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Plan

Plan is the first phase of the campaign lifecycle. It is where a campaign goes from an idea to a defined strategy. The goal of this phase is to answer three questions: What are we trying to achieve? Who are we trying to reach? How will we get there?

What happens in Plan

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During Plan, the team creates a campaign brief — a free-form rich text document written in the brief editor on the campaign detail page. The brief serves as the single source of truth for everyone involved. It ensures alignment before any production work begins.

A typical brief covers:

  • Goal — A specific objective (e.g., “Generate 300 qualified leads from mid-market SaaS companies”).
  • Audience — Who the campaign targets, including segments or personas.
  • Key messages — The core ideas you want the audience to take away.
  • Channels — Where you will reach the audience (email, LinkedIn, blog, etc.).
  • Timeline — High-level milestones and the target launch date.
  • Success metrics — How you will measure results.
  • Budget — Spending constraints or allocations.

The brief is free-form — you decide what sections to include. March does not enforce a fixed template, so you can adapt the brief to fit the campaign.

The brief editor

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The brief uses a rich text editor powered by TipTap with full markdown support, including images. The editor supports:

  • Edit and preview modes — toggle between writing and reviewing.
  • Auto-save with debounce, so you never lose work.
  • Direct AI integration through Ask March.

AI assistance in Plan

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Ask March can draft a campaign brief for you. Open the Ask March sidebar from the campaign view, describe your objective, and March generates a suggested brief. You can:

  • Insert at cursor — Add AI-generated text at a specific point in the brief.
  • Replace brief — Swap the entire brief with the AI-generated version.
  • Iterate — Ask follow-up questions or request revisions.

March generates the brief using context from the campaign name, description, and any prior conversation in the Ask March session.

Campaign properties during Plan

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While writing the brief, you can also set campaign-level properties:

  • Start date and end date — The campaign’s time window.
  • Launch date — When the campaign is expected to go live.
  • Budget — An optional spending allocation.
  • Owner — The person driving the campaign.

These are set in the campaign detail header and are optional during the Plan phase.

When to move forward

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A campaign is ready to move into the Coordinate phase when:

  • The brief captures the campaign’s strategy clearly enough for the team to start producing content.
  • The team has agreed on what outputs need to be created.

There is no enforced gate — the lifecycle phases are a conceptual framework, not system-enforced states. You start creating outputs when you are ready. The brief remains editable throughout the campaign, so you can refine it as the work evolves.

Example

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A demand generation team wants to run a webinar series to generate leads for a new product tier. They create a campaign called “Product Tier Webinar Series” and write a brief using Ask March. They describe the objective (“500 registrations across three webinars”) and March generates a brief covering the target audience, three suggested webinar topics, and recommended promotion channels. The team edits the brief, adds budget details, and sets the launch date. Once aligned, they start creating outputs.

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