Most small businesses are running marketing without a strategy behind it.
Tactics get added. Vendors get hired. Campaigns go live. But without a written strategy that defines the audience, the message, the channels, and the milestones, each of those decisions is made in isolation. Budgets are spread thin across channels that were never evaluated against each other. Creative gets produced without a clear brief. Ads run to audiences that were never properly defined. At the end of each quarter, nobody can explain what the marketing produced or why.
This is reactive marketing. It is the most expensive way to run a program, because you pay for every mistake twice: once to make it, and again to fix it.
A written marketing strategy that your whole team can execute from.
The OSLA Strategic Plan is not a presentation and not a proposal. It is a working strategy document, built through research and discovery, that your business owns outright and can put to use regardless of who executes the plan.
Depending on the tier you choose, an OSP includes some or all of the following:
Audience and Market Research
Positioning and Differentiation
Creative and Messaging Strategy
Channel Strategy and Media Planning
Marketing Objectives, Goals, and Benchmarks
Campaign Roadmap and Production Timeline
Most clients find that the team that built the strategy is the best team to bring it to life. That is a practical advantage, not a contractual obligation. You should want to stay with OSLA. Not have to.
Four tiers. One standard:
your strategy comes first.
The right OSP tier depends on the complexity of your business, the depth of research your market requires, and the scope of marketing you are planning to execute. Higher tiers add deeper research, broader channel planning, and more complete execution documentation.
| OSP Core | OSP Plus |
RECOMMENDED OSP Elite |
OSP Premier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential foundation | Expanded research | Full strategy + media | Comprehensive roadmap | |
| Discovery | ||||
| Discovery format | Online meeting | Online meeting | 1 half-day online/in-person | 2 half-days in-person |
| Strategy team session | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Research and Analysis | ||||
| Market research and analysis | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Competitive research and analysis | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| State of industry and trends | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Sales analysis by product/service | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| SWOT analysis | ✓ | |||
| Vision and mission development | ✓ | |||
| Audience and Positioning | ||||
| Ideal prospect profiles | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Consumer and prospect profiles | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Existing and desired perceptions | ✓ | |||
| Unique selling proposition | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Differentiation & positioning | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Strategy and Planning | ||||
| Marketing objectives | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Marketing goals | ✓ | |||
| Advertising campaign plan | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ad budgeting | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Media plan and schedule | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Media tactics | ✓ | |||
| Performance benchmarks | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Creative and Messaging | ||||
| Creative and messaging strategy | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Creative campaign concepts and comps | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Delivery | ||||
| Abbreviated plan and presentation | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Production timeline | ✓ | |||
| OSP Brand Plan Book | ✓ |
From the free strategy call to delivered OSP. How it works.
The strategy call is where your OSP begins. A no-cost conversation with an OSLA strategist covers your business, your goals, your current marketing situation, and which OSP tier fits your needs. No pitch deck. No pressure. The call produces a clear recommendation and scope of work, or a direct answer if OSLA is not the right fit.
Depending on the tier, discovery is conducted online or in person. OSLA’s strategy team gathers what is needed to build an accurate, research-based plan: your products and services, your sales history, your current marketing, and your vision for where the business is going. The Premier tier includes a half-day, in-person (or virtual) client discovery session.
OSLA conducts market research, competitive analysis, audience profiling, and messaging development. For higher tiers, this phase adds industry trend analysis, SWOT analysis, sales analysis by product and service line, and perception gap research.
The research feeds into the written strategy document. All deliverables for your tier are developed, written, and formatted. For Elite and Premier tiers, this phase includes creative campaign concepts and designs. The Premier tier produces the full OSP Brand Plan Book.
The completed OSP is presented for your review. OSLA walks through the document, explains the rationale behind every recommendation, and incorporates your feedback. Nothing is finalized until you are satisfied.
The approved OSP is delivered in its final form. Clients continuing with OSLA use it as the governing document for all work going forward. Clients taking the OSP elsewhere receive all files and documentation needed for a clean handoff.
This service is built for you if:
FAQs
The OSP is a written marketing strategy built around your specific business: your audience, your competitive position, your messaging, your recommended channels, and your performance benchmarks. Whether you need one depends on where you are. If you have a clear, documented strategy producing measurable results, you may already have what the OSP provides. If you are spending on marketing without a clear plan, or about to make a significant marketing investment, the OSP is the foundation that makes everything else more effective.
A proposal reflects what an agency wants to sell you. The OSP reflects what your business actually needs: research-based, built around your audience and competitive position, and written so any qualified team can execute from it.
Yes. Your OSP belongs to you. Take it to any agency, vendor, or internal team you choose, including all files and documentation. Most clients find that the team that built the strategy is the best team to bring it to life. That is a practical advantage, not a contractual obligation.
The timeline varies by tier. OSP Core is typically delivered within two to three weeks of discovery. OSP Premier, which includes in-person discovery, full market research, creative campaign concepts, a complete media plan, and the Brand Plan Book, takes four to six weeks. Timelines are confirmed during the strategy call before the engagement begins.
Both, depending on what you need. OSLA offers full-service execution across every channel in the OSP: SEO and AEO, paid media, social media, content, website design, branding, and creative production. Clients who want strategy plus execution engage month-to-month with no long-term contract. Clients who want the OSP only are welcome to take it and execute independently.
Pricing varies by tier and is confirmed during the strategy call based on your specific scope. The call is free, carries no obligation, and produces a clear tier recommendation with transparent pricing before any commitment is made.