11 Best Strategic Planning Templates for Your Business Growth

Developing a winning business strategy is crucial yet undervalued – 86% of leaders spend less than one hour per month crafting strategic plans. And the impact shows – 48% of organizations fail to accomplish their goals.

My friend, with the right planning template, it doesn‘t have to be this way. Let me walk you through 11 awesome templates for visualizing missions, conducting competitor research, defining tactics, tracking progress, and more. I‘ll also share my insights as a data analyst and tech geek on choosing the best template for your needs.

Why You Need a Strategic Plan (and Template)

Strategic planning guides leaders in determining where the company aims to go and how it will get there. The process yields a documented plan outlining:

• Mission – Your purpose, vision, values
• Environmental Analysis – Internal and external evaluations
• Objectives – Specific, measurable aims
• Tactics – Detailed execution plans for achieving goals

Without strategic planning, businesses drift without direction. There‘s no North Star metric or mission to guide decisions and rally the troops towards. Leaders also lack feedback mechanisms to gauge performance and pivot approaches when needed.

On the flip side, research by the Harvard Business School highlights that organizations engaging in strategy planning reap huge benefits:

• 30% higher sales growth
• 400% bigger profit margins
• 50% stronger employee productivity
• 25% higher employee satisfaction scores

Clearly, the payoff of dedicating time towards strategic planning is tremendous. Next, let‘s explore 11 awesome templates for crafting high-impact strategic plans.

As a fellow data geek, I love how clear and structured tables like this make comparing complex information simple! Now, let‘s explore each strategic planning template and vendor in more detail.

1. HubSpot – Perfect for Early Stage Ventures

Recognized as a leader by Gartner, HubSpot‘s CRM and inbound marketing platform now empowers over 121,800 customers worldwide.

Their well-designed free strategic plan template covers:

• Executive Summary – Business mission, objectives, partners
• Products & Services – Offerings, pricing, delivery, capabilities
• Marketing Plan – Target buyer personas, campaigns, ads, status
• Market Research – Ideal clients, competitor analysis, threats
• Financial Statements – Cash flow, revenue streams

I suggest HubSpot‘s professionally formatted template for early stage startups looking to define their first formal strategic plans. The template provides intuitive formatting and section guidance without being overly rigid.

Distributed teams can also collaborate in HubSpot‘s cloud-based editor before exporting finished strategic plans as polished PDFs or Word docs.

2. Smartsheet – Aligned Planning for Enterprises

Used by over 92% of the Fortune 500, Smartsheet’s enterprise work management platform is optimized for robust strategic planning with cross-functional transparency.

Key sections in their free Excel-based template include:

• Executive Summary – Quick mission and values overview
• Company Background – Principles, management, history
• Products & Services – Internal capabilities and external partnerships
• Marketing Plan – Buyer journeys, competitive differentiators
• Financial Plan – Income statements, balance sheets, cash flow
• KPI Dashboard – Scorecard of HR, marketing, operations metrics

I suggest Smartsheet‘s structured template for established enterprises seeking to improve strategy alignment across departments and locations. The Excel based format also simplifies updating progress and financials.

Advanced features like multi-sheet dashboards, auto-syncing, and conditional formatting streamline review cycles and keep everyone on the same page.

3. JotForm – Seamless Planning for Distributed Teams

JotForm, a leader in online form builders, is now used by over 6 million businesses globally.

Their convenient web-based strategic planning template covers all the essentials:

• Company Profile – Mission, strengths/weaknesses, market threats/opportunities
• Strategic Goals – Target growth, investments, hiring aims
• Financial Projections – Forecasted revenue, expense and profit targets
• Progress Evaluations – Plan delivery tracking and achievement reviews

I suggest JotForm for seamless planning when working across distributed teams. The collaborative web format removes frustrations like version control chaos or long email debates.

Leaders can also easily export finished plan PDFs for formal documentation after achieving stakeholder alignment.

4. Atlassian – Technology Team Focus

The masterminds behind popular software like Confluence, Jira and Trello, Atlassian offers 28 free online strategic planning templates focused around technology team scenarios.

Their Confluence docs make it easy for technical teams to detail total addressable markets, buyer journeys, value proposition development and execution roadmaps tailored to dev cycles.

I suggest browsing Atlassian‘s deep template library if you lead technical, development or IT focused teams. The Confluence formatting keeps plans neatly structured for easy reference as launch cycles progress.

Benefits like cloud access, markup comments and page permissioning also simplify remote collaboration.

5. ProjectManager – Simple Planning for Lean Teams

ProjectManager simplifies cloud-based work and project planning for agile teams. Their handy strategic planning Word doc makes light work of:

• Executive Summary – Quick mission, values and vision overview
• SWOT Analysis – Internal and external evaluations
• Goals – One-year growth, investment and hiring aims
• Marketing Plan – Buyer targeting, research, advertising overview
• Financial Projections – Estimated operating budget and capital expenditures

I suggest ProjectManager‘s simple yet thorough template if you lead a lean team lacking the bandwidth for complex digital planning tools. The Word document is easy to populate and share across devices before leadership meetings.

