SOSTAC Planner
Plan a full marketing campaign the way the pros do โ Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action, and Control โ in one guided, free planner. No account, no signup.
SOSTAC is the most useful marketing planning framework ever compressed into six letters: Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action, Control. This planner builds a complete campaign plan by walking each stage in order, and the order is the point: tactics chosen before objectives is how most campaigns fail before the first post goes live. Situation asks where you are, Objectives where you are going, Strategy how in principle, Tactics how in detail, Action who does what by when, and Control how you will know it worked. The output is a plan you can hand to a team or a client, built in one sitting instead of assembled from six meetings.
Frequently asked questions
What does SOSTAC stand for?
Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action, Control. Developed by PR Smith in the 1990s, and still the cleanest sequence for moving from analysis to execution without skipping the thinking.
How is strategy different from tactics in SOSTAC?
Strategy is the direction and the reason: which segments, what positioning, what proposition. Tactics are the instruments: the channels, formats, and schedule. If your strategy names Instagram, it is a tactic wearing a strategy costume.
What belongs in the Control stage?
The measures that would tell you the objectives were met, the checkpoints where you will look, and the trigger for changing course. A plan without control is a hope with a budget.