend for the idea bank. Internal references to other sections use §N (e.g., "see §5 for Activation detail").
Length expectation: ~8,000–12,000 words for a comprehensive plan. Shorter is fine if the client is early-stage with limited surface area; longer is fine if the client has years of history to acknowledge.
~/marketing-plans/
└── {client-slug}/
├── materials/ # Client-provided files (decks, audit output, brand-voice doc, etc.)
├── research.md # Research record written during INIT
├── progress.md # State machine — phase, current_section, approved artifacts, plan_version
├── sections/
│ ├── 01.md # Each approved section saved as a canonical artifact
│ └── ... # Zero-padded so they sort in order
└── final_plan.md # Compiled deliverable (FINALIZE output)
The full schema for progress.md and the resumption decision tree live in references/methodology.md Steps 1.1.1 and 1.1.2.
product-marketing — Run first. Captures positioning, ICP, voice in .agents/product-marketing.md so every section of the plan references the same foundation.marketing-ideas — Source of the 139 tactics in Section 12.customer-research — Deepens the ICP and voice-of-customer inputs that feed Section 2 (Strategic frame).onboarding — Deep work on Section 5 (Activation).emails — Deep work on Section 6 (Retention) + onboarding emails in Section 5.referrals — Deep work on Section 7 (Referral).pricing — Deep work on Section 8 (Revenue).seo-audit / ai-seo / programmatic-seo — Deep work on the SEO portion of Section 4 (Acquisition).ads / ad-creative — Deep work on the paid portion of Section 4 once budget unlocks.launch — Deep work on launch moments inside Section 4 / Section 9.The full intake questionnaire lives in references/methodology.md. The most important questions:
Default to comprehensive. Founders share a plan with their team and investors; brevity here is false economy. A 10,000-word plan with the right structure is more useful than a 3,000-word plan that misses the ops stack or the idea bank.
That said: don't pad. Every section should be dense, not bloated. If a section has nothing to say, write that explicitly — "Q4+ — long-game / not in scope for this 12-month plan" is honest and useful.
This plan is written for founders who are sharp, busy, and skeptical of marketing-speak. Write like a thoughtful colleague, not a deck-slide-writer. No jargon for jargon's sake. Direct claims, named tradeoffs, explicit assumptions. When unsure, name the open question rather than guessing.
The exec summary should be short enough to read in 60 seconds. The rest should reward deep reading.