Downstream project management features also help convert strategic goals into actionable project plans with resource allocation.

6. Asana – Technology Enable Strategy Execution

Over 100,000 companies including Amazon and Uber rely on Asana to plan and execute on business strategies with clarity.

While they don‘t offer downloadable templates, Asana provides several interactive templates for outlining:

• Target objectives and key results (OKRs)
• Quarterly milestones needed meet goals
• Progress bars for tracking achievement

I suggest Asana for technology driven leaders seeking air-tight strategy execution across distributed teams. Interactive dashboards keep everyone aligned on priorities while providing automatic progress notifications without tedious manual updates.

Robust features like dependencies mapping, milestone tracking and Portfolio dashboards also enable enterprise grade planning governances.

7. TemplateLab – Choosing Strategic Plan Frameworks

TemplateLab hosts over a dozen free strategic plan templates covering different depths and planning scenarios.

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All templates facilitate core components like:

• Vision, mission, values definition
• SWOT analysis
• Strategic priority setting
• Tactics development for goal achievement

I suggest browsing TemplateLab‘s options when first embarking on the planning process. The formatting variety makes it easy to find a template fitting your industry, business maturity and plan detail requirements.

Most templates are available in PDF, Word and Powerpoint formats for further customization after export.

8. Miro – Strategic Planning Workshops

Miro is an online collaborative whiteboard platform used by over 45 million people globally to visualize concepts.

While they don‘t offer a written doc template, Miro provides an awesome Strategic Planning workshop PowerPoint template covering:

• Planning meeting agenda
• Plan working model
• Strategic focus areas
• Q&A on next steps

I suggest Miro‘s interactive templates for highly visual strategy planning – especially when sharing company-wide updates or facilitating collaborative workshops.

Easy video conferencing and real-time co-editing removes friction when collaborating remotely.

9. Process Street – Streamlined Planning Checklists

Process Street allows teams to create interactive checklists, forms and workflows to systemize business processes.

Their straightforward strategic planning template breaks planning into four stages:

• Drafting – Mission, SWOT analysis, value proposition
• Development – Strategic objectives, KPIs
• Reviews – Stakeholder approval, sign-offs
• Publication – Finalize documentation

I recommend Process Street for rapidly developing on-brand strategic plans following proven information architecture. The interactive checklist format also creates structure to keep planning moving forward efficiently.

Benefits like cloud access, permissions and version history provide nice governances when planning across remote teams.

10. Template.Net – Wide Variety of Strategic Plan Templates

Boasting one of the largest template marketplaces online, Template.net hosts over 50 strategic planning frameworks covering all major scenarios.

While styles vary, most templates facilitate:

• Mission, values detailing
• SWOT analysis
• Market evaluations
• Strategic goal setting
• Tactic development for executing on goals

I suggest thoroughly exploring Template.net‘s options when creating your first strategic plan. The formatting and detail variety makes finding the right template for your context effortless.

All templates can also be exported in Word, Excel and Powerpoint formats for further customization and collaboration.

11. Evernote – Simple Strategic Plan Drafting

With over 200 million users globally, Evernote is loved by professionals and entrepreneurs for organizing notes and creating task lists on the fly.

Their web and mobile apps provide a simple template for outlining crucial strategy components like:

• Business mission
• Core values
• Long term goals
• Short term objectives
• Strategies for achieving aims

The clean interface removes clutter so you can focus on crafting high-level strategic plans from anywhere without getting overwhelmed by details.

I suggest Evernote for quickly capturing initial ideas and aims to fuel deeper planning efforts later on. Syncing across devices also makes Evernote ideal for leadership teams planning on-the-go.

Choose the Best Strategic Plan Template For You

Hopefully this overview provides helpful context for shortlisting templates tightly aligned to your needs. Let me leave you with a few overarching selection criteria to keep in mind:

Business Maturity – Early stage ventures have different needs than established enterprises. Choose templates like HubSpot if starting out vs Smartsheet for large orgs.

Ideal User – Strategic vs tactical roles need different plan depths. Evernote facilitates high-level leadership visioning while ProjectManager offers more implementation tactics.

Remote Collaboration – Distributed teams should leverage real-time templates like Asana, Atlassian and Miro over static document sharing.

Technical Expertise – Teams less technically savvy are likely better served with Word/Excel templates while SaaS solutions provide more power but have learning curves.

Budget – Some basic templates are free. But advanced versions of Smartsheet, Asana etc offer premium features for a fee.

The right template provides a blueprint empowering strategic planning success. But sustained achievement requires complementing templates with committed leadership, cross-functional participation, and consistent performance reviews.

My friend, you now have all the tools needed to start crafting data-driven strategic plans purpose built for your organization‘s next growth chapter. I wish you great success architecting and accomplishing your bold future goals. Please reach out if any other questions come up!