Approaching marketing without a plan is like solving a puzzle with missing pieces—we’ve been there. Before using a marketing framework, our efforts lacked direction and felt disorganized. But once we applied a framework, our campaigns became more focused, efficient, and effective.

What is a marketing strategy framework?

A marketing strategy framework outlines how to execute your plan, helping you deliver content to the right audience at the right time. It boosts clarity, simplifies communication within the team, and drives measurable results.

Why a Marketing Framework is Essential

A marketing framework does more than just keep you on track. As your business expands, so does your team, and it becomes crucial to ensure clear communication across all levels, no matter the role or location.

Here’s why a marketing framework is a game-changer:

• It provides a central hub for templates, tools, and resources everyone can access.
• Ensures consistent messaging throughout the organization.
• Boosts marketing effectiveness, driving company growth and profitability.
• Helps the team compare strategies to choose the best path forward.
• Clarifies roles and responsibilities, making it easier to shift team members as needed.
• Reduces errors and time-consuming revisions by streamlining processes.

In short, a framework creates structure, improves efficiency, and keeps everyone aligned.

Top Marketing Frameworks

Marketing has been around for ages, and over time, marketers have developed frameworks to simplify their strategies. Here are some tried-and-true models:

Traditional Marketing Models

1. 7Ps Marketing Mix The 7Ps Marketing Mix is a comprehensive checklist for launching and managing a product or service. Originally focused on 4Ps—Product, Price, Place, and Promotion—it expanded to include People, Process, and Physical Evidence as markets became more complex.

When to Use It:
Use the 7Ps when planning something new or reviewing your current offerings. It ensures all aspects, from pricing to customer experience, are covered.

How to Use It:

1. Product: Define what you're selling, focusing on unique features and benefits.
2. Price: Set your price, considering costs, competitors, and customer value.
3. Place: Decide where to sell—online, in-store, or both. Ensure it's accessible to your audience.
4. Promotion: Plan how to promote—ads, social media, email, etc., to reach your audience.
5. People: Ensure the right team is in place, from sales to customer support.
6. Process: Map out the steps for delivering your product smoothly.
7. Physical Evidence: Provide proof of legitimacy—packaging, reviews, or testimonials.

Pro Tip: Revisit the 7Ps regularly, as markets and customer needs evolve.

2. STP Marketing Model

The STP Marketing Model—Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning—helps you focus on your customers and how to reach them effectively. It breaks down your audience into segments, identifies those most likely to engage, and positions your brand to appeal to them directly.

When to Use It:

Use the STP model when refining your marketing efforts, especially for a diverse audience. It’s great for tailoring campaigns to specific groups.

How to Use It:

1. Segmentation: Divide your market into distinct groups based on demographics, behaviors, or needs.
2. Targeting: Choose the segments most likely to convert or bring high value.
3. Positioning: Craft a message that highlights how your product meets the needs of your target group.

Pro Tip: Revisit your segments as your business evolves to keep your messaging relevant.

Example:
For an eco-friendly product line, segment the audience by sustainability habits, target young professionals interested in green living, and position the product around environmental benefits.

3. Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s Five Forces is a go-to framework when you need to understand your industry's competitive landscape. Unlike most marketing models that focus on the product or audience, this one helps you analyze external forces that can impact profitability.

Developed by Michael Porter, this framework evaluates five key forces shaping competition:

1. Threat of New Entrants
2. Bargaining Power of Suppliers
3. Bargaining Power of Buyers
4. Threat of Substitutes
5. Competitive Rivalry

When to Use It:

Porter’s Five Forces is perfect for strategic planning, whether you’re entering a new market or launching a new product. It’s also helpful for established businesses to reassess their position and find areas for a competitive edge.

How to Use It:

1.    Threat of New Entry: Assess how easy or difficult it is for new players to enter your industry. High barriers like capital costs can reduce this threat.

2.    Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Determine how much control suppliers have over pricing. Fewer suppliers mean more power for them, which can hurt your margins.

3.    Bargaining Power of Buyers: Understand how much power your customers hold. If buyers have lots of options, they’ll push prices down.

4.    Threat of Substitutes: Keep an eye on alternatives that can replace your product. Especially in tech, cheap or free substitutes can quickly disrupt your market.

5.    Competitive Rivalry: Analyze how fierce the competition is. High rivalry can lead to price wars and increased marketing costs.

Pro Tip: Use Porter’s Five Forces to spot opportunities and gaps where your business can shine. If rivalry is high, focus on what makes your brand unique and build loyalty around that.

4. Pirate Metrics (AARRR)

Pirate Metrics, or AARRR, is a modern framework designed by startup expert Dave McClure. It tracks the customer journey from discovery to referral. The five stages — Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, and Referral — give startups and businesses a clear roadmap to optimize growth.

When to Use It:

Pirate Metrics is perfect for businesses focused on understanding and improving their customer lifecycle. Whether you're looking to grow or fine-tune your customer experience, this model provides actionable insights.

How to Use It:

1.    Acquisition: Identify where your customers come from. This could be social media ads, organic traffic, or referrals. Knowing your best acquisition channels lets you invest in what works.

2.    Activation: Track the first meaningful action a customer takes, like signing up or downloading content. Streamline this step to ensure a smooth first interaction.

3.    Retention: Measure how well you're keeping customers. Whether it's repeat visits or continued product use, retention is crucial for long-term success.

4.    Revenue: Understand how customers bring in money. Look at sales, subscriptions, or upsells to assess your financial health.

5.    Referral: Happy customers spread the word. Track reviews, shares, and recommendations to gauge how much organic growth you're generating.

