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Developing a Strategic Social Marketing Plan

Advance your career with a professional course offered by iSMA

Course Detail

Fast-track your career in social marketing and behaviour change. This 12-week online course takes you step-by-step through a proven 10-step planning model, equipping you with the skills to design, implement, and evaluate effective social marketing campaigns. Learn directly from Nancy Lee, internationally recognised author and practitioner, and graduate with an iSMA Professional Certificate of Completion.

Course Features

Practical Framework: Gain hands-on experience applying the 10-step model to create your own social marketing plan.
Global perspective: Learn strategies to improve public health, protect the environment, enhance wellbeing, and engage communities.
Professional recognition: Earn an iSMA certificate to showcase your skills and career development.

Nancy Lee

Course Instructor

Co-author of Social Marketing: Behavior Change for Social Good (6th Edition)

Nancy Lee has an MBA in Marketing and more than 25 years of Social Marketing experience. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington where she teaches social marketing in the MPA and Public Health programs. In addition, as President of Social Marketing Services, she conducts seminars and workshops on social marketing around the world in 16 countries, and has served as a strategic advisor in the development of more than 100 social marketing campaigns, primarily in Washington State, including ones with a focus on protecting the environment (litter prevention, natural gardening, wildlife habitat protection, recycling, trip reduction, water quality, and water and energy conservation); improving public health (teen pregnancy, sexual assault, physical activity, suicide prevention, COVID-19); and preventing injuries (seatbelts, not texting and driving, pedestrian safety). She has coauthored 16 books on social marketing, 13 with Philip Kotler.

Course Content

12 Weeks • Online Learning

Understand the foundations of social marketing: what it is, how it differs from other approaches, and why it matters. Explore the 10-step strategic planning model and begin framing your own project.

Learn how to segment populations and identify a priority audience. Understand evaluation criteria and why segmentation is critical for effective campaigns.

Define clear behavioral, knowledge, and belief objectives. Establish measurable goals to guide and evaluate your campaign.

Identify audience barriers, motivators, benefits, and competition. Explore theories and models that help explain why people do (or don’t) change behaviour.

Craft a positioning statement to influence how your priority audience perceives the desired behaviour. Explore how to design or adapt products and services that support change.

Examine monetary and non-monetary costs associated with behaviour. Learn how to reduce barriers and provide incentives that make change more appealing.

Discover how location, timing, and accessibility affect behaviour. Explore tactics to make the desired behaviour more convenient and appealing than alternatives.

Design persuasive communication strategies. Learn to develop clear messages, select credible messengers, and create memorable campaigns.

Explore the full range of communication channels — from traditional media (TV, print, events) to digital and social media — and learn how to choose the right mix for your campaign. Consider audience habits, campaign goals, timing, and budget in making evidence-based decisions.

Learn how to design an evaluation plan that goes beyond outputs. Understand the difference between monitoring and evaluation, set measurable indicators (inputs, outputs, outcomes, impact, ROI), and explore tools from surveys to pilots to RCTs. Discover how evaluation strengthens campaigns and secures future funding

Develop strategies for building realistic budgets and justifying costs. Explore methods such as objective-and-task or cost-per-behavior, and learn how to secure additional resources through grants, foundations, partnerships, and corporate social marketing. Understand how to appeal to funders while maintaining ethical standards.

Bring it all together with a practical implementation plan that defines actions, responsibilities, and timelines. Explore approaches to phasing campaigns, ensuring sustainability, and embedding social norms. Learn how to share your plan effectively, engage stakeholders, and design strategies that live on beyond the initial campaign.

It has been an honor to be able to learn from someone directly like Nancy Lee.
Sabina Hernandez
Student

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