Your Year-end Marketing Checklist
This time of year always pulls me into reflection mode – what worked in 2025, what didn’t, and what surprised me. It’s a reminder of how grounding intentional planning can be, and how a little reflection now can help set the direction for the new year.
Here’s a checklist for your 2026 marketing strategy.
#1: PEOPLE.
Your customers and your employees remain the heart of your marketing success.
Know your customer.
Understanding your customers’ wants, needs, buying triggers, and online behaviors is foundational. When was the last time you updated your customer insights? Most of us browse, shop, and buy differently than we did even two years ago.
If it’s been a while since you conducted qualitative and quantitative customer research, consider making it part of your 2026 plan. Tools like AI-assisted sentiment analysis, social listening, and automated customer-journey mapping can help you uncover patterns faster and more affordably than ever before.
Know your team.
Do you have the right marketing talent focused on the right initiatives?
- Do team members understand their roles and how they support your business and sales goals?
- Are marketing, sales, and product teams operating as one cohesive unit or in silos?
- Do employees have the AI-driven tools and training they need to help your brand stand out?
#2: PERFORMANCE.
Now’s the time to take an honest, holistic look at your 2025-performance and use those insights to sharpen next year’s plan.
Your review should include an audit of the following:
Website performance
Look at traffic, engagement, conversion paths, page load times, and SEO health.
Social Media Impact
Consider reach, engagement, community quality, and referral performance. Review how AI-content scheduling and automated reporting could streamline your workflow.
Email marketing effectiveness
Evaluate list growth, segmentation, open rates, click-through rates, and scheduling.
AI utilization
In 2025, AI moved from “nice to have” to “foundational” in marketing. Review how you’re using AI now – and where you could be using it.
Audit your use of:
- AI-assisted content creation for blogs, social posts, and video scripts
- Predictive analytics for customer behavior
- Automated reporting and dashboards.
- AI-powered A/B testing and optimization
- SEO tools
#3: PARTNERS.
Your team’s impact in 2026 will be amplified by the strength and alignment of the partners who support your team.
- Does your digital marketing agency have the expertise needed for 2026, especially with AI-enabled tools and analytics?
- Are your partners proactively bringing you free ideas?
- Do they understand your business goals, not just your marketing needs?
- Is your CRM fully connected to your email and automation platforms?
- Do you need AI-powered SEO, analytics, or social tools?
Start 2026 strong.
Before you finalize your 2026 marketing plan, use this checklist to set yourself up for success.