Pro Tip: Regularly monitor each stage and address weak points. If retention is slipping, consider enhancing your customer experience or offering added value to keep them coming back.

5. Lean Analytics Stages

The Lean Analytics Stages framework, created by startup experts Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz, helps startups focus on the right metrics to grow from an idea into a scalable business.

When to Use It Perfect for early-stage startups or new product launches, this framework ensures you're tracking the right data to make smart decisions that drive growth.

How to Use It

1. Empathy: Start by deeply understanding your customers' problems and developing an MVP that addresses their needs.
2. Stickiness: Focus on retention. Ensure users find value and return, fine-tuning your product to reduce churn.
3. Virality: Leverage organic growth. Make sure your existing customers are referring others before spending big on marketing.
4. Revenue: Convert engagement into revenue, whether through subscriptions, one-time purchases, or upsells.
5. Scale: Once you’ve cracked your revenue model, focus on expansion. Use data from earlier stages to fuel growth.

Pro tip: Don’t rush these stages. Each builds on the last, and skipping steps can cost you key insights crucial to long-term success.

6. The Hook Model

The Hook Model, developed by Nir Eyal in Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, is a powerful framework for creating products people can't resist. It's designed to build habit-forming products that keep users engaged long-term.

When to Use It The Hook Model is great for products or services that need ongoing engagement, like apps, websites, or subscription-based models. If you want users to consistently return, this framework will help you design for that.

How to Use It

1. Trigger: Start with a trigger—either external (like a push notification) or internal (like boredom or stress). Identify what will prompt users to engage with your product.
2. Action: Make the required action easy and straightforward, like clicking a button or scrolling. The simpler, the better.
3. Variable Reward: Offer a reward, but keep it unpredictable. This variability keeps users coming back, eager for more.
4. Investment: Encourage users to invest something, like time, effort, or data. The more they invest, the more likely they are to return because they’ve built a personal connection to the product.

Pro tip: The most effective hooks feel natural and genuinely solve a problem. When you strike that balance, users won’t just engage with your product—they’ll become loyal advocates.

7. The ICE Score

The ICE Score, created by growth marketing expert Sean Ellis, is a simple yet highly effective framework for prioritizing ideas. It helps you quickly evaluate growth initiatives by focusing on three key factors: Impact, Confidence, and Ease.

When to Use It The ICE Score is a go-to when you have multiple projects or strategies and need to decide what to focus on first. Whether it's for marketing, product development, or internal improvements, this tool helps you quickly pinpoint what’s most likely to deliver results.

How to Use It

1. Impact: Ask yourself, “What’s the potential impact if this works?” Prioritize ideas that can significantly move the needle for your business. The bigger the potential, the higher the score.
2. Confidence: Next, gauge your confidence in the idea’s success. Consider data, past experiences, or intuition. Higher confidence, higher score.
3. Ease: Finally, how easy is this to execute? Think about time, cost, and resources. The simpler it is to implement, the higher the score.

Rate each factor on a scale (typically 1 to 10), then add up the scores. The highest-scoring ideas are the ones to prioritize.

Pro tip: The ICE Score is a starting point. Don’t be afraid to adjust based on new data or gut feeling. Flexibility will help you make smarter decisions as you go.

8.STEPPS

STEPPS is a viral marketing framework created by Jonah Berger, author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On. This model highlights six key ingredients that make content highly shareable: Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories.

When to Use It STEPPS is great for creating content that sparks excitement and widespread conversation. Whether it's for blog posts, videos, or social media campaigns, this framework ensures your content has the right elements to encourage sharing.

How to Use It

1. Social Currency: People share things that make them look good or feel like insiders. Ensure your content provides value that enhances their image when shared.
2. Triggers: Create content that’s linked to everyday cues, prompting people to think about and discuss it regularly.
3. Emotion: Content that elicits strong emotions (joy, surprise, anger) is more likely to be shared. The stronger the emotional impact, the better.
4. Public: Make your content highly visible. If people see others engaging with it, they’ll be more likely to share and participate.
5. Practical Value: People like sharing helpful or valuable information. Content offering tips, advice, or solutions is more likely to be passed along.
6. Stories: Wrap your message in a compelling narrative. Stories make content more engaging and memorable, boosting shareability.

Pro tip: Combining these elements amplifies their effect. For example, a story that evokes emotion while offering practical value will spread faster than content that only targets one aspect.

9.They Ask, You Answer

They Ask, You Answer is a content marketing framework centered on transparency and trust. Developed by Marcus Sheridan, this approach focuses on answering customers’ most pressing questions openly and honestly.

When to Use It This framework is particularly effective when you want to build a strong connection with your audience and position yourself as a trusted authority. It’s ideal for addressing customer concerns and delivering the information they seek, head-on.

How to Use It

1. Identify common questions: Find out the most frequent questions your customers ask, including pricing, product comparisons, and potential issues. Knowing their concerns is key.
2. Answer transparently: Address these questions fully and honestly. Even tricky topics like pricing or product drawbacks should be tackled openly to build trust.
3. Create content around these questions: Use blog posts, videos, or FAQs to deliver this information, making it easy for customers to find answers.
4. Promote the content: Share the content widely on social media, newsletters, and your website to ensure it's accessible when customers search for answers.

Pro tip: Total transparency is essential. Addressing concerns directly, even when uncomfortable, strengthens trust and helps differentiate you in the market.

Example: If customers are hesitant about pricing, write a blog explaining your pricing structure and how it compares to alternatives. This honesty will lead to more informed, confident purchases.