We know, we know—2026 already?! It feels like we just wrapped up Q2. But trust us, the brands that are ahead of the game are already sketching out next year’s strategy.
If you’re ready to hit the ground running in 2026, but are unsure where to start, here’s a guide we’ve compiled to help you get next year’s marketing plan rolling:
Step 1: Review the Data
Before you plan for next year, you need to know what worked, and what didn’t, this year. What campaigns crushed it in 2025? What totally missed the mark?
Dig into the data for these key channels:
- Your website. Focus on key metrics such as how many users landed on your site, where they came from, what pages they interacted with, and how long they stayed engaged on the site. Analyzing your website traffic is a great start to building next year’s strategy, as it will provide a lot of helpful insights into how your other campaigns and marketing channels performed.
- Social media. Most social media platforms offer handy insights and reports right from your dashboard, so you can easily see what posts performed the best, who is interacting with your content, and other important metrics.
- Digital ads. Review impressions, clicks, conversions, cost-per-click (CPC), return on ad spend (ROAS), and other KPIs depending on your marketing goals. See what ads resonated and where people clicked through—or didn’t.
- Email marketing. Look back at open and click rates, unsubscribes, and click-throughs to identify what content drove the most engagement.
- Customer and employee feedback. Some of the most valuable insights come from conversations, so asking your customers and employees – whether in person, on social, in an email, or some other means – can provide priceless information on how things are really going and how your brand is being perceived.
While this isn’t an exhaustive list of channels that will provide helpful information that will help shape your future marketing strategy, it is a great place to start and will likely generate some great ideas before you move ahead.
Step 2: Set Your Goals
Next, think about what you want your business to accomplish in the coming year. Are you trying to grow brand awareness? Increase sales? Break into a new market? Hire more employees?
Whatever your goals are, make sure they’re S.M.A.R.T.:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-Bound
Step 3: Map Out the Year (But Leave Room for Flexibility)
Building a rough calendar now saves a lot of stress later. Sketch out what your year will look like on your website, social media, digital ads, and other marketing platforms. Some things to include in your calendar are:
- Product or service launches
- Seasonal promotions
- Local happenings that are relevant to your audience
- Key awareness months or holidays that are relevant to your brand
- Staff birthdays and special anniversaries
That said – don’t box yourself in. The best marketing strategies leave room for creativity, real-time trends, and spontaneous 2am ideas.
Step 4: Start Creating Content
Don’t wait until January 1st to start putting together your ads, social media posts, website content, and other assets. Getting a head start now means that your new year will begin with a lot less stress.
While developing your creative assets, keep these key factors in mind:
- Your brand identity. Make sure you are sticking with your visual identity and brand kit. Not sure what a brand kit is? Get the deets here.
- Your audience. During step one, you hopefully gained insight into what your customers like and what they don’t like. Don’t forget that helpful info while you’re crafting the assets that you’ll use to engage with them.
- Your channels. You should have also determined during step one what channels are most effective for your brand. From there, use the recommended specs from each channel to guide your creative, from what sizes you’ll need to how much text should be on your graphics.
Step 5: Bring In Reinforcements
Let’s be real: marketing is a lot. If your team is stretched thin or you’re tired of flying solo, this is the perfect time to bring in a partner (hey there 👋).
Ready to plan your 2026 marketing strategy? Let’s talk!