Gartner (2026) — Marketing strategic planning toolkit

Vendor report

Publisher: Gartner
Evidence:: Expert judgment
Vendor interest:: High
Sample:: Not disclosed
Methodology: Not disclosed
Published: 2026

Summary:

Gartner’s guide for CMOs is a practical toolkit (not a research paper) for building a marketing strategic plan in five steps: align with business strategy, assess capabilities, manage budgets, measure progress, and distill the plan to one page.

Published by Gartner, it also serves as a vendor asset that promotes Gartner frameworks, templates, benchmarks, and tools.

Most content is prescriptive guidance rather than original research, with a few cited Gartner stats (e.g., 18+ month planners are 1.5x more likely to report high performance; a CEO/CFO chart from 125 respondents; budget benchmarks from the CMO Spend Survey). Method details aren’t explained on the page.

Key points:
• Longer-term planning correlates with higher reported performance.
• Few CMOs plan beyond three years.
• Only about a third of CEOs/CFOs align with CMOs on marketing’s role in growth.
• Reported priorities include customer experience, new customer types, and new product/service launches.
• Budgets average 7.7% of revenue (many at 6% or less), and budget-conscious CMOs put 64% into digital.

Main limitation: thin methodology and a mix of opinion, templates, and selective benchmarks

Planning questions suggested by Gartner: objectives and goals, primary strategies and execution, direction of product lines or services, success measures, long-term success factors, and major obstacles

Template: Strategic Alignment Discussion Guide for Business Partner Conversations
Questions about that business partner's domain	Notes of your business partner's answer
What are your key business objectives and resultant goals for the next two to five years?	—
What are your primary strategies? How do you plan to execute on these strategies?	—
What is the direction of the key product line, supply chain, service offerings, etc.?	—
How will you know if your unit is successful? What will you measure?	—
What are the key success factors that will make or break your unit's success in the long term?	—

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15%

of CMOs plan beyond three years

1.5x

more likely CMOs who plan 18 months or more ahead are to report high marketing and business performance than those who do not

64%

of spend budget-conscious CMOs allocate to digital channels

34%

of CEOs and CFOs are aligned with their CMOs about how marketing supports growth

Customer experience is the top growth priority CEOs and CFOs name for the next three to five years at 57%

Top company growth strategies ranked by CEOs and CFOs for next 3-5 years (%)
Growth strategy	Share ranked in top 3 (%)
Enhancing customer experience	57%
Improving existing products/services	46%
Introducing new products/services	45%
Changing pricing	33%
Targeting a new type of customer	29%
Increasing promotion and distribution efforts	27%
Acquiring another company (e.g., a competitor)	22%
Entering a new geographic market	22%
Forming a strategic partnership with another firm	14%

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Gartner (2026) — Marketing strategic planning toolkit

Summary:

Cards from this research